Sully I found this video to help make BOTH our points.
JM is parodyzing his reps and loads but keeps coming back to 8 reps as a base. I have also seen many vids were he's doing a zillion reps. But I don't think you can do this kind of thing as a staple in your training. Maybe you can? It's just not for me.
The point of my OP was to listen to other opinions of what works best for "them". Not a who's right or wrong. What I described is what works for me and why I believe it does. That's all.
Would you like to describe a typical training session for yourself you think works best for you?
https://youtu.be/tE3rSKV96ow
I go where the science takes me. In my first post I talked about it. DUP, or Daily Undulating Periodization, is a training style that constantly changes the weight and rep ranges of each workout to keep the stimulus that the muscle experiences changing, which in turn causes the muscle to constantly be in a state of adaptation. That adaptation takes 2 forms, hypertrophy and strength, but those 2 are not mutually exclusive. There is a strong relationship between the 2.
My standard training routine changes frequently depending on my goals, or which body part I’m currently targeting for the most growth. Let’s say for example that right now I’m trying to bring up my chest. The best way to do this is to increase the volume of chest work I do in a week.
Let me define a couple things for the sake of brevity before I lay it all out.
Low rep: 6-8 reps with enough weight that I can barely hit that rep range on the first working set, with 1 warm up set of very low weight to check form
Medium reps: 10-12 reps, same story on weight
High reps: 20-25 reps, same story on weight, warm up is usually only 15 reps at most
So here's what my routine would look like:
Day 1: Chest and tri’s medium rep
Day 2: Back and bi’s medium rep
Day 3: Chest and tri’s low rep
Day 4: Legs high rep
Day 5: Chest and tri’s high rep
Day 6: Back and bi’s low rep
Day 7: Chest and tri’s medium rep
Day 8: Legs low rep
Day 9: Chest and tri’s low rep
Day 10: Back and bi’s high rep
Day 11: Chest and tri’s high rep
Day 12: Legs medium rep
Day 13: Chest and tri’s medium rep
Day 14: Back and bi’s medium rep
Day 15: Chest and tri’s low rep
And just repeat as the pattern dictates. If you wanted to bring up your back instead of your chest, then the rotation would be:
Back, Chest, Back, Legs, and repeat following the pattern of low, mid and high rep days.
I don’t take many rest days. Either as I need them or as my schedule dictates. My work shift is 24 hours long, and sometimes we’re running constantly for the entire 24 hours and a workout just isn’t going to happen.
I also rotate the order of my workout as necessary to bring up weak lifts. If there’s a lift I’m struggling with, whether it be weight or form, I’ll move that lift to the very beginning of my workout so I can concentrate on it when my energy, focus and stamina are at their highest level. Once I make some progress on that lift and get it where I want it to be, I move it to a later part of the workout and move the next lagging lift to the front of the line. This also helps keep things from getting stale and repetitive.
It’s slightly more complicated than other routines, no doubt. But once you’ve done it for a few months you get used to it and can track it from memory.
The key to the whole thing is to constantly be doing something slightly different than you did in your last workout. By changing the stimulus, you force the muscle to adapt, which will improve either strength or hypertrophy. There’s also the whole supercompensation phase to take into account, but that’s a different conversation all together. I don’t advocate that anyone do a bazillion reps, or that they do super high reps as the base of their entire training program.
There’s also a certain amount of flexibility built into the routine I outlined. Let’s say today last workout was high rep day, and today is supposed to be mid rep day. But, you’re feeling REALLY strong, and that tight cardio bunny on the elliptical gave you a big smile when you walked into the gym. You can change it up and make today low rep day, and just do mid rep day next workout. Sometimes your feeling it, or not, and this allows you to adapt the routine as you need to, within reason. Just don’t go turning every day into low rep day, other wise you’re defeating the purpose.
