Neuroscientist "90 Seconds Resting Time is Killing Your Gains" Dr Andrew Huberman

Summary

The video script delves into the science of muscle hypertrophy, discussing various training methods to induce growth. It emphasizes the importance of volume, frequency, and intensity in workouts, and how they interact to stimulate protein synthesis. The speaker also covers exercise choice, order, and the significance of approaching failure without causing injury. Additionally, the script touches on recovery strategies and the use of biomarkers to gauge muscle damage and systemic stress, advocating for a balanced approach to training that considers individual circumstances and goals.

Takeaways

• 💪 Hypertrophy training is adaptable and can be achieved through various methods, emphasizing the importance of training response and muscle adaptation rather than just movement.
• 🔬 The key to inducing hypertrophy is through activation of cellular signaling pathways that lead to protein synthesis, which can be triggered by strength, frequency, or a combination of both.
• 🏋️‍♂️ Training programs can vary in frequency and intensity, but the crucial aspect is ensuring that the training is challenging enough to stimulate muscle growth without leading to overtraining.
• 🚫 Avoid infrequent and low-intensity training with low volume as it does not effectively stimulate hypertrophy.
• 🔄 Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) training is an effective method for inducing hypertrophy even with light loads, by creating metabolic disturbance.
• 🏋️‍♀️ Exercise choice should include a mix of bilateral and unilateral movements to ensure balanced strength and prevent imbalances over time.
• 🔄 Exercise order can impact training effectiveness, with options to pre-fatigue a muscle or train with compound movements first for different results.
• 🔢 The recommended volume for hypertrophy is between 10 to 20 working sets per muscle group per week, with 15 to 20 sets being more realistic for most trainees.
• 🔢 Repetition ranges for hypertrophy can vary from 4 to 30 reps per set, with the understanding that the muscle should be worked close to failure for effective stimulus.
• ⏱ Rest intervals between sets can influence hypertrophy, with longer rest periods requiring increased load or volume to compensate for reduced metabolic stress.
• 📉 Systemic markers like creatine kinase and heart rate variability can be used to monitor recovery and determine when rest or reduced training intensity is necessary.

Q & A

What is hypertrophy and why does it have a broad range of training applications?

Hypertrophy refers to the increase in muscle size due to an increase in the size of muscle fibers. It has a broad range of training applications because the adaptations that drive changes in strength and power are specific, while the adaptations for hypertrophy are more varied, allowing for numerous training styles to be effective.

What are the key factors that induce hypertrophy according to the classic dogma?

According to the classic dogma, inducing hypertrophy requires challenging the muscle to grow bigger and ensuring the presence of nutrients to support growth. This involves activating something on the cell wall to induce a signaling cascade strong enough to cause the nucleus to react, leading to protein synthesis.

How can one achieve the necessary signal for hypertrophy?

The necessary signal for hypertrophy can be achieved through a single intense session, frequent sessions with moderate signals, or a combination of both. The key is to ensure the training is hard enough and, if choosing the frequency path, not too hard to maintain the frequency.

Why is Blood Flow Restriction Training effective for inducing hypertrophy despite using low loads?

Blood Flow Restriction Training is effective for inducing hypertrophy because it causes metabolic disturbance. By restricting blood flow and using low loads, the muscle is still subjected to fatigue and failure, which activates the necessary signaling cascade for growth.

What is the recommended minimum number of working sets per week to induce or maintain hypertrophy?

The recommended minimum number of working sets per week to induce or maintain hypertrophy is 10 sets per muscle group. However, a more realistic number for most people, especially if advanced or intermediate, is between 15 to 20 sets per week.

Why is it important to include a combination of bilateral and unilateral exercises in a hypertrophy training program?

Including a combination of bilateral and unilateral exercises is important for hypertrophy training to ensure strength development and to prevent imbalances. Bilateral exercises like squats engage both sides of the body simultaneously, while unilateral exercises like single-leg presses target one side at a time.

How does the choice of exercise order affect hypertrophy training?

The choice of exercise order can affect hypertrophy training by influencing the muscle's state of fatigue and the emphasis on specific muscle groups. Pre-fatiguing a muscle with isolation exercises before compound movements can ensure that the muscle of interest gets the most training.

What is the recommended repetition range for inducing hypertrophy?

The recommended repetition range for inducing hypertrophy is between 4 to 30 reps per set, with the understanding that the intensity should be high enough to approach failure by the end of the set.

