Frequency

Determining appropriate frequency is a critical component of your training program.  Waiting too long before training a desired muscle group could hinder your progress just like training that muscle group too quickly after a session.  This current routine is forcing me to rethink the whole work-recovery paradigm?

Lately I have been training muscle groups much more frequently.  Granted the most volume per muscle group performed is 5 sets.  This increased frequency has produced some awesome gains for me and my clients.  These new found gains after 20 years of training have caused me to rethink this whole recovery/frequency paradigm.  I do think training muscle groups with a higher frequency can and will produce awesome gains if you are recovering.  With an increased frequency approach you must make sure you limit your sets per session per muscle group.  Which leads me to a statement that I have used often.

“You have 2 options when it comes to training. 1) You can train each muscle group with a lot of sets, reps, high intensity techniques, etc.  By training with high volume and intensity you must allow a number of days for complete recovery.  2) You can train that same muscle group with limited sets, reps, but work brutally hard and train that muscle group much more often. ”

What I am finding using option 2 is that the body adapts to every form of stress.  Eventually, training with the high frequency approach your body will adapt to just about any training stress and be ready to train in a few short hours or days.  You can’t start off the high frequency program training with a lot of volume per training day but you can eventually increase it.  The following example represents the sets for 1 muscle group for 1 week of training.

First Higher Frequency Set up

Mon 2 working sets

Wed 3 working sets

Thurs 2 working sets

Sat 3 working sets

Total 10 working sets per week per example muscle group

After 8 weeks or so you could move the volume up a few more sets and see if progress continues.

Increased Volume High Frequency

Mon 3 working sets

Wed 3 working sets

Thurs 3 working sets

Sat 5 working sets

14 Total Working Sets.  After a few weeks you might consider backing the sets back down, followed by ramping them back up.

This is the exact experiment we have used here.  In fact, many of our clients have experienced a huge upregulation of recovery, strength levels, metabolism that this high frequency approach  is forcing me to rethink this paradigm.   Study Routine 2 and let me know.

Michael