Full Body 5x Per Week: Why High Frequency Training Is So Effective

Summary

The video script discusses the benefits of a full-body workout routine done five days a week, challenging the traditional body part split approach. It delves into scientific research, including the Norwegian Frequency Project, to support the effectiveness of high-frequency training for muscle growth, especially for more experienced lifters. The script also addresses concerns about recovery and suggests strategies for volume and intensity management while emphasizing the importance of a proper warm-up and adapting to the training style.

Takeaways

• 🏋️ Full-body training five days a week is the speaker's current routine, which they find effective for muscle growth and recovery.
• 🤔 The traditional gym bro's skepticism towards full-body training is challenged by the idea that training frequency can be higher for advanced trainees compared to beginners.
• 🔄 The push-pull leg split and upper-lower splits are suggested as alternative training options that also hit muscles multiple times a week.
• 📊 Scientific literature supports that higher training frequency can be beneficial for muscle growth, especially in more experienced lifters.
• 🧬 The concept of muscle protein synthesis and its elevation post-workout is key to understanding the benefits of high-frequency training.
• 🤷‍♂️ There is ongoing debate about the correlation between muscle protein synthesis and hypertrophy, with some studies suggesting no direct link.
• 🇳🇴 The 'Norwegian Frequency Project' is highlighted for its findings that suggest very high-frequency training (6 days a week full-body) led to greater strength and muscle gains.
• 🔄 A replication study with intermediate lifters did not find the same dramatic results, suggesting that high-frequency training benefits may vary by experience level.
• 📈 The importance of weekly volume and its distribution across workouts is emphasized, with high-frequency training allowing for more quality volume accumulation.
• 💪 The speaker finds full-body training allows for better intensity and recovery due to lower volume per workout and focusing on one exercise per muscle.
• 🚀 The 'repeated bout effect' is mentioned as a factor that enhances recovery over time with consistent training stimulus.

Q & A

What is the training split the speaker has been using for the last six months?

The speaker has been using a full body training split five days a week for the last six months.

What is the common misconception about full body training according to the script?

The common misconception is that full body training is only suitable for beginners and involves training only two or three days a week.

What does the speaker suggest about the optimal training frequency for advanced trainees?

The speaker suggests that for advanced trainees, the optimal training frequency is higher, as they can elevate muscle protein balance for a shorter period after training.

What is the 'push-pull leg' split mentioned in the script?

The 'push-pull leg' split is a training routine where each muscle is hit twice a week, and it has been highlighted in scientific literature as beneficial for muscle growth.

What is the 'Norwegian frequency project' referred to in the script?

The 'Norwegian frequency project' is a study conducted by Norwegian sport scientists that aimed to give their national powerlifting team a competitive edge by comparing the effects of training full-body three days a week versus six days a week.

What were the results of the 'Norwegian frequency project'?

The results showed that the group training six days a week got nearly twice as big and strong, increasing their lifts by a total of 10 percent versus five percent.

What is the 'repeated bout effect' mentioned in the script?

The 'repeated bout effect' is a phenomenon where the body adapts to a new stimulus and learns to recover faster, reducing the feeling of soreness after training.

How does the speaker suggest managing volume and intensity in full body training?

The speaker suggests spreading out weekly volume across more workouts to reduce the likelihood of wasted sets and focusing on one exercise per muscle to maintain intensity and recovery.

What is the speaker's personal experience with full body training regarding recovery?

The speaker found that they could recover faster with full body training due to the lower volume per workout and the ability to focus on one exercise per muscle.

What are the potential concerns with high-frequency training mentioned in the script?

Potential concerns include the need to stop short of failure initially to allow for recovery, the possibility of training muscles while still sore, and the importance of a full warm-up to prevent injury.

What program does the speaker offer for those interested in high-frequency full-body training?

The speaker offers an intermediate to advanced high-frequency full-body program on JeffNippert.com, which includes a 10-week plan based on the principles discussed in the video.

