How much is too much volume?

[spatch]

Is this too much volume for each bodypart?

Most people would say it is. However, keep in mind that I only take 1-2 sets to failure per day, a lot less than most folks. Also, I'm 17 so I can handle more workload then, say, a 40 year old.

I hit everything 1x a week, except calves/abs 2x each.

Thanks for any help.


Body part
Sets
Sets to failure
Chest
11
1
Side delts
6
0
Back
14
2
Bi’s (not done with back)
10
1
Tri’s (not done with chest/Delts
11
1
Quads
12
1
Hams (done with quads)
7
0
Calfs
6 Monday 4 Friday
0
Abs
6 Tuesday 4 Friday
0

 

[glenihan]

IMO you'd make even better progress with less sets

i never do more than 3 sets a bodypart however i hit each body part 3 times every 11 days

 

[CDB]

The only way to judge volume is to just do it and see what you can handle. I know some people that can do ridiculously high levels of volume with a decent to high intensity fairly frequently and not hurt themselves. They also make great gains too.

What you have to watch out for is making sure you're calculating it right. For example, bench presses hit the shoulders, especially inclines. If your doing two sets of chest plus two sets of shoulders your shoulders could actually seeing double the volume you think they are if you don't account for that. Watch out for things like that, and then just see how far you can go. with any maxing out though, be careful. The intensity more than the volume is what fries your CNS and leads to overtraining.

 

[spatch]

What you have to watch out for is making sure you're calculating it right. For example, bench presses hit the shoulders, especially inclines. If your doing two sets of chest plus two sets of shoulders your shoulders could actually seeing double the volume you think they are if you don't account for that. Watch out for things like that, and then just see how far you can go. with any maxing out though, be careful. The intensity more than the volume is what fries your CNS and leads to overtraining.

I dont hit the front delt directly, I usually just do side delt work, so not much of a problem there.

Again, my intensity isnt too high because I only take 1 set to failure, all others are to about 80-90% failure at most.

 

[spatch]

Revised volume ammt.

How is this for HYPERTROPHY. Strength isnt my main goal, mass is.

I removed all failure and cut a few sets for each bp from the previous plan.

Note- Taking NO, 0, sets to failure. Each hit once a week.

Tri's- 9
Bi's- 9
Chest- 10
Delts(no front work directly, just presses and side laterals)- 6
Back- 12
Quads-10
Hams- 6
Calves(2x a week) 10 total sets


Thanks for all help.


I started this plan this week. Today, only doing 10 sets for chest, and taking none to failure, made me feel like a grade A BITCH. Guess its a mental thing.

 

[glenihan]

well as i've said in the past i don't do more than 3 sets per bodypart per workout .. and each part is hit three times every 11 days .. IMHO this is best fairly frequent hitting of each part but hitting it HARD and fast when i do hit it

 

[bitmask]

IMO you'd make even better progress with less sets

i never do more than 3 sets a bodypart however i hit each body part 3 times every 11 days

glenihan, your pic in the avatar looks great. I'm curious about your split with that hit 3 times per 11-days. Also, do you take sets to absolute failure in each workout or every other workout, etc?

 

[julius kelp]

yeah glen, i think your pic speaks for itself!

 

[jasonschaffin]

i hit each body part 3 times every 11 days
and each part is hit once every 11 days

:think: which is it glenihan? I'm a little confused. Not trying to be an ass at all, as was stated your body speaks for itself and I was just wondering. What does your split look like?

 

[glenihan]

that was a typo sorry

i hit each body part 3 times every 11 days

my workout program looks like this

(i use explosive positives and 5-7 second negatives for everything except deads and squats for obvious reasons)

workout A
each body part gets 2 warm up sets then 3 working sets of 8-12, 4-6, and 2-4 reps with the same weight each set and not a very long time between sets
chest - either incline hammer strength or flat db press
back thickness - deadlifts, rack deads, or rows
back width - reverse grip close grip pulldowns or wide grip pull ups
shoulders - hammer strength machine or db presses
tris - skulls or seated overhead exts

workout B
bis - straight bar curls or preacher curls same sets as "A"
quads - squats or hack squats lots of warm ups and 2 sets of 10-12
hams - SLDL or lying curls same sets as "A"
calves - still trying to find something that works haha

i train monday wed and fri and alternate workouts A and B

i go to failure on every working set and every 5-6 weeks i take an entire week off to let my body recoup

this is similar to DC and Ironman and definitely not the only way to grow ... but it DOES work VERY VERY well and i'm only in the gym 3 hours a week

 

[bigpetefox]

I only do 3 exercises 5 sets each, so 15 sets or less per training session..

