Stop Overdoing It! How Many Sets Should You Really Be Doing?

[@danielkanewske8473]

I trained 6 - 7 days a week for 15 years, maintaining less than 10% bf, typical workouts you will find in any gym, i.e., terrible and stuck at 165lbs. Found Doc, listened, ate more, and less volume. I'm the biggest I have ever been, 185 lbs, and keep getting incrementally stronger etc. Thank you RP and Dr. Mike!!!!!

[@Wetterwet]

Are you me? Very similar situation

[@Wetterwet]

@Person dad?

[@user-vv1do1wg1j]

how do you stagnate for 15 years?

[@GawdKing]

Bruh so does everybody plateau at like 165ish and then jump right up to 180?!?!? Ive met so many ppl with the same progression its crazy lol

[@davidgrossman8830]

Are you still 10%

[@onlyhuman3]

The symptoms of overtraining (around 6 min mark) is something I have never heard about in the years of looking at fitness online or talking about it in person. Just a simple 'your pump should be biggest when leaving the gym, if you feel it going during your next exercise, maybe stop' is amazing advice in and of itself. Everything else in this video is just bonus gold on that.

[@donaldkasper8346]

Rested and exercising is for competition meets. Run down or aches and exercising is called endurance. Endurance is a form of strength. Not perfect muscles tone, some aches and working out is stress training. You hurt some, do less weight. Means likely you have that extra 2 seconds of oompf to lift that weight to the rack.

[@RobinNyman]

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[@ReverseGuy]

He is a disabled child. I know and talked to the parents personally. ​@Nexamexa

[@Redflames21]

So it's good if you don't feel the bump when you go to your next exercise?

[@andybradwarden4971]

I watch Dr Mike videos religiously about 10 videos X 12-16 times daily and I've achieved peak hypertrophy status from his jokes. I swear this routine changed my life ever since. 💪🏻

[@382u3uuej]

You noticed how his biological son Jared is so big? He doesn't even lift, he get those gains just from being close to Mike hypertrophy aura.

[@andybradwarden4971]

@@382u3uuej great observation!

[@jerryjuliangutierrez7536]

Dang you must live with mama and dada with all that time why would you spend it online watching someone else talk

[@jomiguides]

​@@jerryjuliangutierrez7536relax man, steroids don't actually make people think you're cool. Neither do sentences that are incoherent babble with no structure. Googoo gaga buddy, good day.

[@RealLifeRodger]

@@jerryjuliangutierrez7536delete this shit.

[@nicorellius]

Oh man. The volume reset was one of the most insightful things I've ever done. I had all the symptoms... Fatigue, burning out before meso was done. Doing too many sets and exercises. I deloaded, took a frolic week, ran two weeks of maintenance, with huge volume reduction. Now I'm starting a new meso with way less volume. Hit a couple PRs already and I feel great. Good pump, good amount of soreness. So happy with this. And the cherry on top? Workouts are shorter and I'm focusing on warming up more thoroughly! Thanks Dr Mike!

[@cukabgd9236]

I trained 4-5 days per week, averaging 12-15 sets per muscle group weekly for most of my 20’s and early 30’s. In the last two years I’ve cut it back to 3 x full body sessions, with a weekly volume of 8-9 sets per muscle per week. Huge improvements in gains and strength, I’ve shifted focus to intensity and strict form. Never going back to the ridiculously high volume variations (also a lifetime natural)

[@Ruudwardt]

Same here. I personally don't care about them size gainz much - for strength and still maintaining massive size - 8 sets a week of heavy compounds is best deal I have gotten so far. Also only a few sets per week to failure (RPE10+) works best for progress. I used to work out 6 days a week piling up 15 to 20 sets (as per popular science) with all sorts of variations to break plateaus without much effect - I did progress but felt so tired and dull all the time. Accidentally I had to take a week off on several occasions and after the break I smashed my PRs, every time. A lesson learned.

[@jomiguides]

I've done similar training. Recovery is so damned important and the amount you need is different for everyone

[@kingvegetakinggoku2008]

How many sets per workout total on the fullbody?

[@heismysavior21]

Identical journey for me, same results!!

[@paragor9655]

U can be at 9 sets and build upto 12 hard sets over weeks and months and get very very good gains , I did it with myself I used to train crazy high for everything and then I became courageous to actually go low volume and perfect technique form and mind muscle connection and I built upto 12 to 16 sets for my big muscles but I still do moderate to low volume hard training for small muscle like arms and calf around 6 to 8 sets and when I specialise any muscle I make small progressions of just few sets in a mesocycle but use intensity techniques like giant sets and drop sets and myoreps to specialise and then volume resensitisation phase and then again build up to 12 to 16 sets for different muscle so I believe u can still make progress and gains without running into recovery issues from 9 to 12 sets but doesn’t mean u have to , maybe u enjoy it and don’t care too much about optimisation which is great , CHEERS 🥂

[@palmenable]

After i started to follow Mikes tips on the emphasis of technique and controlled excentric contractions, i'm about to expload from the pump 4-5 sets in, can barely stand straight, and it's freaking awesome! The lower volume makes me feel way better, and more ready to go!

[@nathanwilsonod3610]

Absolutely can relate. Dropped volume and reps, increased weight and rapidly made strength and size gains after being stagnant for months/years.

[@d4vekoz]

If you dont mind to elaborate,how many reps and volume before and after?Thanks

[@a_woman_who_loves_to_lift]

This is one of my favorite saved videos. I listen to it for a refresher whenever I am starting a new set of mesos and adjust my volumes accordingly. It works! 😃

[@kennysoul8454]

I used to train everyday as a personal challenge to myself. I did that for about three years and saw mixed results all around for example, my cardio became incredible, my strength was improving in many lifts, I became super flexible, but my muscles looked small and I wasn't particularly lean which somewhat baffled me because I know how high my exercise volume was. Fast forward to 2021 when I became so sick I had to take two weeks off and slowly nurse myself back to some modicum of strength for two more weeks, I had to seriously reevaluate my goals / training style because I wasn't satisfied with the gains I made training everyday. Today I take a much more balanced approach, train about 3-4 times a week hard on a deficit because I'm currently trying to get lean, and I really feel my muscles actually responding to the stimulus and my weight is steadily decreasing by about 2 pounds per week.

[@steveloge8119]

The "One-Punch Man" approach 💀💀

[@Meilk27]

what does your diet generally consist of ?

[@bluesunrise2323]

Good job staying consistent that's what's most important!

[@ngtv30]

That's sick dude, hope you make it to ur desired weight range, my own trainings pretty similar to u too Once again, props bro

[@staatsanwaltschaftemskirch4709]

@@Meilk27 dude your nick and picture 😂

[@mattmitchell9379]

I was desperate for more back growth and progressively stacked up to 24 working sets per week. Then the plateau hit, and for months I didn’t notably progress at all despite grinding harder than ever and upping my food intake. Somehow got recommended Dr. Mike’s video on back hypertrophy that he did with juggernaut and instantly took a week off back and cut my volume literally by half when I got back to the gym. Almost immediately came the best gains I’ve ever gotten for any body part, much less my back. Thanks Dr. Mike!

[@jakedills9111]

You guys have helped me so much on my journey, I was 351 pounds, I cut all the way down to 176 in an unhealthy way before I started listening to you guys a year ago, now I have been bulking and am 191 lbs almost at the end of my muscle gaining phase before I cut and I cannot thank you guys enough, I was training 6 days a week for a year then plateaued and when I dialed it back to 4 days a week I saw the most gains I ever have. Thankyou RP

[@rishipandey4804]

I had to decrease my volume due to excessive fatigue, and that made me realize how much intensity I could really increase per set and I enjoy the workouts so much more now. Thank you!

[@donaldkasper8346]

Fatigue is called building resilience. Take a nap for an hour afterward. After 4 weeks you won't need it and can move up again in weight.

[@jonharris1226]

Three days has been the sweet spot for me. I feel excited for the gym every time and because it’s full body I don’t feel especially fatigued in one area. Plus l, I’m making those mini PR’s every session with every exercise. Even though I’m cutting I can definitely tell there are some gains. It was my best decision to go minimalist.

[@andresmendez2719]

What program are you following?

