Making gains whilst reducing time spent in the gym

[u_e_s_i]

So I’m currently training 5 or 6 days a week most weeks.
If there were a busier period when I can’t hit the gym as often, let’s say I can go 3 days a week spending the same amount of time per session there, what could I do or how could I adapt my program to help me continue to make progress?
Have any of you guys had to do this?

For example, should I reduce the volume of each exercise I do or should I do one fewer exercises?
I know I can fit abs onto chest days and deadlifts onto leg days but what if I did that but couldn’t hit them as hard as I currently do?

My current split is
Monday - chest, triceps and front delts
Tuesday - back, biceps and rear delts
Wednesday - legs and side delts
Thursday - deadlifts and abs
Friday - [same as monday’s workout]
Saturday - [same as tuesday’s workout if I go gym]
I rotate between doing chest etc and back etc on Monday and Friday.
So one week I’ll hit chest etc on Monday and Friday, back etc on Tuesday and maybe Saturday.
Then the next week I’ll do back etc on Monday and Friday, chest etc on Tuesday and maybe Saturday.

 

[The Solution]

More time in the gym does not = more gains
Gains come from a caloric surplus, consistency, and dedication.

My 2 cents. You make a lot of threads overanalyzing very small details. Eating 200g of carbs in a meal, How many GDA's can you take, how to target a small part of your chest... etc.

You need to revert back to the basics and focusing on beating the log book and just sticking to a proven routine such an upper lower or a PPL. When you try and get too specalized or so advanced that is when people will start trying to do all the small things and they are missing the big picture. Even those who have been training for 10+ Years serious, IFBB Pro's don't make such a drastic split trying to micromanage your delts on 3 different days. You see a lot of the people who have great progress taking a compound movement and just trying to beat their reps or their weight week in and week out. Granted we won't always hit PR's, but we can still increase load through Time under tension, added reps, and maintaining proper mind muscle connection to stimulate the muscle properly.

If you workout 4x a week split the volume over 4 days, if you workout 5 days split the volume over 5 days, if you workout 3 days split it over 3 days.
Many people make very good gains doing a DC Type training program with only a few working sets all week. Dorian Yates says it best Intesnity > Volume. I can easily get drained doing 5 working sets, or I could do 40 submax sets and barley get drained. Remember Quality is always more important than Quantity. More is nota lways better. That applies to everything

- Training (Training more does not = more gains)
- Supplements (taking more pills and powders may be less beneficial, wasted money)
- Cardio (More cardio does not always = better fatloss or helping to create a bigger deficit)

Probably the answer you don't want to hear, but its evident with your posts and how you bump old threads reverting back to the same questions you asked in other threads.

Hell you even made 3 threads with the same exact question:
http://anabolicminds.com/forum/training-forum/306198-reducing-volume.html
http://anabolicminds.com/forum/training-forum/306199-making-gains-whilst.html

 

[AlexPowell]

Higher volume will give you better gains
Hypertrophy comes from making the muscles do something they've not done before
You cannot gain muscle without forcing the muscle to do something it's not done previously
Strength increases are incremental, yet muscular endurance can be trained exponentially
Start your program with lower volume, add volume each week until you can't complete your training (IE you get weaker, can't do sets etc)

You should be adding volume for around 6-12 weeks, so don't add it so quickly you get tired straight away
Deload for 2-4 weeks then start again

As for "high" volume vs "low" volume. What you do is completely individual, and high volume for you might be low volume for me. Everyone's work capacity is vastly different, but the best gains will come from pushing your muscular endurance each week and trying to do more volume than last time

The deload will re-sensitize you to the volume.
Weights will need to increase over time, but they will increase due to the muscles getting bigger, so no need to freak out completely if you can't push more weight week to week.

Make sure you're gaining weight each week as well.

 

[u_e_s_i]

More time in the gym does not = more gains
Gains come from a caloric surplus, consistency, and dedication.

My 2 cents. You make a lot of threads overanalyzing very small details. Eating 200g of carbs in a meal, How many GDA's can you take, how to target a small part of your chest... etc.

You need to revert back to the basics and focusing on beating the log book and just sticking to a proven routine such an upper lower or a PPL. When you try and get too specalized or so advanced that is when people will start trying to do all the small things and they are missing the big picture. Even those who have been training for 10+ Years serious, IFBB Pro's don't make such a drastic split trying to micromanage your delts on 3 different days. You see a lot of the people who have great progress taking a compound movement and just trying to beat their reps or their weight week in and week out. Granted we won't always hit PR's, but we can still increase load through Time under tension, added reps, and maintaining proper mind muscle connection to stimulate the muscle properly.

