How HARD Should You Train To Build Muscle?

Summary

Dieses Video befasst sich mit einem der wichtigsten Fragen im Fitnessbereich: Wie hart sollten wir trainieren? Experten wie Dr. Mike Isratel, IFBB Pro John Meadows, Dr. Steffy Cohen und Dr. Eric Helms teilen ihre Ansichten dazu, wie hart man trainieren sollte, um Muskelwachstum zu fördern. Sie betonen die Bedeutung der individuellen Anpassung, des Trainingsphasen und der richtigen Balance zwischen Intensität und Erholung. Die Erkenntnisse aus der Wissenschaft und der Praxis zeigen, dass ein effektives Training sowohl eine angemessene Intensität als auch eine gezielte Erholung beinhaltet, um die Muskeln optimal anregen zu können.

Takeaways

• 🏋️‍♂️ Die Härte der Trainingseinheiten hängt von der individuellen Belastbarkeit und dem aktuellen Trainingszyklus ab.
• 📈 Die empfundene Anstrengung (Rating of Perceived Exertion, RPE) und die übrigen Wiederholungen (Reps in Reserve, RIR) sind wichtige Maße für die Trainingshärte.
• 🔧 Am Anfang eines Mesocycles sollte man weniger hart trainieren und mit niedrigeren Volumen beginnen, während am Ende des Zyklus eine höhere Intensität und größere Volumen angestrebt werden sollten.
• 💡 Ein kleiner Pump-Effekt und geringe bis mäßige Muskelschmerzen können auf eine stimulierende Belastung hinweisen.
• 🔝 Während des Trainings sollte die Last und die Anzahl der Wiederholungen kontinuierlich erhöht werden, um die Muskelhypertrophie zu fördern.
• 🚫 Anfänger sollten vermeiden, früh im Trainingszyklus Sets bis zur Erschöpfung durchzuführen, um die Belastung für zukünftige Workouts nicht zu erhöhen.
• 🌟 Für Fortgeschrittene kann die Verwendung von intensiven Trainingstechniken wie Cluster- und Drop-Sets hilfreich sein, um Trainingsplateaus zu überwinden.
• 🤔 Die Bedeutung von Übungsauswahl und Reihenfolge ändert sich mit dem Trainingsfortschritt, wobei Fortgeschrittene größere Freiheiten bei der Übungswahl haben.
• 🏆 Um herauszufinden, wie stark oder groß man werden kann, ist es notwendig, seine Grenzen herauszufordern und intensive Trainingsphasen einzuplanen.
• 🧠 Die individuelle Anpassung der Trainingsbelastung ist entscheidend, um eine effektive Stimulation zu erreichen, während gleichzeitig die Erholung für die nächsten Workouts gewährleistet ist.
• 🧐 Die Wissenschaft und die Erfahrung erfolgreicher Athleten, Coaches und Wissenschaftler sollten kombiniert werden, um das beste Trainingsergebnis zu erzielen.

Q & A

Was bedeutet RPE und wie wird es verwendet?

RPE steht für Rating of Perceived Exertion und bewertet, wie anstrengend ein Satz auf einer Skala von 1 bis 10 war. Ein RPE von 10 bedeutet, dass man keine weiteren Wiederholungen mehr hätte schaffen können, während ein RPE von 9 bedeutet, dass man noch eine weitere Wiederholung hätte schaffen können.

Was ist der Unterschied zwischen RPE und RIR?

RIR steht für Reps in Reserve und ist das Gegenteil von RPE. Ein RIR von 0 bedeutet, dass man keine weiteren Wiederholungen mehr hätte schaffen können, was einem RPE von 10 entspricht. Ein RIR von 1 bedeutet, dass man noch eine weitere Wiederholung hätte schaffen können, was einem RPE von 9 entspricht.

Warum sollte man laut Dr. Mike Israetel nicht immer so hart wie möglich trainieren?

Dr. Mike Israetel argumentiert, dass man nicht immer so hart wie möglich trainieren sollte, da die Ermüdung durch zu hartes Training zukünftige Trainingseinheiten negativ beeinflussen kann. Es ist wichtig, hart genug zu trainieren, um Fortschritte zu machen, aber nicht so hart, dass die nächste Trainingseinheit darunter leidet.

