What's harder to recover from intensity or volume

ErikR

Member
10+ Year Member
If someone has poor recovery and wishes to train, should they keep reps low or high? Is powerlifting more demanding than bodybuilding? I personally feel more beat up with low reps.
 
On any workout routines I have planned that focus on periodization the volume days were always the most painful. Maybe the issue isn't one or the other for you but the fact that you need to mix in heavy, volume and light days.
 
I trained high volume a lot of failure for years. Was very hard to gain weight, but good results. Started training HIT less sets with lower reps and higher weight, only one working set to failure. Seems easier to gain, but takes a toll on my body a lot more.
 
Personally it takes me longer to recover from my two power days (low reps heavy weight fewer sets) than the three hypertrophy days the second half of the week. My diet definitely plays a role as well when it comes to recovery time.
 
Excessive volume and failure stresses the CNS. Raising lactic acid and cortisol level up to 48hrs after workout. Lactic acid is one way to trigger the muscle to grow, but raised cortisol is counter productive.
 
Volume is a larger stressor than intensity and harder to recover from. When I talk recovery, I’m not talking about being sore, DOMS, or how one feels. I’m talking about fitness levels and the ability to perform the next session.
That's why I posted this question. I know the general answer to it, but I feel I take more of a beating with low reps , high intensity. It's not like my muscles of sore, I feel runned down and don't feel like training. What about the toll it takes on your cns?
 
That's why I posted this question. I know the general answer to it, but I feel I take more of a beating with low reps , high intensity. It's not like my muscles of sore, I feel runned down and don't feel like training. What about the toll it takes on your cns?

In your experiences it might be that you’re doing too much volume at the high intensities. Remember, as intensity goes up, all other factors being equal, volume must drop as well. If not you’ll begin to overreach and eventually overtrain.
 
In your experiences it might be that you’re doing too much volume at the high intensities. Remember, as intensity goes up, all other factors being equal, volume must drop as well. If not you’ll begin to overreach and eventually overtrain.
Good point.
 
In your experiences it might be that you’re doing too much volume at the high intensities. Remember, as intensity goes up, all other factors being equal, volume must drop as well. If not you’ll begin to overreach and eventually overtrain.
Do you think total volume per workout matters? Not per muscle group, per workout. If someone is doing full body 3x a week and the other is splitting it up with the same total volume, would total recovery be the same?
 
Do you think total volume per workout matters? Not per muscle group, per workout. If someone is doing full body 3x a week and the other is splitting it up with the same total volume, would total recovery be the same?
The longer your workout the more your cortisol levels raise and harder it is to recuperate. Short workouts spread throughout the week seems better in my opinion than 3 long days hitting multiple muscle groups. Short n sweet, intense and heavy is how I thrive.
 
The longer your workout the more your cortisol levels raise and harder it is to recuperate. Short workouts spread throughout the week seems better in my opinion than 3 long days hitting multiple muscle groups. Short n sweet, intense and heavy is how I thrive.
I agree. I'm pretty sure docd will say it doesn't matter as long as total volume per week stays the same. Lol.
 
I agree. I'm pretty sure docd will say it doesn't matter as long as total volume per week stays the same. Lol.
It’s hard to write in stone what’s the best routine. HIT and HVT are complete opposites yet there are pro bodybuilders competing at the same level doing either or. It’s cliche but whatever works best for you
 
Do you think total volume per workout matters? Not per muscle group, per workout. If someone is doing full body 3x a week and the other is splitting it up with the same total volume, would total recovery be the same?

It does to the extent that super high volume on a bunch of lifts in one day will make it so the lifts at the end suffer. You just won’t have the same amount of gas to put into those lifts. If you plan it out intelligently there will be pretty minor differences between the same amount of total weekly training volume of its split up into 3 days or 5days.
 
The longer your workout the more your cortisol levels raise and harder it is to recuperate. Short workouts spread throughout the week seems better in my opinion than 3 long days hitting multiple muscle groups. Short n sweet, intense and heavy is how I thrive.

Cortisol isnt something we really should worry about unless you have chronically elevated levels of it. Cortisol serves a number of functions but ppl only associate it with a stress hormone and it being bad. Cortisol is actually a good thing.

For one, it helps determine the energy sources and how much of each the body uses, i.e., protein, fats, and/or carbs. It can also be used as an indicator of training effectiveness. When it gets elevated from working out, it also allows the body to supercompemsate which is how progress in the gym is made.

It really boils down to personal preference, lifestyle preferences, training history, etc as to which way someone should train. I work 7days a week so there’s no way I can lift 5-6days a week at the moment (I currently do 3days). Someone who works only 40hrs a week might prefer to be in the gym more days than me. I’m running a 16wk run of Sheiko currently. Each workout takes me roughly 2-3hrs and sometimes even longer but it’s only 3 days a week. I’m also making ridiculous progress in the meantime both in German of strength, my primary goal, and body comp, something that’s not even in my top 5 goals lol. Strength continues to increase, endurance is getting better, power is better, and I’m recompijg quite nicely seeing as I’m seeing some veins show on my delts and around the pelvis area.
 

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