If you workout 4x a week split the volume over 4 days, if you workout 5 days split the volume over 5 days, if you workout 3 days split it over 3 days.
Many people make very good gains doing a DC Type training program with only a few working sets all week. Dorian Yates says it best Intesnity > Volume. I can easily get drained doing 5 working sets, or I could do 40 submax sets and barley get drained. Remember Quality is always more important than Quantity. More is nota lways better. That applies to everything

- Training (Training more does not = more gains)
- Supplements (taking more pills and powders may be less beneficial, wasted money)
- Cardio (More cardio does not always = better fatloss or helping to create a bigger deficit)

Probably the answer you don't want to hear, but its evident with your posts and how you bump old threads reverting back to the same questions you asked in other threads.

Hell you even made 3 threads with the same exact question:
http://anabolicminds.com/forum/training-forum/306198-reducing-volume.html
http://anabolicminds.com/forum/training-forum/306199-making-gains-whilst.html

'More time in the gym does not = more gains' I'm aware of that but given the hype around increasing volume for greater hypertrophy I'm wary of reducing the number of sets per exercise I do weekly.
Ill do some research into using increased intensity as a means of making up for the decreased volume.

As for why I split my delts training into three days, I got that tip from an article that was on anabolicminds' home page.
My delts are lagging, the three day split is actually really convenient, and so I do it

As for the three threads, my phone has trouble with the AM site sometimes and last night it was bugging out and I didn't know whether the thread successfully posted or not. Mods, please feel free to delete the other two. I'm not sure if I can delete threads.

I'm still learning, I'm always learning.
As I've said before, I'd rather learn proactively in advance than regretfully in hindsight

 

[The Solution]

'More time in the gym does not = more gains' I'm aware of that but given the hype around increasing volume for greater hypertrophy I'm wary of reducing the number of sets per exercise I do weekly.
Ill do some research into using increased intensity as a means of making up for the decreased volume.

As for why I split my delts training into three days, I got that tip from an article that was on anabolicminds' home page.
My delts are lagging, the three day split is actually really convenient, and so I do it

I'm still learning, I'm always learning.
As I've said before, I'd rather learn proactively in advance than regretfully in hindsight

Mistake #1 ---> Falling for Hype
Don't buy into what always works for others, it does not always work for you. If you went back to the basics I can guarentee your shoulders will grow as long as you are stimulting them properly and giving them plenty of rest.

Don't judge what you read off a single article, remember in this sport nothing is black and white. You are better to start on the lower end of volume and focus on higher intensity techniques , getting extra blood into the muscle, and pushing yourself past boundaries. Anyone can train high volume. But there is a law of diminishing returns.. Remember QUALITY > QUANTITY

then again anything I saw ususally goes in one of your ears and out the others. You constantly want to jump from one idea , to another idea, to what you read in this thread, to what you read in this article. You need to slow down and do one thing and run it for 6-8 weeks minimum, then make adjustments base off the mirror, scale, and what changes you felt in your strength and recovery. It is very clear you overanalzye very small details which make such a small aspect of the big picture. Hell a large majority of gym lifters don't track their intake, they dont write down a log book but still are stronger and look better then a lot of people who try to get very personalized, very detailed, and track everything down to a T. there comes a fine line and balance between both. You need to step back and ask yourself if doing eveyrthing you read to the very smallest detail is worth your time and effort. If you have not made substantial progress in the last 8-12 months then there is something to be said about your thinking and rationale.

 

[HIT4ME]

I'm with The Solution on this one. The key is progression - and the more volume you add, the more complicated progression becomes. Also, keep in mind, you can work hard or you can work long, but you cannot do both.

You should literally see an improvement at just about every workout. If you don't see an improvement - something is off. It may be small improvement, like 1 extra rep before you hit failure, etc. Too many people ignore this. They don't understand progression.

And volume is not necessary for progression. You can improve on 1-2 hard sets per body part. Not per exercise. Per body part.