Wie sollte man laut Dr. Mike Israetel das Training innerhalb eines Mesocycles anpassen?

Zu Beginn eines vier- bis achtwöchigen Trainingsprogramms sollte man weniger intensiv und mit geringeren Volumina trainieren. Gegen Ende des Mesocycles sollte man härter und mit höherem Volumen trainieren. Man startet mit etwa drei Wiederholungen in Reserve (RIR) und erhöht die Last und/oder die Wiederholungen jede Woche, um die RIR zu reduzieren.

Was ist das Hauptargument von Dr. Mike Israetel gegen das Training bis zum Muskelversagen in den ersten Wochen eines Programms?

Dr. Mike Israetel betont, dass in den ersten Wochen eines Programms das Muskelversagen nicht notwendig ist, da die Neuheit des Trainings ausreicht, um Wachstum zu stimulieren. Das Training bis zum Versagen sollte für die letzten Wochen aufgespart werden, wenn die Trainingsreize weniger neu sind.

Was sagt John Meadows über die Bedeutung der Trainingsintensität für Anfänger und Fortgeschrittene?

John Meadows erklärt, dass Anfänger nicht bis zum Muskelversagen trainieren oder ein hohes Volumen benötigen, um Fortschritte zu machen. Für Fortgeschrittene ist es jedoch wichtig, die Intensität zu erhöhen und gelegentlich Techniken wie Cluster-Sets oder Drop-Sets zu verwenden, um Plateaus zu überwinden und das Muskelwachstum zu fördern.

Wie betont John Meadows die Rolle der richtigen Form im Training?

John Meadows betont, dass die richtige Form entscheidend ist, selbst für fortgeschrittene Athleten. Es ist wichtig, kontinuierlich an der Form zu arbeiten und sicherzustellen, dass die Intensität des Trainings nicht auf Kosten einer übermäßigen Technikverschlechterung geht.

Welche Perspektive bietet Dr. Steffy Cohen auf das Training für Spitzenleistungen?

Dr. Steffy Cohen hebt hervor, dass Spitzenleistungen durch obsessive und intensive Arbeit erreicht werden. Sie betont, dass man sich ständig selbst herausfordern und an seine Grenzen gehen muss, um große Erfolge zu erzielen. Training bis zum Muskelversagen ist ein zentraler Aspekt ihres Programms.

Welche Rolle spielt laut Dr. Eric Helms die Trainingsintensität für das Muskelwachstum?

Dr. Eric Helms erklärt, dass eine hohe Trainingsintensität notwendig ist, um effektiv Muskelwachstum zu stimulieren. Man sollte sich bei den Arbeitssätzen meist in einem RPE-Bereich von 6 bis 10 bewegen, um mechanische Spannung zu erzeugen, die für das Wachstum erforderlich ist.

Wie fasst Greg Knuckles die optimale Trainingsintensität und das Trainingsvolumen zusammen?

Greg Knuckles betont, dass die optimale Trainingsintensität und das Trainingsvolumen vom individuellen Athleten, der Übung und den Zielen abhängen. Für Hypertrophie sollte man in der Regel nahe am Muskelversagen trainieren. Für Krafttraining gibt es sowohl Nutzen aus Sätzen nahe am Versagen als auch aus Sätzen mit mehreren Wiederholungen in Reserve, um technische Fertigkeiten zu üben.

Outlines

00:00

🏋️‍♂️ Grundprinzipien des Trainingsintensitätsmanagements

Dieses Video befasst sich mit der wichtigen Frage der Fitness-Trainingshärte. Experte Mike erklärt, dass Trainingsintensität variiert und von der aktuellen Trainingsphase abhängt. Am Anfang eines Mesocycles sollte man weniger hart trainieren, während am Ende erhöhte Härte und Volumen angestrebt werden. RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion) und RIR (Reps in Reserve) sind entscheidende Maßstäbe für die Intensität. Mike betont, dass man trainieren sollte, um Gewinne zu erzielen, ohne die nächste Trainingseinheit zu beeinträchtigen. Er empfiehlt, mit einer Last zu beginnen, die etwa drei Reservereps zulässt und diese Woche für Woche zu erhöhen, während man die RAR (Reps and Reserve) um etwa eins verringert, um optimale Anpassungen zu fördern.

