TLDR: Volume is how much reps/sets to do. Intensity is choosing how much weight you want to lift. Frequency refers to how many times a week to train.
In case you didn't want to read...
(Importance of Programming and the argument against running Bro-splits)
(Program Ad-lib)
(Free programs I made 2 years ago. They're a bit old but it's FrEe and if you're not doing a program yourself this would be a good start!)
Disclaimer: The recommended percentages and RPEs(Rate of Perceived Exertion) were inspired by anecdotal coaching experience and learning from the geniuses at Team 3DMJ, Stronger by Science and MASS. Your mileage will vary.
I'm sure you've all heard of these 3 terms thrown around in other various articles/blogs, Youtubers and/or bros at your crusty 24 Hour Fitness. For those of you who are already familiar with these terms, I recommend checking out my other informative blog posts because it's all going to sound like a broken record. The others who have no idea why this is so important when it comes to lifting weights and/or needs dot connecting, continue reading! I'm warning you now that this blog is going to get pretty technical but it's important and you need to know about it.
In my younger days, I used to go to LA Fitness and just wing it. Do some benching, hit the lat pull down machine and scoff at the squat rack while I head to the dumbbells to finish off with 10 sets of 10 for arms. I also didn't write anything down, thinking, "I'll remember to add/subtract weight next time I hit (insert muscle group/exercise)." Sure you could get away with this for the first few years of training but the more seasoned you become, the more not quantifying training impedes progress. Then you get into this downward spiral of thinking more is better and so you think you have to train to failure all the time which has its time and place but not all the time. Sometimes, the gains god blesses you and for some miraculous reason you were able to PR on some days but then regress for weeks on end. I wish there was a way to progress fairly linearly when it comes to weight training. Oh there is? Say no more.
As a beginner, you're going to end up either following a program or writing on yourself because hey, let's leave it to the experts lol. If you were like me who'd rather figure out it on your own then you need to understand the 3 following variables when writing your own program: Volume, Intensity, Frequency. Let's get on the magic school bus and learn all about it.
If she doesn't know about this then she's too young for you bro.
Volume: How much reps/sets in a given week of training. Generally speaking, more reps/sets means more positive adaptations AKA, Gainz, assuming you can recover from it.
I personally like to start people off with 8 to 10 total weekly sets per body part and/or movement(squat, bench, deadlift and all the fun variations that come with it.) Training in the rep range of 1 - 6 increases strength potential, 6 - 15 is considered the HyPeRtRoPhY zone, and anything over 20 means its wayyyyyyyy too easy.
There obviously is a limit because yes you can do so much that you can't recover and your body hates you, putting you at risk for injury. There's no clear cut answer for this so I recommend increasing your reps/sets slowly. If you've been doing 3 sets of 10 and you wanted some more volume, you could do 3 x 12 next week for a month, then 3 x 15 for month 2, then down to 4 x 10 for month 3, but this time increase the weight a bit. If you do the math, you're doing 5 reps less for month 4 but it doesn't really matter because you're still in the hypertrophy range with a heavier weight(intensity increased). Besides, at month 5, you could do 4 x 12 and now you've increased both reps/sets!
As a coach with a power lifting background who also loves to see gainz, I do a bit of both. I program my athletes in the 1 - 6 range for their big 3s though sometimes for big 3 variations I would program 8+ reps for the cardio reps(lul). They're training in the 6 - 15 rep range when it comes to accessory work(lifts other than the big 3s). For squats I typically start them off at 8 - 10 weekly sets. Since the muscles are smaller and recover a bit faster for benching, I like to start people off at 10 - 12 weekly sets. Finally for deadlifts, weekly sets of 6 - 8 appear to be the sweet spot for both recovery and not feeling too twacked.