Think of Volume, Frequency and Intensity as being the 3 factors that you need to balance. If you are going 100% intensity you cannot use high volume and high frequency - you will burn out. If you are going high frequency, then volume and intensity have to be adjusted to allow for that. You can't deadlift your 5RM for 5 sets 3X per week and expect to improve. You will get weaker and weaker until you back off. And if you're doing 100 sets you can't take them all to failure 1X per week and expect to improve. And if you're going 100% to failure 2X per week - and you're natural - even at a few sets per session a lot of people will be burned out.

Also, throw away your idea of "I have to train X times per week". It's not like you HAVE to train your entire body once or twice per week. If you have a 3-day full body split that you hit 2X per week (totaling 6 sessions) - if you miss one then just treat that like your day off and pick up the next day with the workout and follow the split through again. If you train a bodypart 2X per week but in a specific week you end up training 1 bodypart 2X in 8 days instead of 7 - does it really matter?

Of course, I know that some people have work schedules or situations where they have to schedule things, but I am just saying - Monday doesn't HAVE to be chest. It can be the workout you planned to do on Saturday and you can do chest on Tuesday. Just slide it all forward.

The caveat to that last point is - don't mistake that as me saying you don't need consistency. But consistency isn't having to stick to a schedule or else. Sh1t goes wrong - consistency is being able to adjust and adapt. Don't let some random idea keep you from adapting just because everyone thinks it should be based on a weekly schedule.

 

[u_e_s_i]

Mistake #1 ---> Falling for Hype
Don't buy into what always works for others, it does not always work for you. If you went back to the basics I can guarentee your shoulders will grow as long as you are stimulting them properly and giving them plenty of rest.

Don't judge what you read off a single article, remember in this sport nothing is black and white. You are better to start on the lower end of volume and focus on higher intensity techniques , getting extra blood into the muscle, and pushing yourself past boundaries. Anyone can train high volume. But there is a law of diminishing returns.. Remember QUALITY > QUANTITY

then again anything I saw ususally goes in one of your ears and out the others. You constantly want to jump from one idea , to another idea, to what you read in this thread, to what you read in this article. You need to slow down and do one thing and run it for 6-8 weeks minimum, then make adjustments base off the mirror, scale, and what changes you felt in your strength and recovery. It is very clear you overanalzye very small details which make such a small aspect of the big picture. Hell a large majority of gym lifters don't track their intake, they dont write down a log book but still are stronger and look better then a lot of people who try to get very personalized, very detailed, and track everything down to a T. there comes a fine line and balance between both. You need to step back and ask yourself if doing eveyrthing you read to the very smallest detail is worth your time and effort. If you have not made substantial progress in the last 8-12 months then there is something to be said about your thinking and rationale.

I go for what works for me first and foremost but I try to learn from others, so that I can spend less time making mistakes.

I get what you mean about small details but most of the advice I take improve my efficiency e.g. splitting delts training. Changing my routine a little bit usually requires negligible effort and will save me time and effort in the long-term

Tbh I've only been adjusting my lifting off advice from AM for a particular muscle less than once every other month.
I've been making very decent gains 9 out of 10 sessions and have been told by a few people that I have the 'most beautiful physique' (entirely subjective of course) (most of those people werent hitting on me either) they've ever seen, after just two and a half years.
I want to train smart and to maximise the return on the time I invest and I need to be educated in order to do that.

I thank you for the advice you've given me and I'd bet that stuff like your advice on upper chest and the anabolic benefit of high insulin levels have benefitted my progress. That said, using those as case studies, implementing them took 5 minutes and negligible time and effort respectively. Their benefit, perhaps I'll reach where I would otherwise be after 10 years, after just 9, and my bulk cut cycles will be less effort in the grand scheme of things

 

[u_e_s_i]

I'm with The Solution on this one. The key is progression - and the more volume you add, the more complicated progression becomes. Also, keep in mind, you can work hard or you can work long, but you cannot do both.

You should literally see an improvement at just about every workout. If you don't see an improvement - something is off. It may be small improvement, like 1 extra rep before you hit failure, etc. Too many people ignore this. They don't understand progression.

And volume is not necessary for progression. You can improve on 1-2 hard sets per body part. Not per exercise. Per body part.

Think of Volume, Frequency and Intensity as being the 3 factors that you need to balance. If you are going 100% intensity you cannot use high volume and high frequency - you will burn out. If you are going high frequency, then volume and intensity have to be adjusted to allow for that. You can't deadlift your 5RM for 5 sets 3X per week and expect to improve. You will get weaker and weaker until you back off. And if you're doing 100 sets you can't take them all to failure 1X per week and expect to improve. And if you're going 100% to failure 2X per week - and you're natural - even at a few sets per session a lot of people will be burned out.

