Natural resistance trainers are at a recovery disadvantage compared to anabolically enhanced resistance trainers. The natural generally takes longer to recover, is easier to fatigue, and the symptoms of under recovery can be very severe. I myself have experienced overtraining (insomnia, constant fatigue, changes in mood, and more). This post is not going to go into how to recover from over training but more how to avoid it happening in the first place.
The Resistance Training Volume Equation
Fitness enthusiasts may already know how to calculate volume but for those who do not know:
V = Sets * Reps * Weight.
5 sets of 10 reps x 100lbs = 5000lbs of volume.
When V is increased over time muscle hypertrophy takes place in correlation. These adaptations must take place in order for the body to handle the increased volume in the first place. This means if you can do more volume you have gained muscle. Progressive overload is the principle which allows you to continuously challenge the ecosystem of the body to enable muscle protein synthesis to be constantly activated. The workout is merely a means of challenging the body in order to activate muscle protein synthesis.
The Problem of Too Much Volume
Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Volume is like turning a knob to turn the signal up. Just like with sound if you turn the sound up too loud you can damage your hearing. Volume if it's too much will simply damage your body beyond it's ability to adapt and recover. So it is important to think of the volume as nothing more than a necessarily stimulus designed to provoke the body into a genetically determined response.
How much your body can recover from is individualized. How much volume your body requires to grow is individualized also. Beginners simply don't need a lot of volume to grow and advanced athletes may need a lot of volume. The minimum effective volume is the target volume to aim for and that is essentially the minimum amount of volume necessary to produce growth in your body. Expert sports scientist Dr. Mike Israetel identified and labeled the concept minimum effective volume which is very similar to minimum effective dose in medicine. Dr. Mike Israetel also labels the concept of maximum recoverable volume, and somewhere in between is the maximum adaptive volume which is the sweet spot for growth.
It has also been identified in studies that doing too much volume per session or too many sets on a body part can hinder recovery as shown by Amirthalingam & Mavros et al. (2017).
The High Frequency Approach
Dankel, S.J., Mattocks, K.T., Jessee, M.B. et al, offer a different approach to the 3 days a week routine. The high frequency approach is based on the current understanding that muscle protein synthesis is elevated for 28-36 hours on average from an actual workout which would imply that for the natural a higher frequency lower volume routine may have some benefit. A natural cannot recover as quickly from massive volume loads but at the same time if volume is kept close to the minimum effective and also the frequency is increased to 6 days a week there does seem to be evidence showing that this may lead to greater hypertrophy with lower risk of under recovery.
Lessons learned
- Greater than 10 sets on a body part in a day is likely going to just be junk volume.
- Higher training frequency seems to keep muscle protein synthesis elevated for longer overall.
- The minimum effective volume is all that is necessary for growth and this can be as low as 2 sets per workout session (enough to activate muscle protein synthesis).
- Managing systemic fatigue is key to avoiding over training and this means no unnecessary volume (just enough to activate muscle protein synthesis and no more).
References
Dankel, S. J., Mattocks, K. T., Jessee, M. B., Buckner, S. L., Mouser, J. G., Counts, B. R., ... & Loenneke, J. P. (2017). Frequency: the overlooked resistance training variable for inducing muscle hypertrophy?. Sports Medicine, 47(5), 799-805.
That’s good to hear that higher intensity and less frequency is being shown to work best. I used to spend so much time at the gym doing way too many sets and feeling overly tired. Now I make my workout short and sweet (but intense). I’m happy that the science you’ve explained above bears this out as the right approach. I’m going to have to reread the article to fully understand the aspects of volume but I really enjoyed reading your post.
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Exactly opposite. Lower intensity and more frequency works best. Higher intensity and higher volume with less frequency means muscle protein synthesis still peaks at 28-36 hours on average unless you are taking performance enhancers. To have more muscle protein synthesis peaks would imply higher frequency for the natural.
Quote:
Dankel, S.J., Mattocks, K.T., Jessee, M.B. et al (2017)
In other words, doing deadlifts 3 times a week at 80% of 1RM for 5 sets is a total of 15 intense sets a week and likely will result in over training if not careful. 10+ sets of deadlifts 2 times a week is even worse because doing all your volume compressed into less days doesn't mean more muscle protein synthesis activation if your goal is growth and if your goal is strength then you don't really need to use much volume at all for the strength adaptations (only 2-3 sets a week).
What that means is, more frequency, lower volume, intensity moderate, as the goal is minimum effective volume unless you want to optimize for strength in which case you can keep volume low and focus on intensity with less frequency as you said. Strength doesn't mean hypertrophy though.
Reference
Dankel, S. J., Mattocks, K. T., Jessee, M. B., Buckner, S. L., Mouser, J. G., Counts, B. R., ... & Loenneke, J. P. (2017). Frequency: the overlooked resistance training variable for inducing muscle hypertrophy?. Sports Medicine, 47(5), 799-805.
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What I suggest as an experiment for high frequency is, simply lift at 50% of 1 RM, 2 sets for 5 days a week.
Yes only 2 sets, which should be enough to trigger muscle protein synthesis, but not enough to hinder recovery which should take place within 24-28 hours. For deadlift I would think this could be done at 2 sets a day, 5 days a week, with weekends as the rest period. This would mean muscle protein synthesis would be triggered almost all the time, compared to if training is done only once a week or twice where muscle protein synthesis would taper off before spiking again.
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Thanks for clarifying. I’m getting older so I try to better understand the science behind exercise. I’ve recently tore my Achilles’ tendon so I’m kind of apprehensive about lifting weights too much.
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The best thing you can do to heal muscles or tendons is to lift weights but you might want to start with resistance bands and slowly progress your way back.
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Very insteresting @dana-edwards. Please, could you use "sportstalk" tag too. We need of this type of content in our tribe.
I will Follow you!
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I never though about this approach before, i train in home and for that sometimes i dont feel safe try with heavier weights, but maximizing my sets/reps could be a good way to keep improving and the gains.
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Really nice post. Volume is the most important variable for hypertrophy to create a progresive overload and frequency ia a really good tool to divede the maximun volume that can we suport in one sesioen (MRV). Obviously the musecle gains won´t be optimal if this work is not done in a relative high intensity. I really came with you that MPS peaks will be more eficient if frequency is higher.
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