 

[jasonschaffin]

Damn these two huge guys and they dont even work out that much. Wish I could get it through my head that more isnt always better. I usually go 4 times a week and 18-21 sets each workout. Still gaining though so I guess I'll keep it up till I plateau. Big Pete, I think I read before that you don't really follow a set split but kinda do whatever feels right that day?

 

[glenihan]

jason i guarantee you'll grow a lot more if you follow the workout i do .. assuming your diet is correct of course .. seriously try it for 6 weeks with a solid diet

 

[jasonschaffin]

jason i guarantee you'll grow a lot more if you follow the workout i do .. assuming your diet is correct of course .. seriously try it for 6 weeks with a solid diet

While diet is not "perfect" it is extremely solid. Trying to get my weight up (180, bout 12%) before trying the H-50 and Meo-Trn I got. I probably will switch to a workout like yours. Question though, how many days apart do you space your deadlifts and squats. I always feel that if I do them to close together one seems to suffer. Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way though.

 

[glenihan]

well like i said i alternate between deads, rack deads, and rows so just talking about quads and back width would be like this

mon - deads

wed - hack squats

fri - rows

mon - squats

wed - rack deads


it will take probably a little bit of time to get used to everything .. ESPECIALLY the slow negs and forcing yourself to throw everythign in the tank into each set and not save yourself

 

[jasonschaffin]

well like i said i alternate between deads, rack deads, and rows so just talking about quads and back width would be like this

mon - deads

wed - hack squats

fri - rows

mon - squats

wed - rack deads


it will take probably a little bit of time to get used to everything .. ESPECIALLY the slow negs and forcing yourself to throw everythign in the tank into each set and not save yourself

Yeah, thats something along how I was thinking about it (cept I love front squats so I'll switch out hacks for em). Probably start this after thanksgiving, it was time to switch something up anyways most likely. I dont have a prob with throwing everything in the tank everytime, but your right that the negs are gonna suck. Thanks for the info man, reps to ya if I could.

 

[glenihan]

if you could man keep us posted like every week or so just with how gains are coming along

and i have no idea about your diet but that's the be all and end all of gains .. so keep that in mind and good luck brotha!

 

[jasonschaffin]

if you could man keep us posted like every week or so just with how gains are coming along

and i have no idea about your diet but that's the be all and end all of gains .. so keep that in mind and good luck brotha!

:cheers:
Diet just keeps getting better the more I learn and the more I put into it. Now off to eat again!

 

[spatch]

I think the #1 thing we have to learn is to listen to your body first, then take advice second. Different people grow in different ways. :thumbsup:

 

[bigpetefox]

Big Pete, I think I read before that you don't really follow a set split but kinda do whatever feels right that day?

This is true.. IMO, working on a set routine you'll have to change it up constantly to avoid burn-out.. I hardly ever overtrain, been maybe 6 years since the last time I did, and I've been at it for 16yrs..

 

[Iron Warrior]

I'd like to emphasize glen's point of hitting a bodypart more than once per week, I've had better results hitting everything twice a week. I know it's not for everyone but it's worth trying.

 

[Moyer]

Just looking at some bookmarked threads and this one interested me.

I know this is an old thread Glen, but I'm just wondering if there was a specific reasoning for the way you chose those muscle groups in your split.

For example, switching your back exercises w/ quads would make it a real push/pull split. But, having your back workout on opposite days as biceps means you're actually working biceps in both workouts (which is probably a good thing).

I'm also curious about a couple other things. Why are you doing two back exercises, but only one chest exercise?

Do you do anything for abs?

 

[glenihan]

this program is basically a variation of what DC advocates and that's how the muscles were split up .. i know its not a great answer but that's the truth lol

chest is a small muscle whereas the back is a huge muscle and gaining thickness requires different exercises than increasing the width of your back so i definitely think its beneficial to view them as two entirely different muscle groups

personally i very rarely do abs .. i did abs a lot when i was younger and now i feel heavy squats and deads take care of them just fine


sidenote: when i go back to doing this routine in a week or two i'll also be adding in glute/ham raises in lieu of lying leg curls for hamstrings since they are approximately a billion times more effective

 

[Mulletsoldier]

I actually just started that program Glen, and we don't have a glute/ham raise at our gym..Are you doing them McGuyver style or on a piece of equipment? I ask because when I looked up the exercise I couldn't figure out on how to improvise..And yeah so far I love it.

 

[xtraflossy]

This is true.. IMO, working on a set routine you'll have to change it up constantly to avoid burn-out.. I hardly ever overtrain, been maybe 6 years since the last time I did, and I've been at it for 16yrs..

