Keep it simple, stupid! Let’s take a dip into more details about a simple post I wrote in my Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thesquatfix/ some time ago, which made a few people write me Inbox to ask a few things about it, so I decided to make this longer text with scientific citations to back up what I said over there.

I already have one similar text here in this link here , also in this other one here, and in this other one here I explained you basically how to do “progressive overload”, one of the most basic principles of Strength Training. Without extending myself too much here, let’s go through everything step by step.

KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID! PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD:

Progressive Overload is simply being able to do more after a certain time frame period. In Brad Schoenfeld’s Book “Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy” (found here ), the latest researches in the subject suggest us that the main driver of muscular hypertrophy is Total Volume Load, which is in very simple words “how many kgs you lifted in the end of a training session”. Making it simple for you, let’s suppose your legs training is as follows: A1 Squats, 4×10 @ 100kg, and that’s it.

4x10x100 = 4000kg.

Considering you did only 4 sets of Squats for 10 reps @ 100kg, you lifted a total of 4000kg as your TOTAL VOLUME LOAD (TVL). The EASIEST manners of increasing your TVL would be: 1 – increase how much weight you lift, 2 – increase how many reps you do, 3 – increase how many sets you do. There is an upper limit though to how many sets you can/should do per week.

Schoenfeld suggests 20 sets per week as high volume, although usually high level bodybuilders will do up to 40-50 sets per muscle group (I particularly do not recommend this for any of you who are not high level bodybuilders). What I have found to be most useful for beginners is to utilise the “minimum effective dosage” possible in your training, and slowly increase it over time. That minimum effective dosage can go as low as 1 or 2 sets per muscle group per week in the first weeks of training.

By adding one set to your training, the calculation would be 5x10x100 = 5000kg, so you added 1000kg to your training just by doing one more set. Can you handle it though? Such a rapid increase in TVL could lead you to fatigue and plateauing your training, especially if you are training close to maximal loads (or failure, if your prefer), you can check it here .

Why not to use then the “Kaizen Method” explained in the article previously posted up in here? It consists of consistently increasing your TVL by adding, week after week or training after training, the smallest possible amount of weight to the bar.

For example, usually the smallest plates in the gyms will be 1,25kg. Let’s suppose you do the same 4×10 squats, but in your 2nd training session, you will do 102,5kg. 4x10x102.5kg = 4100kg. You increased 100kg to your TVL just by adding 2.5kg to the exercise you were doing without increasing fatigue too much. Go up to 105kg, and you will have a 4200kg TVL, so on so forth.

In the long run, this will grant you a more steady and successful adaptation to the training. Remember that hypertrophy is a chronic adaptation, it happens over time. That’s why training hard for 2 months and stopping completely for 3 won’t take you anywhere.

KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID! 6-12 REP RANGE:

1-5 reps for strength, 8-12 for hypertrophy and 15+ for endurance. How many of you have heard that before? The first question that comes to my head is: If 1-5 is for strength and 8-12 is for hypertrophy, does that mean if you do 6, 7, 13 or 14 reps you just wasted time? 🙂

Let’s take a look at what the latest science on the subject suggests:

“Evidence supports the repetition continuum in regard to muscular strength as determined by 1RM testing using dynamic constant resistance exercise.” So yes, for strength gains the 1-5 rep scheme works well, especially in the same exercise you are training (if you’re squatting, it means your squats get stronger, the others not necessarily. There is much higher carryover from squats to leg presses than leg presses to squats, for example, so it’s more likely that your leg press will get stronger from squatting than the other way around).

In terms oh hypertrophy, “the compelling body of literature indicates that similar whole muscle growth can be achieved across a wide spectrum of loading ranges ≥ ~30% 1RM. These findings are independent of age and training status.” Translating to you: if your 1 rep max is 100kg for a given exercise, your minimum threshold for it is 30kg (30% 1RM). Obviously you will have to do much more reps with that weight, and that’s why I prefer to work with smaller rep ranges. They tend to be more time efficient.

Regarding muscular endurance, “Evidence for a load-specific effect on local muscular endurance remains equivocal. Early work suggested a potential benefit of light load training on muscular endurance, particularly when testing on an absolute basis. That said, the evidence for such an effect is rather weak and seems more relevant to the lower body musculature”. From me experience, just by getting stronger in the 6-12 rep range will allow you to increase significantly your endurance at higher rep ranges.

You can find all the info here.

It is also know that adding periods of relative strength training (training exclusively for strength, powerlifting style) will indeed increase your hypertrophy levels, as found in this article here.

“Our results support the use of a period to increase muscle strength prior to an HT (Hypertrophy Training) to increase muscle thickness and maximum strength in resistance-trained men.” I like to remember everybody that lifting weights is called “Strength Training”. If you’re not getting stronger, there is already something wrong to start with.

KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID! AGGRESSIVE CONCENTRIC:

The concentric portion of a lift is “when the load applied to the muscle is smaller than the force produced by the same muscle, therefore that muscle shortens”. A simple way of thinking about it is, if the load is going against gravity, it’s the concentric phase. But why aggressive, you ask me?

I will answer you in the next article, otherwise this one here will get extremely long. I hope you had a good read!

Keep it simple, stupid!