Outlines

00:00

💪 Full Body Training Splits and Their Benefits

The speaker discusses their experience with a full body training split done five days a week for six months, contrasting it with traditional body part splits. They explain that while body part splits focus on one or two muscle groups per session, full body training can be more beneficial, especially for advanced trainees. The speaker references scientific literature suggesting that hitting each muscle twice a week is optimal for muscle growth and mentions the push-pull leg split and upper lower splits as alternatives. They also discuss the importance of training frequency for beginners versus advanced trainees, citing research that shows advanced trainees benefit from more frequent muscle stimulation. The infamous Norwegian frequency project is highlighted, which showed significant strength and muscle gains with a six-day full body training program. However, the speaker notes the importance of not overtraining and the need for adequate volume spread throughout the week for optimal results.

05:01

🏋️ High-Frequency Training: Volume, Intensity, and Recovery

This paragraph delves into the specifics of high-frequency training, focusing on volume, intensity, and recovery. The speaker explains the scientific consensus on optimal weekly volume ranges for muscle hypertrophy and the concept of a per-workout volume ceiling, which suggests that doing more than five to ten sets per muscle in a single session may not be beneficial. They argue that high-frequency training helps avoid 'wasted sets' by spreading volume across multiple workouts. The speaker also discusses the benefits of full-body training for intensity, as it allows for greater focus on fewer exercises per session, leading to faster recovery and better performance. The 'repeated bout effect' is introduced as a phenomenon where the body adapts to training stimuli, improving recovery over time. The speaker addresses common concerns about recovery in high-frequency training, emphasizing the importance of managing volume and intensity to avoid overtraining and ensuring proper warm-up to mitigate initial soreness.

10:03

🚀 Launching a High-Frequency Full-Body Training Program

The speaker announces the launch of a new intermediate to advanced high-frequency full-body training program on their website, which is designed around the principles discussed in the video. They provide a brief overview of the program's structure, which includes three training phases: adaptation to high-frequency training, a ramp-up in intensity and volume for hypertrophy, and a deload week followed by a high-rep week to measure gains. The program offers a detailed breakdown of volume for each body part, allowing for personalization based on the trainee's level and goals. The speaker also mentions a promotional price for the program during the launch week and invites viewers to follow along with their training journey, promising a series of full-body science-based workouts in upcoming videos.

Keywords

💡Full Body Training

Full body training refers to a workout routine where all major muscle groups are trained in each session, typically over multiple days a week. In the video, the theme revolves around the benefits and effectiveness of training the entire body five days a week as opposed to body part splits. The script discusses how full body training is often considered a beginner's routine but can be highly effective for muscle growth even for advanced trainees.

💡Training Split

A training split is the division of muscle groups or workouts over different days of the week. The video script explains different types of splits, such as body part splits and full body splits, and how they affect muscle growth and recovery. The main focus is on the full body five days a week split, which the speaker has been using for six months.

💡Muscle Protein Synthesis

Muscle protein synthesis (MPS) is the process by which muscle fibers are repaired and built after exercise, leading to muscle growth. The script discusses how the frequency of training affects MPS, with research suggesting that more frequent training can lead to higher spikes in MPS, which may contribute to greater muscle growth.

💡Hypertrophy

Hypertrophy refers to the increase in muscle fiber size, which is a key goal of bodybuilding and strength training. The video script explores different training methods and their impact on hypertrophy, including the role of training frequency and volume in stimulating muscle growth.

💡Training Frequency

Training frequency is the number of times a muscle group is trained within a given period, typically a week. The script argues that optimal training frequency differs between beginners and advanced trainees, with the latter potentially benefiting more from higher frequencies due to a quicker return to baseline in muscle protein synthesis.

💡Push-Pull-Leg Split

The push-pull-leg split is a workout routine that divides exercises into pushing movements (e.g., chest, shoulders, triceps), pulling movements (e.g., back, biceps), and leg exercises. The script mentions this as an alternative to full body training, suggesting it hits each muscle group twice a week, which is supported by scientific literature for muscle growth.