How should one determine if they are close to failure during a set?

One should determine if they are close to failure during a set by aiming to get within two reps of failure (reps in reserve). This means stopping the set when they believe they can only perform one or two more reps with proper form.

What is the role of rest intervals between sets in hypertrophy training?

Rest intervals between sets in hypertrophy training play a role in managing the metabolic challenge. While traditionally 30 to 90 seconds were recommended, more recent research suggests that resting up to three to five minutes between sets can still be effective, provided that the mechanical tension or muscle breakdown is increased to compensate for the longer rest.

How can one adapt their training program if they are short on time or facing other practical constraints?

If short on time or facing practical constraints, one can adapt their training program by reducing the load, increasing the intensity, and focusing on exercises that target multiple muscle groups. The goal is to maintain the total volume and stimulus while adjusting to the available time and resources.

Outlines

00:00

💪 Hypertrophy Training Mechanisms

This paragraph discusses the various methods to induce muscle hypertrophy, emphasizing the importance of training adaptations and specificity. It explains that different training styles can be effective due to the body's adaptive response to stimuli such as mechanical tension, metabolic disturbance, and muscle damage. The paragraph highlights the significance of training intensity, frequency, and volume in driving hypertrophy and mentions blood flow restriction training as an effective method despite using low loads.

05:02

🏋️‍♂️ Exercise Selection and Order for Hypertrophy

The focus here is on the strategic selection and ordering of exercises to optimize hypertrophy. It advocates for a mix of bilateral and unilateral exercises to prevent imbalances and ensure comprehensive muscle development. The paragraph also touches on the importance of compound movements for driving adaptation and the role of exercise order, suggesting pre-fatigue techniques and the preference for starting with either single-joint or compound movements based on individual goals.

10:03

📊 Volume and Frequency in Hypertrophy Training

This section delves into the specifics of training volume, defined as the product of sets and repetitions, and its impact on hypertrophy. It suggests a minimum of 10 working sets per muscle group per week, with 15 to 20 sets being more realistic for intermediate to advanced trainees. The paragraph also discusses the interplay between volume, intensity, and rest intervals, and the importance of achieving a balance that supports recovery and continued training progression.

15:04

🔢 Rep Ranges and Rest Intervals for Optimal Hypertrophy

The paragraph explores the ideal repetition ranges for inducing hypertrophy, which span from 4 to 30 repetitions per set, with an emphasis on approaching failure without necessarily reaching it. It introduces the concept of 'reps in reserve' and discusses the importance of maintaining muscle contraction throughout the set. Additionally, it examines the role of rest intervals between sets, noting that longer rest periods may require increased mechanical tension or muscle breakdown to compensate for the reduced metabolic challenge.

20:04

🔄 Managing Training Chaos and Recovery

This section addresses the practical aspects of managing training, such as adjusting volume and intensity when time is limited or when life interferes with training schedules. It also discusses the importance of recovery, providing guidelines for assessing local muscle soreness and systemic markers of muscle damage. The paragraph suggests using subjective measures like soreness and more objective measures like biomarkers and heart rate variability to determine when rest or a change in exercise type is necessary.

Keywords

💡Hypertrophy

Hypertrophy refers to the increase in muscle fiber size, which is a primary goal for many individuals engaged in resistance training. In the video, hypertrophy is the central theme, with various training methods discussed to induce this muscle growth. The script mentions that different training styles can effectively lead to hypertrophy due to the body's adaptive response to various stimuli.

💡Adaptations of Specificity

Adaptations of specificity highlight the principle that the body adapts to the specific demands placed upon it during training. The script discusses how changes in strength and power are driven by these adaptations, which are crucial for understanding how to tailor training programs to achieve desired outcomes like hypertrophy.

💡Signaling Cascade

A signaling cascade is a series of actions within a cell that ultimately leads to a specific cellular response. In the context of the video, it refers to the cellular processes triggered by exercise that result in muscle protein synthesis and, consequently, hypertrophy. The script explains that training must provide a strong enough stimulus to initiate this cascade.

💡Mechanical Tension

Mechanical tension is the force exerted on muscle fibers during resistance training, which is a key factor in inducing muscle hypertrophy. The script mentions that lifting heavy loads for lower repetitions can create this tension, effectively signaling the muscle to grow.