[@Gargarks]

Curious what your average sets per body part are, Bro. Whats an average workout like? Been playing around with similar workouts myself

[@ralphwarom2514]

I am in the exact same spot. Switched to 3 days a week from 6 days a week. Massive gainz, my joints never hurt. PR every workout. It's great.

[@Karettu]

Me too i train 3 days a week and I always look forward for my next workout, I think 3 days full body is the way to go for any average joe who wants to get jacked and not to live in the gym, and you get like 90% of the result with much less time and effort given your program is intelligently designed

[@Wetterwet]

@@Karettu are the workouts long? How do you squeeze the smaller muscle groups in?

[@alecksrex]

This is exactly what I needed to hear. My pb's have not gone up in three months and I'm tired on the lighter sets and I was thinking I wasn't doing enough volume. Or I wasn't eating enough. This sounds like the perfect program to get back to a recoverable training program. It's nice knowing how little stimulus you need to maintain muscles. Awesome video.

[@KenanTurkiye]

Actually, lower volume is more stimulus, higher volume is more fatigue, many mix them up.

[@End.Ever.]

This released right as I'm in the end of the first meso back to "productive" training. I had been training 5x a week in the 16-22 sets per muscle a week chasing higher & higher volumes to produce results. Being and I quote "burned" to the core I opted for my first ever active recovery / MV phase, spent 4 weeks at MV (Or MV+1) completely resetting my physiology. At the time it felt obscene to me to be training so infrequently & so little. 2hr sessions reduced to 45 mins etc, it was bliss but confusing nonetheless. Now in that first meso I've experienced those "Shattering" PRs you'd mentioned, I've blown beyond some of my plateaued numbers & feel FRESH still. I'm noting what muscles are already experiencing mild reduction in stimulus etc, but as a whole this has been a largely positive experience as I'm growing now on such a reduced output it's making life much less tiring / fatigue driven. As an example, my quads I was in that 20 sets a week range. FIGHTING to get pumps, GRIDNING for PRs, seemingly burning myself to the ground on 1RIR etc. Fastfoward to now, I'm doing 8 sets and GROWING & IMPROVING. Can't recommend a reset enough.

[@jeffforbus4810]

I have used many different training strategies in my life. I have basically been a stubborn mule, always trained through soreness, and my gains never met my expectations based on my dedication. I did this for years and read all the routines in all the magazines. I have piles of magazines that can all go to the garbage now. I wish KZbin would have been around in the 80’s / 90’s . I am so thankful I ran across these videos. Mike you restored my hope that I can end my life training much wiser and do this correctly from this point onward! I am absolutely grateful for you sharing your knowledge! May God send you abundant blessings on my behalf. All the best!

[@AngryOscillator]

He may appreciate it more if you sent abundant blessings direct from your good self Those Lambos don't buy themselves

[@tonski2014]

I can attest to this. Ran a couple mesos now. Been following RP for about 1.5-2 years. Healthiest I’ve ever been so thank you. After all of my fat lost mesos I make crazy cool gains my on my 2nd week of a maint meso or the 2nd week of a building meso. Obviously coming off a fat lose phase we are reintroducing higher amounts of healthy carbs and more enjoyable foods but with leaving lots of gas in the tank during work outs, the pump is insane, the energy is insane, the workouts are insane on those low volume sessions within the first few weeks after a cut. For me personally I have crazy high volume during the fat loss cycles. As soon as that meso is over there is a night and day difference after the deload phase👌🏽

[@leswakeham3596]

I agree Dr Mike. During the years between the ages of 23 and 40, I used to train the house down. Push harder, go longer !! That was my constant inner mantra... little did I realise I was in permanent overtraining. Now just turned 60, I've gone back to the "iron mistress" after a rather long break with a different mindset this time of, " I won't let you punish me anymore". I now do 3-4 sets per exercise to near failure, with the total number of sets being 15-20 each workout. The muscle memory has kicked in, and slowly the body is winding back the clock 20+ years with muscle size/definition I had when I was a weekend athlete back in the day. It feels good to have that "pump" after a workout again, and not dragging yourself around by sheer willpower afterwards. I sometimes get asked about my age, and how I got my gym fit bod, The chins hit the ground when I reply, "less beer, more protein shakes !!" 😁😆

[@sampowell6]

2 of the biggest things I’ve implemented in my own training (apart from full ROM of course) is a reduction in volume and a more concentrated exercise selection. By focusing on technique and rom on exercises I like that I rotate through I have made more gains than I ever did by doing 4+ exercises per muscle group per session before

[@simonvegas793]

Like it man. How many exercises you doing per muscle group now? And how many sets for each exercise (if you don't mind sharing)? Thanks!

[@subject8776]

Yeah I would also be curious about your amount of exercises per session and sets per week. Just to compare to myself because I feel really down with my training lately, it's PPL 6 times a week with high volume, I usually train ~100 minutes per session , 20 minutes of that are on the treadmill. When I train legs it's more like 2 hours.

[@sampowell6]

@@simonvegas793 tends to be around 2 exercises per muscle group per session. I train 5 times a week (upper, lower, rest, Pull, Push, Legs, rest) for example, on upper days I currently do ~ 5 sets of barbell rows and 3 sets of Lat pull downs. On my pull day I do around 4 sets of pull ups and 3 sets of cable rows. Roughly evening out the weekly volume but getting into the 5-10 and 10-15 rep ranges for each way of targeting the back (vertically and horizontally). I find it much easier to focus and that I’m not saving myself for other exercises later in the workout and makes tracking progress much easier. Hopefully that all makes sense

[@sampowell6]

@@subject8776 my leg days are more often than not 3 exercises long. I train calves first both days using the method dr Mike suggested (higher reps with 30 second tests in between 4 sets of however many reps I can get). One day for hamstrings I’ll do a heavy hinge the other a leg curl. I tend to stick to smith/hack squats for quads as I get the best pump lol but find it works. I’ll pick one for both leg days so tues & sat will be smith squat both days, but one will have an RDL and the other a lying ham curl for example and use different rep ranges for the quad movement on each day. Sorry for the long winded reply but wanted to try and give as much info as possible. A lot of copy and paste from the RP channel but I’m trying to fine tune what works for me and I’m really enjoying it so far. As for the rest of my workouts they’re pretty short 45 mins - 1 hour and are rarely over 5 exercises (including arm training on push/pull days). Another bonus for narrowing down your exercises selection is I don’t really wait for gym equipment, I do my planned sets for that movement pattern with one exercise and move on to the next movement pattern. Sorry again for how long this is 😂😂

[@simonvegas793]

​@@sampowell6 That's spot on, thanks man! Appreciate you taking the time to go into more detail! :) Am considering moving to That kind of split myself, currently doing and 2 x upper/lower split but I've found that I'm able to train a 5th day and just do an unprogrammed full body training anything that's fully recovered (which is mostly uppers), have another rest day and go again.. So a programmed PPL/Upper/Lower 5 day split does seem to make sense, and is not actually far off what I end up doing in real terms anyway.

[@jordengerbrandt]

oh man, this has absolutely happened to me, I cut out some volume recently and progress has become way more reliable and consistent.

[@ErinGoBragh0930]

I’m in my thirties and I’ve had to change my routine by doing less volume than in my twenties, and I’ve found my strength and muscle mass has increased and it’s easier to recover from. So, the older I get, less volume seems to work best.

[@mattmartini836]

how many sets per exercise you do? and how many exercises per session?

[@makezu0093]

This was me from when I started training in 2018 until I suffered an injury that put me out of action in 2022, and I got back into the gym at the start of 2023. I used to do high volume with everything. 15-25 sets per muscle group twice to three times a week. For a while, at the start I felt at the top of the world while recompng and making novice gains, but during 2021 I started to notice that I was absolutely out of energy and was obsessed with the volume. My gym sessions were 2+ hours and I was still lifting close to beginner numbers with upper body. 70kg bench press for 10, and not making any progress... Cardio was amazing though, until the fatigue set in. I didnt pull back and made really slow incremental progress. The injury I mentioned put me out of action for 8 months, and I went back to the gym this january. I have already beat my bench press PR. Im up to 80kg for 7 reps. And Im almost back to my maximum squat as well, but I only do 15-18 sets per muscle group per WEEK as opposed to workout. And my fatigue hasnt come back or isnt affecting me at all. I have come to realize that rather than burn myself out Im going to keep going with lower volume, increase the weight and just keep going to the gym for 10-20 more years during my life than give it up : D

[@Wargwarn]

5 years and you can only bench 80kg!?!?!?