Me: You may be wondering why a power lifter who squats, bench and deadlift needs to do accessory exercises...Can't they just get bigger, better numbers squatting, benching and deadlifting? Yes. Eventually, you'll hit a strength plateau because you don't have enough muscle to help you produce force. Power lifting is essentially teaching and telling your body to fire all the neurons in your muscles in order to lift heavy shit. The cool thing is strength adaptations come pretty quickly via learning proper motor patterns and because the "sleeping" neurons in your muscle haven't been given a reason to be "on" yet. Unfortunately, you only have a finite amount of neurons in muscle. That is where accessory exercises come in. Having more muscle increases your strength potential. Lifting with awesome technique means you're very efficient with force transfer and allows you to actualize that potential. I'm also not a fan of the fat power lifter stereotype nor do I want my athletes to look like that. My clients and I included want to look as jacked while being strong as possible.
According to the LITeraturez, this seems to be a good starting spot for many people when it comes to strength and hypertrophy. Remember that compound lifts such as the big 3(squat, bench, deadlift) comprise of many muscle groups in one lift, so you're getting much bang for your buck. For example, we all know the squat is a sick ass exercise, hitting your glutes, quads and hamstrings right? If you wanted to, you could do 10 weekly sets of squats and you'd "complete" your 10 weekly sets number per body part, in this case your quads, glutes and hamstrings. You could do that for a few years and progress pretty nicely.
Now I'm going to make things more complicated using the same scenario:
The prime movers of the squat are the quads and glutes. I actually wouldn't even count the hamstrings because it's not really used during a squat. Here's some more mental masturbation as to why: Biomechanically speaking, the hamstrings aid transferring some that force your quads produced to your hips, otherwise known as Lombard's Paradox. The hamstring itself isn't making any force, it's acting more like a conduit. Therefore, they actually need direct work, not secondary or indirect work. So I pose the question: how does one count the secondary muscles used in a compound lift? I personally like to count indirect or secondary muscle groups in compounds as 0.5 because it feels cheap to count them as actually 1.
For example let's say you're doing pull ups. Not chin ups, pull ups. The lats and upper back muscles as your prime movers. Secondary would be the biceps. You're doing 4 sets of 8 because you want great development, trying to achieve the weekly goal of 10 sets per body part per week. I would count those 4/10 sets for the back while I count only 2/10 sets for biceps.
There is some evidence suggesting you could do 20 sets of 20 and still make gains. Is it fun? No. Maybe because people still believe that higher reps = more definition/muscle which it is kind of true but then you have to ask yourself how much time you want to spend at the gym doing the same bicep curls for 20 sets of 20. By the way, if you want more definition, your diet has be cleaned up, not doing 30 sets of 30 of tricep extensions. Since you're tired of me beating a dead horse, let's move onto the next training variable: Intensity.
Intensity: How difficult you want to make the exercise. Usually means increasing the weight on the machine or barbell.
Like anything in life, things get harder so you can grow more. As stated before, you could get away with doing death volume but that's not fun nor is it efficient with time. So tell your wannabe instathot girlfriend to stop curling 3 pound dumbbells while she super sets with lunges wearing her tightest gym shark outfit. Not only will she accomplish looking more TonEd(I fucking hate this word...) when she adds more weight but Jesus will find it easier to forgive her(save room for him) when ya'll go to church on Sunday.
I say usually because you could make things harder like not wearing a belt when deadlifting or doing paused squats. For the sake of simplicity, we'll just think of intensity as increasing weight.
Before I go any further, I just want to briefly touch on the RPE system or Rate of Perceived Exertion. I recently found out about this 3 years ago and been using it as a subjective means to gauge intensity. Basically, it's on a 1 - 10 scale and how it works is as the numbers increase, the reps decrease.
0 - 5: Don't bother training under 5 as the intensity is too low and you'll be wasting your time.
5: 5 reps left in the tank
6: 4 reps left in the tank
7: 3 reps left in the tank
8: 2 reps left in the tank
9: 1 rep left in the tank
10: 0 reps left in tank. Your 1 rep max.
I recommend generally staying around the RPE range of 6 - 9 to maximize both strength and hypertrophy. You could also utilize the RPE system if you're not sure what your 1RM is yet. It's going to take quite a bit of time to get used to training like this. Hell it took me a little over a year with a coach to accurately gauge my own RPEs.
