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In one corner you have the traditional high volume routine, true and proven its the routine of choice for many of the worlds great lifters. The premise is simple you train a muscle group to total exhaustion with 10, 15, 20, or even 30 sets and leave it to rest of up to 10 days. The theory is that the high level of microtrauma will put your body into a grow-or-die state and therefore yeild gains (with proper nutrition of course).
In the other corner you have the high frequency routine, reletively new to the game its become quite popular and for good reason. High frequency routines like DC and HST have been proven to yeild big gains for many. The main premise here is that high volume routines only ellicite muscle repair during the first few days and since the damage is so great your body's ability to pack on any extra muscle is somewhat diminished, after these first few days your body is left in stagnation neither anabolic nor catabolic (if you play your cards right). By training the body with only 2-6 sets but only allowing the muscle to rest as little as 48 hours you put your body is in a constant breakdown-regrowth state and since the microtrauma is reletively mild your body not only repairs the damage reletively easily but with adequate calories and protein can pack on some muscle as well. Whats more is that with high frequency routines the breakdown-regrowth cycle can occur well...more frequently. For example if a person trains legs once a week he gives his leg muscles 52 chances a year to grow (1 for each of the 52 weeks). However if they train legs 3x a week with lower volume they allow 52 x 3 = 156 chances to gain some size, which should theoretically yeild about 67% more gains.
Now I bet from the argument I outlined above, you could guess which of the two types of routines I use personally (HST to be percise) but I gotta say that I feel as though Im missing out on some gains by limiting how hard I hit a particular muscle group, since I have to train it again 48 hours later. It would also be nice to, say, wreck my chest or arms to annihilation for a sick pump like good 'ol days.
This enduring debate has no doubt been going on for a while but which type of routine do you guys think is best and why? Also, which one do you personally employ? I've also noticed from bodybuilding videos that almost no pro bodybuilder uses a high frequency routine (unless 12 sets or so sets I see them do is done 3x a week and thats tolerable for them), why is that?
In the other corner you have the high frequency routine, reletively new to the game its become quite popular and for good reason. High frequency routines like DC and HST have been proven to yeild big gains for many. The main premise here is that high volume routines only ellicite muscle repair during the first few days and since the damage is so great your body's ability to pack on any extra muscle is somewhat diminished, after these first few days your body is left in stagnation neither anabolic nor catabolic (if you play your cards right). By training the body with only 2-6 sets but only allowing the muscle to rest as little as 48 hours you put your body is in a constant breakdown-regrowth state and since the microtrauma is reletively mild your body not only repairs the damage reletively easily but with adequate calories and protein can pack on some muscle as well. Whats more is that with high frequency routines the breakdown-regrowth cycle can occur well...more frequently. For example if a person trains legs once a week he gives his leg muscles 52 chances a year to grow (1 for each of the 52 weeks). However if they train legs 3x a week with lower volume they allow 52 x 3 = 156 chances to gain some size, which should theoretically yeild about 67% more gains.
Now I bet from the argument I outlined above, you could guess which of the two types of routines I use personally (HST to be percise) but I gotta say that I feel as though Im missing out on some gains by limiting how hard I hit a particular muscle group, since I have to train it again 48 hours later. It would also be nice to, say, wreck my chest or arms to annihilation for a sick pump like good 'ol days.
This enduring debate has no doubt been going on for a while but which type of routine do you guys think is best and why? Also, which one do you personally employ? I've also noticed from bodybuilding videos that almost no pro bodybuilder uses a high frequency routine (unless 12 sets or so sets I see them do is done 3x a week and thats tolerable for them), why is that?
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