+ 1 Junk Volume or never enough?
So obviously rest is an important aspect for muscle growth. I'm working out currently 5 days week Lat Focused and Biceps on Monday, Chest and Triceps on Tuesday, Wednesday is my token leg day and honestly just used as a rest day for upper body in the middle of the week, Thursday is Full Back day, and Friday is Shoulders/Arms. Most days I'm probably averaging around 6 to 8 total exercises usually in the 3 sets of 8 to 12 rep range. My question is how much is too much? Some people definitely can handle more or less depending on their actual output during the workout itself. Most days I'm gassed by the end of the workout but there are occasions where I feel there's a little left in the tank. Am I hurting my progress and being wasteful throwing in some extra sets here and there?
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Pipeliner47I'm a big fan of strip sets to failure. I think your on the right track, the mirror is the ultimate judge of what's working best. Keep at it
Ive always been in the "do as much volume as you can recover from" camp. I dont do a bunch of different movements per bodypart though, over the years Ive found my bread n butter moves for each one, and go 3-4 sets to absolute failure on each. My split for the last 3 years has been Su/M/W/F, pull/push/legs/full upper, but I deadlift on pull day so legs get a little love there. And full upper day leans towards lagging bodypart (chest right now)
Frequency and volume are both very individual. I tried a PPLPPL in the past and it just doesnt work as well for me as my modified bro split.
To the point of your question, find a split you enjoy most and get good results from, then experiment with pushing the volume. And keep in mind, you may have some body parts that can handle a shit ton, and some maybe only a few sets. To me, junk volume is the sets not taken to or near failure. Even near the end of a workout, running on fumes, gotta hit that 9-10 rir
Last thing ill add, and this isnt directed at you just in general, most people wont overtrain or overtax their cns. Most lifters dont push as hard as they think they do. LIke @Papa-pwn said, if it happens you will know it
You will know when you’re doing too much.
Overtraining is not subtle and it will smack you in the face. Ideally, you push as close to that as possible without reaching it.
But the thing is, everyone is different. So while I wouldn’t wish that feeling on anyone, I do sort of recommend you test your limits just to see where that threshold is. That’s really the only way to know just how far you can actually take it.
For me, I was doing daily training, with 20-25 sets per session all taken to complete failure. Split was push-legs-pull-legs-arms-legs-repeat, no days off for months on end.
Eventually everything sort of grounded to a halt. I couldn’t sleep, my head was pounding all day, I was getting weaker. Major CNS burnout combined with a large influx of minor pulls and sprains from my foot to my adductor to my lat to my pec to my forearm.
I took two weeks to deload - halfing my reps and my weights on everything - and I was good as new.
Now I take a programmed cardio only day once per week, and my volume is 15–20 sets per session. That last growth period still culminated in 10lbs of stage weight, so I’m hoping a more intelligent approach that doesn’t force me to take a deload will result in just as much, if not more, this offseason.
Im no expert by any means but this right here is exactly it. You need rest and over working won't do anything, finding that sweet spot is hard. Im sitting here after waking up after a 4 hrs nap right after eating and I was at the gym 1-2hrs before that. I feel is can do more volume to hit the chest again before bed and eat again so I can have at least 4 meals today in total. I ate 4 eggs and 7 oz of ground turkey for breakfast and lunch but 6oz of turkey. Now I just ate my 3rd meal , wheat tortillas that are keto , 6oz of ground turkey , 3 slices of cheese , tomatoes and onions . This is pre workout. 906pm California time. Will go to gym at 2hr mark . Back to volume , I'll just break the weights down and slow things down and flex more on down time.
Im young and still learning. But definitely you are 100% correct.
Yes I made a quesadilla
I know you also do jiu-jitsu, and that is a big missing component here. It's going to add a lot of stress on your joints, tendons, and ligaments. I have a very similar routine to yours, Along with jujutsu 5 to 6 days a week, My right shoulder and both elbows are both hurting. I think your routine is great, but you'll probably need an extra 750 cal and some extra protein On days you train twice.
I'm trying to find a balance that will allow me to grow, because it's not gonna happen with how much I trained. I want to move up to the next weight class.
How's it going ? Have you ate more while still being clean calories ? What have you changed and has it been getting you to move up in weight
If your aren’t pushing yourself to failure and doing multiple exercises I think that’s what I’d consider junk volume. You always see it in the gym. I’ve had pretty good results with fewer lifts with maximum effort. Just my opinion
Volume fan. And I don't think that throwing in some extras is hurting anything every now and again. If your recovering fine, should be good.
"Am I hurting my progress and being wasteful throwing in some extra sets here and there?"
I think it goes off how ya feel. My routine is day 1 push, day 2 pull, day 3 legs.
1) if i can, and feel good from revocery, Ill do 2 full rotations then take a rest day then repeat
2) if im feeling not my best, Ill take a rest day between rotation 1 and 2
3) if im really feeling shitty and know my body needs a break, Ill only lift EOD.
Usually Ill do #1 two times a month (2 weeks), #2 once a month, and #3 the last week of the month to give my body some recovery time.
With all that said, my sleep is absolute shit. Just hopped back on my cpap machine so hopefully I can get used to that again and get better rest at night.
My sleep was shit until I started taking 100mg melatonin before bed. Now I sleep like a baby even while running tren
Any sides from that high of a dose? I take 50mg's quick release and fall asleep within 20 minutes. But im awake 2hrs. Later. The brain doesn't want to shut down.
Sometimes a bit of grogginess in the mornings. And the vivid dreams can be troublesome with the occasional tren night terror.
If I was waking up 2 hours after falling asleep I would take more melatonin upon waking up. For a period of time I would be so exhausted at bed time that I would fall asleep naturally with an alarm at 2am. Then at 2am I would take my supps and melatonin and fall back asleep. Maybe something like that could help you
I do something similar. If I’m going good for a while then I’ll throw in a proactive deload before my body forces me to.
I honestly think that's where most of my energy surplus is stimming from. Went from averaging 5 to 6 hours a night to averaging 8 hrs a night for the last couple months.
dude, if you are getting a shit ton of good sleep and good calories then add the extra volume... there are some scientific studies that show that "X" amount of sets in a week has diminishing returns.. but those studies were not on guys on AAS, GH, or peps.
If you feel good with high volume then go with it. Your body will tell you that you need a break.