[@carlpanzram7081]

​@@Wargwarn 80kg for 7 is probably around 100kg for 1. Not everyone is made for bench pressing.

[@davesanti7126]

​@Wargwarn I know people who have been training for more than 5 years and they still have the same physique. progress is the right path, 80 is better than 70  Feedback People also search for

[@thereallehasa]

Most gains I ever made was when I was training HIT/Blood and guts style. I cycled that and your 12 set max recoverable suggestions and now I struggle to not gain muscle

[@doctorartphd6463]

I am 70 yrs.... I always lifted weights. Took a year off. Getting back in the groove, I start small, and incrementally increasing volume as I recover better, while also increasing weight. It takes about 1 1/2 hrs to complete one workout (4 times per week), about 8 sets per muscle group. I alternate between arms and chest, to back, delts, and legs. Plus cycle for 10 mins and increasing. My recovery period has slowly increased over two months, and my muscles have exploded (Thank God for muscle memory) !! I feel like I am 40 yrs. Working on my wind and endurance. Thanks, Doc, for validating my choices and for adding the extra info. Appreciate you.

[@bgod10022]

Throughout my years of training I’ve been doing 18-22 working sets in a week (broken up into two training sessions) for larger muscle groups and 9-12 for smaller muscle groups. This works for me my pump is insane, I’m getting stronger and I can hit each muscle from a variety of different exercises. Lower volume doesn’t work for me in all honesty if I’m not getting stronger I wouldn’t look to decrease my volume I would look to see if I’m in a caloric surplus, stress in my life and sleeping patterns. If all of those are dialed in then I could look to decrease volume. I gave up PR chasing my joints have suffered throughout the years now I workout to stay lean and healthy.

[@ralphwarom2514]

Went from 6 Days a week and 6 sets per excercise to 3 Days a week and 3 Sets. Biggest gains of my life. No injuries. My joints feel great.

[@freduleror]

Exactly what happened for me, discovered Dr Mike, lowered my volume, and made amazing gainz. Even my bench went from 225 for 8 reps to 315 for 3.

[@LuisEMG]

legitimate question as a beginner, aren't you missing out on a lot of working volume going from 225x8 vs 315x3? it's clear ur strength is way up but idk where the balance is for bodybuilding

[@s1bhtk]

@@LuisEMG that's his PR lol he didn't say that it's what he does for growth

[@jahimuddin2306]

​​@Luis MG , He might not be into bodybuilding. When I was a beginner, everything was all about bodybuilding as well, but then I discovered other things. I wish you the best of luck in your lifting journey and hope that you stick with it.

[@jaysson1151]

@@s1bhtk according to 1rm calculator, his 1rm bench would be 333 lbs. He would have to do at least 15 reps with 225. His 1rm for 225x8 was 279. Of course those strength calculators are not 100% accurate cuz it does depend on the individual and they type training. But they do give a good ballpark figure.

[@s1bhtk]

@@jaysson1151 why are you telling me that?

[@spawnofagod]

perfect timing on this vid mike. ive had this question for a while. 8-9 sets per session per muscle group (16-18 sets weekly) feels awesome and keeps it interesting.

[@thechosenone7875]

Yup! I went from doing 12+ sets per muscle to 8-9. I did it for chest today and still got a good pump.

[@enriqueFelix2000]

Why not 30 set per week?🤷🏻‍♂️ or 60…

[@PeterKeng]

A few years ago, I was running the typical legs push pull routine 6 days a week with a day off on the 7th. Sets was between 3 to 5 and reps varies from 6 to 12. Had good result in terms of looking lean and muscular. Decided to try out Dorian Yates' Blood and Guts routine (you can youtube it) where I only did one heavy all out set after 2 warmups. Each training session only last between 30 to 40 minutes. First time in awhile where I look both muscular/big even while wearing loose t shirt. Muscles were fuller from not constantly draining them with high volume. I also wasn't constantly stressed or burned out mentally.

[@litchrye]

Do you still do the yates split?

[@PeterKeng]

@@litchrye Not anymore. I switched between conventional high volume and high intensity depending on my mood/schedule. Currently running Mike Mentzer's A and B routine every other day. You can search it here on youtube or the website.

[@PeterKeng]

@@litchrye kzbin.info/www/bejne/iIu6aX53eLCUrrcsi=Y7MAk70uE1jAqqs1

[@PeterKeng]

@@litchrye Not anymore. Currently running Mike Mentzer's A and B workout routine.

[@MilevOliveOil]

I made research starting like you about volume and intensity through the Dorian Yates video and then i realized that Dorian was inspired by Mike Mentzer , so I assumed Dorian's program was more up to date then Mentzer's because Dorian came later . What I'm trying to say is that this comes From Mentzer's philosophy but you don't have to go backwards in following Mentzer all the way! What I have done is watch some recent Yates vidéos training others and from that input you can pretty much get inspired to build a program for yourself . You can also keep the exercises that work best for you and incorporate them in such a program . But i don't think it's wise to go back to Mentzer's method or the " Nautilus" guy method for that matter . Chose the ingredients and make your own soup man . ​@@PeterKeng

[@XXBearXJewXx]

Perfect timing for this. I was getting super gassed avging 12+ sets a week per muscle group and even that had me gassed - began my mesos around 6 sets and I feel much stronger

[@nikhilreddy1659]

Thats 6+ sets a session (assuming you hit a muscle 2 times a week). I wonder what rpe you work at to be gassed for 2 variations? I mean no offence asking this question, im a beginner-intermediate myself and just curious about the intensity you work at to be gassed for just 6 sets.

[@XXBearXJewXx]

@@nikhilreddy1659 averaging 12 per muscle group for a whole meso. So i’d start at 8, and increment up by 2 sets per week, topping out at 14-16. Avg RIR was probably 1.5. 6 sets per session was fine for arms and shoulders, but exhausting for quads/chest. Wasn’t necessarily always sore, but felt run down for the most part.

[@nikhilreddy1659]

@@XXBearXJewXx no i meant rpe (rate of perceived exertion) for the workouts. Like i would say for any variation of chest workout i would begin with an rpe of 5-6/10 on the first set and take it 9/10 by the last set. 10/10 is basically failure.

[@XXBearXJewXx]

@@nikhilreddy1659 RIR is basically rpe in reverse, but easier to quantify. 1.5 rir means, on average, i had 1-2 reps left when i ended my set, which you could say is an RPE of 8.5

[@nikhilreddy1659]

@@XXBearXJewXx oh right. Things for clarifying. Is been a while, you still hitting low volumes? Have you put on muscle?

[@rkonjr64]

Spot on (no pun). The seduction of "low volume" up to and including becoming a HIT Jedi, is the phenomena of reminiscence, your body reacting to your reduced training volume as if it were still the high volume. The period of high volume with results REALIZED during the low volume phase is what is showing as "results". It is a fairly complex thing to realize, given how we (humans) attribute our current state to "what we are doing" not "what we did". Many think of a deload as "just" a rest, but if used correctly (Russians/Eastern Europeans), it can become a growth wave that you can ride until it is done, then cycle back up. As you said, you are likely going to have to cycle back to the higher volume to enable another "burst" of "realization" once the volume is lowered again. Many people get stuck trying to recreate that "burst" of results when they reduce volume and end up stuck. In practical terms....staying where you can always recover is probably undertraining-ideally for max results one would want to cycle between overreaching and "realization" (planned deloading for results not just rest).

[@ems7993]

Underrated comment

[@patrickoakes7850]

@rkonjr64 . Excellent point for consideration. Makes a lot of sense.

[@TheStoicPragmatist99]

I've been training for 2 years now consistently, and for 6 months of my second year I was hitting each muscle group 7 to 8 sets per training day while trying to keep a 2 to 0 rir. I was unbelievably fatigued all the time and after dropping down to 3 to 6 sets while keeping a 1 to 0 rir I saw massive improvements and muscle gain even on a 0.5 pound per week deficit.

