Less Volume more frequency...

[TRYN2]

I have been growing faster it seems in the last 6 months, hitting the upperbody 2x/wk. The routine I have followed during this time is a Westside style but I do:

Mondays ME Upperbody (Heavy Bench then lats, shoulders & alt bi's & tri's)
Wednesdays ME Lower
Thursday Repetition Upper (Rep out bench then Same acc work from Monday)
I alternate Bi's and tris on the upperdays...

I carry allot of my weight in my lower body is why I dont do more lower work. I feel like this twice per week training is working. But, I wanted to scale it differently.

If I did this:

Monday Push
Tues Pull
Wed OFF
Thurs push
Fri Pull
Sat Off
Sun Off

Rotate exercises, like Monday Flat Bench, Thurs Incline and so on, and did legs whenever I wanted on a push day or Saturday. How bad is this?

Sometimes I feel like people under train avoiding overtraining. I thought I could do 2-3 sets per bodypart and gauge, if I am progressing getting stronger and feeling ok, keep going. If I feel bad or weak lower intensity, keeping the routine the same but doing less sets or different reps.

I was thinking by 2-3 sets doing warm ups then 1 set of 3 different exercises.

Example:

Monday: Flat Bench warm up & one working set
Incline bench One work set
Flyes one work set

Then on Thursday change order or use dumbells?

I know allot of talk around CNS, but if I get stronger and look like I am growing can't I continue? I was thinking of hitting it in waves. Like starting out, doing reps in the 12 range for 2-3 weeks, then 8, then 4ish. Then deload a week and start over...?

Or heavy one day with 2-5 reps and light the next day fail around 8-12 reps?

AM I A FUCKING IDIOT OR AM I GETTING CLOSE?

Thanks guys...hope this isnt too confusing....

 

[Sesshomaru]

I carry allot of my weight in my lower body is why I dont do more lower work. I feel like this twice per week training is working. But, I wanted to scale it differently.

Why? If its working, then why change it?

Rotate exercises, like Monday Flat Bench, Thurs Incline and so on, and did legs whenever I wanted on a push day or Saturday. How bad is this?.

If you do a push pull routine, its better to think about movements rather than body parts since all body parts will get hit. So have a horizontal push day, a vertical pull day, vertical push day, horizontal pull. Also make sure that your leg work is very low volume and the minimum needed to maintain size and strength since youre putting a lot of volume to the upper body.

If you feel that you have a particular body part that needs work, then do a specialization routine for that body part rather than a push-pull routine.

I know allot of talk around CNS, but if I get stronger and look like I am growing can't I continue?

You can, you just need to listen to your body and if youre on aas, you need to force yourself to take a break even if its all good because to give your tendons a break.

I was thinking of hitting it in waves. Like starting out, doing reps in the 12 range for 2-3 weeks, then 8, then 4ish. Then deload a week and start over...?

This is one way to go about it.

Or heavy one day with 2-5 reps and light the next day fail around 8-12 reps?

This is another way to go about it. Its kinda up to you as to how you want to do it since both will work. if youre eating enough.

 

[TRYN2]

Well, I did push-pull because I thought it was an easier way to hit everything twice per week. Can you show me some examples of twice per week splits, legs only once per week?

Is it not ok to do a DC type routine except legs once a week. ? How about some 2x week splits? If I tried to do how DC is that I see, I would be going in on a day and just doing Bi's and Forearms, I was wanting something more efficient...?
.
.
.
.
.
Maybe something like this...

MONDAY
CHEST: 1 Set RP and a 30 second static rep at the end
SHOULDERS: 1 Set RP and a 30 second static rep at the end
TRICEPS: 1 Set RP and a 30 second static rep at the end

WEDNESDAY
BACK WIDTH: 1 Set RP and a 30 second static rep at the end
BACK THICKNESS: Rack Deads straight set of 8-20 reps
BICEPS: 1 Set RP and a 30 second static rep at the end

FRIDAY
CHEST: 1 Set RP and a 30 second static rep at the end
SHOULDERS: 1 Set RP and a 30 second static rep at the end
TRICEPS: 1 Set RP and a 30 second static rep at the end

SATURDAY OR SUNDAY
HAMSTRINGS: Hamstring movement RP for 20 reps
QUADS: Squats straight set of 20 reps
BiCEPS: 1 Set RP and a 30 second static rep at the end

Just change exercises each workout, progressively increase reps or sets, gauge fatigue CNS & Overtraining by feel-strength. If I cant hit the intensity on the RP's maybe change them to 2 sets to failure. Throw in calves and Abs as I need to. Maybe even moving Fri's to Thurs?

If I don't feel like Im overtraining I know it says I dont need any extra, but if I thought I could on days where I feel like I may have missed the intensity I could do like rear delts supersetted right behind rack deads or lateral right behind military..?











This doesnt look too bad to me, can I get some input though?

 

[Nssca]

Your able to train twice a week per body part because one set per body part isn't nearly enough to fatigue the muscles.
OOPs hope I didn't start anything here...