05:01

🏅 Fortgeschrittene Trainingsstrategien für IFBB Pro John Meadows

John Meadows, IFBB Pro, betont, dass die Trainingshärte hauptsächlich von dem Fortschrittsstadium des Trainiers abhängt. Für Anfänger reicht es oft, die richtige Form zu erlernen und kleine Stärkezuwächse zu erzielen. Bei Fortgeschrittenen wird die Intensität erhöht, um Platten zu überwinden. Er empfiehlt, Cluster- und Drop-Sets, um die Muskeln zu herausfordern. John betont auch die Bedeutung der korrekten Form und warnt davor, durch zu hohe Intensität zu trainieren, was zu einer Technikzerrüttung führen kann.

10:02

💪 Trainingsintensität und individuelle Anpassung nach Steffy Cohen

Steffy Cohen, 25-malige Weltrekordhalterin im Powerlifting, betont die individuelle Anpassung und die Notwendigkeit, Grenzen zu überschreiten, um die bestmögliche Leistung zu erzielen. Sie glaubt, dass viele Menschen nicht hart genug trainieren und sich oft in einer '50/50 Zone' befinden, in der sie nicht ausreichend anstrengen und nicht richtig ausruhen. Steffy plädiert für harte Trainingsphasen, in denen man fast jedes Training nahe am Erschöpfungsort trainiert, um das Nervensystem und den Körper an die Anforderungen von schweren Lasten zu gewöhnen. Sie betont auch die Rolle von Weisheit aus erfolgreichen Athleten, Trainern und wissenschaftlicher Literatur für effektives Training.

15:03

📊 Wissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf Trainingsintensität nach Dr. Eric Helms

Dr. Eric Helms, der seine Doktorarbeit über dieses Thema geschrieben hat, vertritt die Ansicht, dass für Muskelhypertrophie (Wachstum) eine RPE von sechs oder höher notwendig ist, um effektiv zu wachsen. Mechanorezeptoren in den Muskeln müssen Spannung spüren, um das Wachstum durch Widerstandstraining zu initiieren. Helms empfiehlt, je nach Ziel, zwischen 5-10 RPE für Work-Sets zu wählen, meistens etwa 7-9. Er diskutiert auch, ob man Reservereps im Tank lassen sollte, um mehr Volumen zu akkumulieren, oder ob man nahe am Erschöpfungsort trainieren sollte. Er schließt, dass eine Balance zwischen den beiden notwendig ist, um einen effektiven Trainingsimpuls zu erzielen und gleichzeitig die Möglichkeit zu haben, das nächste Mal wieder einen effektiven Impuls zu setzen.

📚 Zusammenfassung verschiedener Perspektiven auf Trainingshärte

Greg Nuckles fasst die Diskussion über Trainingshärte zusammen, indem er die unterschiedlichen Perspektiven auf die Intensität jedes Sets und das Trainingsvolumen betrachtet. Für Muskelhypertrophie sollte man nahe am Erschöpfungsort trainieren, während für Krafttraining Sets nahe am Erschöpfungsort wertvoll sind, aber auch niedrigere Stress-Sets mit mehr als drei Reservereps für die Bewährung von Fähigkeiten und das Perfektionieren von Motormustern. Die Entscheidung, wie hart man trainieren sollte, hängt von verschiedenen Faktoren ab, einschließlich der individuellen Toleranz gegenüber Volumen, der Art des Trainings, der Übungsauswahl und der Fähigkeit des Einzelnen, von nahe am Erschöpfungsort trainierten Sätzen zu genesen. Eine allgemeine Regel ist, dass man nach den meisten Trainingseinheiten erschöpft, aber nicht völlig erschöpft sein sollte, und dass Muskeln in der Regel innerhalb von etwa drei Tagen nach dem Training wieder erholt sein sollten.

Keywords

💡Trainingsintensität

Die Trainingsintensität bezieht sich auf den Schweregrad oder die Anstrengung, die während eines Trainings aufgebracht wird. Im Video wird diskutiert, dass die Intensität je nach dem individuellen Trainingsziel und dem aktuellen Trainingsphasen oder Mesocycle variieren sollte. Ein Beispiel aus dem Skript ist, dass man am Anfang eines Mesocycles weniger hart trainieren sollte, während am Ende Intensität und Volumen erhöht werden können, um optimal zu gewinnen.

