weighted chinup
Well-known Member
[This is a brief primer on how to implement a high training frequency to increase size gains and strength gains.]
I have seen a lot of interest on the board lately about people wanting to increase training frequency. Usually it's to bring up certain muscle groups or improve certain movements.
The benefits:
For bodybuilding purposes, I believe that increasing training frequency will more often than not, prove to be beneficial for hypertrophy purposes. I also believe increased frequency of lifts will allow a lifter to improve and get stronger quicker, which in itself can promote size gains.
The drawback:
Implementing high frequency training requires a lifter to do a few things in order to be successful. Training needs to be periodized, volume requirements need to be carefully calculated and designed, and as is always the case for non-beginners, the lifter needs to take a dual factor approach to recovery and understand how fatigue masks fitness.
[1] Lift Selection
Keep lift selection concise and focused on your main movements. Don't use an excessive lift selection or use variety for the sake of variety. While variety is beneficial for bodybuilding purposes, excess variety isn't as impactful as the fitness mainstream makes it seem.
I advocate scaling lift selection based on what stage you are at.
A beginner can get by with a small lift selection like this:
Flat Bench
Front Squat
Romanian Deadlift
Weighed Chinup
Isolation work
Intermediate and Advanced lifters can take advantage of more variety:
Flat Barbell Bench
Incline Barbell Bench
Weighted Chinup
Weighted Pullup
Romanian Deadlift
Front Squat
Isolation Work
Notice that while there is more lifts in the rotation, it is still focused and fairly specific.
You don't want to have an excessive lift selection if you're training with high frequency and the lifts are being trained concurrently.
[2] Recovery
Intermediate and advanced lifters need to take what is called a dual-factor approach to recovery.
A single factor approach to training is when a lifter trains and recovers, trains and recovers, trains and recovers, etc.
The problem is that this is not ideal for anyone past the beginner stage because eventually you won't be able to do enough work in a single session to produce an adaptation before your next training bout.
The solution is to take a dual factor approach to recovery. Dual factor adds another variable, fatigue. You won't necessarily be fully recovered before your next training bout and this is ideal because past the beginner stage you won't make progress without doing this.
Therefore, a lifter can expect to accumulate fatigue during a training cycle. Fatigue can affect performance since fatigue masks fitness, so a lifter who wants to take this approach needs to get acclimated with this feeling and understand what is happening.
A lifter needs to include measures to dissipate fatigue. The easiest method and simplest to implement is a scheduled deload, but you can also reduce weekly workload for a week. It is important fatigue is managed otherwise you will regress and stagnate.
[3] Volume
High frequency training requires a lifter to have a carefully planned approach to loading, otherwise they will easily find themselves doing too much work.
I recommend using a Prilepins chart with INOL calculations.
Ideally after some time you will be able to develop your own way of how you handle loading based on your own recovery capacity, but it may take some years and a lot of experience to learn how to do this, so I recommend a prilepins chart.
http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/files/prelipins.pdf
And because we are taking a dual factor approach to recovery, we can utilize a higher weekly volume as long as it is ideal for the lifter (if you can make progress with less work then there isn't much need to use excessive volume) and measures are in place to dissipate fatigue (this is critical).
The guide to prilpeins chart includes a brief guideline on how sustainable certain INOL ranges are for single and weekly session volume.
However,
Couple notes about prilepins chart and inol:
[1] Be honest with yourself about what you're capable of, don't assume shit will be easy just because single session volume isn't that bad. You will quickly realize that in the context of a week, it is very easy to do way too much work.
[2] Prilepins chart was designed for olympic lifts - movements that are explosive and performed quickly. Again, be honest with yourself. A lift with more eccentric stress and loading will be more impactful on recovery for example.
[3] Keep daily session volume for each lift reasonable and doable, if you're training something 3x a week you don't need to have an absurdly high single session INOL for that lift. The lower the INOL is for a single session for any particular lift, the less fatigue is produced.
As an example:
This is what the WEEKLY calculations look like for a routine that is sustainable if a lifter deloads every 3-4 weeks.
Front Squat: INOL 3.4
Romanian Deadlift: INOL 3.4
Weighted Dips: INOL 3.4
Incline Barbell Bench: INOL 3.4
Weighted Chinup: INOL 3.4
Weighted Pullup: INOL 3.4
That workload will require a lifter to deload every 3-4 weeks. So it illustrates that it is possible to do too much very easily.
(The lifts in that selection get trained 3x a week btw)
[4] Periodiziation
A lifter needs to periodize training in order to be succesful, and in the case of high frequency, this is especially true because doing the same lifts and the same poundages at the same intensity and same volume 3x a week is destined to end in a failure.
The truth is all lifters who are past the beginner stage should periodize training, but thanks to AAS we are able to mask this phenomenon.
You need to be changing intensity and volume requirements throughout the training cycle in order to drive progress, you can't rely on a linear approach to progression.
There are different periodiziation techniques a lifter can implement. I will mention a few.