Also, throw away your idea of "I have to train X times per week". It's not like you HAVE to train your entire body once or twice per week. If you have a 3-day full body split that you hit 2X per week (totaling 6 sessions) - if you miss one then just treat that like your day off and pick up the next day with the workout and follow the split through again. If you train a bodypart 2X per week but in a specific week you end up training 1 bodypart 2X in 8 days instead of 7 - does it really matter?

Of course, I know that some people have work schedules or situations where they have to schedule things, but I am just saying - Monday doesn't HAVE to be chest. It can be the workout you planned to do on Saturday and you can do chest on Tuesday. Just slide it all forward.

The caveat to that last point is - don't mistake that as me saying you don't need consistency. But consistency isn't having to stick to a schedule or else. Sh1t goes wrong - consistency is being able to adjust and adapt. Don't let some random idea keep you from adapting just because everyone thinks it should be based on a weekly schedule.

Ok so if I have to reduce volume, I should increase intensity by reducing rest times, or increase frequency say by hitting each muscle more often?

I'm flexible about which day I do what on, my reason for making this thread is that I'm unsure as to how best to make up for reduced volume.

 

[AlexPowell]

Ok so if I have to reduce volume, I should increase intensity by reducing rest times, or increase frequency say by hitting each muscle more often?

You have to force the muscle to complete work that's it not previously done

 

[HIT4ME]

Ok so if I have to reduce volume, I should increase intensity by reducing rest times, or increase frequency say by hitting each muscle more often?

You should plan to control those variables as part of your programming and not adjust them each workout - but adjust them until you see progress consistently.

Think of it this way - the ONLY reason you are going to workout today is so that when you do the same workout in x days...whether its 3, 4, 7, 20 days away ....you will be better. If you train today and it doesn't make the next workout better, then it was a waste of time. I am not saying this is 100% true but it's a helpful mindset.

If you adopt that mindset, you will take a day off and benefit from the rest rather than do a half-assed workout that does not move you forward.

We call it "training" for a reason.

 

[HIT4ME]

And to clarify - Mentzer has workouts that were 1-2 sets to failure per body part and he had 3 days of rest between body parts which led to full body training almost every 2 weeks. These workouts often took his clients less than 20 minutes to complete.

I am not saying it is the only way to train, or the best way - but I've emulated it to a large degree and the results are there. Not saying I am huge and there are plenty of guys on this board who do things completely opposite of me and have a way better physique. But if you try it and learn from it, you might be surprised that you get better results on low volume and frequency if you have a high intensity.

For me...I try all kinds of things. I think the programs that get a lot of love on the interwebs, like 5x5, 5/3/1, HST - they all actually have this modulation built in.

For instance - 5 x 5 isn't about intensity. It CAN have high intensity. But your volume is set and you just hammer away at that with planned progressions. This modulates your intensity because even as you get near your peak weight, you might hit 5, 5, 4, 3, 2 ...next week it will be a little less intense and you will get 5, 5, 4, 4, 3...etc. but you are never really even at you 5RM because you are basing it off what you did for 5 x 5 the past workout.

 

[The Solution]

And to clarify - Mentzer has workouts that were 1-2 sets to failure per body part and he had 3 days of rest between body parts which led to full body training almost every 2 weeks. These workouts often took his clients less than 20 minutes to complete.

I am not saying it is the only way to train, or the best way - but I've emulated it to a large degree and the results are there. Not saying I am huge and there are plenty of guys on this board who do things completely opposite of me and have a way better physique. But if you try it and learn from it, you might be surprised that you get better results on low volume and frequency if you have a high intensity.

For me...I try all kinds of things. I think the programs that get a lot of love on the interwebs, like 5x5, 5/3/1, HST - they all actually have this modulation built in.

For instance - 5 x 5 isn't about intensity. It CAN have high intensity. But your volume is set and you just hammer away at that with planned progressions. This modulates your intensity because even as you get near your peak weight, you might hit 5, 5, 4, 3, 2 ...next week it will be a little less intense and you will get 5, 5, 4, 4, 3...etc. but you are never really even at you 5RM because you are basing it off what you did for 5 x 5 the past workout.