💡Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE)

Das Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) ist ein Maß für die wahrgenommene Anstrengung während eines Satzes. Es wird auf einer Skala von 1 bis 10 gemessen, wobei 10 bedeutet, dass keine Wiederholungen in Reserve vorhanden sind. Im Video wird RPE als wichtiges Instrument zur Steuerung der Trainingsintensität herangezogen, um zu bestimmen, wie hart man trainieren sollte, ohne die nächste Workout-Sitzung zu beeinträchtigen.

💡Repetitions in Reserve (RIR)

Repetitions in Reserve (RIR) ist das Gegenteil von RPE und misst, wie viele Wiederholungen noch in Reserve sind, wenn ein Satz beendet wird. Ein RIR von Null bedeutet, dass keine Wiederholungen übrig sind (entspricht RPE 10). Im Video wird RIR verwendet, um die Trainingslast zu steuern und sicherzustellen, dass die Belastung im optimalen Bereich bleibt, um Muskelwachstum zu fördern.

💡Mesocycle

Ein Mesocycle ist eine Phase im periodisierten Training, die in der Regel vier bis acht Wochen dauert. Im Video wird betont, dass die Trainingsintensität und das Volumen während eines Mesocycles variiert werden sollten, um die Muskeladaptation zu optimieren und um die nächste Workout-Sitzung nicht zu beeinträchtigen.

💡Fatigue

Fatigue beschreibt den Zustand des Erschöpfung oder der Müdigkeit, der durch intensives Training entsteht. Im Video wird darauf hingewiesen, dass man die Trainingsintensität nicht so hoch schalten sollte, dass die zukünftigen Workout-Sitzungen aufgrund von Übermüdung geschwächt werden.

💡Hypertrophie

Hypertrophie ist das Wachstum und die Vergrößerung der Muskelzellen, das durch Widerstandstraining ausgelöst wird. Im Video wird diskutiert, dass die Trainingsintensität und das Volumen auf eine Weise gesteuert werden sollten, die Muskelhypertrophie fördert, indem man die Muskeln ausreichend belastet, ohne zu viel Übermüdung zu verursachen.

💡Form

Die Form bezieht sich auf die korrekte Technik oder Haltung während des Trainings. Im Video wird betont, dass auch in fortgeschrittenen Trainingsphasen die Form wichtig ist und dass eine Überbeanspruchung, die zu einer schlechten Form führt, vermieden werden sollte.

💡Individualisierung

Individualisierung bedeutet, dass Trainingspläne und -methoden auf die individuellen Bedürfnisse, Fähigkeiten und Ziele des Athleten abgestimmt werden sollten. Im Video wird mehrmals betont, dass die beste Trainingsmethode je nach dem individuellen Fortschritt und den persönlichen Zielen des Trainiers variieren kann.

💡Konzentrationssätze (Cluster Sets)

Konzentrationssätze sind ein Trainingsverfahren, bei dem eine bestimmte Anzahl von Wiederholungen in kurzen, intensiven Bursts durchgeführt wird, normalerweise mit einem kurzen Pausen zwischen den Bursts. Im Video wird erwähnt, dass solche Techniken nützlich sein können, um fortgeschrittene Trainee durch Trainingsplateaus zu helfen.

💡Wechsel der Übungen

Der Wechsel der Übungen bedeutet, verschiedene Übungen in einem Trainingszyklus zu verwenden, um verschiedene Muskelgruppen zu belasten und zu trainieren. Im Video wird dies als eine Methode beschrieben, um die Muskulatur zu diversifizieren und neue Herausforderungen zu setzen, insbesondere in fortgeschrittenen Trainingsphasen.

Highlights

The importance of training intensity in fitness and how to balance it.

Definition of RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion) and RIR (Reps in Reserve).

Dr. Mike Isratel's philosophy on training intensity and its impact on future sessions.

Training phases and how to adjust intensity based on the mesocycle.

The significance of starting with a manageable load and gradually increasing it.