💡Upper Lower Splits

Upper lower splits refer to a training routine that separates upper body and lower body exercises into different workout sessions, usually done on alternating days. The script briefly mentions this as another effective training split for muscle growth, alongside full body and push-pull-leg splits.

💡Repeated Bout Effect

The repeated bout effect is a phenomenon where the body adapts to a stimulus, such as exercise, and recovers faster with subsequent exposures. The script explains that this effect can reduce muscle soreness and improve recovery in a high-frequency training regimen, allowing for more effective training over time.

💡Volume

In the context of strength training, volume refers to the total amount of work done in a workout, often measured by the number of sets and reps. The script discusses how spreading volume across more workouts can reduce the risk of 'wasted sets' and ensure that each set contributes to hypertrophy.

💡Intensity

Intensity in a workout refers to the amount of effort or resistance used during an exercise. The script suggests that full body training can allow for higher intensity due to the lower volume per workout, enabling better performance and recovery.

💡Recovery

Recovery in training is the process of rest and repair that allows the body to adapt and grow stronger. The script addresses common misconceptions about recovery in high-frequency training, explaining that with proper management of volume and intensity, recovery is feasible and can even be improved.

Highlights

Full body training five days a week has been effective for the speaker for the last six months.

Body part splits are commonly suggested, but the push-pull leg split and upper lower splits are also effective for muscle growth.

Full body training is often seen as a beginner's routine, but it can be beneficial for more advanced trainees as well.

Optimal training frequency varies between beginners and advanced trainees, with advanced trainees benefiting from more frequent muscle stimulation.

The time course of elevated muscle protein balance decreases as trainees become more advanced.

Frequent muscle stimulation can lead to increased muscle protein synthesis, potentially resulting in better muscle growth.

Some studies question the direct correlation between muscle protein synthesis and hypertrophy.

The Norwegian frequency project showed significant strength and muscle gains with a six-day full-body training week.

A replication study with intermediate lifters did not find the same dramatic results, suggesting the benefits may be more pronounced in advanced lifters.

Higher training frequencies can lead to higher volumes, which is a significant benefit of high-frequency training.

High-frequency full-body training allows for better volume and fatigue management throughout the week.

There is a suggested per-workout volume ceiling for optimal hypertrophy, which high-frequency training can help avoid exceeding.

Full-body training can allow for higher intensity due to lower volume per workout and more recovery between exercises.

The repeated bout effect can improve recovery over time with high-frequency training.

High-frequency training may reduce the likelihood of experiencing post-workout soreness, improving performance.

Potential concerns with high-frequency training include the need to manage volume and intensity carefully to avoid overtraining.

The speaker launched a new intermediate to advanced high-frequency full-body program for those interested in this style of training.