[@Aryam007]

I’ve been doing 9 sets per body part for a while and saw a significant improvement when I added an extra rest day on the week. So I’ll go 3 days straight then a rest day, then repeat. Maybe sets on the higher end of things can work as long as you get enough rest. Not sure though, highly considering switching to 6 sets per session.

[@Amdk423]

What’s rir

[@YOSHELF]

Can you explain what rir means?

[@TheStoicPragmatist99]

Rir stands for reps in reserve, essentially how many reps are left in the tank at the end of a set.

[@TheStoicPragmatist99]

@Aryam007 Recently, I've been playing around with keeping my big compounds to 2 to 3 sets max and filling in the rest of my volume with more isolation work. Typically, around 2 to 6 sets depending on where I'm at in my training cycle, and so far, it's been working pretty well. I think I'll keep training like this for a while.

[@ce8539]

These last 3 or 4 months i have lowered the # of sets i do per exercise, but make it a point to go all out on the 2 sets I do after warmups. Like 1 RIR. Having less sets means I need to, mentally, get the most out of each one instead of abritratily doing 3 sets of 10 and being satisfied. I have noticed increased size and strength as well as maintaining my 95% of my strength on an 8 week cut. I surprise myself with how much actual effort increases the results. I have been dialing it in for too long. Less volume has been a godsend for me personally. Still finding the right balance.

[@donaldkasper8346]

You should go all out on all exercise. At sets of 10, you move up in weight.

[@ce8539]

@@donaldkasper8346 no such thing as "should". Its all about finding what works for yourself specifically

[@donaldkasper8346]

@@ce8539 Should stands as most promote exercise to failure or close. That is the mantra. Now whether it is true or just confuse their goals to compete with what people who just want to be fit should do, is unclear. I doubt workout to failure is needed, but it does occur. At bench press, my performance is linear, losing 2 reps per 10 pounds extra weight, marked at the highest weight I do 10 reps as I don't go higher. At higher weights I do less, and 2 reps less per 10 pounds is working out to be the pattern. So I know my max weight at 10 reps plus 50 pounds is my one rep max. And I know I can move up in weight when that 10 reps set moves up. A more complex rep calculator weight plus weight multiplying by 0.033 etc actually is the same function to show your one rep max. As I have moved up in bench weight, I have been losing body weight, which is what I want to do. I don't want to gain 30 pounds to bench 50 pounds more. Your goals may be different. I just share what I experienced.

[@ce8539]

@@donaldkasper8346 "you should" is what you typed. If you were talking to yourself then hey is what it is. But it reads as if you're saying that your 10 rep progression system is the only way to do it

[@ordinaryhuman5645]

I've been doing RPT with 3-4 workouts a week, with 3 movements per workout and 2-3 hard working sets for a movement, and it seems like enough for progress. And it's a lot simpler to do fewer sets and push each set to failure than to do way more sets while guessing at what RPE/RIR I'm doing. I still feel a little dead inside after my last squat set, but at least it's only once a week and just 3 sets, instead of like twice a week and 5 sets. But in hindsight, my weak point has been dialing in the nutrition and recovery. Need more foods and sleeps. Without getting that right, the extra volume is probably just wasted time at best, and harmful at worst.

[@austincollins1669]

I recently switched from a PPL split where I really tried to drive the volume, training each muscle twice per week, rotating what gets priority, etc. I now hit a bro split and usually just destroy a given body part for 5 sets, and I've already noticed some improvement. So maybe I'm just taking more sets closer to failure and not being a wuss, but I feel great and notice a difference

[@dunkinrulesbff]

Push pull legs is the bro split. Another split is upper lower Another is full body Another is Arnold back + chest, shoulders and arms, legs.

[@subject8776]

@@dunkinrulesbff Push Pull Legs is NOT the bro split, it may be similiar in some ways to you but it's not the same.

[@rko951]

i switched from upper lower to a bro split 12 sets per muscle group a week and im recovering so much and gained muscle as well, i only do bi/tri twice a week though some 18-20 sets per week :D

[@1234Cheesus]

@@dunkinrulesbff a bro split is typically 1 body part per session i.e chest/shoulders/back/legs/arms Maybe bicep with back and tricep with chest as well

[@subject8776]

@@Mks25932 It depends on what you do on your training days, most of my sessions are spend on 6 exercises 3-4 sets 10-15 reps, with 2min rest inbetween + 10 min cardio before and after as well. 100 min total. I consider that high intensity and hard training. But also feel like that is too much.

[@user-dg3cy1ug6v]

This makes a lot of sense. I started high volume training last year and have been doing it about a month ago. I have been deprogramming my body due to the plateauing of my PRs and general lack of gains. It was really cool while I did it but I gotta get back on the low volume train. It’s almost like I forgot how to train low volume (lifting for 15+ years). Thanks for confirming Dr Mike

[@DjBacto]

im going to try this unfortunately im starting to think im been overkilling it for so long in the gym due to love of working out doing around 10 to 12 sets per bodypart , will give this a try and update you guys thank you for the amazing information's and guidance

[@BobbyFiermonti]

How did it go

[@anthonyplaysbass]

Update?

[@pipisroom-rf2ll]

@@anthonyplaysbass He died

[@anthonyplaysbass]

@@pipisroom-rf2ll 💀💀💀

[@Cookiekeks]

How are you doing nowadays?

[@smakermanster]

I've rotated between high, medium, and low volume programs regularly for years now. I try to mainain each for a couple of mesocycles, typically until my results drop off and, more importantly, my performance begins to suffer. I find that the strength and resiliance I build during my medium to low volume phases help me to impove during the high volume phases, and I find I get better growth during the high volume training phases. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I find this training style works pretty damn well for me and I keep improving!

[@Cenot4ph]

I've started doing the same this cycle, higher volume till I stall

[@christiancatofit]

I've noticed my gains have skyrocketed since I've focused more on technique and intensity (my RIR 3 now is what I used to call an RIR 0-1) with high SFR movements so that has naturally brought my volume down substantially; the last week of my meso's nowadays have less volume than my week 1's used to have

[@intensity.density2208]

Early on in my training I did high volume training. I did the whole "light weight because you don't need to train heavy to grow" thing. It worked well for about 2 years max. I was doing 3 sets per exercise, 3-4 exercises per bodypart and I was training a body part every 5-6 days. Then one day I realised that progress had stopped. I got really good at performing reps, I became consistent but I was going backwards and I couldn't figure out why. Was never sore, I'd recover in 2 days, everything felt easy. So I did some research and came across the likes of Mike Mentzer, Dante Trudel, Jordan Peters, and I saw that they all had one thing in common, low volume, high intensity. So I began to implement low volume training. One set per exercise, two to three exercises per body part and I began doing a two days on, one day off, two days on, one off split. So up to 5 sets a week for each muscle. Within 8-10 weeks I had exploded. I grew for the first time in about a year and a half, I gained strength fast and progress was made quite often. A few years on and I'm still progressing and getting stronger. Both volume and low volume can be good, the key is the quality of reps. If I do 3 sets of 10-12, how many of these reps were good reps and not wasted junk? And at what point was too much? If I do one set of 6-8 to failure, I can guarantee that every rep was a good rep. So which is better? The latter for me. I enjoy the low volume approach. My favourite approach was Mike mentzer's style of doing things. I was in and out of the gym in 25-35 minutes. I gained strength fast. It's hard as hell. It really tests mental strength too. I follow Mike's programs for about 4 months before going back to my two on, one off split.

[@troydefond2307]

hmm.....very interesting read. thank you for ur input. I'm curious is maybe this applies to me. I workout 4 times a wk. day 1. chest and shoulder. chest is always 8 sets of incline, 4 sets @10° and 4 @20° bit have to lower weight as I progress. then I do 3 sets of chest flys, 1 set of 20reps of high, the low and the middle each @20reps. maybe this is to much volume for a wk. again it's only 1 day a wk but I feel maybe it might be to much as I do get a great pump but haven't seen growth in ages. start our @ 205 for 10 reps then by the end of the 8 sets I'm down to 155 for 10. training to failure too. as I always have to end up using the safety straps once or twice per session. curious as to if experienced something like this. but 11 sets a wk is probly decent?