Leave the RPE 10 for when you want to see what your 1 rep max is, like maybe 1 - 2 times a year. Be smart about when to max out because your body will hate you for a few days afterwards. I personally really like using the RPE system because it allows some flexibility for athletes because it scales with how they subjectively feel at the gym on that particular day. That means on a day where you feel like poop the RPE system is a godsend versus forcing yourself to do a fixed weight that you may not be able to do. However, I use this in conjunction with percentage based training which brings me to my second point.....
For those of you who want to be a bit more objective, the literature suggests training mainly in the 70 - 90% range of your 1 RM for strength and hypertrophy. I would even recommend starting as low as 60% of a 1 RM if someone is reacclimating back into the gym or deloading. So basically just train in that range for a few months(3-6) and then you could test out your new 1RM.
Let's move on to the last training variable: Frequency.
Frequency: How many times in a week you train.
I believe the best way to determine a person's frequency is to base it on their lifestyle. What I mean by this is if you can only train 3 times a week without any distractions(other obligations and having a dedicated time slot to train) then dammit, train 3 times a week! I'd rather you have 3 awesome lifting days in a week than 3 awesome days and 2 shitty days. Quality > quantity.There's more to life than being at the gym although those of your reading think otherwise.
Literature also suggests training each body part/movement a minimum of 2x/week. There hasn't been much research demonstrating more frequency = more gains, that is unless you're able add more volume(reps/sets remember?) Assuming the volume is equal, let's say you're doing 10 weekly sets, a 3x/week vs a 4x/week vs a 5x/week, there really isn't much for a hypertrophic standpoint. However, for a powerlifter, more frequency tends to lead to more strength gains which I'll gladly nerd out. You want to use frequency as means to regulate your fatigue/recovery as well. Instead of putting 10 sets of biceps for one day, you split it up into 3, 4 or 5x/week. That way, the quality of reps/sets improve and so do your gains.
To get stronger at lifting heavy things, you have to lift heavy things. More frequency for a powerlifter increases the quality of how you lift heavy things. Let's say you were doing a 3x week schedule and you did 12 weekly sets of squats, putting it as your first lift. That means you get to practice the squat 3 times a week. Typically the first exercise you do will probably be fire flames because you're full of energy and aren't fatigued. Therefore the quality is great.
Day 1: 4 sets(let's say by the 3rd and 4th set it's decent; 70% quality)
Day 2: 4 sets(let's say by the 3rd and 4th set it's decent; 70% quality)
Day 3: 4 sets(You're probably really tired, so by the 3rd and 4th set, it's at 50% quality)
Total quality sets: 6 sets
Now, let's look at a 5x/week frequency, doing 12 weekly sets of squats:
Day 1: 2 sets(2 sets? Ez Pz)
Day 2: 2 sets(2 sets again?! Ez Pz)
Day 3: 2 sets(Come on bro, 2 sets again? I can smoke this)
Day 4: 3 sets(3 sets? That's cardio at that point on my last set, 75% quality)
Day 5: 3 sets(3 sets? That's cardio at that point on my last set, 75% quality)
Total quality sets: 8 sets
Of course I'm oversimplifying things because it's MUCH more complicated than this but I just wanted to prove my point.
Ok so at this point this all might be information overload. Don't fret, I'm about to apply what we've learned to a real life scenario so it can make more sense.
Client: "Joseph"
Occupation: Registered Nurse. Works 3x/week, 12 hour schedules.
Lifestyle: "Not here for long time, here for a good time," however prioritizes training/diet.
Training level assessment: Intermediate(tracks macros, been lifting consistently for 7 years, competitive powerlifter.)
Preference: Wants to train 4x/week. This is important as it just answers your frequency portion.