💡Metabolic Disturbance

Metabolic disturbance occurs when exercise creates a buildup of metabolic byproducts in the muscles, such as lactic acid, which can also stimulate hypertrophy. The video script refers to this concept when discussing Blood Flow Restriction Training, where a tourniquet is used to block blood flow and create a state of metabolic stress with light loads.

💡Muscle Damage

Muscle damage, as discussed in the script, is the process of muscle fibers being broken down during intense exercise, which the body then repairs and rebuilds, leading to hypertrophy. It is one of the pathways through which training can induce muscle growth, although the script notes that it's not the only necessary mechanism.

💡Bilateral and Unilateral Exercises

Bilateral exercises involve both sides of the body moving simultaneously, like a squat, while unilateral exercises involve one side at a time, such as a single-leg press. The script emphasizes the importance of incorporating both types of exercises to ensure balanced muscle development and prevent imbalances.

💡Exercise Order

The order in which exercises are performed in a workout can influence training outcomes. The script discusses strategies such as pre-fatigue, where an isolated muscle is worked first before compound movements, to prioritize certain muscle groups and ensure they receive adequate stimulation.

💡Volume

Volume in the context of the script refers to the total amount of work done during a workout, typically expressed as the number of sets multiplied by repetitions. It is a critical variable for inducing hypertrophy, with a minimum of 10 working sets per muscle group recommended per week to stimulate muscle growth.

💡Repetition Ranges

Repetition ranges are the number of times an exercise is performed in a set. The script explains that a broad range, from 4 to 30 repetitions per set, can be effective for hypertrophy, depending on the individual's training program and goals.

💡Rest Intervals

Rest intervals are the periods of rest between sets of an exercise. The script discusses how varying these intervals can influence the type of muscle adaptation, with shorter rest periods emphasizing metabolic stress and longer rest periods allowing for recovery for higher mechanical tension.

💡Failure

Failure in the script is defined as the point at which one can no longer perform an exercise repetition with proper form. Approaching failure is discussed as a method to ensure a strong enough stimulus for hypertrophy, although the script also notes that complete failure is not always necessary or advisable.

Highlights

Hypertrophy can be induced through various training styles due to the adaptations of specificity.

Driving changes in strength and power are adaptations of specificity, while hypertrophy is driven by more well-rounded adaptations.

To induce hypertrophy, the muscle needs to be challenged and provided with nutrients to support growth.

Hypertrophy can be achieved through strong, frequent, or a combination of signals, not just high-intensity training.

Blood Flow Restriction Training can be effective for inducing hypertrophy even with low loads.

Different paths like mechanical tension and metabolic disturbance can lead to the same hypertrophic outcome.

Exercise choice for hypertrophy should include a combination of bilateral and unilateral exercises to prevent imbalances.

Compound movements are essential for driving hypertrophic adaptations.

Individual anthropometrics and biomechanics can affect how exercises target specific muscle groups.

Machines can help isolate muscles without worrying about stability, allowing for concentrated training on specific areas.

Exercise order can be manipulated for preference or to pre-fatigue certain muscles for targeted training.

A minimum of 10 working sets per week per muscle group is recommended for hypertrophy.

15 to 20 working sets per week is a more realistic range for maintaining and initiating hypertrophy.

The number of repetitions per set should be between 4 to 30, with an emphasis on getting close to failure.

Rest periods between sets can vary from 30 seconds to 5 minutes, depending on the training goals.

Total workout duration should be balanced with frequency to ensure adequate volume and recovery.

Systemic damage in recovery can be assessed through biomarkers and subjective measures like soreness and motivation.

Adjusting training volume and intensity based on time constraints and recovery status is crucial for consistent progress.