[@Julez108]

What does that Mike Mentzer style routine look like for you?

[@intensity.density2208]

@@Julez108 1. Chest & back 2. Legs 3. Delts and arms. 4. Legs

[@zach3409]

So with this approach where is a good starting point for weight and what's a reasonable progression look like? Would doing this method 3-5 days per week for each major lift be good?

[@jessicalloyd2330]

@@troydefond2307 11 sets a week sounds spot on! But it seems like a lot for one session! If I were to give advice, try cutting those sets in half and double the frequency! Twice a week is more optimal in terms of Muscle protein synthesis, studies Dr. Mike has shown implied that 10 days from the last exercise (Stimuli) is enough to in fact remove any progress, so 7 days is cutting it close without gear!

[@nottheonlyjustin]

What's funny is a naturally reset my volume every now and then intuitively. I just start feeling blah so I back off and maintain with a few sets for about a month then feel the urge to push again.

[@AnaGfit23]

Same, I did this before I knew the term deload. Sometimes though, the hiatus is longer than I want/Planned. It is interesting. I also did this intuitively, when first learning to lift

[@susanwojcickisnicetwin]

I'm about a minute into the video, so I look forward to the rest. I'm 48 and have been lifting for 3 years. Went from 260 to 185. I'm maintaining at 190-195 and am coming to the realization I've been training too hard. I've been doing a PPL split for 18 months and really like it, but I realized I've been doing too many sets a week. I also haven't been deloading properly. Time to re-evaluate my training program.

[@donaldkasper8346]

Anyone can lift their best rested 3 days. Benching at max when a bit sore is called endurance and resilience. All of the forms of strength have some level of interchangeablity. Most weight lifting advice is colloquial, usually personal viewpoint dependent, and socalled studies, eh, depend on what subjects the paper author picked, often missing detailed analysis of their health, age, body type, workout history, ethnicity for overall build, and all those other variables that make the conclusions more colloquial opinion.

[@Doho69]

Hi Susan, I think im in the exact same boat as you. just reading this now (you posted 7 mths ago) i'm wondering what did you do - did you follow Mike's advice on deload, 2 weeks low vol and go onto lower vol program - and bib Q - did this work for u ?

[@susanwojcickisnicetwin]

​@@Doho69nope, I went in another direction and did HIT for the last 6+ months. I love the intensity, and saw some decent gains but plateaued. There is a ton of rest involved so I am already really fresh. Just starting a new program now that is basically the stuff these guys recommend.

[@terrywbreedlove]

I can tell you this happened to me exactly. I work out three days a week. I went to four sets and had real trouble with recovery. Recently went back to three sets and already gaining and feeling better and stronger. Maybe my age almost 60 I just need more time to let the body do its thing between workouts.

[@ImKong]

THANK YOU so much for doing this video. I actually realised a few months back that I had been overtraining, when I came off, cut my volume by like 2/3 and saw most of my lifts go up whilst losing weight and on less steroids so I figured that was the case. Now, fast-forward a few months in the future and I'm doing like half the volume I was doing previously, seeing constant increases in my exercises and feeling a lot stronger, and better overall. Oh and obviously my physique is changing much faster now too.

[@jpizz88]

Wow, you’re the first person to describe what I’ve been experiencing on-and-off for years: “desensitization to high volume.” I always get to the point where my volume is insanely high and when I back off I feel like I’m making zero progress. Now I know that I’m becoming an endurance machine and that’s why my strength is plateauing. Thank you!

[@donaldkasper8346]

Endurance is a form of strength. If you can do high volumes, move up in weight. If you are desensitized to high volume, do pause reps. Slow it way down.

[@jpizz88]

@@donaldkasper8346 I had to complete part of my residency out-of-state and I took that time off of lifting. I came back and I’m stronger than ever. My volume came way down with the added intensity. I feel amazing.

[@donaldkasper8346]

@@jpizz88 I never really track volume. I remember my set ability at weights near max and then below, realizing that reps versus weight is a linear trend for me at 2 reps lost per extra 10 pounds bench weight. This allows me to predict my 1 rep max since I don't have a spotter. If you now lift more at the same body weight, then that is a great improvement. But if you lift more at heavier body weight, then of course you can lift more. If you stopped growing in height and are now building out like I did up to about 30, then you will just lift more due to mass. If you were in 16 hour residency days always on the move, you got 16 hours cardio every day, and should stay in shape.

[@donaldkasper8346]

"Desensitization" has no actual medical meaning. To me, it just means you completely control a certain weight. Then you can do pause reps but otherwise you use that weight to warm up to higher weight loads. At lower weights, it is just cardio, which is exercise to try to lose weight.

[@joshuawhinery208]

It's really tough to actually stick to the less is more philosophy as a chronic over-trainer, but trying to not lose sight of prioritizing my goals over the wasted tired endorphin high I get from doing SO much volume does keep me on track; pretty obvious that the quality of work I do when I'm doing way too much volume is dramatically worse than when I'm really trying to squeeze as much stimulus as I can out of each set because I know I'm doing so many fewer then when I was just trusting that more volume means more stimulus, even if I wasn't super deliberate with every rep and set

[@lackingaround]

I thought I was naturally weak and skinny, so I ran marathons. Then I broke an ankle....and took up Starting Strength. Then I was amazed in the difference in how strength training actually works. 4 years later I'm getting into novice strongman competitions and coaching strength beginners myself. Great change of pace. Thanks for the video.

[@bane2256]

Pretty cool

[@lackingaround]

@@bane2256 thanks!

[@thisxgreatxdecay]

​@@bane2256 You're a big guy

[@ruckdane]

This is actually exactly what I did! I was doing WAY too much volume, basically doing 4-5 sets of every exercise and doing usually 3 per muscle group... So by the last set of the last exercise I was 100% just wasting my time. Saw your content talking about how it should be ON THE HIGHER END 15-20 sets a WEEK, I knew I was fucking up. Lowered it right down and I'm starting to see gains again because I am doing 3 working sets for 2 major exercises of a muscle group (so bench press and incline press for chest) and going till 1-2 reps from failure on the 2nd and 3rd sets and that's PERFECT. Weird how sometimes too much is a bad thing, I always thought no matter what more is better.

[@Hittdogg17]

I’m 52. Started lifting in my basement with my dad when he bought a set of cast iron weights, adjustable bench and squat rack. Back then Arnold’s split was what we did. 6 days a week, high volume. Then Dorian showed up and messed it all up. 2 days on, 1 day off, 1 day on, 1 OR 2 days off and repeat. Less overall set, etc. This is when I noticed growth beyond what I had seen before. Dorian is a god!

[@Juggernaut-fg2up]

I totally agree that's the better way. More intensity less volume. All that stuff that Arnold put out was simply his pre-contest split training six days a week and twice a day, he only followed that for a few weeks precontest. To build his base he trained with much less frequency and he trained much less than that in the offseason as well. He just tries to make it sound like some insurmountable task like he trained 4 hours at a time twice a day training 8 hours a day and all this other b*******. That is the reason I don't like him

[@Football__Junkie]

@@Juggernaut-fg2up he typically followed that program 12 weeks out. He spent the rest of the year gaining size until he quit BB and maintained a smaller size until movie roles came up. Then, went back to the high volume routine

[@Juggernaut-fg2up]

@@Football__Junkie no one trains twice a day four hours at a time though, no one. No one trains for just one of those four hour sessions. He lies a lot. Just like he asked people to lie about his measurements, just like he lied to people looking for advicec

[@gl7257]

​@@Juggernaut-fg2upYou obviously never heard of Mike Ohearn. He trains twice a day and he's natural and he's like 50 yrs old

[@0kneelbeforezod0]

@@gl7257 You’re joking right? Mike O’Hearn’s (fake) natty status is a bodybuilding meme at this point.

[@maxnovax3948]

Had a friend who was a competitive powerlifter, 5'9, 220, very strong. He decided to get lighter and more athletic; took up hard core bike riding, cut his strength training back to 1 or 2 intense workouts a week of about 30 - 40 min. After a year he was 180, ripped, healthy, and told me he still had 75 - 80% of his previous max strength. Low volume can pay big dividends.

