High frequency training

[James Copping]

This is not a discussion of whether higher frequency splits are better/ worse than low frequency/high intensity. Do not turn it into 1. I simply want to lay out possible higher frequency splits and training styles in 1 thread.

After this introduction, I will begin with 2x per week splits, then move onto 3x per week. After the basics, I will explain ways to periodize the splits, and how to attain specic goals, targets etc.

[James Copping]

2x per week training

The spilts:

Upper
Lower

or

Chest shoulders back
Arms legs

each done 2x per week. The days I would advise are either:

mon
tue
thu
fri

or

mon
wed
thu
sat

The volume of each workout will be reduced from what it would be if you were training a muscle once per week, but the total volume will be kept the same, or slightly higher.

Example Upper body split

Mon-Upper
Incline bench
Cable crossover
Military press
CGBP
T-Bar row
BB curl

Tue-Lower
Squat
Leg press
SLDL
Calf press
Leg raise

Thu-Upper
Pullup(weighted if nessecary)
BB row
Hammer curl
Flat bench
Skullcrushers
Side lateral raise

Fri-Lower
Deadlift
Leg curl
Front squat
Calf raise
Crunch

All 3 sets of 6-8 reps.

DO NOT GO TO FAILURE stop 1 or 2 reps shy. Training to failure twice a week will overstress the CNS too much, and lead to overtraining. In other words, you will burnout.

[James Copping]

3x per week training

These will consist of full body workouts. These workouts however, do not need to be the same. In fact, I would advise having at least 2 or even 3 different workouts and cycle between them throughout the week. This will help to prevent boredom.

I would perform the workouts either:

Mon
Wed
Fri

or

Tue
Thu
Sat

This ensures you are rested well enough to perform the next workout.

Again, overall volume should be kept the same as is you trained a muscle once a week.

Example full body workouts

Mon
Squat
SLDL
Calf raise
Incline bench
Military press
Pullup
Hammer curl

Wed
Front squat
Hamstring curl
flat bench
Side laterals
CGBP
BB row
Crunch

Fri
Deadlift
Leg extension
Decline bench
Skullcrushers
Pulldown
BB curl
leg raise

all sets 3x6-8

There really are endless options for 3x per week trining though. It would be possible to split it into 4 days, but only train each muscle 3x. For those of you that cant stay out of the gym.

Mon
Squat
Cable crossover
Side laterals
Skullcrushers
BB row

Wed
SLDL
Pullup
BB curl
leg raise

Thu
Front squat
Seated calf raise
Flat bench
CGBP
Calf press

Sat
leg press
Hamstring curl
Incline bench
Military press
Pulldown
hammer curl

As previously stated: DO NOT GO TO FAILURE stop 1 or 2 reps shy. Training to failure 3x a week will overstress the CNS too much, and lead to overtraining. In other words, you will burnout.

[James Copping]

Making things a little more exciting: Method 1

Conjugate splits

This method I would apply to the 2x per week splits. It entails splitting the workouts into 2 seperate days, each with seperate goals or rep ranges.

Example split

mon-upper strength, 5-6sets of 3-4reps
tue-lower hypertrophy, 3 sets of 6-8 reps

thu-upper hypertrophy 3 sets of 6-8 reps
fri-lower strength, 5-6sets of 3-4reps

I would advise that on the hypertrophy days, you use one of the workouts listed above. And for strength days, stick to mostly compound lifts, and do multiple sets.

Example workouts

Mon
Upper strength
Bench
Military press
Pullup
BB row

Tue
Lower hypertrophy(choose from above)

Thu
Upper hypertrophy(choose from above)

Lower strength
Squat
SLDL
Good morning
Calf press

All lifts are 6 sets of 3-4 reps.

This type of split will enable you to gain considerable strength, whilst not neglecting hypertrophy. In fact, you will obtain both myofibrilar and sarcoplasmic growth. basically that means you will get a lot stronger, and add more mass.

[James Copping]

Periodization

Is the organisation of training into blocks. Each with a specific goal. The general idea of the methods I will advise is to significantly increase the difficulty of training over a short period, 2-3 weeks for example. Then take a step back, and allow your body to catch up. The easier weeks will give you the most hypertrophy, as your body will be adapting to the stimulus from the very tough weeks.

Option 1 volume loading
As it sounds like, this entails increasing the volume(more specifically the number of sets) that you train with.

I would adivse starting with 3 wets per workout, and each workout, add a set.