Same here. I know that I'll hit each bodypart once a week in general. The actual day that falls on varies.
HEll, most of the time I dont follow a rep range either. I basicly have a light (warmup), medium (do enough to slightly fatigue) Heavy (what I can get for 3-5 reps for the most part) AND a "Nightcap",.. which would be I'll choose a weight that I think I might be able to do once, or, know I can do once but looking to see if I can do 2 reps this time.

Kinda chaotic, and Im sure by the end of the week Im VERY close to overtraining,.... I do the gym at least 5 days a week, thne maybe once on the weekend.
My "problem" I cant seem to put together a split that I like.

But, if your wondering what causes hypertrophy, that would be muscle adaptation in all its glory
now,.. I know everyone is different, If it just feels like it should be a "back" day,... then so be it!

You will know quickly if your overtraining by the way your feeling. Tired, mentally exausted...

I know it seems like Im going no where with this, but everyone will give you advice, and most of it will be different. The first thing you should listen to is your own body.

OH- Ive been tring to do something with calves as well,.. Just fouind something that works. I started doing very, very slow, deep reps, tring to hit 20reps. It never happened.:blink: What seems to be working now is I'll take about 65% of my max calf raise, and do 5 sets this way. There is no rep range, only 5 sets. Its like rep-target training but with out reps. Each set is done for as long as it can be done. Doing this twice a week, for 2 weeks now I have put on 1/4 of an inch!! Im pissed cause I know in the 9 years Ive been lifting, I refuse to beleive I haven't tried this before.
Dont know,.. just a suggestion to try once maybe.

:run:

 

[glenihan]

I actually just started that program Glen, and we don't have a glute/ham raise at our gym..Are you doing them McGuyver style or on a piece of equipment? I ask because when I looked up the exercise I couldn't figure out on how to improvise..And yeah so far I love it.

we do them on a seated calf raise machine .. put 3 45s on it and set your knees where you'd normally sit facing the opposite direction and put your ankles where your knees would go if you were doing calf raises to support your ankles .. hope that make sense

 

[Moyer]

we do them on a seated calf raise machine .. put 3 45s on it and set your knees where you'd normally sit facing the opposite direction and put your ankles where your knees would go if you were doing calf raises to support your ankles .. hope that make sense

Does this look like a hyperextension?


Thanks for replying to my post earlier BTW.

 

[Moyer]

 

[Mulletsoldier]

we do them on a seated calf raise machine .. put 3 45s on it and set your knees where you'd normally sit facing the opposite direction and put your ankles where your knees would go if you were doing calf raises to support your ankles .. hope that make sense

Yeah, that does..I never even thought of that..That's a really good idea..I'll try that...

 

[phil216]

Why are you not taking any sets to failure? (I'm a HIT guy and currently train 1x per week doing a total of 2 sets per week.) Right now I'm 239 at 5'8 have abs and decent separation especially in my legs, not sure of exact BF as I have not had a test done since the last time I competed which was years ago when Craig Richardson blew me away.

 

[glenihan]

where did i say i don't take the sets to failure? i fail btw 10-12 then 6-8 then 4-6

 

[JimJames]

glenihan, do you lift with someone? The reason I ask is that I have just learned of this DC training and I work out alone in my basement. It looks interesting and would like to incorporate it into my upcoming cycle but not sure...

Do you have any idea how I can adjust this routine to be effective on my own?

 

[undecipherable]

chest - either incline hammer strength or flat db press

do you use the hammer (vertical) or pronated (horizontal -- like a BB bench) grip on this machine?

 

[glenihan]

pronacted

and jim, i've done the workout for many weeks at a time by myself and as long as you aren't doing BB bench and your squat rack has safety pins you should be in no danger at all

 

[JimJames]

Thanks for the info glenihan... I just started a variation of this workout this week and last night was my first go at it. I must say it is very intense. I like it.
The one thing that really suprised me was how tough and painfull the stretches were.... felt like muscle was going to rip from my bone, but afterword I felt great and had a huge pump.

 

[glenihan]

yeah some of the stretches REALLY kill .. i don't know if they really make a difference (aside from the lat stretch which i am POSITIVE does) but they certainly don't hurt and i'll take any extra help i can get

 

[JimJames]

How do you do the lat one that you feel makes it affective? I did it last night and I couldn't really feel much. Not like the chest one for sure.

 

[glenihan]

i use straps and take a SUPER wide grip on the pull up bar with palms away from my body and try to flare out my lats (think looking like a cobra) as much as i can and just hang for as long as i can