Hope this is informative. Of course, there's much more nuance that can be applied, but I think this offers a good foundation on the main things to focus on at the beginning and onward.
Great video, but I allways have the concern how relevant these studes can be used, cause what is the participants mindmiuscleconnection, their drive and motivation for and in training and how is their mindset in the training when reaching close to failure, how are they able to use their body comparble to mine and do we at all have any similiaries so that any study ever can be taken serious for my case? I loved when my country had a program where they showed how the study was being performed with closeups of eyes, etc. when the participants where conducing the taks. Since I base my personal training on knowledge how the particular muscles are bering activated, relaxed etc. , can I then use these many diff. studies, I think, not really.....
1. vs. 2 a week training is for the same timerperiod I assume, meaning, that the group 2. a week hit platough double as fas so they kind of will have trained double the lenght which then will make them incomparable with the group making more newbiee gain. My comment makes sense, and you seem really smart, so I think you get it, but otheriwse try hit me back I have very interesting stuff to show and infomr you about; No timewaste getting inolved with what I have to say, I assure you or I will pay you for it, reasonable though. I have very unique way to decrease needed recoverytime, a benefit for me, as I love training using body as evoultuion intended us to use body vs. the abuse many show in gyms and div. activites today..
To me, this kind of thing is great. In my 60's, it's far more about making progress without hurting myself and being pro-health than being a "better athlete", etc. like it was in my 20's. And it seems FAR better (like with everything else) to have real data from meta-studies vs. intuition, or relying on who yells the loudest, et. al.
Summary: Volume: 10+ sets per week per muscle group. Repetions: For muscle growth, heavy weight with fewer repetions. Intensity: A range from 3-4 reps from failure to absolute failure. Progression: Incrementally increase volume over time. Thank you for this, it is very helpful. Nice to see some actual data on this topic and not just bro science. Looking forward to the nutritional vid that you mentioned, loosing fat is my achilles heel. Or maybe I'm not counting calories correctly.
plus balanced protein meals with magic 3 Leucine, Creatine and Taurine you need to break that postworkout katabolism and 2h window is best for it plus a follow up 3 hours later of Leucine to push anabolism farther
My only caveat is the problem with starting in older age. There is the danger of provoking a hernia which means imho that there should be some sort of correlation study done with age and injury sustained through weight lifting. It is all very well when you are young, but I started from zero at the age of 72, so I am very cautious about going full blast. Indo now after 7 months lift heavier weights, and I completely recommend resistance training. I really wish that there was more in depth info for people starting later in life. Love your channel, good information.
You don’t have to life a house, start off light and build from there. That’s how you prevent injury/hernias. Take rest days, examine how you feel and you’ll be alright.
this video is gold. After lifting weights with no/very small gains for years I applied these principles and got good results. It's crazy how all (or at least most of) these "fitness influencers" fail to communicate the core principles to their audience.
OK - Been doing this for 57 years - turn 70 this year. Most of what you spoke to I learned through trial and error as much of the research was not there 40-50 years ago. You gave all great advice. If I were to give my younger self advice it would be to stick to 5-6 reps max and 4-5 sets max per workout per muscle group. Here is why - higher reps wear out the joints. Your goal is to get the muscle growth but by the time you get to my age, still have hips and shoulder joints. Thanks again. PS - BTW - 5'8",175 lb, can bench 235. BMI is high, but heavily muscled as well ... cheers.
Maybe I got him wrong, but he seemed to be saying that MORE volume is better. You seem to be saying that LESS is better. Not only for your senior self but for your younger self. I tend to AGREE. I stopped getting hurt once I LOWERED my volume. But I lift lighter to SAVE wear on my joints. And this allows me a bit more volume. Though I can't lift quite as much as you. Same age at 6"3' 180 lbs.
@@Kermit_T_FrogWhen he speaks of "volume", he is really referring to the total weight that is being lifted in any given set. So, 10 reps of 100 pounds = 1000 pounds of "volume". There was another video on this subject that I watched and it explained it much better. I'll be darned if can find it. If I do, I'll send it to you. Cheers.
@@trentriver Not only total weight in any given set. Total weight in any given week. I usually do 12 to 15 reps at a lighter weight. I take that to mean it could be the same volume as a heavier weight with fewer reps. Can't see that I'm missing anything.
@@Kermit_T_FrogYes - of course you can extend that to a week - I was just trying to define what was meant by volume using a single set. The only point I was really trying to make is, the fewer reps one can do to get the max results, the better. If 5 reps x 4 sets of a heavier weight gets me there - perfect. I think reducing reps helps to preserve cartilage and for the long haul that is a good thing. I see guys at the gym doing 15-30/reps/set and in 40-50 years that is a lot of wear and tear.
Based on his #'s.. sounds about like my build when I was his age.. though I'm a mere 6'3".. And make me realize how much I need to get back active again.. I always hated lifting, but don't mind exercise.. Bad injuries, 2 knee surgeries, nerve damage in my right leg, and a bunch of bad excuses over the past 20 years. I have some muscle catching up to do before I'm actually old!
@James Lovelace I also had chronic pain, localized to my right leg from nerve damage and arthritis. Diet changes took it from a constant 5-6, peaking at 7-8. The worst days it was so bad I couldn't even think clearly or focus without opiates. Now I'm a constant 0 pain without any meds, not even OTC.
@@Unsensitive Really happy for you. Hope it lasts. Diet has not worked me in 20 yrs. Tried all types consistently plus supplements, herbs, etc. Natural options sadly don’t work for all us.
This is a very good presentation. As someone whom another gym member called "Jack" because he had misheard others saying that I was _jacked_ (and someone trainers sometimes ask for advice), I offer some other points, which deal with optimizing _volume_ and results. 1) *The most important "muscle" you're training is your brain.* Visualization of results is one of the most important things you can do, not just to stay on track and inspired, but because it is the brain itself that directs muscle growth, and mental imagery actually changes how it will direct your body's development. 2) *There's no such thing as a "face scrunch"!* Screwing up your face and clenching your jaws takes blood flow, intensity (and the brain's attention) away from the muscles you're actually working on, and undermines your effort. 3) *Protect your joints.* Don't ever do an exercise in such a way that you lock the joint(s) central to that exercise: put the work solely on your muscles. That is, never lock your elbows or your knees, because doing so transfers the workload to your skeleton, and can tear up your cartilage, resulting in "weight-lifters' arthritis." 4) *It's called "weight lifting," but "weight putting down" is just as important.* If at the end of a set, you have to throw the weights, or slam the stack on a cable machine, you're robbing yourself of "volume," _either_ by doing too much weight, _or_ by just trying to draw attention to yourself: either way, everyone will think you're either incompetent or juvenile. 5) *Slow the hell down.* You're not in a race with gravity, and the faster you do a rep, the less (or worse) your results will be. 6) *Leave your ego at the gym door.* You're competing with yourself, not with anyone else there: remember your self-visualization. A written workout plan/diary can help you compete with yourself-with your past-to maximize your productive volume. And, it puts your progress right there, in front of you.
There’s a guy at my gym who growls, screws up his face, slams the weights down and then prowls up and down the floor like a dickhead. He’s a major attention seeker and we all look forward to his training days for a good laugh. I feel a little sorry for him.
Have a similar weight & muscle gain experience. Weighed abt 165lbs at 18. Height 6ft 3in. Began lifting free weights in college. Very intimidating to start. Was skinniest guy in weight room by far. Knew a little, but not very much. Worked out 3 to 4x/wk. Worked legs, but primarily upper body. Was running 2 to 4 miles 3x/wk. Didn't like running. Began eating 4x/day. Also took B Vitamins. Was using sets of 20 reps by 3x. Did that for maybe 3mos. Another lifter suggested fewer reps at higher weights. Changed to 12 reps. At one point, didn't allow enough recovery time. Developed a low grade fever along with severe muscle soreness. Topped out at 215lbs after abt 18mos. Lifted regularly until abt age 32. Switched to distance swimming. Lifted less wgt, less often. Wgt has stabilized at 205lbs. Have swum for decades. Resting pulse is abt 44 to 48. Sleep very well. Feel very well. Body looks good. When younger, some women commented favorably upon my fittness. It's been an overall bonus. Today I lift lighter weights only for tone; less for strength. Strongly suggest a fittness regime. 🤔🤔🤔😁
73 years old. 4 sets per muscle group. 4th set to failure or close to it. 1st set 10 reps at around 30 to 40% of previous session’s 4th set. 2nd set 8 reps at around 40 to 50%. 3rd set 6 reps at around 50 to 60%. 3 days rest between sessions. I manage to increase my max weight and/or reps (slightly) on nearly every muscle group every session. Take creatine daily. Lifting for around 6 months, although I’d been doing it sporadically for years before I retired.