 

[Dave_19]

I have been growing faster it seems in the last 6 months, hitting the upperbody 2x/wk. The routine I have followed during this time is a Westside style but I do:

Mondays ME Upperbody (Heavy Bench then lats, shoulders & alt bi's & tri's)
Wednesdays ME Lower
Thursday Repetition Upper (Rep out bench then Same acc work from Monday)
I alternate Bi's and tris on the upperdays...

I carry allot of my weight in my lower body is why I dont do more lower work. I feel like this twice per week training is working. But, I wanted to scale it differently.

If I did this:

Monday Push
Tues Pull
Wed OFF
Thurs push
Fri Pull
Sat Off
Sun Off

Rotate exercises, like Monday Flat Bench, Thurs Incline and so on, and did legs whenever I wanted on a push day or Saturday. How bad is this?

Sometimes I feel like people under train avoiding overtraining. I thought I could do 2-3 sets per bodypart and gauge, if I am progressing getting stronger and feeling ok, keep going. If I feel bad or weak lower intensity, keeping the routine the same but doing less sets or different reps.

I was thinking by 2-3 sets doing warm ups then 1 set of 3 different exercises.

Example:

Monday: Flat Bench warm up & one working set
Incline bench One work set
Flyes one work set

Then on Thursday change order or use dumbells?

I know allot of talk around CNS, but if I get stronger and look like I am growing can't I continue? I was thinking of hitting it in waves. Like starting out, doing reps in the 12 range for 2-3 weeks, then 8, then 4ish. Then deload a week and start over...?

Or heavy one day with 2-5 reps and light the next day fail around 8-12 reps?

AM I A FUCKING IDIOT OR AM I GETTING CLOSE?

Thanks guys...hope this isnt too confusing....

Forget less volume in exchange for more "frequency" Intensity maybe.

 

[TRYN2]

Forget less volume in exchange for more "frequency" Intensity maybe.

I think your saying I can have some volume and the frequency?

If you are and what the rooster wrote also is interesting.

When I was doing my Westside influenced program I did Monday and Thursdays the same routine pretty much.

On those days I hit my main movement on Monday, usually Bench heavy, 90%+ working up to a heavy effort of like 1-3 reps.

Then all assistant stuff I would try to hit 5 sets of 12ish.

On Thursdays I would use the same split except that first movement I would do Incline dumbells and use the repetition method and hit as many sets as I could or felt good about, 4 or 5 for like 8-12ish. Really just chasing a pump here and trying to get the muscles to grow.

All assistant Stuff same as Monday...

The thing I am trying to move around, is doing all upper body stuff twice per week, but I feel like I am doing a bunch of exercises for assistance all the time. I think scaling them back will allow me to give them more focus? That make sense?

Dave19, I mean your pretty big, how do you train? You always hear of people who have made talk about there routines. But, is that what they do now or is that wthey did to get there?



I can figure out what exercises work best for me, I would like to see what a few 2xweek splits look like...

 

[Sesshomaru]

Again, I still ask 'if what you did was working, why change it?'

 

[TRYN2]

Again, I still ask 'if what you did was working, why change it?'

I agree with you, I have been asking myself the same thing. I just wonder if what I was doing was a step in the right direction and I can make it that much better. Plus, Im thinking maybe I would burn out faster the way I was doing it... vs lowering the volume down.

 

[Sesshomaru]

I agree with you, I have been asking myself the same thing. I just wonder if what I was doing was a step in the right direction and I can make it that much better. Plus, Im thinking maybe I would burn out faster the way I was doing it... vs lowering the volume down.

There is no 'best routine.' Theres only so much muscle you can put on in any given amount of time regardless of routine, so if your making steady consistent gains, theres not much else you can do except wait because youre not going to gain much more from changing things up.

I told you above what the push-pulls are for, so if you feel that that is a better way to keep you motivated and training for your goal, then do it for that. As far as burnout, just dont kill yourself in the gym and try to increase your workload gradually. Once you find that youre not able to make more progress in weights, give deload and start over. Burnout happens when people try to go all out every session every time without listening to their body. If youre weak one day, thats your body telling you to take it easy. If you feel strong, then go for it. You just have to listen.

 

[TRYN2]

There is no 'best routine.' Theres only so much muscle you can put on in any given amount of time regardless of routine, so if your making steady consistent gains, theres not much else you can do except wait because youre not going to gain much more from changing things up.

I told you above what the push-pulls are for, so if you feel that that is a better way to keep you motivated and training for your goal, then do it for that. As far as burnout, just dont kill yourself in the gym and try to increase your workload gradually. Once you find that youre not able to make more progress in weights, give deload and start over. Burnout happens when people try to go all out every session every time without listening to their body. If youre weak one day, thats your body telling you to take it easy. If you feel strong, then go for it. You just have to listen.

Sounds good and Thanks. Its funny how we usually may know the answers sometimes. One of the things I liked about the Westside stuff was that it had me evaluating me after my workouts and making adjustments on my weaknesses. Now it usually was more to where I failed on a lift. But it still worked!