Why not taking sets to failure early in a training phase can be beneficial.

IFBB Pro John Meadows' perspective on training intensity based on experience level.

Importance of form and technique even when training at high intensities.

Dr. Steffy Cohen's view on pushing limits and the role of failure in training.

The necessity of individualization in training programs.

Dr. Eric Helms' insights on the role of RPE in hypertrophy training.

Finding a balance between training intensity and recovery.

Greg Nuckols' summary of training intensity and volume considerations.

The importance of listening to the body and adjusting training accordingly.

The role of high volume and low intensity in certain training phases.

The value of combining wisdom from athletes, coaches, and scientific literature.

The significance of training to failure for strength and muscle growth.

The need for a blend of high and low stress sets for skill development.

Transcripts

so in this video i'm asking five highly

qualified experts one of the most

important questions in fitness

how hard should we train so mike i was

going to

pose you the question i've been posing

to everyone else how hard

is it that we should be training in the

gym okay

i'm ready are we recording yet how hard

should we be training in the gym

as hard as you need to that is honestly

it's a really difficult question

that that is as succinct as i can get

yeah that was amazing now just to

quickly make sure

everyone's on the same page there are

two terms you'll need to know to keep up

our pe stands for rating of perceived

exertion and it basically just ranks how

hard a set was

on a scale of 1 to 10. so an rpe of 10

means you had zero reps in reserve an rp

of 9 means you could have got one more

rep if you pushed it all the way to

failure

and so on and then rir stands for reps

and reserve and it's basically the

inverse of rpe

so a zero rir means you had zero reps in

reserve and that would be the same as

saying rp10

and rir of one is the same as rpe 9 and

so on

so up first i spoke with dr mike isratel

and he explained to me his basic

philosophy that

even though it might be tempting we

shouldn't always train as hard as

possible

because we need to consider how fatigue

from going too hard

might impact future training sessions a

lot of folks will say

you gotta train hard enough to make

gains and that's true

that's true as far as it goes if it

doesn't go far enough i think we could

do a little bit better we can say

you have to train hard enough to make

gains but not so hard that your next

workout suffers

and it becomes a situation where your

next workout is unable to make you gains

because you went too hard then

throughout our chat he emphasized that

it ultimately depends on where you are

in your training phase or mesocycle

where at the beginning of a four to

eight week training program you should

train

less hard and with lower volumes but

then toward the end of a mesocycle you

should train

very hard and with more volume and we

can get a little bit more technical as

to what it means to train

hard enough to make gains i'm gonna

start at a load that gets you

oh somewhere close to three reps in

reserve and then as far as volume

you want to start towards the lower end

of the number of sets that's probably a

volume

where you know you get notably fatigued

in the target muscle you don't want to

leave the gym and be like my biceps feel

100 fine it's probably not stimulative i

wouldn't bet that it's stimulative um

you probably want to get a small pump

you know if you get a massive pump it'll

probably come with a ton of soreness at

the front end you may not want uh but no

pump at all is

curious uh unlikely to stimulate

hypertrophy at least nearly optimally

and you probably want to get uh you know

maybe like a little bit sore at most a

little bit

you start roughly three reps in reserve

and then every week after that during

your accumulation phase you're going to

increase

something a little bit some combination

of increasing load and or reps

more or less every session that you do

the same thing every week and

you want to make sure the load and rep

increases maintain or reduce

rar by roughly one each week so that

means you could potentially

do your next week three r your next week

three hour or next week through an hour

that's a fine way to train

but uh if your next week is two ir and

then the one after is one or ir and then

the one after a zero rr that's totally

cool too which you don't want is a

situation

in which you're not adding enough reps

and load each week and what ends up

happening is

your reps and reserve actually go up so

you don't want to start a three rir and

then end up a four rar the next week and

five reps and reserve the week after

because they're actually training

easier and easier each week relative to

your body's capabilities

and outside of the realm of where best

adaptations are had when your repetition

strength

flatlines and then takes a dip you've

reached your maximum recoverable volume

for that last week

that means adding any more volume or

even staying at that volume is going to

be more and more deleterious to gains

and it's probably not a good idea to

keep going your fatigue is very high

you want to take a de-load decrease all

that fatigue and then come back

and realign everything just like you

started three rir again

lower end of volumes again and then

progress through and that's how training