During the last 45 years I am on and off with fitness training. When I was young I had no issues to train 4 times a week. Nowadays I get best results with training specific areas twice a week. That reduction gives me enough time to recover and increases significantly my will-power to train close to failure.
I'm likely a similar age to you, given I've been lifting weights 50 years off and on. And yes, for lots of people, their age and condition (and personal health) has a LOT to do with safe volumes and recovery capabilities. In my 20's, 4 times a week with long sessions but balance and not too intensive sets worked great. Now, that would end up with me with significant injuries, setting me back. Twice a week and area targeting is likely far better for seniors. I'd read books claiming that unlike running sports like, say, tennis, one can make progress in competitive weightlifting well into their 40's, if doing it right to avoid injuries. But sanity needs to prevail as we age. I want to live longer / better, not brag about my bench press.
I lifted a good bit in college many decades ago and it sounds like the bro science was reasonably solid back then. I was screwing up nutrition, not lifting practices, so that I kept gaining strength but not much size. Maybe that was as well; I switched to different sports later and it was nice being able to draw on that strength at a moderate body size.
From everything I've read, watched, and experienced... it seems like the absolute best is to do some at lower weight and higher rep, then another pushing that weight up while doing lower reps. By incorporate both techniques, you gain strength over time while improving recovery. Kinda like hiking switchbacks... you get further up the hill if some of your work isn't as hard
Very informative / educational! I like your natural humor that you were infusing along the way. It 'humanizes' these types of deep-dive, academic videos .. continue the humor where it seems to naturally fit and complement your topics!
Once I hit my 50s it started taking 3-4 days for muscles to recover. Back in my 20s I could train every second day. I also have to be extremely careful about increasing the load.
Great overview and your research mirrors my experience of 17 years in the gym. I’ve securely landed on 15 reps per set with failure being around 20 reps. I could up the weight but I get almost no injuries at this rep range, which is a plus. When I switched to this method of lifting my size improved a lot but it felt contradictory to the gym bro research I found on the forums years ago.
My opinion on the intensity/volume equation is that with a heavy weight you recruit more fibers to fire, with lower intensity you recruit less fibers but when they get tired in order to continue the set other fibers get involved. Now to grow, fibers need to be active during a minimum amount of time. That's why the 1 rep max doesn't result in much growth even when recruiting the maximum amount of fibers. Conclusion : you have to find the weight recruiting enough fibers during enough time under tension and that may be very personal because whe don't all have the same type and amount of fibers for all different muscle groups.
Last year I tore my calves many times while running, my quadriceps doing leg press and broke a wrist bone using the seated shrug machine. It is time to accept I am getting too old to lift to failure at 8 reps but it is nice to know I can still make some progress using lighter weights.
@@Mario-forall maybe you are training too heavy . Training should stimulate the body to adapt , not tear and break the body- I’m not saying that to give out obvious information as if you didn’t know that- do you think you could modify your program with less impactful training and lower the weight and build up at a safer pace ?
I wasn’t fooled, jester! ;). Good stuff. Can’t wait for more in this area. When you do the vids on recovery, just remember there’s no such thing as over-training, just under-dosing. Lol. Kidding aside, at 55 I like how I look l, feel, and perform but am always working to get better. Info on muscle gain, building aerobic capacity and aging effectively is always welcome. 12 weeks into a 20 week trip right now but once home I’ll be evaluating a glycine and NAC regimen and see how that goes. Thanks again for your great work!
Hey Bill, Why glycine and NAC? I'm 62 and finding that my gains start to stall after a few months of working out. As well, I've been very injury prone with my lower back, which has always (since my 20's) given me problems.
Fabulous vid (as are all the many of yours I've watched so far.) Do you happen to have a vid addressing benefits of resistance training in osteoporosis/osteopenia?
I wasn’t fooled, jester! 😂 … BTW, thanks for using the Joeveo travel mug in one of your videos … my cat like curiosity led to buying one! So surprised by the craftsmanship and performance (scientifically speaking of course) I’ve ordered and given away at least five more … I guess that makes me a serial mugger! 😂🤣😂🤣 … maybe you should be considered for some type of commission! Thanks to my Joeveo mug I can enjoy some of your longest marathon videos without stopping to reheat my supersonic 15 ingredient Cyclone Coffee sweetened with glycine!!! If you ever want to analyze my Cyclone Coffee I’ll send you my secret recipe! Keep up the good work!
Thank god there are people like this guy, its those people who bring us forward. The types of people who relentlessly study everything so they can learn and share 🎉
Yes, thank the stars for Science and Scientists! Truth and facts matter. But many will still rely on their "personal truth" (their biases)... using similar terms to justify their beliefs. Take vacinnes, gun control, incarceration or religion as examples of topics. Imagine where we'd be if policy makers were required to have science- STEM degrees...
Regarding diet personally I'm more interested in maximizing body composition instead of muscle growth, because well, I would rather look like Bruce Lee than bud Spencer. Or canelo instead of Tyson fury.
Thank you for this clearly described and explained method of growing muscle. However, I’m in my late 70s and have arthritis and sarcopenia. I need to build up my muscles for both strength and supporting my joints. I worry about exercising to the max because I fear it will damage my joints. Maybe when people are in my condition they should start much more slowly? If so, are there any studies to describe how best to approach this?
I don’t know about studies, but I have had good results by just biting the bullet and using some of my saved up pennies to pay for a personal trainer because trying to acquire that kind of information on older people I’m sure would be quite time-consuming. I did years ago get some personal training for a short time with somebody promoting, slow, heavy movements. The reason that became popular was it was first used with older populations being supervised. They were able to increase in strength while slowly lifting heavyweights under supervision with apparently no problems, but it was more detailed than that so that’s not really enough to go on by yourself. as older people, we may have to be more content with strength growth than lots of muscle growth because the body has a harder time, synthesizing protein, and building muscle as we age. There are always some outliers who come on these threads and say how they were able to do it, but they are outliers. You might be one and you might not, but that doesn’t mean that strength training isn’t going to be valuable. I’m kind of the same as a 70 year old woman who did her weight loss through calorie reduction over a period of time and maintained it but didn’t consistently do exercise and boy am I regretting it now. It’s so much easier to get into shape when you’re younger and then maintain, but here we are. by the way, my trainer was able to reverse a hip problem that my medical plan had not been able to with two shots and multiple sessions with a physical therapist. I had to pay out-of-pocket which was a drag because the health plan probably spent three times or four times as much money as it took me to, make great strides in the problem no pun intended. It’s not gone completely, but I also know that I have a lot of deterioration of the lining of the joint on the right side. Unfortunately, I also recently fell on a steep slope leading to walking trail that I’ve used many many times and I tore the super spinatus, so that attachment is several inches away from where it supposed to be, and my doctor said that that will not return to its original place. It definitely keeps me from working on much arm and even upper body strength with any kind of intensity. But I’m working hard on the lower extremities and on the core. Good luck to us both.
@@oolala53 If you have Medicare (or Medicaid?) you can get physical therapy that won’t cost you a dime. I request it from my doctor and they refer me - although I’m not sure if a referral is always required. A good PT can give safe muscle building exercises to get started
There's two definitions of intensity used interchangeably there. 1. % of 1RM. Useful for programming loads and reps for those loads. 2. How close to failure you are pushing, reps in reserve, perceived effort etc.
I appreciate all the fine work and information you share with us. However I'm sixty-eight and have been involved in weight training and fitness since fourteen years old. Have tried countless methods and approaches and have found that inspite all these resent papers, that Arthur Jones and Mike Metzner discovered the most valuable knowledge yet regarding weight training.