[@aminparsian370]

It happened to me, too . Was addicted to more than 14 exercises per session with so many sets and almost all of them through failure . Stopped it and started to do about 4-6 exercise and got more muscle than ever.

[@wonsyloves]

How many sets per exercise? I am doing 8 exercises 5 sets each but I feel like it's abit much at times

[@benjaminpoppe6024]

​@@wonsyloves 2-3 sets

[@aajohnsoutube]

How long were you in the gym???

[@vanderlexgaming]

Used to think doing more sets = more growth. How wrong I was. I wasn’t making progress in the gym and was arguably going backwards. Switched to RP programming and started focusing on MMC, SFR, full rom and prioritising recovery (i.e, quality > quantity). Have been making the best progress recently

[@busybecomingmyself]

I had cPTSD for most of my life and my nervous system is still heavily weighted towards fight or flight. So I can reach absolute failure easily and I also don't sleep well (early morning wakefulness). Low volume, HIT training has been best for me as I can leverage that fight or flight response in every set and then recover within the limited window I have.

[@salvatore-thebaron-petracc3326]

Whats the low volume that tour doing?

[@TheRealOrgaya]

I am 10 days out from first competition- hired a new coach a month ago that lowered my volume and changed my diet. Everything in this video now clicks so true about my situation- I used to spend 1.5-2.5 hours on avg per session on the gym, now much more excited to go train and max it Take a 1hr10m

[@TheFoxracing666]

Love watching your videos. Not only are you helping me dial in my personal plan, but the laughs I get from every one of your jokes- fairytale bear tangents you go on in all the videos I’ve been watching to your perfectly times cursing, old school honest opinions and choices in wording. It all fkn 💀 me. You are absolutely brilliant and hilarious simultaneously. Love watching back and forth between Jeff nippards vids and yours for the different styles and views, and mashing the findings of both together to trust that I’m getting great info to put to use. I’m 32 and starting out. Did 120/160 push-ups every other day for 6 months to learn discipline… now I’m actually working out with a bunch of equipment I invested in out in my garage after work at night. on an upper lower split 4x a week. Over the 6 months of doing push-ups every other day, I spent the other half of my time on KZbin, watching videos from you, Jeff n., Sean n., athlete-x, and probably 5 others to smash all your finsdibgs together to form my own plan and use all your combined knowledge to start building myself. I just wanted to share that with you to thank you for everything you put out for us. I’m just a nobody looking to get a nice big physique, get stronger, and all the free information you’ve given us and entertaining material you express it through has really made it enjoyable for me. So thank you. I’m very thankful for the plethora of knowledge you and others have gifted me with. Appreciate you brotha 👊🏽 keep up the good shit you put out.

[@onthelevel189]

I definitely benefited from lowering my volume. I was doing 6days @ 1:30-2 hours a day with two muscle groups each session. I didn’t factor in my daily work on my job, also extremely strenuous with my home renovation business 8 hours a day. I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t gaining like I was expecting. Once I lowered my volume, stuck with one muscle group a day, my gains started to show. I’m 44 years old and starting to look better than I ever have. Dr Mike your videos are amazing and so much easier to follow than most other creators in your space. Thanks 🙏

[@HappyHuman89]

Hi Dr Mike! I have a funny (?) story for you. Been using your RP full body physique templete. Currently doing mezo 3 metabolite focus but the first two is what i want to dicuss. Long story short, being a very literal person I'd judge my workours mostly as "1" given that's how I'd feel after pretty much every working day as per your definition ( 1 = I wasn't sore at all in the muscles I trained today, but I could definitely feel a pump.) I've hardly ever had lasting soreness and I regularly feel good pump. I'd also make small but incremental gains strength wise and rep wise. So I kept rating "1" and thus volumes grew to something like 40-45 working sets per day, 21 sets on one day for chest and 14 sets on another making total volume 35 sets weekly for chest alone. I was like - huh - if Dr Mike through excel formulas says it's the way , I'll crack on. All in all it was an interesting experience and not too terrible except for time spent in the gym. Would you do resentization mezo as per the template or as per what you said in the video? There is a little caveat - after meso 3 I had almost 4 weeks OUT of the gym beacause of flu. How would you approach the resentization in such case?

[@leroi869]

Faced a similar problem when rating workouta in physique template. Maybe I have a crazy recovery but i always would rate with 1...

[@pawelpawel9400]

Interesting what dr Mike would advise of this.

[@AverageDipBuyerX]

I have been lifting for 5 years. Kept upping the volume in the years i've been lifting (for big muscle groups like chest I did 28 sets per week, and for smaller muscle groups around 15) and plateaud really really hard. I'm 20 years old now and I have been benching for 220 around a year and a half now. Until I recently started following Jeff Nippard's ultimate push pull legs program. It starts off with really low volume and intensity and it's purely focused on hypertrophy. My bench increased by around 15 pounds, and my deadlift with 30 in only 5 weeks of doing this program. I truly believe I did way too much volume that caused me to plateau. I also feel like my physique has been exponentially growing doing this routine. Too high volume is truly bad for progression, especially as a natural lifter. Thanks for this video, will really help me after I finish this program when developing my own routine.

[@AverageDipBuyerX]

Oh yeah Doc, what do you think of a training style like Mike Mentzer's? Dr Andy Galpin and Andrew Huberman made a really high quality podcast about this, and I was wondering if you also agreed with them.

[@DanieleKSM]

I used to hit around 20-30 sets per muscle group per week. Now I might have 7-8 sets per WORKOUT, three times a week. I am making the gains of my life, both strength and physique wise, staying incredibly lean, and recovering very well. Not counting the sauna, I might spend 45-60 minutes per session in the gym.

[@moonknight4053]

7-8 seems abit low bro, I usually head for around 12 reps. 10-12 reps should be good

[@charlies8282]

@@moonknight4053 he wrote sets, not reps....

[@moonknight4053]

@@charlies8282 thanks brother haha my eyes did me dirty that fateful day

[@Caritoooo]

This worked for me. I’ve been using the RP Male Physique and Powerlifting templates for two years now. My training volume has gotten to the point where my fatigue builds up quickly in just two weeks of training, so I have to deload every two weeks. I started my cut about two weeks ago, and I decided to reduce my sets back to 2 sets; last week I’ve hit PR’s on pretty much all my lifts, and I’m itching to do more sets, but I’ve kept my self under control by limiting the number of sets to 2. I wish that this would be on the instructions of the template.

[@timnasseh4838]

It’s crazy how important recovery is. I did p90x for like 4 years and I was wondering why I was not growing. I was just skinny and really fit.

[@zebbserrano5240]

Those workouts were fun for a time

[@danielvidalmialoviez5763]

I used to train 5-6 times a week 3h every day. I was doing around 20-25 sets per muscle group. I was progressing veeery slow for my training age and I started to feel pain on my joints (especially elbows). I was forced to do a deload and my bench went from 185Ib to 200Ib in one week after 3 months of hardly any results. Then I started a lower volume aproach and it went from 200 to 220Ib in few months. The rest of my lifts also improved a ton. Squat from 295Ib to 360Ib and deadlift something very similar. Now I am making the gains of my life training 3 times per week with a bit more than 2 years total training experience. I thought I had bad genetics but them ended being actually quite good! I love to train but I also love results. Now, I can train harder and recover very well. So, I intuitivelly did what you suggest in this video. 😇

[@lauraon]

Great video! I accidentally discovered this when I had a few weeks with time-constraint issue. Decided to go with just a few reps per set, and train fewer days per week. I was *shocked* to discover how much lighter the weights felt so quickly. I actually had to dial back since the tendons didn't seem to keep up as fast. I'm probably older than most here, so may not be an issue for all, but I did experience the phenomenon!

[@locomike102]

I'm 48 and I had a similar experience when I reduced my volume to reduce wear and tear on an injured shoulder. I went from probably 20 sets per body part per session down to 10-12 and got the same pump (or better) and actually started adding more weight on the bar again. Its been a great change for my used-up joints.