I can guarentee you almost ALL traineess you see at a public gym have no idea what complete failure or proper intensity is. Most people are going through the motions and consider it "A workout"

Do one set of isotension like this and I bet your quads would be fried. You wont need to do 8-10 sets of leg extension and submax squats...Nobody wants to push their limits this hard or force their bodies through intense pain

[video=youtube;QpwRbl3E_LE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpwRbl3E_LE[/video]

 

[u_e_s_i]

Atm I follow the same structure, blocks of three weeks, rotating the number of reps per set weekly.
Every second workout with ~'y' reps per set I've been able to either increase the weight or at least do more reps than I did in the first workout.
The number of sets per muscle group is set at 's'+-2 , with me doing an extra set or two on good days when I'm doing well.
As such, the number of sets and reps don't change much every 3rd week (each rep range), with the weight being the only changing variable.

Doing this, I've been managing to set at least one new PB every workout, usually setting multiple.

What I'm not sure about is what I should do if 's' (the total number of sets for a muscle) has to decrease

 

[u_e_s_i]

And to clarify - Mentzer has workouts that were 1-2 sets to failure per body part and he had 3 days of rest between body parts which led to full body training almost every 2 weeks. These workouts often took his clients less than 20 minutes to complete.

I am not saying it is the only way to train, or the best way - but I've emulated it to a large degree and the results are there. Not saying I am huge and there are plenty of guys on this board who do things completely opposite of me and have a way better physique. But if you try it and learn from it, you might be surprised that you get better results on low volume and frequency if you have a high intensity.

For me...I try all kinds of things. I think the programs that get a lot of love on the interwebs, like 5x5, 5/3/1, HST - they all actually have this modulation built in.

For instance - 5 x 5 isn't about intensity. It CAN have high intensity. But your volume is set and you just hammer away at that with planned progressions. This modulates your intensity because even as you get near your peak weight, you might hit 5, 5, 4, 3, 2 ...next week it will be a little less intense and you will get 5, 5, 4, 4, 3...etc. but you are never really even at you 5RM because you are basing it off what you did for 5 x 5 the past workout.

So so long as I continue to make weekly strength gains I don't really need to worry if the total amount of work done suddenly dropped at some point (when I went from 1.5 hour workouts to 1 hour workouts)?

 

[AlexPowell]

Atm I follow the same structure blocks of three weeks, rotating the number of reps per set.
Every second workout with ~'y' reps per set I've been able to either increase the weight or at least do more reps than I did in the first workout.
The number of sets per muscle group is set at 's'+-2 , with me doing an extra set or two on good days when I'm doing well.
As such, the number of sets and reps don't change much every 3rd week (each rep range), with the weight being the only changing variable.

Doing this, I've been managing to set at least one new PB every workout, usually setting multiple.

What I'm not sure about is what I should do if 's' (the total number of sets for a muscle) has to decrease

I'll spell it out to you in a bit more detail, before I was trying to get you to come to the conclusion yourself
As you mentioned to force the body to do more than it did previously you can decrease rest times and increase frequency if total time trained has to decrease. HIT4ME mentioned you can also increase the time spent per set and as the solution expanded you can get a lot of work into a single set which will reduce the net time spent lifting

But what in particular should you do? Well, it doesn't really matter. What you enjoy is probably the best. I have zero interest in training like Tom Platz, so doing a single set to complete and utter failure is not a good long term solution. I can get in a good groove and do a dipping marathon for 45 minutes and absolutely slaughter my upper body, however.

So there are plenty of things you can do in 45 minutes. 45 minutes is long enough in time that you could squat until you puke. Squatting until you puke will always work, it only stops working when people stop training until they puke

 

[HIT4ME]

I can guarentee you almost ALL traineess you see at a public gym have no idea what complete failure or proper intensity is. Most people are going through the motions and consider it "A workout"

Do one set of isotension like this and I bet your quads would be fried. You wont need to do 8-10 sets of leg extension and submax squats...Nobody wants to push their limits this hard or force their bodies through intense pain

[video=youtube;QpwRbl3E_LE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpwRbl3E_LE[/video]

I think that too...but I feel like I under estimate it a little because I haven't worked out in a public gym in decades. I like to believe they at least understand basic failure, forget about going beyond...but, who knows.

One story I always tell is when a friend joined my training partner and I for a workout. The friend had been working out for a year or so. He got there, we filled out our journals - which he seemed to not expect - and he looked at what we wrote and asked, "That's it?"