I pick 2 exercises of non related muscle groups every day at the gym. I push them to failure without overload or injury and aim that to be at about 40-50 reps. There is always a couple of days before I hit the same group again. I make sure the group is over 90% recovered. Works great for me.
One important note about rep ranges is that every individual is unique. Some grow best at sets of 3 while others do at 30. The 8-12 rep range is merely the standard due to the mean found within studies, so you have to experiment with your body.
A question: How healthy is it at all to have a big muscle mass? For example I weight 55 kg and it's mainly muscles, Im really low on fat. Will I live longer if I'd weight for example 75 kg with the minimum amount of fat to live healthily?
7weeks ago I found out that due to retiring I had lost a lot of my strength, not good. Bought 30kg weights and started exercising, then bought 40 kg more as I regained strength I needed more. Now I have lost 9kg body weight around my gut. Now I will never stop training as it's great to become stronger again. I happen to be a 1st Dan Judo and a 3rd Dan Karate and was asked to leave a gym for punching a huge body builder when he was rude to me, his arm were as thick as my legs. I hit him on his fore head and he decided to have a nap. If this had not happened I would never have had a lapse in training.
I've seen volume's effects firsthand. A few years back I set out to deadlift a half million pounds in 5 months, which I achieved. People at the gym thought I was crazy and it was overkill, but I wanted to see if anything positive would happen. My deadlift went from 315 x 8 reps to 315 x 15 reps and hit my first 4 plate deadlift during that period, getting 3 reps on the first try. And I looked goooood. I never looked more jacked, and my traps were insane looking (still are). I essentially leveled up by doing that thing people thought I was crazy for trying. And also, because the deadlift (in my opinion) is the cornerstone of all strength lifts, all of my other lifts went up as well. My advice would be the same as yours, to stop counting reps and sets and look at overall poundage. My deadlift workouts consisted of 20,000 pounds per workout, usually working with 315 for around 50 reps and 225 for 20. There was no pre-determined rep range per set...just as many as I could do until I got tired, so the last half of the workout was cluster sets of 2 or 3 reps. I would set a time limit of about 30 minutes so I didn't spend a lot of time standing around, and I think that limited rest between sets was a big contributing factor to my progress.
Interesting how people respond differently. I could not recover from that. Deadlifts were my best lift, and I got to four plates a side (180kg) for 7 reps, just doing one work set once per week (about four work-up sets were done before this).
That's a fantastic way to look at things from a motivational perspective haha, a straight poundage target with a deadline - now THAT would keep me maxing out my volume week by week. I think you're onto something!
Yeah I made a huge mistake as a beginner as well because I was reading those bodybuilding magazines, which were targeted at advanced lifters. So I did the classic bro split, chest back legs which resulted in way lower than optimal frequency. On top I was a hard gainer with a fast metabolism and not nearly enough calories and protein. I saw some results but not enough to keep me going. Now at age 41 I am starting a new with everything I learned in recent months.
Great video, but one thing I want to point our is that unless you have actually trained to failure, then you don't know if you are training 1-3 reps shy of failure. Also, what someone thinks is failure usually isn't. Just like anything else. Practice makes perfect. Also, you would not want to train to failure every set. Obviously that would impact recovery or total volume. Failure should be set aside for the final set of an exercise.
Good stuff. Is there any research on time under tension (i.e., rep speed). There are some benefits to lighter weight in super slow reps (e.g., less joint stress for older lifters). One question I've always had is whether you train slow reps, are you favoring one type of muscle fiber over the others (e.g., are you loosing "explosiveness" if you train super slow)? On the failure workouts, what effect does DOMS play in this analysis?
Very informative... I haven't done any volume check but it's almost likely i'm on the lower rep group as I always do EMOM on my training An example of these are: One Arm Pull Up - EMOM minimum of 15 mins - 1 rep per arm - Total Sets : 16 Front Lever Hold: -
I started lifting at 14 years old, having been always naturally strong. Then in my 22-45 year high overtime industrial years, I got waaaay too fat. Started going back to the gym in late 90’s. Still too fat, but slowly losing weight. I have bone on bone arthritis in my knees, so have to be careful in many keg things. Injured myself in Nune of 2023. Walked on a cane for a while. Still do some. But right now I go to gym about five times a week. Other “older guys”, think I am overdoing it, but I ignore them and I PUSH myself. I never cop to age. I figure I can keep up with a lot of the thirty something’s right now. But must work on my power though.
I wasn't fooled, Jester! in all honesty I watch most of your videos including the long format & such from beginning to end, I have a very similar mindset about all information in my life not just in the topics you cover. By far my favorite UA-cam channel and im excited to watch the next 1000+ videos you post
Love to hear more on adding muscle as we age. Did train years ago big gap 30y but as I get older worrying about maintaining or gaining more muscle into the 60y age group.
VG foundation info and dovetails well with what I have already been doing except I didn’t hear anything (might have missed it) about a slow eccentric phase which apparently is optimal for muscle growth. Also, more detail about the when and how long for optimal recovery breaks would be great.
I currently am doing pull-ups 6 days a week with most repetitions a few from my maximum, and maybe 2 - 5 sets a day. Ya see, my pull-up bars are above the door of my bathroom, so I may do this exercising walking between my bedroom and bathroom. My body handles it without resting between days. Thoughts on this life strategy?
When l was a teenager l would do split routines and do weights 6 days a week reps were between 8 to 25 based on the exercise and six sets depending to heavier weight. 35 years later and lifelong training l created a group to lift once a month. 1 to 3 reps maximum 3 sets, bemch and squats. Heavy emphasis was holding as long as possible to maximize the negative and heavy assistance on the positive. I felt 1 rep.and 2 sets being the most effective. Best bench was 365 for 5 reps. In my 20s my best bench was 230 one rep, my squat.hit 550 for 10 reps much deeper than 405 for one rep in my 20s and extremely easy compared to my 20s. In my teens early 20s Arnold's the education of a bodybuilder was the Bible, l would recommend this for beginners for their first 5 years for a good base before they try anything stupid. The only thing I would recommend is a front squat warmup for good form
I wasn't fooled! I'm a lifelong weightlifter/bodybuilder. Trained and eaten every way possible. I've also broken down training cycles to align with my morphology (hope I said that right) to ascertain optimal training methodology, diet, etc. But now I'm 50! I'm wondering if age is a relevant factor in training. My goals now are different and my generation, who grew up on Muscle Media 2000 and Pumping Iron, are getting older and shifting from muscularity to longevity. Are there any studies that offer anything conclusive regarding advanced lifters (not elite) who train into their 50's, 60's, 70's and hopefully 80's?
question: as per frequency and recovery - is the central nervous system strain and a generalized fatigue, taken into consideration in any of the studies (how does the work out split affect recovery are you accumulating excessive stress even though you’re not working the same body parts does that affect growth and strength gains,? i’m really enjoying this content - it’s a very refreshing approach, dedicated to answering questions with models that can be tested and measured. There will always be complications, and more questions and further testing inspired by previous experience and observations.
Great video and information, thank you! When making sure to do 10 sets per muscle group per week, how does one set the cut off point in which exercises targets what muscles? E.g. if I do 10 sets of weighted pull ups a week, would some of those sets also count towards biceps volume or would the sets for biceps still be at 0? I.e., would I need to do 10 sets of isolated bicep exercises in addition to the 10 sets of pull ups? Same scenario with e.g. squats and hip thrusts, would I need to do 10 sets of squats and 10 sets of hip thrusts or 5 of each since they target similar muscle groups but bias different ones to a larger degree.
This was about max muscle strength and size... I was thinking of asking- maximum strength for what muscle for what purpose...to look good? ugh, I'd never encourage training to look good for others. I wonder how to live long while enjoying the outdoors! But i don't care for hanging out in gyms. If we ask what different sports/activity works the majority of the body, ill pick from the list and do that 3x/wk. So focus on what activity (outdoors, for me) does that better? Does the list go - gardening, rowing, volleyball, mountain climbing, soccer, yoga, motocross, swimming, mountain biking, tai chi, etc. Where do i want to spend my time...its not in a gym around earbud wearing sweaty people who mostly care about how they look...but I'm not 19 anymore either. Thank you for reminding me what strength training is best and what is important at each stage of life.