Transcripts

full body five days a week this is the

training split I've been running for the

last six months and I think it's great

now when I explain this setup to your

average gym bro they tend to look at me

like I've got 10 heads sometimes they'll

suggest that body part splits make more

sense where you just destroy one or two

muscles a day and then give them a full

week of rest to let the muscles grow and

while this clearly can work I think

there are much better options out there

one option would be the push-pull leg

split where you're at least hitting each

muscle twice a week

something highlighted in the scientific

literature has been better for muscle

growth upper lower splits are also solid

and while full body training is

relatively popular most people seem to

think of it as a beginner's routine

we're only training two maybe three days

a week which is exactly why this split

stands out so much there just seems to

be something wrong about hitting every

muscle every day except there isn't now

I was first introduced to this style of

training exactly three years ago in an

interview that I did with menno hence

women's where he explained that optimal

training frequency is different for

beginners than it is for advanced

trainees if you are a beginner then most

research shows that there is actually no

benefit to training a muscle group more

than once a week hitting each body part

once a week that works very well for

beginners but as you get more advanced

the time course that you can elevate

muscle protein balance that periods

basically decreases as you get more

advanced so basically after you lift

weights there's a period of time when

muscle protein synthesis increases and

the muscle becomes more sensitive to

amino acids this is why your muscle

grows in the first place and research

tells us that that response stays

elevated for about two days or so in new

lifters but actually returns to near

baseline after just 12 hours or so in

more experienced Trinis so the original

theory was that if you're a well-trained

lifter the more frequently you can hit a

muscle the more spikes you'll see and

muscle protein synthesis and the better

muscle growth you'll get as a result but

the question is do these more frequent

spikes and muscle protein synthesis

actually add up to produce more muscle

growth over time well that's a very good

and very controversial question some

skeptics have pointed out that these

studies only measured mixed muscle

protein synthesis which isn't as

relevant for building contractile muscle

tissue as myofibrillar muscle protein

synthesis also in 2014 one group of

researchers really flip to this theory

on its head claiming that acute protein

synthesis doesn't even correlate with

hypertrophy at all however when I

brought this study up here on the

channel at another protein researcher

reassure me that protein synthesis does

in fact predict hypertrophy an idea I

personally think is more supported by

the literature overall so while the jury

is still out on the theory I think what

we really want to know is will this high

frequency style of training get me more

jacked and this is where it gets really

interesting in 2012 a group of Norwegian

sport scientists conducted a secret

frequency study that would come to be

known as the infamous Norwegian

frequency project now because this study

was originally designed to get their

national powerlifting team a competitive

edge the results were never fully

published not only presented at

clandestine scientific conferences with

one dusty abstract making its way onto

the Internet but despite all its secrecy

I still like this study because it used

very highly trained lifters so they

split subjects into a group hitting

their full-body three days a week and a

group hitting their full-body six days a

week the rest of the program including

weekly volume was exactly the same and

after 15 weeks of training the six day

per week group got nearly twice as big

and strong increasing their lifts by a

total of 10 percent versus five percent

while also gaining significantly more

muscle granted while I do personally

trust these authors and the results

because this data set was never

published in a peer-reviewed journal

there is reason to be skeptical so last

year a different team of researchers

attempted to replicate this infamous

Norwegian project but this time they

used early intermediate lifters and only

ran the study for six weeks compared to

the original 15 so perhaps it's not

surprising that they didn't find much of

anything similar strength and size gains

between the three-day per week and six

day per week programme but at worst I

think this study shows us that both

frequencies can be effective and does

lend support to the idea that the

benefits of higher frequencies that are

likely seen with more experienced

lifters than less experienced lifters

still an important point to consider

with all this research is that weekly

volumes are always equated between

groups whereas in the real world they

probably wouldn't be how frequencies

tend to lead to higher volumes this has

led many experts in the field to argue

that these studies don't even account

for the single greatest benefit of

higher frequency training being able to

accumulate more high-quality volume and

I think that's a good point

when I was in Australia training with

Eric Helms he explained to me that the

main

fit of high-frequency full-body training

is simply being able to spread out your

weekly volume to help increase the

quality of each set the first question

you're gonna ask me why do I choose to

train for why that's right so I ask

myself I think for the most part the

benefit is that it's a way to manipulate

volume spread if I did like we did today

press cafes and then have upper body I

have a way more energy and I can

distribute the same amount of volume

with less fatigue over the week Grint

doing formal body sensors brings more

about volume and fatigue management and

this is how I've come to think about

training splits in general how well can

we organize these three variables into a

training week in other words does our

split allow us to reach optimal volumes