The problem you are left with now, is how to know when to stop

adding sets, and when to have an easier week. I have found the best way to do this is to go by how you feel. If you feel overly lethargic in your high set workouts, take a deload.

I assume this would happen between 7 and 9 sets per workout, depending on the person.

Here is a basic 4 week cycle, assuming you train a muscle 2x per week in an upper/lower split:

week 1: first upper/lower days 2 sets, 2nd days 3 sets
week 2: first upper/lower days 4 sets, 2nd days 5 sets
week 3: first upper/lower days 6 sets, 2nd days 7 sets
week 4: first upper/lower days 8 sets, 2nd days 8 sets

week 5, the deload. You will perform 1upper and 1 lower
workout, 2 sets per exercise.

Next to come is intensity loading...ill do this when I come back from work. Any questions so far?

Option 2 Intensity loading

Intensity refers to the distance one performs from their repetition maximum.

for example if you failed at 10 reps with 100lbs on bench press, your 10RM would be 100lbs. 70% effort would be 70lbs, 85% effort 85lbs etc.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think about intensity loading is HST. Using full body workouts. I will not write anything about HST, but I will post a link to the website, where a detailed explanation can be found:

www.hypertrophy-specific.com

a further description of HST can be found here

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...threadid=280813

I have not seen much literature about twice per week training, and manipulating intensity, but in the future I will experiment with something along the lines of this:

All weeks have 2 upper/lower body workouts. The above listed workouts can be used. All 3 sets of 6-8 reps

week 1 all sets 1 rep shy of failure(90% of 8RM for example)
week 2 all sets to failure
week 3 all sets to failure + 2 forced reps/rest pause reps
week 4 all sets to failure, followed by a dropset of 60% of the weight you just used

week 5 deload, as with volume loading.

Option 3 frequency loading

Indicates training with the same volume in workouts, more times per week.

For twice per week training. One may choose to increase the number of workouts to 6 per week(3upper/lower) much alike fortified irons hypertrophy program. There are however many options, I will list my favoutite ideas below.

All 3 sets of 6-8 reps

week 1: 2 upper + 2 lower workouts M,Tu,Th,F
week 2: 3 upper + 2 lower workouts M,Tu,Th,F,Sa
week 3: 3 upper + 3 lower workouts M,Tu,W,Th,F,Sa
week 4: 3 upper + 4 lower workouts M,Tu,W,Th,F,Sa,Su

Week 5, and 6 if needed(as this will be very taxing) deload

For a full body split, you may like to do something like this:

Week 1: 2 workouts
Week 2: 3 workouts
Week 3: 4 workouts
Week 5: 5 workouts

Week 5: Deload

Option 4 Density loading

Density refers to the amount of work one does in a specific time. Say for example you perform 15 sets of 6-8 reps in an hour, increasing density would mean doing 16, or 17 sets. This can be achieved by reducing th rest time between sets. And/or adding more sets. This is similar to volume loading, but not entirely the same.

Week 1: 75secs between compounds, 60secs between isolations
Week 2: 60 secs between compounds, 45 secs between isolations
Week 3: 60 secs between compounds, 45 secs between isolations, add 1 set ofeach exercise
Week 4: 45 secs between compounds, 30 secs between isolations, add another set of each exercise

Week 5: Deload

Further options

You'll have to be very careful with the length of your loading weeks in the next cycles I suggest, as you will be loading more than 1 variable at a time. Overreaching will occur very quickly, so regular deloads would be required.

Volume + frequency loading

For this I would advise a 4 week cycle, 3 weeks load, 1 week deload:

Week 1: 2x upper+2x lower workouts, 3 sets per workout
Weeks 2 and 3: Upper/lower/rest/repeat every other workout adding 1 set per exercise. It will look like:

3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6 (sets per exercise)

Week 4(and 5 if nessecary): deload

Frequency + Intensity

Week 1: 2x upper 2x lower 3 sets per workout
Week 2: 2x upper 2x lower 3 sets per workout to failure
Week 3: upper/lower/upper/rest/lower/upper/lower 3 sets to failure + a dropset of 60% of the weight u used on the last set of each exercise

Week 4(and 5 if nessecary): deload

Summary of periodization

You can load Volume, Frequency, Intensity and density.

This is not an exhaustive list though. It is possible to load more than 1 variable at once, 2 or 3 can all be used concurently. The only difference being the length of the loading phase must be shorter, and the deload possibly longer.

[James Copping]

Conjugate periodization

This is a way to peroidise your conjugate split. Most of my information was obtained by reading the periodization for bodybuilders articles, written by Lyle Mcdonald.