HA! "I wasn't fooled, jester!" But I did join your community channel... So, a question (and opinion) to press against your presentation... On repetitions, I have noticed that the great weight of study seems to follow social desire, in that all of it seems focused on how a person "looks" as a result of exercise and not how well their health advances. As I look back on life, I still hold that lifting a one pound weight off the floor 100 times is far better for "health" than lifting 100 pounds once. When you get a chance, comparing those two extremes via "science" might be interesting. And, thank you for your work on presenting accurate and graceful understanding.
That's an interesting thought experiment, Ken. At that point, I think we're debating aerobic exercise vs anaerobic exercise, which could go back and forth. I saw your post in the community - welcome!
The advantage of training to failure (or close to it) is record keeping. You need to gradually increase the load as you get stronger. When you stop failing at a given number of repetitions, it's time to increase the weight. It's hard to figure out how far you are from failure (3,4,5, etc. reps away?). So go to "failure," but don't try too hard.
Nice Spread of Factors ...little mentioned on Matrix Training ( Foolin those Muscles into Imagining they are doing more with Less with half reps ) ~ Any thoughts ?🤔
I train HIT, I am 74 years old and trained for over 50 years, I do chest triceps legs, once per week to fail. Then Back Biceps legs once per week to fail. Max 3 sets per body part, 2 warm-up sets 8/10 reps ONE all out, still making gains BUT you must recover, 4 days rest then 3 rest, works for me.
Great vid been long time subscriber but don’t comment but just wondered if you have done any videos on peptides like bpc-157 or others? Cant see any on channel didnt no if it was something covered in your paid area? Thanks
What is your opinion of these two concepts: 1. “Single set to failure” and 2. “Super slow” weight training. For example, 20 seconds up and 20 seconds down.
Are there research driven approaches to increase bone density and muscle in osteoporosis? Would it influence reps, intensity etc? Would modifications be required to influence the angle and potential pressure points on rhe joint such as spine? I also wonder if other factors are recommended such as collagen and higher grams of protein per kg.
isn't it more a question about vitamin and diet deficiencies? some conditions can only appear like osteoporosis like when I overdosed histamine through cacao...
Great video. What would be the recommendation for a 56-year-old who already swims 3-5 times per week but wants to add weight lifting (because Dr. Attia says so). Should I just lift once per week and keep the same swim schedule? I'd guess swimming is an aerobic exercise, but would I be at less than 30% of the max weight needed for muscle mass?
Swimming is a great high repetition, low weight muscle workout on top of the cardio, so if you lift, I'd say go for heavy weights at low reps to be "balanced". You can do a whole body workout once a week, or what I like to do (I'm a runner who likes to run three times a week) is do the classic push pull legs split at incredibly high intensity to failure and then switch exercises until I'm failing to do even a bodyweight exercise like kneeling pushups, for example. My week looks like Monday: Push Tuesday: Run Wednesday: Pull Thursday: Run Friday: Legs Saturday or Sunday: Long Run. Although one of my favorite training splits was Monday: Upper Body Tuesday: Run and Legs Wednesday: Upper Body Thursday: Run and Legs Friday: Upper Body Saturday: Long Run and Legs Ab workouts are whenever it felt convenient and my abs felt healed from the last ab workouts. Typically three times a week on back and biceps day because I end up using my abs to stabilize those exercises to begin with.
@@TheSpecialJ11 This is great advice. I didn't think of swimming as a high-repetition low-weight workout, before but can see that point. I'm a former cross-country runner/soccer player and might skip leg day in favor of an upper-body abs workout.
An excellent source for this subject is 'Hypertrophy: Muscle fiber growth caused by mechanical tension' by Chris Beardsley. It generally agrees with what is presented here; however, it provides more complete information on muscle physiology and more specific information on how different training strategies impact muscle hypertrophy. Also, the best source for understanding how to exercise each muscle group is 'The Physics of Resistance Exercise' by Doug Brignole. Most strength training info is based on folklore that is often inefficient, ineffective and unsafe.
Would it be more optimal to leave the major compound lifts for strength increase and use more isolation exercises for muscle size? I like to mainly do compound lifts but feel this is very taxing when trying to increase the volume to increase muscle size. I think I should probably use isolation for say biceps and triceps instead of doing more chin-ups and presses. I guess it boils down to what muscles we want to grow and optimally to isolate that muscle (so long as it all ties in together).
As someone who lifted a lot for years as a young man, and lifts a little now, 40ish years later, for health, maintaining function and tone -- I think how you feel / risk of injury is a factor to consider. Even as a young man, except to occasionally check maximums re my strength progression, I rarely did sets to complete failure. I was far less likely to sprain muscles, get sensations like shin splints (but in my arms), injure joints, etc, by using less weight, but doing more like 15ish reps vs. doing heavier weight and more like 8 reps. PLUS, I could tend to do a LOT more total volume, since for me at 120 lbs for example, bench pressing 160 16 times was about like benching 180 lbs 8ish times, but obviously that was MUCH higher volume, and I could do lots of sets of the lower weight without too much fatigue or any pain/injury. Each to their own, but unless you're seriously into lifting / strength / looking ripped (vs. being fit, healthy, toned, etc), you can get PLENTY of benefit without trying to act like King Kong.
3 sets in the morning 3 sets in the late afternoon (6 sets on one day) two times a week, should put enough recovery between what amounts to 12 sets a week creatine used with this really makes that second round of sets in the late afternoon work well as it helps with the fatigue recovery. select a weight that is between 6-12 reps ... you can also run a 6 rep weight then for the following sets go down to 10 rep sets...
How tall are you? and what is the heaviest you've been? I'm 37 years old 5'8 tall used to be 100.5 kgs but through 18-6 regular Intermittent Fasting,calorie restriction primarily refined carbs and processed sugar lost 22.5 kgs currently at 78.5 kg
Muscle growth can be sought from a sexual motivation perspective, but some of us are already highly satisfied in this realm. Some of us simply don't extract good rewards from any kind of obsession regarding looking attractive, sexual appeal, etc etc... I ask myself what would be the best training and muscle parameters to promote healthspan from a functional standpoint. By functional I mean resistance to stress, good scores on well-being, capacity to retain performance, knowledge, cognitive flexibility, immunocompetence, resist aging, maybe longevity. In this case, is hypertrophy really a good parameter to focus on ? Or strength, stamina, mobility, agility, flexibility would be superior atributes ?
Рік тому
Optimal: 10+ sets/week (as long as you are able to recover) minimum intensity = 30%RepMax reps = close to failure twice a week slightly better than once
OK, so I have the maximum one-repetition weight, I take 30% of that and find out I can do x reps to total exhaustion, so my reps per set is x - 4. So, how many sets should I do in a session and how long should I rest between sets?
I have a question related to volume, what about time under tension? What, if any, does research show about the speed at which repetitions are performed? I'm thinking that in order to increase tension time (slower reps) that one might need to lift even less weight in order to meet a certain number of repetitions. Great videos you are sharing.
There's a good channel that covers lifting basics, Renaissance Periodization, that goes into that. Slowing down the negative part of the lift, return to lower position, for most forms, improves hypertrophy gains. Or so they say, but that guy's credentials seem pretty solid.
I don't see anyone covering the psychological effect of the different training strategies. For instance I usually feel much better when I hit muscle failure in multiples exercises, and that last for days, furthermore, this positively influence my the other training sessions.
Great Video as usual I personally think that for natural lifters Mike Mentzer is right when he said that you cannot train with intensity and volume or you end up with Diminished Returns only trial and error finds the sweet spot which differs for the individuals ability to recover
probably because building strength is not only about workings out but many other factors as body condition quality of protein eaten quantity quality of sleep and dealing with oxidative stress
how about if you manually load, that is pick up and throw piece by piece, 10000 lbs of mail , freight, and bags in 15 minutes, and you do this several times a day for 25 years is that good exercise.
How do you define recovery? Is it the time needed to do more work than in your last workout? About 1-2 days between workouts? Or can it be of much shorter duration such as time between sets?