Neither me nor my partner even replied. Less than 30 minutes later the friend was exhausted and said, "Now I get why that is all you do."

Honestly it was an eye opening experience for me...and yeah. It made me feel good to know I was doing something at least somewhat right haha.

 

[HIT4ME]

I'll spell it out to you in a bit more detail, before I was trying to get you to come to the conclusion yourself
As you mentioned to force the body to do more than it did previously you can decrease rest times and increase frequency if total time trained has to decrease. HIT4ME mentioned you can also increase the time spent per set and as the solution expanded you can get a lot of work into a single set which will reduce the net time spent lifting

But what in particular should you do? Well, it doesn't really matter. What you enjoy is probably the best. I have zero interest in training like Tom Platz, so doing a single set to complete and utter failure is not a good long term solution. I can get in a good groove and do a dipping marathon for 45 minutes and absolutely slaughter my upper body, however.

So there are plenty of things you can do in 45 minutes. 45 minutes is long enough in time that you could squat until you puke. Squatting until you puke will always work, it only stops working when people stop training until they puke

I do agree with this too. Some people just are wired differently. If you asked me to run marathon I would rather drink draino. But I would do HIIT sprints and find them challenging and even a little fun.

Obviously if you are someone who enjoys marathons, sprinting all the time may not be the best regimen for you long term.

Plus...like I said, you can modulate volume and frequency and intensity and get results. I've played with it a lot...including doing very low volume with moderate intensity and very high frequency (like full body every day or every other day).

 

[u_e_s_i]

Thanks for the feedback guys ��

 

[Jeremyk1]

So there’s a little story I’ve been sharing with people a lot lately. I honestly should probably find the original article, but it’s been so many years since I read it. Anyway, the idea is this. The guy who wrote the article had a friend who got into working out, went crazy doing the whole lifestyle with the training and eating healthy and even decided to become a personal trainer. So after he got certified, he asked the writer what the best training system is for when he trains people. What he said is to go to a gym, any gym, and find the 3 biggest guys there. Compare how they all train. Chances are, they all follow completely different routines. So if they all train different, why are they all so massive? They bust their asses harder than anyone else there. It’s fine to analyze training methods and details of your routine to see if you can do stuff better, but at the end of the day, the most important thing is going to be the effort and consistency you put into your training. Keep that in mind as you search for your next program.

 

[R1balla]

More time in the gym does not = more gains
Gains come from a caloric surplus, consistency, and dedication.

My 2 cents. You make a lot of threads overanalyzing very small details. Eating 200g of carbs in a meal, How many GDA's can you take, how to target a small part of your chest... etc.

You need to revert back to the basics and focusing on beating the log book and just sticking to a proven routine such an upper lower or a PPL. When you try and get too specalized or so advanced that is when people will start trying to do all the small things and they are missing the big picture. Even those who have been training for 10+ Years serious, IFBB Pro's don't make such a drastic split trying to micromanage your delts on 3 different days. You see a lot of the people who have great progress taking a compound movement and just trying to beat their reps or their weight week in and week out. Granted we won't always hit PR's, but we can still increase load through Time under tension, added reps, and maintaining proper mind muscle connection to stimulate the muscle properly.

If you workout 4x a week split the volume over 4 days, if you workout 5 days split the volume over 5 days, if you workout 3 days split it over 3 days.
Many people make very good gains doing a DC Type training program with only a few working sets all week. Dorian Yates says it best Intesnity > Volume. I can easily get drained doing 5 working sets, or I could do 40 submax sets and barley get drained. Remember Quality is always more important than Quantity. More is nota lways better. That applies to everything

- Training (Training more does not = more gains)
- Supplements (taking more pills and powders may be less beneficial, wasted money)
- Cardio (More cardio does not always = better fatloss or helping to create a bigger deficit)

Probably the answer you don't want to hear, but its evident with your posts and how you bump old threads reverting back to the same questions you asked in other threads.

Hell you even made 3 threads with the same exact question:
http://anabolicminds.com/forum/training-forum/306198-reducing-volume.html
http://anabolicminds.com/forum/training-forum/306199-making-gains-whilst.html

One of the best posts I’ve seen yet. I agree 100%. Rest, caloric surplus, consistent training will get you the results. For myself, I’m coming off a John meadows routine. I rested basically this entire week and tomorrow (Friday) I’m starting a PPL routine focusing on heavy compound lifts. Haven’t done that in quite some time so I’m really excited.