RE: Systemic Fatigue, a long workout can leave you completely depleted of glycogen and blood sugar...it's a very definite, very SYSTEMIC kind of fatigue, where everything feels tired and energy is rock bottom. Usually, intra-workout carbs are the fix, but I just mean to point out that mental fatigue definitely isn't the only type of systemic fatigue.
I did dumbbell pressing with no barbell bench for 4 - 5 years. I gave bench a go after this time thinking I could probably bench 150 kg, as I used to 140kg, but my bench had gone down to 130kg. lol. My dumbbell pressing had gone from 42kg to 60kg for 4 reps. So although I got strong with the dumbbells I lost neural adaption on the bench. I still feel I improved in so many ways. Ie arm strength and depth of pressing without shoulder impingement etc. dumbbells are a different movement I guess.
I just started a push, pull, legs split coming out of a mini cut. I wanted to change up my recovery so I'm doing a rest day every 5th day, but not breaking the PPL sequence. So: push, pull, legs, push, rest; pull, legs, push, pull, rest; legs, push, pull, legs, rest (alternating quad/calf & hamstring/glutes with legs.) So far im really digging it.
I have been training, reading and listening to fitness podcasts for over 10 years This is the first time I hear the term witness lift This is actually an incredible idea Menno and does make sense Thank you for your contribution to fitness industry
Awesome content as always. I have a small request. Can you please make a video on the concept of "adaptive resistance" and the need to vary exercise or intensity to prevent strength plateau.
As far as mental fatigue goes, I just keep some juice with me. When i feel drained for example after squats and deadlifts i put some music I like on, drink my juice and chill for 5-10 minutes. Then i am just pumped for the next set ( especially if said tunes involve a lot of YEAHHHHH BUDDDYYY)
The Arnold impression really got me. Can you do an updated video on recomp and everything beginners need to know getting into training? Might be particularly useful in the new year
Really looking forward to trying out your OCTPRDTA program (optimised combination of training parameters that results in desired training adaptations) 8)
You did not explain how to incorporate witness lifts. Do you just use them as a "witness" the first week you go into them? Do you test them after a couple of weeks?
Thanks for showing the lat prayer and bayesian reverse cable fly. Fucking hate it, blows me up, awesome stuff. I'm wondering though, what do you think about adding a hip hinge to the cable fly? Currently, the arm and cable are in line at the end range of motion, so the resistance tangential to the arm is near zero. I've found that if I lift my torso I can tune the resistance curve. It's working pretty well for cable curls too, if I lower my torso in the end of the concentric phase.
But the standerds training programs dosent just simplfiy the optimal program for you You cant train triceps Monday and do bench press Tusday you need a program that dosent let other muscles intrfere with each other So building your program is limited eventually.
your video on csn fatigue is what got me to watch all your videos, but i still have a question?What about axial fatigue?Does that have an effect on every exercise that involves stressing the spine no matter wich muscle is working?And how long does it last
You talk a lot about the lack of systematic fatigue and that one muscles group not being recovered does not influence other muscle groups. That's fair, but what about overtraining? This phenomenon clearly exists with symptoms like aches, insomnia etc. if someone ramps up the total volume too mich. There is a maximal volume that one can do in a week and adding more volume even in muscle groups not trained so far can be detrimental. Would you agree or add something to this?
@mansouri9430 i know, but I don't think it's mental fatigue that causes you to feel sick when you train everyday to failure plus run in the evenings. On the other hand you can be doing mentally really challenging tasks all day every day and you won't feel like you do when overtraining.
One thing that's not clear to me when accounting for reactive deloads is whether or not you are supposed to take them if you're plateaued but not regressing. If you've been stuck on the same load and reps for weeks on end, should you deload? And should you reduce the weight after the deload?
The one thing that causes a lot of confusion that I’m not sure if menno perpetuates but ik many people do is this: you have to progress (usually an arbitrary amount) but not in an arbitrary amount of time. Adding a rep every week is very unrealistic when u have been doing an exercise for 6 months. That isn’t a reason to switch out exercises, that’s a reason to stop thinking adding a rep or load every week is an actual rule for progression. Not to be hypocritical and give a different “rule” for how often to add a full rep, but from my own experience and from listening to people who have actually properly measured their rate of progression, roughly a rep a month for an exercise you have been doing for many months is much more likely to be the rate you can progress.