Hi Nic, In your The Most Powerful Habit to Extend Life video I understood the studies emphases strength over mass or size. At 5:42 in this video you mention there may be a more optimal rep range for strength, then went back to muscle growth (which is the topic of this video). Any chance of a short to go into the detail and any other differences, sets and to failure perhaps? In my mid 50’s I’m less interested in “attracting all the ladies” (who am I kidding 😄) and more in my health-span, hence strength vs size. Cheers
Most of your weight lifting journey was similar to mine albeit a generation earlier. I joined my first gym a year after I graduated high school. I was 6'4/160, and a rail thin ectomorph with a concave chest. My maximum bulk weight was 250 which I achieved via buckets of weight gainer. Naturally I felt bloated because I was. Needless to say I gained size but not much aesthetics.
At my age, I feel it's too dangerous to test for a one rep max. Is there some rule of thumb such as "a weight that gives you 8 reps to failure is approximately 70% of your one rep max?"
![The 3 Nutrition Pillars for Fastest Muscle Growth [12 Studies]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PRv30afjBVE/mqdefault.jpg)
![The 3 Nutrition Pillars for Fastest Muscle Growth [12 Studies]](/img/tr.png)
![The Thomas DeLauer Intermittent Fasting Muscle Building Guide [Fact Checked]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_jt8uGNfGdg/mqdefault.jpg)
Hope this is informative. Of course, there's much more nuance that can be applied, but I think this offers a good foundation on the main things to focus on at the beginning and onward.
Great video, but I allways have the concern how relevant these studes can be used, cause what is the participants mindmiuscleconnection, their drive and motivation for and in training and how is their mindset in the training when reaching close to failure, how are they able to use their body comparble to mine and do we at all have any similiaries so that any study ever can be taken serious for my case?
I loved when my country had a program where they showed how the study was being performed with closeups of eyes, etc. when the participants where conducing the taks.
Since I base my personal training on knowledge how the particular muscles are bering activated, relaxed etc. , can I then use these many diff. studies, I think, not really.....
1. vs. 2 a week training is for the same timerperiod I assume, meaning, that the group 2. a week hit platough double as fas so they kind of will have trained double the lenght which then will make them incomparable with the group making more newbiee gain.
My comment makes sense, and you seem really smart, so I think you get it, but otheriwse try hit me back I have very interesting stuff to show and infomr you about; No timewaste getting inolved with what I have to say, I assure you or I will pay you for it, reasonable though.
I have very unique way to decrease needed recoverytime, a benefit for me, as I love training using body as evoultuion intended us to use body vs. the abuse many show in gyms and div. activites today..
To me, this kind of thing is great. In my 60's, it's far more about making progress without hurting myself and being pro-health than being a "better athlete", etc. like it was in my 20's.
And it seems FAR better (like with everything else) to have real data from meta-studies vs. intuition, or relying on who yells the loudest, et. al.
What about time between sets?
You still havent.... oh, nvm, you dont care. Heheh.
Summary:
Volume: 10+ sets per week per muscle group.
Repetions: For muscle growth, heavy weight with fewer repetions.
Intensity: A range from 3-4 reps from failure to absolute failure.
Progression: Incrementally increase volume over time.
Thank you for this, it is very helpful. Nice to see some actual data on this topic and not just bro science. Looking forward to the nutritional vid that you mentioned, loosing fat is my achilles heel. Or maybe I'm not counting calories correctly.
plus balanced protein meals with magic 3 Leucine, Creatine and Taurine
you need to break that postworkout katabolism and 2h window is best for it plus a follow up 3 hours later of Leucine to push anabolism farther
Try intermittent fasting. Tough at first but it gets rid of fat.
@@robertcunningham9626it works but its not optimal for muscle growth.
@@robertcunningham9626 Just stop...
@@Andrew-xo6hlYou don’t think IF shifts fat??? It does, but does so much more. High protein low carb heavy gym plus IF works best.
Your narration is surprisingly stable and hearable without any phonetic or temporal distortions at 1.5x the playback speed :)
I feel like very intelligent people tend to speak very clearly. I assume it's gotta be at least somewhat deliberate.
Didn't know Physionic was a BEAST... Great content, we really appreciate it!
Thanks, Pablo.
Bro is taller than Tom Aspinall!!!!!!!!!
My only caveat is the problem with starting in older age. There is the danger of provoking a hernia which means imho that there should be some sort of correlation study done with age and injury sustained through weight lifting. It is all very well when you are young, but I started from zero at the age of 72, so I am very cautious about going full blast. Indo now after 7 months lift heavier weights, and I completely recommend resistance training. I really wish that there was more in depth info for people starting later in life. Love your channel, good information.
You don’t have to life a house, start off light and build from there. That’s how you prevent injury/hernias. Take rest days, examine how you feel and you’ll be alright.
this video is gold. After lifting weights with no/very small gains for years I applied these principles and got good results.
It's crazy how all (or at least most of) these "fitness influencers" fail to communicate the core principles to their audience.
Great to hear, NoGGi. Thanks for chiming in with your experience.
In one month?
OK - Been doing this for 57 years - turn 70 this year. Most of what you spoke to I learned through trial and error as much of the research was not there 40-50 years ago. You gave all great advice. If I were to give my younger self advice it would be to stick to 5-6 reps max and 4-5 sets max per workout per muscle group. Here is why - higher reps wear out the joints. Your goal is to get the muscle growth but by the time you get to my age, still have hips and shoulder joints. Thanks again. PS - BTW - 5'8",175 lb, can bench 235. BMI is high, but heavily muscled as well ... cheers.
That's very impressive for your age. Appreciate the tips.
Maybe I got him wrong, but he seemed to be saying that MORE volume is better. You seem to be saying that LESS is better. Not only for your senior self but for your younger self. I tend to AGREE. I stopped getting hurt once I LOWERED my volume. But I lift lighter to SAVE wear on my joints. And this allows me a bit more volume. Though I can't lift quite as much as you. Same age at 6"3' 180 lbs.
@@Kermit_T_FrogWhen he speaks of "volume", he is really referring to the total weight that is being lifted in any given set. So, 10 reps of 100 pounds = 1000 pounds of "volume". There was another video on this subject that I watched and it explained it much better. I'll be darned if can find it. If I do, I'll send it to you. Cheers.
@@trentriver Not only total weight in any given set. Total weight in any given week. I usually do 12 to 15 reps at a lighter weight. I take that to mean it could be the same volume as a heavier weight with fewer reps. Can't see that I'm missing anything.
@@Kermit_T_FrogYes - of course you can extend that to a week - I was just trying to define what was meant by volume using a single set. The only point I was really trying to make is, the fewer reps one can do to get the max results, the better. If 5 reps x 4 sets of a heavier weight gets me there - perfect. I think reducing reps helps to preserve cartilage and for the long haul that is a good thing. I see guys at the gym doing 15-30/reps/set and in 40-50 years that is a lot of wear and tear.
OUR BOY IS 6'6"?? He has to have a camera holder perched on a sky scraper
Hahaha - it's not quite that far up. :)
Are you Dutch? Dutch people are some of the tallest people in the world. And your last name looks Dutch as well. Great content as always!
Based on his #'s.. sounds about like my build when I was his age.. though I'm a mere 6'3"..
And make me realize how much I need to get back active again..
I always hated lifting, but don't mind exercise..
Bad injuries, 2 knee surgeries, nerve damage in my right leg, and a bunch of bad excuses over the past 20 years.
I have some muscle catching up to do before I'm actually old!
@James Lovelace I also had chronic pain, localized to my right leg from nerve damage and arthritis.
Diet changes took it from a constant 5-6, peaking at 7-8. The worst days it was so bad I couldn't even think clearly or focus without opiates.
Now I'm a constant 0 pain without any meds, not even OTC.
@@Unsensitive
Really happy for you. Hope it lasts. Diet has not worked me in 20 yrs. Tried all types consistently plus supplements, herbs, etc. Natural options sadly don’t work for all us.