sort of naturally builds itself now

later in our conversation i asked mike

exactly why he doesn't like to take any

sets to failure early on in a training

phase so what's the downside of just

taking say the last set of each exercise

to failure

even in the first week of a program and

it led to a very informative discussion

if you're going to have failure as

making the biggest difference in your

growth

it's almost certainly true that you

don't need that difference at the

beginning of a motorcycle you just had a

de-load

you just traded in some exercises and

traded in some rep ranges for some

others

the novelty is so great your sensitivity

for growth is so great

almost certainly get great results in

the first week by going shy of failure

you just don't need to go that hard now

could you say the same thing about the

last week

for example if you said now mike

everything

in the last week i ever do i always stop

at one rir i never try to go to true

failure

are there downsides to that that i would

agree with you 100 there are

hypothetical downsides there could be

some magic especially delayed growth

especially in the advanced

that is there between that one and zero

rar so i would say in the last week

if this doesn't come crashing down on

you like a squat or a bench

and if you have a good bench spotter go

all the way to failure is a really

really good idea

to make sure you check all the boxes i

just don't understand why you would do

that in week one

because you're getting great gains

anyway not having to try that hard now

failure training is fun

sweet get up just make sure it's not

poisoning you fatigue wise

uh for the next session you know you

don't want to be in a situation where

you're needlessly cutting your volume

and you're getting a little pings and

dings and getting hurt a little bit much

and you're like man

tell you what i always get hurt on that

stupid failure set

why the hell am i doing it uh then if

you can't justify it i wouldn't do it

then so for mike how hard you should go

mainly depends on where you are in your

program next i spoke with ifbb pro john

meadows and he really emphasized that

how hard you should train

mostly depends on how advanced you are

with the grueling high intensity

techniques he's most known for

being most useful for helping advanced

trainees break through training plateaus

when you start training i think we all

realize that you don't have to kill

yourself

you don't need to take sets to failure

you don't need a crazy high amount of

volume

just by learning proper form you just

continue to get stronger and stronger

you make

nice little incremental increases in

strength but that only take you so far

you know wouldn't it be great if that's

how training was all the time you could

just kind of

add 10 pounds on the bar for the rest

your life and then by the time you're

60 years old you could bench 1200 pounds

but

that's just not how it works so you kind

of move into an intermediate stage

where it's like okay now i i feel most

of these movements pretty good

it's not as easy to get a strong now now

i'm going to add a little bit of volume

i'm going to add a little bit of

intensity

the primary goal with that phase i think

is still

trying to get a little bit stronger

though it's just because you've kind of

went out of that newbie gain phase it

doesn't mean all of a sudden now you

don't care about progressing your lifts

you get to this advanced stage now all

of a sudden you've got to challenge your

body more

so some of those techniques that we like

to use an occasional cluster set an

occasional drop set maybe you you start

putting one of those in a workout

you know going back to our chest example

now maybe get on a machine and now maybe

do a cluster set to finish your day or

maybe do

a drop set to finish your day something

to really challenge the muscle

i i always hesitate in saying this but i

really believe it

so you're probably going to get a lot of

people that get really angry at me for

saying this but

i think that when you hit an advanced

stage i think you could literally use

any exercises you want

in any order you want as long as those

exercises work for you

as long as you just take a certain

amount of them to failure or failure and

beyond

because if you just look at muscle

growth it's mechanical tension

okay if you're using an exercise that

gives you mechanical tension

you're probably going to grow and that's

where you see the advanced guys can

sometimes use those techniques to do

really really well

in particular naturals you know the drug

aided guys have a lot of chemicals that

can help them continue to break through

plateaus but

the natural guys in particular they can

kind of sprinkle some of that stuff

in it's really good for them to continue

to grow

it doesn't really matter what exercise

it is as long as it's one that you feel

working well

and as long as you get good activation

good mechanical tension and exhausting

muscle fibers like if you're doing those

three things

what else are you going to do to make

your muscle grow like that's what muscle

growth is

i mean that's really kind of the crux up

you find an exercise that works well for

you

and you just push it hard john also

emphasized the importance of form

even in advanced stages and that

training harder shouldn't come at the

expense of excessive technique breakdown

and i think it's important to continue

to work on your form you know you get a