at an appropriate intensity while

allowing for recovery so let's start

with falling so there's general

scientific consensus at this point that

10 to 20 working sets is a good weekly

volume range for most muscles but it's

not enough to determine how much volume

you're doing per week you also need to

consider how much volume you're doing

her workout as new data suggests that

there's a per workout ceiling for volume

somewhere around five to ten sets per

muscle this means that after you've done

five sets or so for any given muscle in

a single workout any extra work that you

do

risks falling into the wasted sets or

junk volume category as far as

hypertrophy goes so splitting up your

volume across more workouts throughout

the week reduces the likelihood of doing

any so called wasted sets and you can

make sure that they all count this is

one advantage of doing high frequency

training so what about intensity well I

think full-body training has an

advantage here as well and this is

something I definitely didn't expect

when I first started this split because

I thought that hitting the same muscle

on consecutive training days would just

sort of tire me out as the week went on

but I've actually found the opposite

because I'm normally only hitting one

exercise per muscle that can really give

that exercise my full focus and

attention and because the volume per

workout is so low compared to other

splits I've run I find I'm able to

recover from it so much faster as well

for example on day three of my new

program for lower body all I have to do

is hit three sets of leg press and four

sets of calves so I find I'm able to

execute those leg presses so much better

than if they came after say squats and

lunges on a leg day

and honestly never having to do a full

leg day on this split has been great

historically I'd always feel so fatigued

by the time I got to the third or fourth

exercise that no matter how determined I

was my performance would just start to

take a hit at some point as the workout

drawn down and you can contrast this

with full body training where you're

normally only hitting one exercise four

legs on any given day so what about

recovery this is the thing most people

seem to have the most reservation with I

mean there's just no way you can recover

with only 24 hours between workouts

right actually I would say it's not that

hard remember when I say we're hitting

chest every day I'm not saying that

we're hitting a full Monday chest day

every day that would definitely be

overtraining instead you can think of it

like taking a typical Monday chest

workout and just splitting it up across

four or five days of the week also by

the second or third week a phenomenon

known as the repeated bout effect will

kick in where your body adapts to the

new stimulus and learns to recover

faster than you ever have before as a

result you likely never feel sore after

training which is actually a good thing

as soreness simply impedes performance

so a high-frequency split should

actually improve your body's ability to

recover not impair it this is of course

assuming you don't overdo it without

their volume or intensity in the

individual workouts especially early on

so while all of this certainly seems

like a homerun for high-frequency

training there are a few potential

concerns to be aware of first because

there isn't as much time for recovery

between sessions it is very important

that you stop a bit shorter of failure

for the first few weeks generally being

more in the 7 to 8 RPE zone rather than

the usual 8 to 9 then as the repeated

bout effect kicks in your body adapts

you can start to train closer to failure

again may also need to train some

muscles while still sore for the first

week or two which can be annoying but

granted this is common on any new

training routine but still does

highlight the importance of doing a full

and complete warm-up before training of

course after the first week or two this

soreness concern should totally go away

as well so is full-body 5 days a week

the best training split I would say for

me at the moment yeah I think it is

after years of running push-pull leg

splits and upper lower splits I think

this routine is giving me exactly the

motivation I need for continued progress

still I wouldn't necessarily put it on a

pedestal and say it's the best in all

contexts

if you're interested in a full summary

of how I think it stacks up against

other splits you can pause the screen

here and see what might be best for you

at the moment and if you guys would like

to give this style of training a shot I

did just launch my new intermediate to

advanced high frequency full-body

program over on Jeff nipper comm which

builds a complete 10-week program around

the principles discussed in this video

now if you've only been in the gym for a

year or two I'd recommend starting with

my fundamentals hypertrophy program

instead which also has a full body

routine included but only as you in the

gym three days a week instead of five so

the program includes three training

phases block one is more focused on

getting adapted to the high frequency

training and allowing the repeated Vout

effect to kick in block two ramps up

intensity and volume for a massive

hypertrophic stimulus before leading

into week nine which is a full d load

and then you get to go crazy and week

ten where you perform as many reps as

possible on the main lifts and see what

kind of gains you've made now there's

also a full breakdown of volume for

every body part so you can modify the

numbers slightly up or slightly down

depending on your specific level of

advancement and what areas or body parts

you want to focus on and I'm going to be

running this program myself for the next

few months so if you guys want to follow

along with me you can pick it up for

just 2999 for the week of launch and

then after that it'll go up to thirty

nine ninety nine so I'll put a button

over here next to my head to the new

program if you'd like to check it out

don't forget to subscribe if you haven't

already I've got five full body science

applied workouts on the way starting

next week and I'll see you guys all here

in the next video