Linear periodization is suitable for almost any intermediate lifter but it is not my prefered choice for bodybuilding purposes because weekly volume gets decreased as intensity increases throughout the cycles of the program. I am a fan of training all qualities concurrently even if it's just a maintenance amount of work and I especially like keeping weekly volume high / steady throughout the training cycle.
Because of this, I prefer to take a non-linear approach to periodization for bodybuilding purposes because we can train different qualities or intensities concurrently within the same week, this is ideal because we won't have long phases where volume goes down in favor of increased intensity or one quality gets trained and another goes untouched.
With some periodization methods we can keep weekly volume high throughout the week and still drive progress in a sustainable way.
There are so many ways to periodize training, I'm simply going to give a couple examples to give an idea of what it's all about with a couple interesting methods you might not have heard of before:
Flexible Non-Linear Periodization
Flexible Non-linear Periodization: Keeping Your Options Opened | Optimum Sports Performance LLC
This one is interesting because it allows you regulate what you do based on what you feel you are capable of on any given day.
Daily Undulating Periodization
The Daily Undulating Periodization (DUP) Bible - JMax Fitness
My personal favorite for intermediate and advanced lifters. Intensity and volume requirements change on a daily basis, and the changes are wave like (undulation). Easy to implement and very compatible with high frequency training. Again, my preferred method. Weekly volume remains high throughout the week.
[5] Training split and ideal frequency
My preferred frequency for movements is making sure they get trained 3x a week.
I like having even more frequency for muscles in order to keep muscle protein synthesis high.
This is achieved by structuring sessions around movements rather than muscle groups.
(I personally have 6 main lifts in the rotation, with 3 being trained each day, for a total of 6 sessions per week. Each movement gets hit 3x a week but frequency of muscles hit is actually more because almost every muscle ends up getting used every training session. I find this to be better than a muscle split).
I no longer advocate using a strict split, just structure a training day based on what movements you need to train that day. I like it even better and it can actually allow you to increase the frequency muscles get trained thus increasing mps and actually increase your ability to perform because you can do 2 movements on separate days instead of doing them one after another on the same session.
For example, I can do weighted chinups and pullups on separate days instead of doing them one after another on pull day. When I made the switch to separate days I added an absurd amount of strength to my weighted pullup.
Or you can use a training split if you prefer, for example...
I'll be honest, there's like only one muscle split I am even aware of because it's the only one I've used before I moved on to bigger and better things (PPL).
But anyway, don't dismiss basing training sessions around movements. Give it a try, you will be satisfied.
End
I hope this brief primer gave some insight on how one might successfully implement high frequency training in their own routine.
Now discuss =)
I have seen a lot of interest on the board lately about people wanting to increase training frequency. Usually it's to bring up certain muscle groups or improve certain movements.
The benefits:
For bodybuilding purposes, I believe that increasing training frequency will more often than not, prove to be beneficial for hypertrophy purposes. I also believe increased frequency of lifts will allow a lifter to improve and get stronger quicker, which in itself can promote size gains.
The drawback:
Implementing high frequency training requires a lifter to do a few things in order to be successful. Training needs to be periodized, volume requirements need to be carefully calculated and designed, and as is always the case for non-beginners, the lifter needs to take a dual factor approach to recovery and understand how fatigue masks fitness.
[1] Lift Selection
Keep lift selection concise and focused on your main movements. Don't use an excessive lift selection or use variety for the sake of variety. While variety is beneficial for bodybuilding purposes, excess variety isn't as impactful as the fitness mainstream makes it seem.
I advocate scaling lift selection based on what stage you are at.
A beginner can get by with a small lift selection like this:
Flat Bench
Front Squat
Romanian Deadlift
Weighed Chinup
Isolation work
Intermediate and Advanced lifters can take advantage of more variety:
Flat Barbell Bench
Incline Barbell Bench
Weighted Chinup
Weighted Pullup
Romanian Deadlift
Front Squat
Isolation Work
Notice that while there is more lifts in the rotation, it is still focused and fairly specific.
You don't want to have an excessive lift selection if you're training with high frequency and the lifts are being trained concurrently.
[2] Recovery
Intermediate and advanced lifters need to take what is called a dual-factor approach to recovery.
A single factor approach to training is when a lifter trains and recovers, trains and recovers, trains and recovers, etc.
The problem is that this is not ideal for anyone past the beginner stage because eventually you won't be able to do enough work in a single session to produce an adaptation before your next training bout.
The solution is to take a dual factor approach to recovery. Dual factor adds another variable, fatigue. You won't necessarily be fully recovered before your next training bout and this is ideal because past the beginner stage you won't make progress without doing this.
Therefore, a lifter can expect to accumulate fatigue during a training cycle. Fatigue can affect performance since fatigue masks fitness, so a lifter who wants to take this approach needs to get acclimated with this feeling and understand what is happening.
A lifter needs to include measures to dissipate fatigue. The easiest method and simplest to implement is a scheduled deload, but you can also reduce weekly workload for a week. It is important fatigue is managed otherwise you will regress and stagnate.
[3] Volume
High frequency training requires a lifter to have a carefully planned approach to loading, otherwise they will easily find themselves doing too much work.
I recommend using a Prilepins chart with INOL calculations.