guy like you and i

we've been training for a long time but

even we still try to work on our form so

it doesn't mean that you all of a sudden

stop thinking about your form and

things like that now i also wanted to

get a truly elite level athlete's

viewpoint so i spoke with 25 time world

record holding power lifter dr steffy

cohen

and while she also continually

emphasized how important

individualization is

i think more than anyone else she

highlighted that if you want to be the

best

you simply need to learn to push your

limits so

from my own experience what i've seen is

that the best people

in the game like great accomplishments

and great athletes

um come from working obsessively like

you don't achieve

greatness from casual effort you know

never once in my entire career

did i think that i come into the gym

thinking about what's the least i can do

to like get by

from the for the most part and this is

based on what i've observed

people rarely train hard enough and

they're usually in what i call the 50

50 zone where they

don't take themselves to like not

failure but like to an intensity that is

actually challenging ever rarely

and then they don't rest when they're

supposed to rest so it's like you end up

being in this 50

zone where you're always half-passing

all of your workouts because you're not

training hard enough when you when you

should and you're not resting when you

should

we need to push our athletes and

ourselves to improve their confidence

and

really really push for those adaptations

so that they know how to respond to hard

challenges

and this needs to be obviously done in

an intelligent way

steffy also said that while she doesn't

take every set to failure she will run

relatively lighter accumulation phases

training to failure is still a very

central aspect of her programming

training to failure is an integral part

of strength training

that for the most part in most recently

has been underlooked your training

should be

should reflect the specificity of what

you're trying to achieve

so if you're trying to improve your one

rep max squad

you better be trying to train at those

intensities i'm not saying that you're

gonna max out every day

but you should be challenging yourself

almost every training session so that

you can train your nervous system and

your body to respond

to that to to the demands of putting

something that's really really heavy and

having to move it up and down

obviously there you go through

accumulation phases as well so it won't

be fair to just discard completely the

idea of

high volume and low and low intensity i

think there's a time and place for that

but once you've gone through like your

four six or eight weeks of

kind of introductory period of

accumulating some load and

fine fine-tuning your movement once

that's done with

now that's go time like you better spend

four six or eight weeks

really pushing yourself as hard as you

can in those intensity

intensity ranges like get to 90 95 100

in your one two three four five rep max

and really challenge yourself

so you know if your goal is to just just

train for health

forget about everything i just said if

your goal is to see

how strong can you get how big can you

get if you're really trying to test

your limits then you're gonna have to

like put in some effort

and and some intensity stephie also said

that to get the most out of your

training it's important to blend wisdom

from successful athletes

coaches and the scientific literature so

next i got dr eric helms on the line as

someone who did his phd dissertation

on this exact topic this is the i would

say one of the few constants

in hypertrophy training if you are not

registering an rpe of like six or higher

most the time you're probably not going

to be growing very effectively

it has to be reasonably close to failure

uh or reasonably heavy which kind of

forces you close to failure immediately

and then do a lot of sets to

compromise for the fact you're doing low

reps so on a per set basis for

hypertrophy

it should probably be challenging for

your work sets uh

somewhere in the range of like a 5-10

rpe depending on

what your current goal is most the time

we're talking like you know

seven eight nine kind of thing because

in the end we're trying to get a mechano

transduction

right mechanoreceptors in the muscle

need to sense tension for us to start

growing from resistance training

so if a high level of tension needs to

be achieved relative to what our current

tension adaptations are we have to feel

that it has to feel like a high level

attention that can be pushing a low load

set reasonably close to failure

or that can be putting 80 on the bar and

doing

you know it could be triples if you want

if you really want to do seven by three

go for it right you'd probably rather do

like four by six you know

right um i'm gonna put a question to you

now that we've been debating forever not

me and you but just

in the community and you know there's

this idea that you want

to be leaving some reps in the tank

speaking for hypertrophy now

so that you can accumulate more volume

then you have other people saying well

it actually works the other way you need

to go

pretty hard and get close to failure and

it'd be worth it to slash some of those

sets off if you're getting fatigued that

way

is there one that you put above the

other

i think it almost necessarily must be

somewhere between those two extreme

positions