This is a very good presentation. As someone whom another gym member called "Jack" because he had misheard others saying that I was _jacked_ (and someone trainers sometimes ask for advice), I offer some other points, which deal with optimizing _volume_ and results. 1) *The most important "muscle" you're training is your brain.* Visualization of results is one of the most important things you can do, not just to stay on track and inspired, but because it is the brain itself that directs muscle growth, and mental imagery actually changes how it will direct your body's development. 2) *There's no such thing as a "face scrunch"!* Screwing up your face and clenching your jaws takes blood flow, intensity (and the brain's attention) away from the muscles you're actually working on, and undermines your effort. 3) *Protect your joints.* Don't ever do an exercise in such a way that you lock the joint(s) central to that exercise: put the work solely on your muscles. That is, never lock your elbows or your knees, because doing so transfers the workload to your skeleton, and can tear up your cartilage, resulting in "weight-lifters' arthritis." 4) *It's called "weight lifting," but "weight putting down" is just as important.* If at the end of a set, you have to throw the weights, or slam the stack on a cable machine, you're robbing yourself of "volume," _either_ by doing too much weight, _or_ by just trying to draw attention to yourself: either way, everyone will think you're either incompetent or juvenile. 5) *Slow the hell down.* You're not in a race with gravity, and the faster you do a rep, the less (or worse) your results will be. 6) *Leave your ego at the gym door.* You're competing with yourself, not with anyone else there: remember your self-visualization. A written workout plan/diary can help you compete with yourself-with your past-to maximize your productive volume. And, it puts your progress right there, in front of you.
Thanks, Jack! ;) good advice!
There’s a guy at my gym who growls, screws up his face, slams the weights down and then prowls up and down the floor like a dickhead. He’s a major attention seeker and we all look forward to his training days for a good laugh. I feel a little sorry for him.
Concentration and posture: exactly where many fail 😀 Thanks for taking the time to write this down in a comment here.
@@richardmalone3172I walk in-between sets on leg day. Not for attention, but to keep blood flowing. I have compartment syndrome
Have a similar weight & muscle gain experience. Weighed abt 165lbs at 18. Height 6ft 3in. Began lifting free weights in college. Very intimidating to start. Was skinniest guy in weight room by far. Knew a little, but not very much. Worked out 3 to 4x/wk. Worked legs, but primarily upper body. Was running 2 to 4 miles 3x/wk. Didn't like running. Began eating 4x/day. Also took B Vitamins. Was using sets of 20 reps by 3x. Did that for maybe 3mos. Another lifter suggested fewer reps at higher weights. Changed to 12 reps. At one point, didn't allow enough recovery time. Developed a low grade fever along with severe muscle soreness. Topped out at 215lbs after abt 18mos. Lifted regularly until abt age 32. Switched to distance swimming. Lifted less wgt, less often. Wgt has stabilized at 205lbs. Have swum for decades. Resting pulse is abt 44 to 48. Sleep very well. Feel very well. Body looks good. When younger, some women commented favorably upon my fittness. It's been an overall bonus. Today I lift lighter weights only for tone; less for strength. Strongly suggest a fittness regime. 🤔🤔🤔😁
thanks for the advice
revisiting this video a year later. your stuff is THE best
73 years old. 4 sets per muscle group. 4th set to failure or close to it. 1st set 10 reps at around 30 to 40% of previous session’s 4th set. 2nd set 8 reps at around 40 to 50%. 3rd set 6 reps at around 50 to 60%. 3 days rest between sessions. I manage to increase my max weight and/or reps (slightly) on nearly every muscle group every session. Take creatine daily. Lifting for around 6 months, although I’d been doing it sporadically for years before I retired.
20 to 30mins 5 days a week moderate intensity and you will be good to go for the rest of your life.
During the last 45 years I am on and off with fitness training. When I was young I had no issues to train 4 times a week. Nowadays I get best results with training specific areas twice a week. That reduction gives me enough time to recover and increases significantly my will-power to train close to failure.
I'm likely a similar age to you, given I've been lifting weights 50 years off and on. And yes, for lots of people, their age and condition (and personal health) has a LOT to do with safe volumes and recovery capabilities. In my 20's, 4 times a week with long sessions but balance and not too intensive sets worked great.
Now, that would end up with me with significant injuries, setting me back. Twice a week and area targeting is likely far better for seniors.
I'd read books claiming that unlike running sports like, say, tennis, one can make progress in competitive weightlifting well into their 40's, if doing it right to avoid injuries.
But sanity needs to prevail as we age. I want to live longer / better, not brag about my bench press.
Definitely need to improve my volume in the gym, great insights here! Thanks from a fellow Swedish UA-camr in Beijing 🌆🏯😊
Thank you.
I lifted a good bit in college many decades ago and it sounds like the bro science was reasonably solid back then. I was screwing up nutrition, not lifting practices, so that I kept gaining strength but not much size. Maybe that was as well; I switched to different sports later and it was nice being able to draw on that strength at a moderate body size.
From everything I've read, watched, and experienced... it seems like the absolute best is to do some at lower weight and higher rep, then another pushing that weight up while doing lower reps. By incorporate both techniques, you gain strength over time while improving recovery. Kinda like hiking switchbacks... you get further up the hill if some of your work isn't as hard
Very informative / educational! I like your natural humor that you were infusing along the way. It 'humanizes' these types of deep-dive, academic videos .. continue the humor where it seems to naturally fit and complement your topics!
Once I hit my 50s it started taking 3-4 days for muscles to recover. Back in my 20s I could train every second day. I also have to be extremely careful about increasing the load.
Great overview and your research mirrors my experience of 17 years in the gym. I’ve securely landed on 15 reps per set with failure being around 20 reps. I could up the weight but I get almost no injuries at this rep range, which is a plus.
When I switched to this method of lifting my size improved a lot but it felt contradictory to the gym bro research I found on the forums years ago.
Great info. In fact I think it's time to summarize all these videos and publish a book (kinda like Dr. Greger's "how not to die").
My opinion on the intensity/volume equation is that with a heavy weight you recruit more fibers to fire, with lower intensity you recruit less fibers but when they get tired in order to continue the set other fibers get involved.
Now to grow, fibers need to be active during a minimum amount of time. That's why the 1 rep max doesn't result in much growth even when recruiting the maximum amount of fibers.
Conclusion : you have to find the weight recruiting enough fibers during enough time under tension and that may be very personal because whe don't all have the same type and amount of fibers for all different muscle groups.
This is why they do scientific studies to test these theories. Then others like him review all of them and distill the bal of evidence.
Yes!
Intuition could be right, but it CERTAINLY isn't science.
The data is the data. Regardless of the specifics of why/how the muscles grow.
I have returned back to your channel after quite a while, love the more fun you bring while sharing research!
Thanks! I’ve been trying to loosen up a bit and have a bit more fun.
Btw, Gojira rocks!
Last year I tore my calves many times while running, my quadriceps doing leg press and broke a wrist bone using the seated shrug machine. It is time to accept I am getting too old to lift to failure at 8 reps but it is nice to know I can still make some progress using lighter weights.
Good gracious - tore your calves, quads, and broke your wrist! That's it, I'm releasing a video titled: "Avoid the Gym at all Cost - Mario's story."
@@Physionic nah, just call it: lift according to your age 😉
@@Mario-forallhow old are you?
@@patrickrutherford5553 almost 40
@@Mario-forall maybe you are training too heavy . Training should stimulate the body to adapt , not tear and break the body-
I’m not saying that to give out obvious information as if you didn’t know that- do you think you could modify your program with less impactful training and lower the weight and build up at a safer pace ?
I wasn’t fooled, jester! ;). Good stuff. Can’t wait for more in this area. When you do the vids on recovery, just remember there’s no such thing as over-training, just under-dosing. Lol.
Kidding aside, at 55 I like how I look l, feel, and perform but am always working to get better. Info on muscle gain, building aerobic capacity and aging effectively is always welcome. 12 weeks into a 20 week trip right now but once home I’ll be evaluating a glycine and NAC regimen and see how that goes.
Thanks again for your great work!
Hey Bill, Why glycine and NAC? I'm 62 and finding that my gains start to stall after a few months of working out. As well, I've been very injury prone with my lower back, which has always (since my 20's) given me problems.
