Program Advice? Body Used to Very High Volume

You’re not the first person to have these thoughts/doubts. Some people have trouble letting go of that “strength zone” mentality. Some guys hate higher reps. Some dudes do seem to do better with heavier weights. People use techniques like Rest/Pause or Cluster sets to blur the line between size and strength.

Self answered I guess

I’d look into the volume land marks by Mike Israetel and the importance of maintenance periods. If you constantly hammer training you’ll build up adaptive resistance and make 0 progress no matter how hard you train. Doing a full month of the very lowest volume possible resets these systems so you can make progress when you return to hard training.

Less is more sometimes but you have to decide if making progress or being addicted to the grind is more important

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This is exactly what I’m saying, I was just trying to avoid giving Israetel all the credit he deserves. Seriously, that guy is totally right about training volume. When I first started reading his stuff I was doing at least double the volume he recommends and barely making progress, I was listening to some “experts” who claim that the only way to continue making gains is to keep increasing volume. I didn’t believe that I could make progress on lower volume, but it turned out that was exactly what I needed. Just like if your training is mostly heavy triples and you stall after a few months, you can restart progress by doing some lighter high volume work for a but, the opposite works too.

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yeah At 6 foot 165lbs you wont look like you lift till you add say 15lbs/(6-7kg?)

What is your eating like now?
are you mentally prepared to eat really big at least in the short term, maybe even a bit of junk here and there?

Also Nsuns has been mentioned a few times now on these forums, and not once has really good feedback been reported

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Thank you all guys for your advice. Really appreciate it.

I am still 3 cm short of being 6 foot :smile:

3100-3300 calories a day, 170+ grams of protein, high carb (400-500 g, depending on day)

Junk is my weakpoint honestly, everyday I include something and I am trying to minimize it :slight_smile:

Well, a lot of people had great results with it from what I’ve seen, but it probably isn’t right for me.

My goal is honestly just getting bigger. I don’t care about “aesthetics/physique” in particular. For me, they became superficial goals to impress superficial people. I just want to get big and feel like a man. (I am not saying I want to become just a big fat dude though, lol)

I was actually thinking about this a lot. I need to put more muscle on. I was always combining heavy low rep work with accessories and never focused just on hypertrophy and progressing mainly in higher rep ranges.

I thought about your advice and I think that it might be really a good idea to now focus on the, let’s say 6+ rep range, getting stronger in it and just trying to grow muscle.

I have been looking at GZCL Jacked and Tan 2.0… Are you, or somebody else here, familiar with it?

I’ve read that many people beginning with it do the first 5 weeks on repeat. They are mostly high reps (but not the last 2 weeks, they are focused on 4 and 2 rep maxes).

Would that be a good approach to follow? 4 days a week, Higher reps, lots of food…

Do 5/3/1 opposite lift boring but big

What’s the Paul carter article you’re talking about. I don’t think it translated to your post

Sorry man, good catch.

Push, Pull, Legs: The Ultimate Split. “The Best Back-To-Basics Plan.”

I think most of the guys around here are more familiar with the coaches/programs gzcl “drew inspiration from” than with his programs.

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That’s fair…

I can give just a quick summary of the program. I think it goes well with what you said - to focus on the high reps.

T1 exercise:

First week: Work up to 10RM, then 3 back off sets (percentage based) with last set AMRAP.

Second week: Work up to 8RM, then 3 back off sets (percentage based) with last set AMRAP.

Third week: Work up to 6RM, then 3 back off sets (percentage based) with last set AMRAP.

Fifth week: Work up to 4RM, then 3 back off sets (percentage based) with last set AMRAP.

T2 exercise (percentage based):

First week 4x10
Second 4x8
Third 4x6
Fifth 5x4

Second T2 exercise is 15, 12, 10, 8 reps (first, second, third, fourth week)

T3 exercises are 3 sets of Max Rep Set.

I think repeating these 4 weeks over might be good for hypertrophy and size gains just because of how the reps are structured.

Increasing TM every block and pushing the rep maxes with higher weights should work.

Ok good to hear, if eating junk and getting a good amount of carbs etc then you should be gaining so could be training. Also look at sleep and core vits and minerals like D3, zinc et

The volume here is usually ‘just right’ for guys in your situation…

(after few weeks can crank up the volume/play around with reps and extra movements on high rep upper day if like)

This is siimilar to what you posted but bit bettter laid out…

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It looks like that routine is centered on the “tier 1” lifts or the power lifts. Getting reps at percentages. Some guys do great like that. They love the “main” stuff and don’t like assistance work as much.

Other guys prefer to think about working bodyparts, and using their “best” lifts. They build the routine around using the most productive lifts, not necessarily the “big” lifts.

Some dudes love doing AMRAPs and other guys burn out quickly using them.

So that routine could work awesome or be a total bad fit for you. If you don’t know for yourself, but you think it looks cool, RUN THAT SHIT! See how it works. Start a log. Put the name of the routine in the title. Other guys running the program or trying to gain some weight might chime in.