and not just because i'm trying to be

like the political guy who's like you

know the right and the left are both

more i'm so smart

but it's it's more because if we think

about what the actual adaptation we're

trying to get

is it's it's the overlap of those two

positions

right if we ramp up the perfect stimulus

we increase the total amount of recovery

we need and we necessarily either reduce

the frequency

the volume or we have lingering central

fatigue on subsequent days

because of high levels of muscle damage

which create a feedback loop

not allowing us to tap into some of

those high threshold motor units

and we go to the gym and we just can't

turn all the on so

we have to balance those two things how

do we get an effective stimulus when we

train

while stilling a lot allowing us to come

back and put an effective stimulus the

next time

so it almost necessarily has to be in

the middle and there's probably a huge

continuum of what's

equally effective if you do it

intelligently and that's why you can

have people on the more intensity side

of the spectrum or volume side of the

spectrum or

winning winning titles because it

probably doesn't make enough of a

difference to be a limit

to the actual practical outcomes within

a given range of

that continuum and to put all this

together i thought research reviewer

greg knuckles had a really succinct way

of summarizing pretty much everything we

currently know about the

in the trenches coaching stuff and also

the scientific data so i'm gonna let his

summary

round out the video all right so uh if

if i sound robotic

almost as if i'm reading off a script

that's because i am

so it really depends on the lifter the

exercise and what you're hoping to

accomplish and you can look at it

kind of from two different perspectives

both how hard should you push each set

and also kind of how much training

volume should you be doing so i'm going

to start with the former

uh for pure hypertrophy training i think

your best bet is generally to be pretty

close to failure

so for lifts like squats or deadlifts

where form breakdown could cause issues

i think it's worth terminating a set at

the point of technical breakdown

for lifts like rows where you can get

way way more reps if you allow for the

use of momentum i think it's generally

worth terminating a set

uh when you're no longer feeling the

movement in the muscles you're

specifically trying to target so

you know if rose become more biceps and

lower back than lats that's probably

when you want to cut it off

otherwise i think you should generally

be within two

or so reps of concentric failure so

that's for hypertrophy

uh for strength work i think there's

value in doing sets near failure so you

get comfortable grinding but i also

think there's value in doing a bunch of

lower stress sets

uh with three or more reps in reserve in

order to practice skills and perfect

motor patterns and so kind of which

direction you go there

is going to largely depend on the lifter

skill the lift being trained

how far you are from a meet variations

in the individual lifters capacity to

recover from near failure sets

etc and then like i said the other

factor for how hard should you train is

kind of how much volume should you be

doing

um and i'm kind of approaching that on a

per session basis

so i think that depends very heavily on

just the individual lifters tolerance

for volume

but also what type of training they're

doing and their exercise selection

so for example if they're doing those

strength based sets with three plus reps

in reserve

they can probably do way more sets than

if they're doing hypertrophy training

doing say leg press to failure as a

general rule of thumb though i think you

can kind of base this on how you feel

when you're leaving the gym

so i think you should be fatigued but

not completely exhausted after most

workouts

and i also think kind of recovery can

give you some information about whether

you're training hard enough so i think

your muscles

in general kind of painting with a broad

brush should be more or less recovered

within about three days after your

training session so

if your muscles feel totally fresh one

or two days after your training session

you probably should have done more

volume unless you're intentionally

trying to train with very high

frequencies but if you're still

really really sore and fatigued four

days after a workout for the muscles you

just trained

i think that generally indicates that

volume was probably a little bit too

high awesome that was extremely succinct

that that is as succinct as i can get

yeah that was amazing so in making this

video i spent about an hour speaking to

each of these people about how hard you

should train

and because there was so much amazing

info including a lot of stuff that sort

of went off topic

i decided i'm going to upload the full

length conversation with each guest to

my podcast which i'll link down below

that might take me a while to get all of

them edited and uploaded but if you go

subscribe on itunes or spotify you can

make sure you don't miss those full

conversations

also have all the guests youtube

channels linked down below they all put

out amazing content regularly so make

sure you guys go and subscribe to them

um i hope you guys found the video

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i'll see you guys all here in the next

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