Please make a video about Body Weight Exercises (BWE) or Calisthenics. ❤
Fabulous vid (as are all the many of yours I've watched so far.) Do you happen to have a vid addressing benefits of resistance training in osteoporosis/osteopenia?
Thank you. No, I don’t. It’s a topic I really need to cover, but I have a tremendous amount of my plate. I expect to in the future, though!
@@Physionic looking forward to it when you have the time. 👍
I wasn’t fooled, jester! 😂 … BTW, thanks for using the Joeveo travel mug in one of your videos … my cat like curiosity led to buying one! So surprised by the craftsmanship and performance (scientifically speaking of course) I’ve ordered and given away at least five more … I guess that makes me a serial mugger! 😂🤣😂🤣 … maybe you should be considered for some type of commission! Thanks to my Joeveo mug I can enjoy some of your longest marathon videos without stopping to reheat my supersonic 15 ingredient Cyclone Coffee sweetened with glycine!!! If you ever want to analyze my Cyclone Coffee I’ll send you my secret recipe! Keep up the good work!
Thank you :) just sent this to my dad
This is pretty consistent with what I already knew which is probably a good.
Thank god there are people like this guy, its those people who bring us forward. The types of people who relentlessly study everything so they can learn and share 🎉
Yes, thank the stars for Science and Scientists! Truth and facts matter. But many will still rely on their "personal truth" (their biases)... using similar terms to justify their beliefs. Take vacinnes, gun control, incarceration or religion as examples of topics. Imagine where we'd be if policy makers were required to have science- STEM degrees...
So the more you exercise, more benefits, incredible studies!
Great video! Many thanks for sharing.
Regarding diet personally I'm more interested in maximizing body composition instead of muscle growth, because well, I would rather look like Bruce Lee than bud Spencer. Or canelo instead of Tyson fury.
I wasn’t fooled, jester! You have a great channel. Love the content!
Thanks, Carl!
I already know this channel is going to blow up
Thanks, Neet. :)
Thank you for this clearly described and explained method of growing muscle. However, I’m in my late 70s and have arthritis and sarcopenia. I need to build up my muscles for both strength and supporting my joints. I worry about exercising to the max because I fear it will damage my joints. Maybe when people are in my condition they should start much more slowly? If so, are there any studies to describe how best to approach this?
I don’t know about studies, but I have had good results by just biting the bullet and using some of my saved up pennies to pay for a personal trainer because trying to acquire that kind of information on older people I’m sure would be quite time-consuming. I did years ago get some personal training for a short time with somebody promoting, slow, heavy movements. The reason that became popular was it was first used with older populations being supervised. They were able to increase in strength while slowly lifting heavyweights under supervision with apparently no problems, but it was more detailed than that so that’s not really enough to go on by yourself. as older people, we may have to be more content with strength growth than lots of muscle growth because the body has a harder time, synthesizing protein, and building muscle as we age. There are always some outliers who come on these threads and say how they were able to do it, but they are outliers. You might be one and you might not, but that doesn’t mean that strength training isn’t going to be valuable. I’m kind of the same as a 70 year old woman who did her weight loss through calorie reduction over a period of time and maintained it but didn’t consistently do exercise and boy am I regretting it now. It’s so much easier to get into shape when you’re younger and then maintain, but here we are. by the way, my trainer was able to reverse a hip problem that my medical plan had not been able to with two shots and multiple sessions with a physical therapist. I had to pay out-of-pocket which was a drag because the health plan probably spent three times or four times as much money as it took me to, make great strides in the problem no pun intended. It’s not gone completely, but I also know that I have a lot of deterioration of the lining of the joint on the right side. Unfortunately, I also recently fell on a steep slope leading to walking trail that I’ve used many many times and I tore the super spinatus, so that attachment is several inches away from where it supposed to be, and my doctor said that that will not return to its original place. It definitely keeps me from working on much arm and even upper body strength with any kind of intensity. But I’m working hard on the lower extremities and on the core. Good luck to us both.
@@oolala53 If you have Medicare (or Medicaid?) you can get physical therapy that won’t cost you a dime. I request it from my doctor and they refer me - although I’m not sure if a referral is always required. A good PT can give safe muscle building exercises to get started
There's two definitions of intensity used interchangeably there. 1. % of 1RM. Useful for programming loads and reps for those loads. 2. How close to failure you are pushing, reps in reserve, perceived effort etc.
I appreciate all the fine work and information you share with us. However I'm sixty-eight and have been involved in weight training and fitness since fourteen years old. Have tried countless methods and approaches and have found that inspite all these resent papers, that Arthur Jones and Mike Metzner discovered the most valuable knowledge yet regarding weight training.
Good info. Most important staying healthy, recovering. Then the optimizing u explain.
I pick 2 exercises of non related muscle groups every day at the gym. I push them to failure without overload or injury and aim that to be at about 40-50 reps. There is always a couple of days before I hit the same group again. I make sure the group is over 90% recovered. Works great for me.
May I ask how you know what 90% recovered is?
@@oolala53 the moment the soar is gone.
One important note about rep ranges is that every individual is unique. Some grow best at sets of 3 while others do at 30.
The 8-12 rep range is merely the standard due to the mean found within studies, so you have to experiment with your body.
rep range is somewhat meaningless without rep duration, a 4 sec rep is quite different from a 1 sec rep
@@defeqel6537 Very true. Mechanical tension is the factor, after all.
Yes sir rep range is quite an individual thing. I started going 20 on everything and that works better for me, especially being older.
A question: How healthy is it at all to have a big muscle mass? For example I weight 55 kg and it's mainly muscles, Im really low on fat. Will I live longer if I'd weight for example 75 kg with the minimum amount of fat to live healthily?
7weeks ago I found out that due to retiring I had lost a lot of my strength, not good. Bought 30kg weights and started exercising, then bought 40 kg more as I regained strength I needed more. Now I have lost 9kg body weight around my gut. Now I will never stop training as it's great to become stronger again. I happen to be a 1st Dan Judo and a 3rd Dan Karate and was asked to leave a gym for punching a huge body builder when he was rude to me, his arm were as thick as my legs. I hit him on his fore head and he decided to have a nap. If this had not happened I would never have had a lapse in training.
I've seen volume's effects firsthand. A few years back I set out to deadlift a half million pounds in 5 months, which I achieved. People at the gym thought I was crazy and it was overkill, but I wanted to see if anything positive would happen. My deadlift went from 315 x 8 reps to 315 x 15 reps and hit my first 4 plate deadlift during that period, getting 3 reps on the first try. And I looked goooood. I never looked more jacked, and my traps were insane looking (still are). I essentially leveled up by doing that thing people thought I was crazy for trying. And also, because the deadlift (in my opinion) is the cornerstone of all strength lifts, all of my other lifts went up as well.
My advice would be the same as yours, to stop counting reps and sets and look at overall poundage. My deadlift workouts consisted of 20,000 pounds per workout, usually working with 315 for around 50 reps and 225 for 20. There was no pre-determined rep range per set...just as many as I could do until I got tired, so the last half of the workout was cluster sets of 2 or 3 reps. I would set a time limit of about 30 minutes so I didn't spend a lot of time standing around, and I think that limited rest between sets was a big contributing factor to my progress.
Interesting how people respond differently. I could not recover from that. Deadlifts were my best lift, and I got to four plates a side (180kg) for 7 reps, just doing one work set once per week (about four work-up sets were done before this).
That's a fantastic way to look at things from a motivational perspective haha, a straight poundage target with a deadline - now THAT would keep me maxing out my volume week by week. I think you're onto something!
Thanks! I would be great to have a plug-in for the strength training too.😮
Yeah I made a huge mistake as a beginner as well because I was reading those bodybuilding magazines, which were targeted at advanced lifters. So I did the classic bro split, chest back legs which resulted in way lower than optimal frequency. On top I was a hard gainer with a fast metabolism and not nearly enough calories and protein. I saw some results but not enough to keep me going. Now at age 41 I am starting a new with everything I learned in recent months.
Great video, but one thing I want to point our is that unless you have actually trained to failure, then you don't know if you are training 1-3 reps shy of failure. Also, what someone thinks is failure usually isn't. Just like anything else. Practice makes perfect. Also, you would not want to train to failure every set. Obviously that would impact recovery or total volume. Failure should be set aside for the final set of an exercise.