There are basically 4 different rep ranges.

1-4reps
4-6reps
7-12 reps
30-40reps

There are 3 types of muscle fibre, Type I and types IIa and IIb. The type II fibres are the largest, and hence Bodybuilders should focus their efforts on enhancing them.

Low rep training(1-4) is for strength, and Myofibrilar hypertrophy, hypertrophy that is, of the actual muscle fibre . this accounts for roughly 80% of the actual muscle. his type of training activates the type IIb fibres mainly, with some action from the type IIa.

the 4-6 rep range also emphasises Myofibrilar hypertrophy to a large extent, but also contributes to Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, this being the growth of exerything else.(mitochondrion number, water levels etc) this contributes the other 20% of the muscle.

7-12 reps emphasises sarcoplasmic growth, with little myofibrilar growth.

30-40reps is for increased capillerisation of the muscle, therefore allowing more blood, and therefore nutrients to themuscle.

Thats enough of all this science mumbo jumbo, lets talk about how you can implement this into your training.

Firstly, you must determine your goals. Choose 1 or 2 rep ranges which you really want to improve on. These ranges will be worked heavily, and the others will be worked at maintenance.

Take for example a bodybuilder, wishing to improve strength mainly. A good lower body split could be:

Day 1
Squat 7 sets of 1-3 reps
Front squat 3 sets of 4-6 reps
SLDL 2 sets of 7-12
Calf raise 2 sets of 7-12

Day 2
Deadlift 7 sets of 1-3 reps
ham curl 3 sets of 4-6
Leg press 2 sets of 7-12
leg extension 1 set of 30-40
seated calf raise 2 sets of 7-12

here is a list of training/maintaing loads to go by:

rep range....training load...maintaining load
1-3..............6-10 sets........2-3 sets
4-6..............4-8 sets..........1-2 sets
7-12............3-6 sets..........1-2 sets
30-40..........1-2 sets..........1 set

Upper body conjugate splits

As Lyle didn?t underline any of these in his article, I think Ill put some together for you guys.

All of the following splits will be based around a 2x per week upper/lower split
I?ll start off with splits concentrating on strength:

Strength emphasis:

Monday
Bench 7 sets of 2-3
Incline bench 3 sets of 4-6
Military press 3 sets of 6-8
Pulldowns 2 sets of 8-12
BB row 2 sets of 8-12
Bicep curls 1 set of 30-40

Thursday
Pullup 7 sets of 2-3
1 arm DB row 3 sets of 4-6
Chest dips 2 sets of 6-8
Side laterals 3 sets of 8-12
CGBP 3 sets of 8-12
Tri pushdowns 1 set of 30-40

After a while, you may feel happy with your strength gains, and wish to concentrate on more sarcoplasmic growth, whilst maintaining strength. A good split would be:

Sarcoplasmic emphasis

Monday
Incline bench 4 sets of 8-12
Cable crossover 2 sets of 30-40
Side laterals 2 sets of 30-40
Pullup 2 sets of 2-3
BB row 3 sets of 4-6
BB curl 2 sets of 30-40
Forearm curl 1 set of 30-40

Thursday
Bench press 2 sets of 2-3
Military press 2 sets of 4-6
Skulls 3 sets of 6-8
Pushdowns 1 set of 30-40
1 arm rows 4 sets of 6-8
Pulldown 3 sets of 8-12
Hammer curl 3 sets of 8-12

[James Copping]

I posted this information in another forum, but I feel you guys can benefit from it greatly. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

I am a student, so I have all the time in the world to reply.

[Tom]

looks good, 1 question cos its kinda like the program i am about to go, should this be use after a foundation period of weight training? For example ive nearlly finished my 8 week "compound" training, i.e. hitting all the major muscle groups by doing, deadlifts, bench press, lats, squats and rows. After that i have a 8 week high intensity coursewhich is more specific, i.e. incorperating bis and tris, pec major and minor, so would you use a foundation session?

How are the Gcses going btw :P

[Tom]

Because, in addition to my last post, focusing on major muscle groups straight away, like just doing bis and tris after not actually having any major muscle on the arms can be damaging i hear..

[James Copping]

Im not too sure what you are saying. But doing isolations without compounds on a given day is not dangerous. I assume you are referring to the torso/limbs split.

The first routine posted would be perfect for a beginner IMO.

And I just finished my AS levels along with A2 maths(i'm a year ahead)

I am hoping for 4A's