Transcripts

okay let's talk about hypertrophy

what are the ways that people can induce

hypertrophy hypertrophy has a very broad

range in terms of your actual

applications and this is why you have

and will continue to see countless

styles of training that all work if

you've ever thought thought to yourself

like why is it all these programs work

well that's because what's driving

changes in strength and Power

are the adaptations of specificity

what's driving changes in hypertrophy is

much more well-rounded and so you have

options to get that remember you're

training a movement and now you're

training a response and a muscle the

constant growth that's very very

different

so if we look at like the classic Dogma

we have to basically challenge the

muscle to need to come back in this case

specifically bigger and the nutrients

need to be there to support that growth

so all we really have to do is going

back to our our dogma of activation of

something on the cell wall that's got to

induce that signaling Cascade that's got

to be strong enough to cause the nucleus

to react to it to go to the ribosomes to

initiate this entire Cascade of protein

synthesis okay so that signal has to be

one of a couple of things either has to

be strong enough

one time it has to be frequent enough

or it has to be a combination of these

things I can get there with a lot of

frequency and a moderate signal

I can get there with very low frequency

and a large signal you have to do there

to not fail is to make sure the training

is hard enough if you choose the

frequency path then you actually have to

make sure you're not training too hard

to where you can actually maintain the

frequency the only wrong combination

here is infrequent and low intensity and

low volume that's it as long as one of

those three variables is high you're

going to get there because the

mechanisms that are needed to activate

that signaling Cascade are wide ranging

and this is why when we even see things

like Blood Flow Restriction Training

right this is when you put like a cuff

on your arm or your leg and you block

blood flow and you use no load or as low

as say 30 of your maximum and you take

it to fatigue failure that actually is

an equally effective way of inducing

hypertrophy despite the fact that you

know you're using 3 5 10 maybe most 20

to 30 percent of your winner at Max why

because you went through the route of

metabolic disturbance okay other ways

say a higher load maybe as heavy as you

can for say eight repetitions is going

to get through what's called mechanical

tension and so there's these different

paths that we can get to the same spot

now eventually these things have a

saturation point so you don't need all

three of these mechanisms the third one

of course being muscle damage fairly

simple when it comes to hypertrophy you

just have to make sure you do the work

and in terms of application what numbers

to hit we can go through each one of our

modifiable variables and walk through

some of our best practices in each

category so I'd love to talk about those

modifiable variables as they relate to

choice

order of movements volume so sets and

repetitions and frequency of training so

would love to go through this list one

by one starting with exercise choice I

would actually generally encourage

people to choose exercises in a variety

of Fashions I actually think that it's

important that you do some number of

combination of what we call bilateral

and unilateral exercises lateral being

think about it like a squat or bi

meaning two lateral you have two feet on

the ground moving in sequence here

unilateral is one so this could be

something as simple as a rear foot a

limited split squat it could be a single

leg leg press or single leg curl it

could be a pistol squat something where

the the individual limb is moving one at

a time you need to have a combination of

bilateral and unilateral I'm trading

that's good to do for strength as well

I'm also very important for making sure

for hypertrophy's sake you're not

getting any imbalances

um as you progress especially through

months and years of training so make

sure you're doing a little bit of a

combination so when you're choosing

exercises for hypertrophy you're going

to want to start with those bigger

compound movements that's going to be

drive a lot of the adaptation you can

get to these single joint movements like

a little bit later but having said that

because of of the way that people move

differently their bomb or their

anthropometrics and their biomechanics

and even their technique the same exact

exercise

will not necessarily work the same exact

muscle groups for multiple people it's

very important that you're actually

seeing progress there and don't worry

about well in the textbook the bench

press is supposed to be good for your

pack because if you're not actually

moving the right position or depends on

the angle in which your sternum actually

sits in your body a bench press may

actually be doing very little for your

pick and you may need to adjust to say

an incline bench or a decline bench or a

PEC fly so machines can be fantastic at

letting you isolate without having to

worry about things like stability your

low back position getting hurt where's

your neck at you can really concentrate

on just the movement concentrate on the

muscle and let everything else kind of