My side chest hurts when i bene over, extend arms forward, or do other arm motions. But it only hurts in my ribs and behind my shoulder blade. What is that? Pretty sure it isn’t strictly a rotator cuff issue.
Right side chest=ribs/intercostal muscles i think. I just am not sure if there is any muscles associated with ribs to scapula. It isn’t my lungs or heart if that is what you are worried about
I still don't agree with systemic fatigue, having pushed some lifts (deadlift and OHP) to the point of almost blacking out, and needing a good week to be able to do anything after, with symptoms like the flu.
I'm also struggling to square that one. I used to have bad migraines that I determined were caused by cns fatigue. After training and working on that, they went away but I still have a lot of nervous system problems to work through. So, if all that isn't cns fatigue, what is it?
Calling it mental fatigue and saying it is not "physical" is somewhat miss-leading, since it somewhat implies that it can be corrected by the right motivation and mindset. While systemic fatigue can be purely psychologically rooted, it has a physiological root most of the time - speaking neurons and hormones. Therefore systemic fatigue still needs time of recovery.
Well ye but I think he’s wrong on another level too. Systemic fatigue isn’t like some fatigue within your brain, it’s rooted in the inflammation from muscle damage from training. So yes, the fatigue is sort of in your brain but the fatigue mechanism is rooted from the actual muscles which signal to your brain that you are fatigued which won’t allow as much motor command to go towards recruiting motor units.
Can you do a QnA or perhaps reply? Thank you Menno Im doing low volume - 3 sets per muscle group, two times per week. I go close to failure or failure and train very hard. I have been working out consistently for four years. I find that this low volume works better for my tendons. But Is 6 hard sets per week enough to make progress?
It's highly individual. For example, one of the 3dmj coaches does 4 sets a week because he can't recover from more, while Eric Helms does close to 25 sets a week for some muscles and they both make similar gains
Very respectfully, Please respond to Coach Kolton’s response to your Testosterone Myth video. I always have loved your content going back as long as you’ve been around, but as the director of Bigger Stronger Faster, I was very suspicious about some of the claims you said were myths about testosterone. Kolton did a great video to debunk some of the claims, but I always give everyone the benefit of the doubt and I think it deserves a debate. Obviously up to you and I’m just here to learn, but I want to make sure we’re all learning things that are true.
In what universe are you the pioneer of "reactive deloading".... I have been doing this purely because it intuitively feels right way before I have ever heard of you and so have myriads of other gym goers im sure... I mean interesting vid as usual but that statement is a bit full of yourself :)
This idea that strength is mostly neural might be true when looking at short-term studies, but I'm pretty confident it isn't true when looking at longer-term transformations. If you gain 50 pounds of muscle, you might be several times stronger than you were before, overall, in a general sense, with most of that strength coming from the extra muscle, not just from gaining coordination in the movements that built the muscle.
100% that’s the problems with all of the „science based“ creators nowadays who only look at outcome data instead of the underlying mechanisms. great way to make clickbait content regularly instead of actually educating the masses.
I think the first adaptation is strength which will be mostly neural. One the neural adaptation is complete then strength and size will grow. Once you hit a stall in muscle growth , another strength adaptation would be needed to gain more muscle. All this depends on DNA and your personal bodies natural strength and muscular limits.
