Does My Workout Have Too Much Volume?

Based on my routine and goals am I overloading my CNS and have too much volume for my goals?

Height: 5’9
Weight: 180

My goal is to increase strength and hypertrophy. During my off days I do static and dynamic stretching, 1.5 run every other week, and shoulder and scapular preventative exercises that are also done every other wee on my off days. I also do foam rolling and lacrosse ball work.

Please keep in mind that certain movements I do singles to increase strength which you will see in my routine. The exercises that I am doing singles with are it least 90% of one rep max. However when I feel I can go up to weight, I will admit I have to exert myself even more pass 90% to grow accustom to the weight and eventually build a new 1rpm which my goal is to increase my strength overtime.

I would like to say that my diet is on point, organized and tracked, including supplementation but lately I have stalled on numbers and have plateaued. I noticed I have been regressing then progressing on certain lifts but I have a feeling that I could be doing more than needed based on my goals.

Sunday - OFF, Monday - OFF, Tuesday - Shoulders/Biceps, Wednesday - Legs, Thursday - Chest/Abs, Friday - Off, Satuday - Back/Triceps

Tuesday: SHOULDER/BICEPS

  • Single DB Push OHP (Similar to a Circus Press) - (90-95% of 1rpm) (95lb DB) 8 x 1 (last set attempt 100lb DB)
  • Medial Delt Machine Flys 3x10-12 (95lbs)
  • Face Pulls 3x12-15

Wednesday: LEGS

  • Front Squat (ATG) 8x1 (90% 1rpm) (285lbs) Last 1 or 2 sets (295lbs)
  • RDL 3x5 (295)
  • Leg Press 3x10-12 (6 plates each side)
  • Lying Curls 2x15-20 (80lbs)
  • Leg Extensions 2x15-20 (70lbs)

Thursday: CHEST/ABS

  • Barbell Bench warm up to 90-95% 1rpm (295)
  • DB Press (110lbs DB’s) 4x5
  • Incline Hammer Strength Press 3x8-10
  • Decline DB Press 3x10-12 (35lb DB’s) (Stretch-Contract Focus)
  • Cable Flys 3x12-15
  • Ab Band Resisted Roller 4 sets
  • Knelling Paloff Press 3 sets
  • Decline Leg lifts 3 sets

Friday: OFF

Satuday: BACK/TRICEPS

  • Vertical Pull Warm Ups
  • DB Rows (Both hands) 4x5 (115)
  • T-Bar Rows 3x8-10 (2 45’s and a 25)
  • Hammer Strength High Rows 3x10-12
  • Underhand Cable Pull Downs 3x 12-15
  • Dips 5x1 (170lbs attached to dip belt) (95% 1rpm)
  • Hammer Extensions on machine - 4x8-10
  • High Pulley Overhead Extensions - 3x12-15

Sunday: OFF

Monday: OFF

I was thinking of toning the sets of singles to 5x1 instead as I am taxed from the begining of the workout but no exhausted. I have been doing this routine for several months with great success because of my diet and recovery days but now I am starting to stall and get tight in places so now I have to spend even more time with recovery but I am still able to get through but I am starting to think I am hitting my CNS too hard.

Does my workout routine have too much volume for my goals? I figured because of the amount of work I put in my training and dedicated 3 days for recovery and corrective training and stretching.

I am open to suggestions and changes to help keep a progressive tempo.

I was thinking of trying the Thib’s routine for “natural lifters” where its low volume/high frequency but was worried I lose my strength gains. I am really into the powerbuiliding aspect of my training.

Thanks

M

Too much volume? No I don’t believe so.

I do however think that hitting a 1RM every week on these lifts isn’t going to keep your strength progressing as well as you might hope. Perhaps back-off sets and/or alternative your rep maxes.

Better yet, you could get on an already detailed program…

Personally id say the problem is doing multiple singles at 90%Plus of your actual 1 RM is catching up with you…

I assume you put the program your using together?

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Yea I actually created the program on my own. Sorry but I forgot to include three bicep exercises on my shoulder day, but I am sure it does not matter. So just to clarify my volume is not excessive right?

Also, would you agree that I tone the volume on singles to 5x1 instead or should I keep the same movement but reduce the sets and increase the reps? I thought of that but every two weeks I would warm up to 90-95% 1rpm to maintain strength and maybe once a month attempt a new PR to gauge on strength improvement?

How should I go about the singles? I enjoy them the most but they use to be smooth and technical and now every now and then there are days where they become grinders and days where its smooth and technical.

If you do these exact same exercises week in and week out, you may be running into the law of accommodation (for those of us that believe in that). You might want to consider changing out big movements on a 3 week interval (or perhaps every other week) to change up the stimuli. So if you want a vertical press for your shoulders, for example, you can change out single dumbbell for military, log, Swiss bar. You can alternate weeks of strict sets with weeks of using leg drive.

I’m also not a fan of a bunch of singles above 90%. 2-3 sure, but that’s it.

Personally I don’t like running more than 2 max effort days back to back (or per week for that matter). Another thing you might consider is alternating max effort days with higher volume hypertrophy days if that sounds appealing. So one week Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday would be max effort and Wednesday, Friday would be hypertrophy workouts. The next week you’d just switch.

Just a couple of ideas. The volume doesn’t seem unreasonable to me, but wisdom is known by her children.

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Thanks guys

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You are the only one that would know if it’s too much volume.

Personally I like to do the least amount of volume I can get away with. Easier to not get injured that way.

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Very true. This is why I was thinking of trying Thib’s Natural Lifter’s routine where it emphasizes low volume/high frequency 6 days out of the week. Every now and then I would throw a few 90-95% of rpm to maintain strength levels.

Wow I think that’s the most reasonable thing I’ve seen you post :joy: lol

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haha, I was about to say the same thing

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Dip singles are dumb 99.8% of the time.

Almost all of my work is done with singles, doubles, and triples. I’m much closer to the 75-85% (with 85% being pretty rare).

Since you listed one of your primary goals as hypeetrophy, I would highly recommend not doing your plan. I train the way I do because I really enjoy it, and allow hypertrophy to suffer to keep me enjoying my training as much as I do.

I can say (And hopefully not sound pretentious) that my hypertrophic levels are a pretty good ways behind my strength levels and training age. I would equate a decent portion of this to my lower rep sets, even with a good amount of volume. Bodybuilders must know what they are doing.

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I myself do not like the program at all… there are allot of basic issue I see . Which indicates to me that you may not be at the point experience wise to be writing up your own program yet. But its your program run it as you like.

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Maybe it’s not the greatest, but it’s yours!

If it worked for several months, it can’t be too far out of line for what you can handle. For several months, you had it close enough to “just right” to work. The weights and the workload matched. Your training produced results.

But now, things are slowing down. The weights you have progressed to are too heavy for the sets/reps/days you have been doing. “Just right” has turned into “Just a little too heavy” to get the results you want.

So dial the weights to what you were using 2 months ago. Those were effective weights! Do them again, but do them better. Faster, less rest, tighter technique, more reps, etc. Take a step back, smash your training for awhile, and build to a New Level! (of Confidence and Power)!

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[quote=“brady888, post:11, topic:232070, full:true”] hypeetrophy
[/quote]

Lol😂

Almost at good as hyphytrophy

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