Hi all. I’m doing a little experiment right now. I want to find out how much volume I can progressively add before going into an over-reached or overtrained state. I’m trying to approach this as productively as possible while still progressing fast volume-wise.
I start out at 1 wave (ramping up and execute reps according to CT’s principles) and add 1 more wave each time I have a workout for the same basic movement pattern for 3 weeks, then I have a recharge week. For example: I have 4 upper body pressing days a week. Since I started at 1 wave, this leaves me at 12 waves the last upper body pressing day.
BUT how many waves should I start with after the recharge period?
I obviously wanna go above 12 waves. But how many more waves should I add per cycle?
Depending on the body part (ofcourse), but the larger muscles like legs, chest and back, i think 12 Sets would be the highest you should go per day.
Also how many reps per set? 10x10 is gonna be different than 5 reps of 10 sets. one equals 50 total reps and one equals 100 total reps.
I personal like getting 100 reps per large muscle.
Alot of variables come into play when deciding this though. how long have you been training, how long have you been doing high volume, are you use to low volume protocols? If you have been doing high volume for a decent period, maybe its time to deload, and go into the low volume parameters for a few weeks.
I’m actually over half-way into the recharge period, but I still appriciate your answer.
I actually did a lot more “work sets”. The last day of upper body pressing I did 40 work sets on military press. The sets were of 3 reps, so thats a total of 120 reps. Frequency was pretty high, so it was hard on my joints. So I have actually decided to repeat the exact same progression protocol again until my joints have adapted.
So I guess it isn’t obvious that I should go above 12 waves after all
[quote]Braas wrote:
I’m actually over half-way into the recharge period, but I still appriciate your answer.
I actually did a lot more “work sets”. The last day of upper body pressing I did 40 work sets on military press. The sets were of 3 reps, so thats a total of 120 reps. Frequency was pretty high, so it was hard on my joints. So I have actually decided to repeat the exact same progression protocol again until my joints have adapted.
So I guess it isn’t obvious that I should go above 12 waves after all :)[/quote]
3 reps at 34 sets would have been better on your shoulder joint, Take care of those things.
So that’s the only exercise you did for upper body right?
You said upperbody pushing so it dosent sound like it? I would have divided the sets up between a couple of movements to fix any unbalances that it may cause. (and protect joints)
So your going for strength but want to gain size from the high volume right?
I’m sure i dont have to tell you about tempo, controlling the weight and rest periods, but figured i would throw that in there, lol.
Surprisingly it was actually my elbow joint. Anyway it hurt for 2 hours, started to hurt 2 hours after training session, and was sore for 2 days after that.
I choose 1 exercise per day. So one day I might do dips and another day I might do military press. It depends upon which pressing muscle is most ready for lifting.
Yes, I want both strength and size. Gained no strength during the 3 weeks, but I suspect that might be due to fatigue, because I did increase my work capacity a lot. I’m doing the first pressing session after my recharge week, tomorrow. I guess I will find out if it influenced strength then.
I did gain a skin-stretching amount of size though
I’m curious to know why you think 34 sets would be surprior?
[quote]Braas wrote:
Surprisingly it was actually my elbow joint. Anyway it hurt for 2 hours, started to hurt 2 hours after training session, and was sore for 2 days after that.
I choose 1 exercise per day. So one day I might do dips and another day I might do military press. It depends upon which pressing muscle is most ready for lifting.
Yes, I want both strength and size. Gained no strength during the 3 weeks, but I suspect that might be due to fatigue, because I did increase my work capacity a lot. I’m doing the first pressing session after my recharge week, tomorrow. I guess I will find out if it influenced strength then.
I did gain a skin-stretching amount of size though
I’m curious to know why you think 34 sets would be surprior?[/quote]
Cause 3 reps at 34 sets is 102 total reps.
Like I said before I like to keep things at around a hundy.
That still seems like a lot for the load.
I actually think you would do better by hitting 2 angles per day instead of 1 movement. Like a military press and an arnold press or something? Flat bench and superset the incline bench.
Jus sayin, its a personal opinion. Good to hear u improved on your dip
You could say that, because they are pretty similar in terms of the concentric and eccentric movements. Same width can be used. Just the angle varies which could take stress off of the shoulder if you start with neck presses instead of flat bench. Then progress to the incline bench.
Have you tried Arnold presses? Killer shoulder movement and the only overhead press i do. T-Nation has a youtube page and Ct explains this exercise pretty well.
Naaah I only work in the 3-5 rep zone for my main pressing work, so neck press is out of the question. Don’t need to reduce stress on my shoulder. It’s fine even with tons of pressing. It’s the elbow joint that bugged me. Gonna try the same cycle again soon with a thumbless grip. Sometimes the problem starts at the wrist so that might be it.
I have tried arnold presses and I like them for recovery work. Don’t really think of them as a “performance press” so, to me, they are no good for main pressing sessions.
Arnold press is good for reps. I do 4-5 reps on deadlifts. Everything else for the past 40 days have been around 10 reps, with high volume. Gained a lot of size, i’m not worried about strength right now, its adequate. I did 1 week of 5x5 on everything to take a break and get some strength work back in there.
I always use the thumbless grip for some reason, even on pull ups hahaha. Not sure why, but id def. give it a try, or atleast put your thumb across the bar.
Thats funny because I have just started to do pullups with a thumbless grip myself. I have noticed that I have a slightly higher contraction speed with this grip.
You will get added forearm strength also. I like to do wide grip hangs using the suicide grip for as long as I can. 4 sets of those will get ur forearms swollen