Which is why that witness lift concept makes sense to see if the strength increase is not just from neurological adaptations but actual added tissue. Unlikely your brain will get much better at performing a lift you’re not doing frequently
Systemic fatigue is not really mental fatigue. It's actually the following 10 factors sorted by importance. 1. ATP consumption and energy supply: Most fundamental cause - without ATP no muscle contraction is possible, limiting performance within seconds. 2. Metabolic changes: Direct consequence of energy consumption with strong acute impact through acidification and glycogen depletion. 3. Mechanical muscle fatigue: Immediate structural impairment through microtrauma and disrupted protein interaction. 4. Neurotransmitter depletion: Critical limitation of muscle activation through reduced signal transmission at motor end plates. 5. Neuromuscular fatigue: Progressive deterioration of nerve-muscle communication and movement control. 6. Electrolyte imbalance: Impairment of signal conduction through disturbed ion distribution. 7. Hormonal and central factors: Higher-level control of fatigue processes with delayed impact. 8. Inflammatory responses: Secondary processes mainly affecting recovery. 9. Protein metabolism changes: Slower metabolic adaptations with indirect fatigue impact. 10. Temperature regulation: Mainly relevant during prolonged exercise, rarely primary performance limiting. The top four factors are the main causes of immediate performance decrease during typical weight training.
@@gregorammann7147 I grilled chatgpt. However, having these phenomena in 3 different muscle groups is usually enough to have it cause a systemic effect .
The Arnold impression is anabolic
Absolutely essential for gains
Ad hoc, lift-specific deloads is great advice
RE: Systemic Fatigue, a long workout can leave you completely depleted of glycogen and blood sugar...it's a very definite, very SYSTEMIC kind of fatigue, where everything feels tired and energy is rock bottom. Usually, intra-workout carbs are the fix, but I just mean to point out that mental fatigue definitely isn't the only type of systemic fatigue.
Loving the voices near the end in the last couple videos. Hahaha. Really good.
I did dumbbell pressing with no barbell bench for 4 - 5 years. I gave bench a go after this time thinking I could probably bench 150 kg, as I used to 140kg, but my bench had gone down to 130kg. lol.
My dumbbell pressing had gone from 42kg to 60kg for 4 reps. So although I got strong with the dumbbells I lost neural adaption on the bench. I still feel I improved in so many ways. Ie arm strength and depth of pressing without shoulder impingement etc. dumbbells are a different movement I guess.
I just started a push, pull, legs split coming out of a mini cut. I wanted to change up my recovery so I'm doing a rest day every 5th day, but not breaking the PPL sequence. So: push, pull, legs, push, rest; pull, legs, push, pull, rest; legs, push, pull, legs, rest (alternating quad/calf & hamstring/glutes with legs.) So far im really digging it.
Nice explanation about true muscle failure. Thanks for what you are doing
always a great video from Menno!
You're missing out on getting gains from naming your programs! Example: Who would say no to doing a program called "Dragon Punch Inferno"?
you're an absolut genius! this is what i'm gonna do from now on. no more "long workout" and "short workout"
Number 6 is the best one.
Menno gives actionable science-backed advice in easy to understand points*
Also Menno 11:05
Austrian accents can increase testosterone by 2%
My “training program” is do each of the 6 major compound movements twice a week.
Jeeeeez... those were very insightful words. I concur!!
.
I have been training, reading and listening to fitness podcasts for over 10 years
This is the first time I hear the term witness lift
This is actually an incredible idea Menno and does make sense
Thank you for your contribution to fitness industry
Never heard because it’s dumb. Just use progressive overload
@@ushuaia6284 I see you didn’t get a chance to watch this video, but you did manage to comment on it.
Awesome content as always. I have a small request. Can you please make a video on the concept of "adaptive resistance" and the need to vary exercise or intensity to prevent strength plateau.
Thank you! Could you do a video on an example of your ideas on a training program?
Menno blijft de held van de science-based fitness community 💯💯
As far as mental fatigue goes, I just keep some juice with me. When i feel drained for example after squats and deadlifts i put some music I like on, drink my juice and chill for 5-10 minutes. Then i am just pumped for the next set ( especially if said tunes involve a lot of YEAHHHHH BUDDDYYY)
Thanks man!👍
The Arnold impression really got me. Can you do an updated video on recomp and everything beginners need to know getting into training? Might be particularly useful in the new year
Awesome video
You can measure your rest interval by heart rate; assuming you are using the same pre-workout/stimulants each workout
Thanks. You're one damn smart person.
Really looking forward to trying out your OCTPRDTA program (optimised combination of training parameters that results in desired training adaptations) 8)
It's crazy that you actually have photos of yourself on your PowerPoints.
today i used up right rows since half a year ^^, i used 3 times more weight since then
Grazie buonuomo.