[@shmuckling]

It was only a few months ago when you posted on Instagram a graph of how adaptation relates to MV-MEV-MAV-MRV that I realized that there's likely, both: 1. a very significant amount of "room" between MEV and MAV within which a person can very much grow and more importantly 2. a very significant range between MAV and MRV, which I before thought of as a something that would have been represented on such graph as a vertical drop, in other words it was very recently that my tiny brain began to grasp that I could be doing less than my MRV and still be way past my MAV, so just because I'm not "crashing and burning" it doesn't mean I'm not still "leaving gains on the table" while(and because) I'm training almost as hard as ever could. I still struggle with that sometimes, probably because for a while I didn't even know MAV was a thing, and basically assigned it's definition to MRV (LOL, I know). On a separate note, I was wondering about rearranging volume, like is that something that would actually work. Say, if 3 sets twice a week feels really good, would 2 sets 3 times a week be pretty much the same as far as stimulating adaptation? I think I got to that question by trying to build better full body workouts for myself, and then I thought about how doing less sets at a time probably causes less DOMS. I thought it would be neat if there was any evidence that such approach worked and figured it would be an interesting question.

[@LWNightmareSheriff]

I dropped volume drastically and frequency as an advanced lifter (over 18 years) and I've actually made tremendous gains in size. Ive switched the focus to higher intensity, technique and mind muscle conntection and slowed my cadence down. Also my joints are far less painful.

[@Theinsom]

Is two sets good for hypertrophic stimulation, at least for you

[@LWNightmareSheriff]

@Theinsom two proper sets, taken near to, at or beyond failure is just about right. A lot of it comes down to having the experience of actually training to failure. Some guys have a lot more in the tank than they think.

[@MSEDable]

Could it be possible that you give more details on the program you are following now? I would be interested in this approach. thank you in advance :)

[@LWNightmareSheriff]

@MSEDable well, the first thing is that as I've been lifting so long I simply cannot expect major full body gains anymore. I try to emphasize like 3 areas, and train those first in each session eg Delts, Upper Pecs, Lats- so one day I hit delts first then the other two, another day upper pecs first and so on. I will warm up to a heavy set and just do two hard sets to failure then back off. The other areas I'll put on maintenance. Last week of the meso I'll add an extra set then deload and repeat accordingly. This approach is vastly different than the extreme volume I used to do when I was younger. That worked then, but it's not sustainable for me now.

[@justinw1765]

From a deeper philosophical perspective, all of this makes sense and aligns a lot with the concept of Yin and Yang. Men by nature tend to be more polarized to the active, forceful Yang side of things. But for real sustained growth, you need a balance and integration between them. Yin is passive, receptive, quiet--it is the exact opposite of Yang. Yin is rest, and Yang is the active movement (Yin is like water, and Yang is like fire). So many males, being polarized to the Yang themselves within, think that more and more Yang is better, almost totally discounting the Yin side of things (until they are injured or the like, and are forced to stop and rest for a period). But to me, it always made sense to not over do things and to get plenty of rest and relaxation as a counter balance. I see rest as the rejuvenation and building up part. Just like how in deep sleep (characterized by slow cycle, delta brain wave patterns), we experience the most rejuvenation and the most release of HGH naturally, etc. Or why, sometimes if I get a severe lack of sleep and feel like crap, if I go and do a very deep meditation, I often come out feeling more rested and energized.

[@garrettrsmith89]

Good shit as always Dr. Mike. Any thoughts on moving into a cutting/caloric deficit phase at the same time as a volume reset- or shortly thereafter as you are establishing your new baseline minimum volume? I’m thinking I’m due for a volume reset but am also heading towards cutting in the next month- and wondering if the lower volume combined with caloric deficit may hinder things?

[@ChinesePanda777]

Also my question! I've has some suspicions that I'm doing too much volume, but I'm also about to end a bulk and am wondering if going into a cut will ruin the reset. Thanks!

[@muntianuradu590]

never seen a video that explains training volume better. Highly appreciate it

[@erikwestre7970]

This gave me a lot to think about. Especially since I train every muscle group 3 times a week. Full body. I may actually do 27 sets for chest every week. 3 exercises, 3 sets for each exercise, 3 times a week. I don’t actually feel fully recovered for Wednesday, when I train on Monday. The training on Saturday goes a lot better, cause the. I have 72 hours recovery, instead of 48. Maybe I should adjust something. But I do get gains. But maybe I could get even more gains, by less. And such high volume makes each training session probably too long. It took me 85 minutes to get through it today, and it would be a lie to say that the last couple of exercises were effective. There wasn’t much left for those.

[@conormcgregor6001]

9-12 sets for chest is plenty if u are training hard, made the best gains of my life with lowering my volume to 9-12

[@Northstar2000]

Only 27 sets for chest? I do 95.

[@redforeman3686]

I started lifting as pretty much a complete beginner to a regimented program. Thought I'd "go hard" and did a 6 day 45 minutes PPL routine. 4 weeks later I have severe fatigue and can barely function at work. I switched to a 4 day full body routine after that and dropped the weight I was doing significantly and saw my lifts almost double in 3 months, squat from 95 to 200, bench from 95 to 165, rows from 65 to 135

[@Peter_Parker69]

Lower volume per day = more days = (ironically) overall more volume and better results in the long run is my experience. Rest is king for us natties at least. But it gives you less injuries and fewer days sick in general since your immune system also have some extra gas in the tank.

[@sephblack]

What does that look like for you?

[@scottgilbert484]

Great video. I done a high volume bro split for years & got minimal results, started following Jordan peters principles (low volume push pull legs) then switched to Dante trudels dc training. Both JP & DC allowed me to progress far beyond what I have ever been able to in a much shorter period of time than high volume ever did. Still following JP & DC principles to this day aged 35 & still progressing

[@joelpearce4970]

At the time I had been lifting for maybe a year (not knowing what I was doing) and I friend joined me. I eventually heard about Mike Mentzer and his training style and implemented his ideas of low volume high intensity (not quite to the same extent) into our own training, and everything of ours just blew up. New pr’s every single session and it was amazing!

[@Soccasteve]

Your training recommendations have really improved over the last handful of years

[@NeilBraebaum-zq2pv]

So Lyle was right then, when he was calling out the BS with all the volume stuff a while back. Who could have known...

[@AZ-id1oo]

Lifetime natty, gained ~30lb muscle over 13 years of strength focused training 3x/wk avg, most of which came in first half of that decade. Switched entirely to high volume and lower intensity (6x/wk) due to overall fatigue and gained 8lb in the last 12 months. Some friends asked if I hopped on PEDs lol.

[@382u3uuej]

A problem that people use to have, and I used to have it too, is that people don't train hard enough and therefore they have innefective sets, you see this with a descending RIR type of training (3 sets of 10 where the first set is a 4 RIR and the last one has 1 RIR), that first set has a bad SFR, not training hard enough causes bad SFR due to easy sets that don't do much but add fatigue so I would recommend that in the last week of the meso to push it as hard as possible (as long as the bar doesn't kill you if you fail) to see where true failure is, so you then can then add 2RIR to that, that way you can reduce volume by getting rid of those bad SFR sets.

[@Kgirard823]

When I first got into bodybuilding, I bought into the high volume train of thought. 15-20 sets for major muscle groups, etc. as soon as I cut volume to 6-10 working sets per muscle group, my technique became more dialed in and my physique began to actually change. Best advice I’ve ever been given, “learn how to get the most out of the least”

[@coffeetalk924]

I do 5 sets of zero reps everyday 😉

[@moel-l3z]

😂😂😂

[@uncleor1938]

Maximum growth!

[@Lynx799]

This is the video I have been waiting for, Finally after a few weeks I actually was able to watch this, Thank's Doctor Mike 😄

[@nezarzeidan]

Your insight is so valuable. i seldom feel a genuine pump nowadays but when I do, its typically on my first sets; once I get the pump though, I literally start doing more sets and reps on that same movement...then the pump went away and stayed away for the rest of my workout.