For Joseph's Volume, since he thinks he's some big baller shot caller, you could start him off at 10 weekly sets for the squat, 12 for the bench and 8 for the deadlift to see how he responds to training/recovery/fatigue. Since he wants to be a competitive powerlifter and all, having his big 3s train in the 1 - 6 rep range for a couple of months will increase his strength and numbers. He has to do accessory exercises because he wants to look JACKED so to fulfill that request while helping his total means he could train his accessories in the 8 - 15 rep range, being in the 8 - 12 weekly sets range (Win/win).
Note:
Depending on how you want to look at it, the squat's prime movers are the glutes and quads. Therefore you've already achieved your weekly volume and could stop there.
For the bench, your pecs, front delts and triceps are the prime movers. Triceps and delts are smaller muscles and so you can abuse them a bit more vs the bigger muscles because they recover faster. A bigger tricep means not only more bench strength but BIGGER ARMS. No need for direct front delt training, focus more on rear and lateral delt raises(the most important exercise there is if you want those shoulder boulders).
Finally the deadlift trains the entire posterior chain(back, low back, glutes, hamstrings) and quads. I personally would consider putting the deadlift for mainly your glutes, low back and hamstrings to make it a bit easier. I know some people like to consider the deadlift for their weekly back volume which is something you can definitely do. Me personally, I don't because I see the deadlift more as a leg press. You engage the back yes but you don't use your back to get the bar up and lock out; your legs do.
So now you see with powerlifting you've filled in and overachieved most of the weekly volume per muscle part needed for both strength and hypertrophy. You only have to figure out what kind of back exercises(ahem, pull ups and rows), biceps(seated barbell bicep curls), some direct tricep work(rope extensions, overhead extensions), direct deltoid work(lateral delt raises, rear delt flys, OHP), abs, maybe some direct hamstring work, and maybe even some more quads(bulgarian split squats, my favorite). Hm weird, it's as if you could plug and play all the exercises I recommended...
Being a competitive powerlifter, he wants to lift heavy weights. This is how we're going to set the Intensity to give him the best chance of success:
These are his current totals(modest, I know). We're going to have him train mainly in the 70 - 90% range for the big 3s.
Squat: 315 lbs (220 - 285 lbs)
Bench: 275 (192 - 248 lbs)
Deadlift: 365 (255 - 329 lbs)
He'll also use the RPE system and be in the 6 to 9 range for all the exercises, accessories included. Then in about 6 month's he'll try out his 1 RM and 9 times out of 10 his total will improve.
Since he can devote to training 4x/week, we can program him in a upper/lower split.
Day 1: Lower, (5 sets of squats, 4 sets of deadlifts, 3 sets of leg accessories)
Day 2: Upper, (6 sets of bench + variations, 4 sets of upper accesories)
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Lower (5 sets of squats, 4 sets of deadlift variation, 3 sets of leg accessories)
Day 5: Upper (6 sets of bench + variations, 4 sets of upper accessories)
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Rest
Working 12 hour days can make it a bit more complicated as you don't really have a "set" schedule so if you can, I found that working 2 shifts on and 2 shifts off seem to be the sweet spot when it comes to recovery and fatigue management. I get it, nursing is cool because of the 3 shifts on 3 shifts off and hell I love my long stretch of days off.
I'll give you guys a frequency cheat sheet in case you didn't want to be too overly creative because it really can and it's daunting:
3x/week: Full body splits. Usually you'll take a bit longer at the gym and the rest days spaced apart are crucial.
Day 1: Fully body
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Fully body
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Fully body
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Rest
4x/week: Upper/lower splits. As already seen above.
5x/week: Upper/lower split + accessories and/or light weight SBD variations
Day 1: Lower
Day 2: Upper
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Lower
Day 5: Upper
Day 6: Bicep/Tricep/Delts/Abs. Could put in a squat and/or bench variation such as front squats and close grip bench.
Day 7: Rest
Well that was a doozy. I hope you all learned a thing or two. I tried my best to make it as simple as possible. It's okay if you don't understand it all in one go because hell it took me a couple of years to really figure out how they are all interconnected. With that said, thanks for reading and I'll see you all in the next blog!
Sincerely,
Joseph L.
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