You did not explain how to incorporate witness lifts. Do you just use them as a "witness" the first week you go into them? Do you test them after a couple of weeks?
Thanks for showing the lat prayer and bayesian reverse cable fly. Fucking hate it, blows me up, awesome stuff. I'm wondering though, what do you think about adding a hip hinge to the cable fly? Currently, the arm and cable are in line at the end range of motion, so the resistance tangential to the arm is near zero. I've found that if I lift my torso I can tune the resistance curve. It's working pretty well for cable curls too, if I lower my torso in the end of the concentric phase.
But the standerds training programs dosent just simplfiy the optimal program for you
You cant train triceps Monday and do bench press Tusday you need a program that dosent let other muscles intrfere with each other
So building your program is limited eventually.
your video on csn fatigue is what got me to watch all your videos, but i still have a question?What about axial fatigue?Does that have an effect on every exercise that involves stressing the spine no matter wich muscle is working?And how long does it last
You talk a lot about the lack of systematic fatigue and that one muscles group not being recovered does not influence other muscle groups. That's fair, but what about overtraining? This phenomenon clearly exists with symptoms like aches, insomnia etc. if someone ramps up the total volume too mich. There is a maximal volume that one can do in a week and adding more volume even in muscle groups not trained so far can be detrimental. Would you agree or add something to this?
@@betaxxl He did describe this: mental fatigue
@mansouri9430 i know, but I don't think it's mental fatigue that causes you to feel sick when you train everyday to failure plus run in the evenings. On the other hand you can be doing mentally really challenging tasks all day every day and you won't feel like you do when overtraining.
One thing that's not clear to me when accounting for reactive deloads is whether or not you are supposed to take them if you're plateaued but not regressing. If you've been stuck on the same load and reps for weeks on end, should you deload? And should you reduce the weight after the deload?
The one thing that causes a lot of confusion that I’m not sure if menno perpetuates but ik many people do is this: you have to progress (usually an arbitrary amount) but not in an arbitrary amount of time. Adding a rep every week is very unrealistic when u have been doing an exercise for 6 months. That isn’t a reason to switch out exercises, that’s a reason to stop thinking adding a rep or load every week is an actual rule for progression.
Not to be hypocritical and give a different “rule” for how often to add a full rep, but from my own experience and from listening to people who have actually properly measured their rate of progression, roughly a rep a month for an exercise you have been doing for many months is much more likely to be the rate you can progress.
so full body is still the best?
My side chest hurts when i bene over, extend arms forward, or do other arm motions. But it only hurts in my ribs and behind my shoulder blade. What is that? Pretty sure it isn’t strictly a rotator cuff issue.
@@kban77 side chest?
Consult a doctor dude. It could be serious.
Pretty sure you need to see a doctor bro
Right side chest=ribs/intercostal muscles i think. I just am not sure if there is any muscles associated with ribs to scapula. It isn’t my lungs or heart if that is what you are worried about
I still don't agree with systemic fatigue, having pushed some lifts (deadlift and OHP) to the point of almost blacking out, and needing a good week to be able to do anything after, with symptoms like the flu.
I'm also struggling to square that one. I used to have bad migraines that I determined were caused by cns fatigue. After training and working on that, they went away but I still have a lot of nervous system problems to work through. So, if all that isn't cns fatigue, what is it?
great
Calling it mental fatigue and saying it is not "physical" is somewhat miss-leading, since it somewhat implies that it can be corrected by the right motivation and mindset. While systemic fatigue can be purely psychologically rooted, it has a physiological root most of the time - speaking neurons and hormones. Therefore systemic fatigue still needs time of recovery.
Well ye but I think he’s wrong on another level too. Systemic fatigue isn’t like some fatigue within your brain, it’s rooted in the inflammation from muscle damage from training. So yes, the fatigue is sort of in your brain but the fatigue mechanism is rooted from the actual muscles which signal to your brain that you are fatigued which won’t allow as much motor command to go towards recruiting motor units.
Can you do a QnA or perhaps reply? Thank you Menno
Im doing low volume - 3 sets per muscle group, two times per week. I go close to failure or failure and train very hard. I have been working out consistently for four years.