Ideally after some time you will be able to develop your own way of how you handle loading based on your own recovery capacity, but it may take some years and a lot of experience to learn how to do this, so I recommend a prilepins chart.
http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/files/prelipins.pdf
And because we are taking a dual factor approach to recovery, we can utilize a higher weekly volume as long as it is ideal for the lifter (if you can make progress with less work then there isn't much need to use excessive volume) and measures are in place to dissipate fatigue (this is critical).
The guide to prilpeins chart includes a brief guideline on how sustainable certain INOL ranges are for single and weekly session volume.
However,
Couple notes about prilepins chart and inol:
[1] Be honest with yourself about what you're capable of, don't assume shit will be easy just because single session volume isn't that bad. You will quickly realize that in the context of a week, it is very easy to do way too much work.
[2] Prilepins chart was designed for olympic lifts - movements that are explosive and performed quickly. Again, be honest with yourself. A lift with more eccentric stress and loading will be more impactful on recovery for example.
[3] Keep daily session volume for each lift reasonable and doable, if you're training something 3x a week you don't need to have an absurdly high single session INOL for that lift. The lower the INOL is for a single session for any particular lift, the less fatigue is produced.
As an example:
This is what the WEEKLY calculations look like for a routine that is sustainable if a lifter deloads every 3-4 weeks.
Front Squat: INOL 3.4
Romanian Deadlift: INOL 3.4
Weighted Dips: INOL 3.4
Incline Barbell Bench: INOL 3.4
Weighted Chinup: INOL 3.4
Weighted Pullup: INOL 3.4
That workload will require a lifter to deload every 3-4 weeks. So it illustrates that it is possible to do too much very easily.
(The lifts in that selection get trained 3x a week btw)
[4] Periodiziation
A lifter needs to periodize training in order to be succesful, and in the case of high frequency, this is especially true because doing the same lifts and the same poundages at the same intensity and same volume 3x a week is destined to end in a failure.
The truth is all lifters who are past the beginner stage should periodize training, but thanks to AAS we are able to mask this phenomenon.
You need to be changing intensity and volume requirements throughout the training cycle in order to drive progress, you can't rely on a linear approach to progression.
There are different periodiziation techniques a lifter can implement. I will mention a few.
Linear periodization is suitable for almost any intermediate lifter but it is not my prefered choice for bodybuilding purposes because weekly volume gets decreased as intensity increases throughout the cycles of the program. I am a fan of training all qualities concurrently even if it's just a maintenance amount of work and I especially like keeping weekly volume high / steady throughout the training cycle.
Because of this, I prefer to take a non-linear approach to periodization for bodybuilding purposes because we can train different qualities or intensities concurrently within the same week, this is ideal because we won't have long phases where volume goes down in favor of increased intensity or one quality gets trained and another goes untouched.
With some periodization methods we can keep weekly volume high throughout the week and still drive progress in a sustainable way.
There are so many ways to periodize training, I'm simply going to give a couple examples to give an idea of what it's all about with a couple interesting methods you might not have heard of before:
Flexible Non-Linear Periodization
Flexible Non-linear Periodization: Keeping Your Options Opened | Optimum Sports Performance LLC
This one is interesting because it allows you regulate what you do based on what you feel you are capable of on any given day.
Daily Undulating Periodization
The Daily Undulating Periodization (DUP) Bible - JMax Fitness
My personal favorite for intermediate and advanced lifters. Intensity and volume requirements change on a daily basis, and the changes are wave like (undulation). Easy to implement and very compatible with high frequency training. Again, my preferred method. Weekly volume remains high throughout the week.
[5] Training split and ideal frequency
My preferred frequency for movements is making sure they get trained 3x a week.
I like having even more frequency for muscles in order to keep muscle protein synthesis high.
This is achieved by structuring sessions around movements rather than muscle groups.
(I personally have 6 main lifts in the rotation, with 3 being trained each day, for a total of 6 sessions per week. Each movement gets hit 3x a week but frequency of muscles hit is actually more because almost every muscle ends up getting used every training session. I find this to be better than a muscle split).
I no longer advocate using a strict split, just structure a training day based on what movements you need to train that day. I like it even better and it can actually allow you to increase the frequency muscles get trained thus increasing mps and actually increase your ability to perform because you can do 2 movements on separate days instead of doing them one after another on the same session.
For example, I can do weighted chinups and pullups on separate days instead of doing them one after another on pull day. When I made the switch to separate days I added an absurd amount of strength to my weighted pullup.
Or you can use a training split if you prefer, for example...
I'll be honest, there's like only one muscle split I am even aware of because it's the only one I've used before I moved on to bigger and better things (PPL).
But anyway, don't dismiss basing training sessions around movements. Give it a try, you will be satisfied.
End
I hope this brief primer gave some insight on how one might successfully implement high frequency training in their own routine.
Now discuss =)
Last edited:
magazines. I believed all the shit in there. Lol You'd never see training like what you guys do in those. All you'd ever see is "Bro" split training. Its the only way I've ever trained, but I must say I'm slowing changing my style. Its never too late...right??