[@anthonyabrahams4499]

I was the same but reality is you can’t get any more pumped once you pumped. Think of it like this , when you climax after sex do you instantly feel you ready to go again or do you need to rest ? 💪🏻

[@sebastiansancheznavarrete2339]

Indeed. Chased the number of sets as an indicator of progress, THEN lowerd volume and chased weight/rep as progress and BOOM. Everything started to grow, as a recomendation first check intensity/effort and then add sets

[@mcpartridgeboy]

oh wow, im doing waay too much ive been doing 12 sets on my chest twice a week and 18 sets on my leg twice a week and 15 sets on my back twice a week plus shoulders triceps and biceps, im gaining but not very quickly im also experiencing a lot of what you are saying in the gym too, this is very helpful thankyou.

[@vinnieiaia]

I started using your custom training templates. On my second mesocycle, doing half of the volume i was accustomed to and have increased weights on all my lifts (even smaller groups like biceps), as well as rehabbed a former pec tear from a year ago significantly. Life changing

[@CycloneGamingHD]

I used to train and over complicate my training. I more or less plateaued after my first year of training even though I put on pounds, I did not look too different. I would do anywhere from 12-15 sets of a muscle group per workout and wouldn’t train to failure. Stumbled upon several channels, spoke w fellow coaches (i used to work at a gym), and took up kinesiology and health sciences as majors. I started doing 2 exercises per muscle group per workout to failure, and my muscle growth has been great, and I’ve been able to bulk better. Lowering volume and increasing intensity is key

[@douglasdolmus9471]

I'm a natural lifter. I changed from a higher volume, less frequency, type of training, to a less volume, more frequency routine and I had better gains.

[@hubertfilip2726]

I used to train 5-6 times a week doing push/pull/legs, with high volume approach and to a certain point I saw great gains, but eventually I hit a plateau. I was sleeping for 9-10 hours and still felt like shit. Couldn't put more weight on the bar at any exercise (I was mostly regressing actually). After 2 years of break from the gym, now I manage to train only 2-3 times a week doing one intensity and one volume session for bigger bodyparts. I don't have any issues with regeneration from my sessions. In 6 months I regained all my progress when it comes to size and topped almost all of my previous PR's. I'm especially happy for adding 20lbs to my squat with higher RIR. Biggest insight from my experience-You can build an amazing, strong body while training only 2 times a week, but make sure to adjust your effort accordingly, since you have so much time for regeneration. Thank you so much for the value your putting for us for free Doc.

[@xaviergoldyn3438]

I had a workout routine that involved 22-26 working sets per week, almost always till failure. I was always fatigued and by the end of hitting my first muscle group I would be extremely lightheaded and exhausted. After doing this program for 6 months with little results, I decided to take a week off from the gym. For that week I was miserably tired, sleeping 10-12 hours a day. In that time I heard about this and now I am one month deep getting the results I’ve wanted. Thank you Dr. Mike!

[@firstsipstudios]

Some of uncle Mike's side stories reminds me of a homeless man in a park rants and I am here for it! Love him!

[@SaltyRad]

Also it’s spot on what you said. Ive grown faster in 2 month period of just taking proper rest than by sending 2 hours in the gym 6 days a week like I used too. So now I stick to 3-4 days week with my off days making sure to only rest and it feels soch better

[@DailyWorkoutMotive]

This is so eye opening. My chest strength has not gone up in some time and for a while I haven’t even gotten it to grow (used to be able to without mega strength gains) I’ve been doing a minimum of 8 hard (usually over 10) sets a week (split into 2 workouts) Never leaving more than 3 RIR… this video spoke to me.

[@nexusxstream286]

reset the set volume...hmm...this is the answer for me..now i got idea how to training as ectomorph guy to get bigger. thank you sir for your knowledge

[@6.0y60]

I needed to hear this! Thanks

[@mikem.s.1183]

Doc, Been training since 13 years of age. I'm tall enough (1.90m) and started changing my volume (much less) several years ago (almost 12 years). I went from 89 kgs to 108 kgs in a couple of months (surprisingly, body fat rose from 8.2 to 10.5/11%). Lifted heavier, reduced volume, took in just a little more protein and continued to invest on creatine and Vitamins. In ny case, coming from an early childhood marked by asthma and broken bones (stupid accidents) I can only say that paying attention to your body 'communication", controlling volume (and aerobics) and being consistent made all the difference. My approach has been for many years very similar to what professor Huberman is explaining. Unless you're on PEDS, high volume training will have a destructive effect on your body and gains. As usual, good video sir.

[@Therealmathilda]

If the people that watch this channel are overtraining its because you told them to Dr. Mike. You are the king of high volume.

[@enriqueFelix2000]

When trained high volume never and more frequent.. I plateaued in strength and size… Switched to way less volume and low frequency… that’s when I got stronger and bigger

[@johnrodwell2281]

Started about seven and a half months ago, 5'11, weighing 302lbs. Obese and in terrible shape. My give-a-shit switch flipped and i started to get back in shape. I looked up Dr Mike and took all kinds of notes and came up with all kinds of plans, then promptly ignored about half of what he said. I go to the gym seven days a week. In the last seven-almost-eight months ive missed a single day because i was out in the middle of nowhere for a wedding and couldnt find an accessible gym. I went jogging and did pushups/burpees/etc instead. I lift five w/ cardio every day ranging from 30m to an hour. Sometimes i go twice a day for a second cardio session. I lost weight and added some muscle over the first 6mo. Dropping down to 220, getting some definition w/ some abs showing some.. Loose skin (the cost of my sloth) means my stomach is never going to show below a certain point i guess.. but anyway. I dont look awful. I can wear a tank top and not feel bad. My lifts have obviously gotten better along the way, etc etc. Then i just kinda ground to a halt. I was gassed and felt weak. Weight was just stuck around 216 and not wanting to budge. I got mad. I hit cardio harder. I didnt change my diet because im already eating sub 1300 calories almost every day and if i am over that amount it's still south of 2k. So i made myself slow down. I still go every day, but thats just a mental thing for me. Ill get on the treadmill and do 20m flat at a piddly speed or something. Actually took a month to deload and eat a little more (2-300c a day on average), and came back hitting it hard on lift days and taking it a lot easier every other day. Lift days no longer have cardio and no more double sessions. Volume of lifts is down a little bit, and if i take an extra bite or some food on occasion i dont punish myself with forced extra cardio anymore.. and three weeks in to my deload, the weight started coming off again. 210.3 as of this morning, my lifts are up, i look more filled out and full, and i damn sure feel it. Target is 190 to act as a baseline then ill try to figure out what my fat% is and decide wth i want to actually do. But, yeah. So i slowed down, eased up a bit, though im still extremely strict with myself, and it got the weight moving again.

[@keithianlocke]

I was training: PPL-PPL-REST. 10 sets per bodypart each session. 2 RIR - failure each set. I stalled in strength, size and weight gains for about a year. So I switched to: Same PPL routine, but reduced volume to 6 sets per muscle per session. It helped increase intensity, but increased fatigue which made me feel too drained for 2nd PPL sessions of week at same intensity. But it did show small signs of muscle gain, but not strength. So I switched to: A 5 day program. 10 sets per muscle per session once per week. 2 RIR to failure. Mon - chest / tris / abs Tues - Back / bi's/ Weds - quads / hams / abs Thurs - traps / calfs / forearms Fri - all 3 shoulder heads / abs Sat - rest Sun- rest I found the fatigue disappeared, but the intensity suffered because the increase in sets. So, recently I switched to the following using HIT to failure + Seth (Feroce) sets. Mon - chest / tris (3 exercises each of 1 set) / abs Tues - quad / hams (2 exercises each of 2 sets) / calfs (1 exercise of 2 sets) Weds - rest Thurs - back (4 exercises of 1 set) / bi's (3 exercises of 1 set) / traps (2 exercises of 1 set) / abs Fri - shoulders (2 exercises of 1 set for each head) / forearms (2 exercises of 1 set) Sat - rest Sun - rest So I've basically reduced from 240 sets per week to just 33 total sets per week (excluding abs). After just 2 weeks of this latest incarnation, I am already seeing strength gains. I am gaining weight while visibly seeing fat loss, and can feel growth has occurred in clothing and general body movement. I also feel better in myself with greater rest periods, and without fatigue. Knowing I've still pushed muscle groups to their absolute limit. At nearly 50yrs old I have found low volume HIT training works best for me.

[@benalvis6722]

Just got the app! Ready to do this ! LFG

[@MemeGang420]

Switched to lower volume and made the best gains of my life.