I find that this low volume works better for my tendons. But Is 6 hard sets per week enough to make progress?
Have you experienced gains during these years?
If you're making progress, yes it's enough. If you're not making progress, no it's not enough
It's highly individual. For example, one of the 3dmj coaches does 4 sets a week because he can't recover from more, while Eric Helms does close to 25 sets a week for some muscles and they both make similar gains
@@ChillyAdventures Yes, but with at least double the volume. I started with lower volume training about two weeks ago
@@mansouri9430 Yes that makes sense, I appreciate the input
My takeaway from the is the Arny impression. Take a bow.
Very respectfully, Please respond to Coach Kolton’s response to your Testosterone Myth video. I always have loved your content going back as long as you’ve been around, but as the director of Bigger Stronger Faster, I was very suspicious about some of the claims you said were myths about testosterone. Kolton did a great video to debunk some of the claims, but I always give everyone the benefit of the doubt and I think it deserves a debate. Obviously up to you and I’m just here to learn, but I want to make sure we’re all learning things that are true.
In what universe are you the pioneer of "reactive deloading".... I have been doing this purely because it intuitively feels right way before I have ever heard of you and so have myriads of other gym goers im sure... I mean interesting vid as usual but that statement is a bit full of yourself :)
lol at Arnold quote
11:04 🤣
wow your head exploded from all that tan.
God tier thumbnail
TL;DR 11:05
2 minutes in, first commercial = unacceptable
This idea that strength is mostly neural might be true when looking at short-term studies, but I'm pretty confident it isn't true when looking at longer-term transformations. If you gain 50 pounds of muscle, you might be several times stronger than you were before, overall, in a general sense, with most of that strength coming from the extra muscle, not just from gaining coordination in the movements that built the muscle.
100% that’s the problems with all of the „science based“ creators nowadays who only look at outcome data instead of the underlying mechanisms. great way to make clickbait content regularly instead of actually educating the masses.
That's pretty much what he said at :25.
@@T-rc2ct Are you inferring that mechanisms are more important than outcomes?
I think the first adaptation is strength which will be mostly neural. One the neural adaptation is complete then strength and size will grow. Once you hit a stall in muscle growth , another strength adaptation would be needed to gain more muscle. All this depends on DNA and your personal bodies natural strength and muscular limits.
Which is why that witness lift concept makes sense to see if the strength increase is not just from neurological adaptations but actual added tissue. Unlikely your brain will get much better at performing a lift you’re not doing frequently
Systemic fatigue is not really mental fatigue.
It's actually the following 10 factors sorted by importance.
1. ATP consumption and energy supply: Most fundamental cause - without ATP no muscle contraction is possible, limiting performance within seconds.
2. Metabolic changes: Direct consequence of energy consumption with strong acute impact through acidification and glycogen depletion.
3. Mechanical muscle fatigue: Immediate structural impairment through microtrauma and disrupted protein interaction.
4. Neurotransmitter depletion: Critical limitation of muscle activation through reduced signal transmission at motor end plates.
5. Neuromuscular fatigue: Progressive deterioration of nerve-muscle communication and movement control.
6. Electrolyte imbalance: Impairment of signal conduction through disturbed ion distribution.
7. Hormonal and central factors: Higher-level control of fatigue processes with delayed impact.
8. Inflammatory responses: Secondary processes mainly affecting recovery.
9. Protein metabolism changes: Slower metabolic adaptations with indirect fatigue impact.
10. Temperature regulation: Mainly relevant during prolonged exercise, rarely primary performance limiting.
The top four factors are the main causes of immediate performance decrease during typical weight training.
Most of these are local phenomena, not systemic. Where did you find this stuff?
@@gregorammann7147 I grilled chatgpt.
However, having these phenomena in 3 different muscle groups is usually enough to have it cause a systemic effect
.
✝️💪
I wanna like this channel but its hard to follow. Too fast. Need some pauses and examples. Just sounds like you are reading of teleprompter
Its for people that are into sience for a longer period of time
It's not really geared for beginners, which is nice. It's great to have videos that don't take a ton of time to explain things.