go away and ensure you're getting

training in that specific area those are

excellent recommendations what about

exercise order amazing so

implicit in this exercise Choice thing

it's what you're going to notice is

these modifiable variables interact with

each other right and you can clearly see

how when we talked about volume and to

clarify volume is the repetitions

multiplied by the sets that's typically

how we express volume well that's going

to be directly influenced by intensity

the heavier load you put on the barbell

the less repetitions you can do and the

inverse right rest intervals the shorter

you keep your rest intervals then either

the lower the weight has to go the

intensity or the lower the rep range has

to go order is the same thing choice is

the same thing so all of these things

modify each other they play a little bit

of a hand and what everything else does

so with the exercise Choice thing

rolling into exercise order you get to

play a couple of games here you can do

the thing you're just simply most

interested in first you can do this

thing called pre-fatigue so say you're

you're going to do a back day you could

go in and do nothing but isolated biceps

as your very first exercise and then

roll into uh your your pulling movements

because what you'll see is during most

pulling activities the biceps sorry

secondary or tertiary muscle group but

you've pre-fatigued them you've

guaranteed that muscle of most interest

got its its most training in and

everything else is secondary so you can

start if you want with single joint

movements you can start with isolation

stuff or you can start with compound

stuff either way it just really comes

down to preference and what you're

specifically trying to develop Let's

Talk Volume yep how much volume does

each muscle group need per week in order

to generate and for that matter maintain

hypertrophy right so the kind of a

minimum number we're gonna look for here

is 10 working sets per week correct per

muscle group correct I do a chin up or a

pull up

I'm going to mainly be training my back

muscles my lats but they'll be indirect

targeting of the biceps so how does one

meet this 10 sets per week minimum when

dividing different body parts and

thinking about this

direct and indirect Activation so two

things there's no specific exact rule

here and this is why these set ranges

are ranges right and this is why we

don't say like 10 is so 10 would be sort

of the minimum number you want to get to

the more realistic number that most

people especially if you're Advanced or

even intermediate is more like 15 to 20

working sets per week 10 was sort of

that like absolute minimum number to

maintain which is actually pretty cool

if you think about it this way uh if you

went in and you did three sets of ten

it's a very sets of 10 repetitions

correct yeah

you're already at three you did that

three days a week

you're at your nine that's almost 10. if

you also just went to the gym one day a

week you did three sets of ten and you

did three exercises

you're at nine working sets you're

basically done so achieving 10 sets per

week per muscle group and now we're not

even talking about indirect activation

of a secondary so you're going to hit 10

fairly easy

um extension to that hitting 20 is

actually still not that hard because of

what's actually going to happen there so

in your example if you're doing your

chin UPS well

would the biceps count there's no exact

rule there because uh there could be

technique issues it could be hand

positions so you mentioned chin up very

specifically a chin up is actually going

to put your hands in in this position

where your palms are facing up right

this is supination and pronation so

you're gonna be there but chin up

actually is going to be pretty good

activator in your biceps for most people

um so you would expect actually to

probably count that you've established

that 10 really to 20 sets per week yeah

is the kind of bounds for

um maintaining and initiating

hypertrophy yep if I were to like flag

one of them I would say 15 to 20. is

this that's right that you want to get

um working now

it gets complicated when you ask well

how many reps per set

do I have to get to okay well

we also can complicate that by

repetition type and tempo just sort of

let all that go for now and just think

if you're getting close to that range

you're in the spot and all you have to

do now is balance two things

recovery and continued training okay so

if you're somewhere in this 10 to 20

working sets range and you're in a

position where you can continue to do

that you're not so sore and so damaged

and beat up that you can't maintain that

volume for you know eight weeks at a

time or at least six weeks at a time

then I'd probably say either the style

of repetitions the amount of repetitions

per set you're doing are too much the

volume is getting to you however if

you're not seeing adaptations then I'd

say maybe the repetitions aren't enough

and so that's like that's the kind of

game you're running now there could be

plenty of other factors intensity of

course yeah intensity

um intent and then of course the other

things sleep nutrition

Etc all these other things that go into

our visible stressor category that we

always analyze so we've talked about

exercise choice and we've talked about

the number of sets that one needs in

order to induce hypertrophy per week

what about repetition ranges you've

mentioned some pretty broad repetition

ranges

how many repetitions per set is required

in order to induce hypertrophes yep so

there are two caveats here before I give

you well the number is somewhere between

like four

to 30 reps 30 repetitions absolutely in

fact I think you can go much higher the

first 20 have to be feel exceedingly

light correct and during those first 20

or so repetitions is the goal still to

contract the muscle as hard as possible

on each repetition so this is the caveat

caveat number one

is

there is an assumption

that by the end of this set you're

getting somewhat close to failure so you

don't have to go to Absolute failure

to to induce most like perjury but you

you also have to get kind of close if

you're going to do a set of 25 and you

finish it and you're like oh yeah like

that was kind of starting to get hard at

the end that's not going to be enough

if you're going to do a set of five or

six and the same sort of expression

comes out of your mouth it's not going

to be so in that case it doesn't matter

your rep range if you're not getting

someone close to failure again it

doesn't need to be complete failure a

good number to think about is like minus

two which is what we call reps and

Reserve which is sort of like I got

within two or so reps of failure and

then I stop and can we Define failure at

least for the sake of this portion of

the conversation as the point in which

you can no longer move the resistance

any more

in the concentric phase

of the exercise movement in good form

correct that's a really nice momentary

muscular failure is how we typically

Define it there's a wonderful review I

think it's open access that just came

out in the last handful of months Eric

helms's team out of New Zealand Eric's

is a great scientist and a very

experienced physique coach and a

competitor himself so he knows a lot

about this area what they basically

showed is

going all the way to failure in the

defining failure like you just did

failure is still needed

in caveat 2 which is again very very

highly trained individuals you won't see

people who are like Eric or other folks

who are six to eight to ten years in a

very serious training

who don't have to go to failure probably

a little bit more than what I just said

so the the layout that they brought in

their paper was very nice and they

basically said okay here's a couple of

scenarios in which going to failure is

maybe the best way to do it number one

you probably should do it

on a little bit of the safer exercises

so maybe taking your back squat on a

barbell to complete failure and doing

that as like a standard protocol

multiple times a week it's maybe not the

best choice so maybe if you're going to

do barwell back squats you take that to

your you know your your one or two reps

in reserve stop there it's a lot of work

it actually you're going to take that

failure to maybe the hack squat machine

or maybe even the leg extension machine

so a little bit of a safer exercise they

also can tend to be single joint

exercises don't have to be but they're

just ones that are not as complicated

and you're not likely to injure other

body parts when you're doing it all

right another way to go about it is

simply doing it on like the last

movement of the day

right and so again you're not going to

do it on your first three or four

exercises but whatever your last

finisher is you'll hit total failure on

that one and that kind of keeps you in a

range of yeah you hit some failure you

got a lot of overall work done so that's

a lot of stimulus that's a lot of noise

going to that nucleus it says grow grow

grow but you didn't totally obliterate

yourself what about rest between sets

great this is the interplay now so one

actually thing we said for a long time

is you want to stick between 30 to 90

seconds of rest between sets for

hypertrophy more recent research a lot

of this out of Brad schoenfell's lab and

others have shown that that's just

doesn't seem to be the case it can take

up to three to five minutes of rest in

between sets and be fine the caveat here

though is this

if you're gonna rest longer that means

the metabolic challenge is lower so you

need to then increase the challenge in

either mechanical tension which think

about as weight load or muscle breakdown

so you can't lower one of the variables

keep everything else the same and expect

the same result so if you're going to

have more rest then you need to either

preserve the load on your bar or the

volume one of the two has to happen so

this gives people a lot of opportunity I

generally tell people if you're going to

train for hypertrophy it's probably best

to stay in a two minute range at most

you can go longer

but a lot of people have a hard time

actually coming back and then executing

that next set with enough intent

to get there and or it's going to make

your workouts tremendously long

three exercises per muscle group

first exercise

slightly heavier loads so repetition

range is somewhere between let's say

five and eight

with perhaps hitting failure or close to

it on the last set

rest periods of somewhere between two or

let's let's get wild and say five

minutes okay so it's a little bit more

of a strength type workout at that point

but then moving to a second exercise of

three or four sets where the repetition

ranges and now 8 to 15.

shortening the rest periods to 90

seconds or so and then on the third

exercise

repetition ranges of 12 to 30. pretty

short rest intervals maybe 30 seconds

between uh between sets would that allow

somebody to Target all three forms of

major adaptation at better than to for

instance do all the high repetition work

in one workout per week and then higher

loads in the other workout it doesn't

matter if you divide them up or combine

them it would not matter I would say it

matters in the sense of your personal

practical situation the formula you set

up there in a second is great if you

want to do it the other way that's fine

you really it's kind of idiot proof you

can set this up however you'd like you

could actually do the inverse

theoretically you could do the sets of

30 first and then move to your sets of

eight it doesn't really matter because

we're trying to just get to a certain

total stimuli and you're going to hit it

eventually so you have a lot of room to

play here you also have a lot of room to

adapt based on your circumstances God

I'm short on time today

typically my workout takes me 60 Minutes

for this plan I have I've only got 35

today what do I do if you're training

for a purge fee you need to make sure

you hit that total volume so in this

particular case lower the load lower the

rest intervals and just get to the burn

and get going as much as you can if

you're training for strength I would

rather you cut your volume in half

get those few repetitions done at that

high load and just don't do very many

sets today that's a better result so the

goal that you're going after is going to

determine what we call chaos management

which is that thing like that um running

out of time today my time is short or I

don't even think my time was short

something got cut off I'm not feeling it

today I'm in a hotel

etc etc etc which is life right that's

going to be 10 to 50 of your workouts is

going to be chaos management I'd like to

ask about total workout duration which

dovetails with frequency because

if one is hitting the appropriate number

of sets per week

and one is combining different muscle

groups on the same days well then

workouts are going to be a very

different duration than if one is doing

a different body part each day for

instance and so I feel like any

discussion about frequency has to be

within the context of workout duration

and vice versa yeah if you are a

a lifting junkie and you're very

consistent in your schedule I'm actually

okay with body parts but most people

or not that and so the concern there is

if you say are isolating and waiting to

do your glutes on one day of the week

and something happens on that day

you might go another 13 days now before

training it you know between workouts

and that's really difficult to maintain

the frequency won't be high enough

unless the load and volume on that one

day is astronomically high it's just not

going to happen

um frequency in terms of how many days

per week doesn't matter that much as

long as the total load and failure are

equivalent

practically it's a challenge so it's

hard because life gets in the way for

most people so I actually prefer doing

something more like three days a week of

total body and if something happens

you've just missed that body part for 48

hours 72 hours I like that a little

better for most people not because it's

more effective but just because

it's a little bit more resilient to life

and you can get there um if you wanted

to actually do a little bit of a

combination so if you wanted to do like

two days a week of whole body and then

two days a week of a little bit of a

body part split then you're actually

sort of hedging against all risks there

um as long as you get to that total

number so you told us a lot about volume

and frequency and how that relates to

protein synthesis and Recovery to evoke

the hypertrophy adaptation response

how should people think about systemic

damage in recovery how does one

determine whether or not your entire

body needs complete rest or or low level

active rest or exercise of a different

kind yeah yeah sure okay so we actually

do this in a couple of different ways

let's start local and work back to

systemic number one what you're really

concerned about is at the local muscle

level is am I going to create excessive

damage

and I don't necessarily mean muscle

damage here I mean injury right so um

the kind of rule of thumb we use is like

three out of ten in terms of soreness if

you're more than three out of ten in

terms of soreness we're going to start

asking questions if you're higher than

six out of ten we're probably not

training this is subjective total

subjective measure right and you'll

you'll know very quickly right I feel

like if you can barely graze your PEC

with your fingertip and then you're like

ah I don't care what you score that

we're not training there's just no

damage if you're three out of ten if

you're just like oh I'm kind of like a

little bit stiff here but once you get

warmed up you start feeling okay you're

probably okay to proceed there so that

is is

a very easy way to just think about

soreness you're going to be a little bit

tight depending on your training

frequency now zooming out to systemic we

use a whole host of things we can look

at things like creatine kinase that's

the very common one marker of muscle

damage we'll actually look at LDH we'll

look at myoglobulin we use those

biomarkers we'll actually also look at

probably a couple things you're familiar

with alt and ASD these are excellent

biomarkers of muscle breakdown so if we

are actually suspecting that this is a

chronic problem we're going to actually

go and pull some blood if it's just like

I'm super sore today we're going to use

that subjective marker but if we're

seeing this as constant like man are we

really pushing you way too much is there

some sort of systemic problem

um we're going to blood and we're going

to look at all those different things if

we are more concerned with things like

total training volume systemic overload

then we may turn to something more like

sleep there's a lot of information we

can actually get gland from changes in

sleep behavior and function you can also

look at things like HRV heart rate

variability which is a very classic

marker and much more sensitive to

changes with training than something

like a resting heart rate which is which

is one thing you can actually do that's

totally cost free just look at your

changes and any elevation resting heart

rate over time

especially more than three to five

consecutive days last one I would add

there is simply motivation

so if you're really training hard and

you like training hard and you just like

cannot force yourself to go anymore that

end of itself can be a good indication

of it's maybe not the day maybe not the

week with all of these things you want

to be careful about overreacting to a

single day measure my default generally

if hypertrophy is the goal remember

volume is the driver there so if I can

like can we get in can we go real light

let's go to 6 out of 10 rpe so relative

perceived exertion maybe we'll reduce

the range of motion maybe we'll make a

little bit easier maybe go to machines

or instead of going a squat we'll just

do you know uh leg extension something

like that but I want to still get enough

volume in there that will keep you on

target any again even going at 50 not

not to high repetition you know 50 for a

set of ten three sets just get a nice

blood flow in there get it in get it out

aid in recovery and then move on and

come back the next day that's probably

what I would do rather than canning the

entire session