Or just don't bother trying to go to failure.
Good stuff. Is there any research on time under tension (i.e., rep speed). There are some benefits to lighter weight in super slow reps (e.g., less joint stress for older lifters). One question I've always had is whether you train slow reps, are you favoring one type of muscle fiber over the others (e.g., are you loosing "explosiveness" if you train super slow)? On the failure workouts, what effect does DOMS play in this analysis?
Very informative... I haven't done any volume check but it's almost likely i'm on the lower rep group as I always do EMOM on my training
An example of these are:
One Arm Pull Up
- EMOM minimum of 15 mins
- 1 rep per arm
- Total Sets : 16
Front Lever Hold:
-
Well done no bs information 👏
This was a great presentation.
I started lifting at 14 years old, having been always naturally strong. Then in my 22-45 year high overtime industrial years, I got waaaay too fat. Started going back to the gym in late 90’s. Still too fat, but slowly losing weight. I have bone on bone arthritis in my knees, so have to be careful in many keg things. Injured myself in Nune of 2023. Walked on a cane for a while. Still do some. But right now I go to gym about five times a week. Other “older guys”, think I am overdoing it, but I ignore them and I PUSH myself. I never cop to age. I figure I can keep up with a lot of the thirty something’s right now. But must work on my power though.
Can you explain how injuries are related to failure?
"Volumn" is generally accepted to mean reps x sets... when you add in "weight" it becomes "workload"... sets x reps x weight.
I wasn't fooled, Jester!
in all honesty I watch most of your videos including the long format & such from beginning to end, I have a very similar mindset about all information in my life not just in the topics you cover. By far my favorite UA-cam channel and im excited to watch the next 1000+ videos you post
That means so much to me, itsokiie. I love people like you - thank you. :)
Love to hear more on adding muscle as we age. Did train years ago big gap 30y but as I get older worrying about maintaining or gaining more muscle into the 60y age group.
love the channel. thank you.
VG foundation info and dovetails well with what I have already been doing except I didn’t hear anything (might have missed it) about a slow eccentric phase which apparently is optimal for muscle growth. Also, more detail about the when and how long for optimal recovery breaks would be great.
I love your data based info! So, no, i wasn't fooled - I savor every minute of your content 😊
I currently am doing pull-ups 6 days a week with most repetitions a few from my maximum, and maybe 2 - 5 sets a day. Ya see, my pull-up bars are above the door of my bathroom, so I may do this exercising walking between my bedroom and bathroom. My body handles it without resting between days. Thoughts on this life strategy?
We all have to start or restart some where... ❤❤❤
When l was a teenager l would do split routines and do weights 6 days a week reps were between 8 to 25 based on the exercise and six sets depending to heavier weight. 35 years later and lifelong training l created a group to lift once a month. 1 to 3 reps maximum 3 sets, bemch and squats. Heavy emphasis was holding as long as possible to maximize the negative and heavy assistance on the positive. I felt 1 rep.and 2 sets being the most effective. Best bench was 365 for 5 reps. In my 20s my best bench was 230 one rep, my squat.hit 550 for 10 reps much deeper than 405 for one rep in my 20s and extremely easy compared to my 20s. In my teens early 20s Arnold's the education of a bodybuilder was the Bible, l would recommend this for beginners for their first 5 years for a good base before they try anything stupid. The only thing I would recommend is a front squat warmup for good form
I wasn't fooled! I'm a lifelong weightlifter/bodybuilder. Trained and eaten every way possible. I've also broken down training cycles to align with my morphology (hope I said that right) to ascertain optimal training methodology, diet, etc. But now I'm 50! I'm wondering if age is a relevant factor in training. My goals now are different and my generation, who grew up on Muscle Media 2000 and Pumping Iron, are getting older and shifting from muscularity to longevity. Are there any studies that offer anything conclusive regarding advanced lifters (not elite) who train into their 50's, 60's, 70's and hopefully 80's?
question: as per frequency and recovery - is the central nervous system strain and a generalized fatigue, taken into consideration in any of the studies (how does the work out split affect recovery are you accumulating excessive stress even though you’re not working the same body parts does that affect growth and strength gains,?
i’m really enjoying this content - it’s a very refreshing approach, dedicated to answering questions with models that can be tested and measured. There will always be complications, and more questions and further testing inspired by previous experience and observations.
Great video and information, thank you! When making sure to do 10 sets per muscle group per week, how does one set the cut off point in which exercises targets what muscles? E.g. if I do 10 sets of weighted pull ups a week, would some of those sets also count towards biceps volume or would the sets for biceps still be at 0? I.e., would I need to do 10 sets of isolated bicep exercises in addition to the 10 sets of pull ups? Same scenario with e.g. squats and hip thrusts, would I need to do 10 sets of squats and 10 sets of hip thrusts or 5 of each since they target similar muscle groups but bias different ones to a larger degree.
Yes, this was not discussed.
This was about max muscle strength and size... I was thinking of asking- maximum strength for what muscle for what purpose...to look good? ugh, I'd never encourage training to look good for others. I wonder how to live long while enjoying the outdoors! But i don't care for hanging out in gyms. If we ask what different sports/activity works the majority of the body, ill pick from the list and do that 3x/wk. So focus on what activity (outdoors, for me) does that better? Does the list go - gardening, rowing, volleyball, mountain climbing, soccer, yoga, motocross, swimming, mountain biking, tai chi, etc. Where do i want to spend my time...its not in a gym around earbud wearing sweaty people who mostly care about how they look...but I'm not 19 anymore either. Thank you for reminding me what strength training is best and what is important at each stage of life.
HA! "I wasn't fooled, jester!" But I did join your community channel...
So, a question (and opinion) to press against your presentation... On repetitions, I have noticed that the great weight of study seems to follow social desire, in that all of it seems focused on how a person "looks" as a result of exercise and not how well their health advances. As I look back on life, I still hold that lifting a one pound weight off the floor 100 times is far better for "health" than lifting 100 pounds once. When you get a chance, comparing those two extremes via "science" might be interesting. And, thank you for your work on presenting accurate and graceful understanding.
That's an interesting thought experiment, Ken. At that point, I think we're debating aerobic exercise vs anaerobic exercise, which could go back and forth. I saw your post in the community - welcome!
The advantage of training to failure (or close to it) is record keeping. You need to gradually increase the load as you get stronger. When you stop failing at a given number of repetitions, it's time to increase the weight. It's hard to figure out how far you are from failure (3,4,5, etc. reps away?). So go to "failure," but don't try too hard.
I wasn't fooled jester, we are learning to learn. thank you for you $20.00 member level.
My pleasure, Mike, and thank *you*
Thank you for this very helpful information.
Nice Spread of Factors ...little mentioned on Matrix Training ( Foolin those Muscles into Imagining they are doing more with Less with half reps ) ~ Any thoughts ?🤔
I train HIT, I am 74 years old and trained for over 50 years, I do chest triceps legs, once per week to fail.
Then Back Biceps legs once per week to fail.
Max 3 sets per body part, 2 warm-up sets 8/10 reps ONE all out, still making gains BUT you must recover, 4 days rest then 3 rest, works for me.
Great vid been long time subscriber but don’t comment but just wondered if you have done any videos on peptides like bpc-157 or others? Cant see any on channel didnt no if it was something covered in your paid area? Thanks
Hey Kevin, thanks. I had read a review on BPC a year or so ago but never made any content on it. I’ll need to visit the issue at some point.
@@Physionic thanks seems to be popular along with other peptides at moment
I do OMAD and bodyweights - doing it for 400 days .. gained lean muscle
That is impossible in OMAD. In just keto it is possible, but not ONAD. If you did gain anything, it’s 1 pound of muscle if you’re lucky on OMAD
What is your opinion of these two concepts:
1. “Single set to failure” and
2. “Super slow” weight training. For example, 20 seconds up and 20 seconds down.
Also, “time under tension”.
Are there research driven approaches to increase bone density and muscle in osteoporosis?
Would it influence reps, intensity etc? Would modifications be required to influence the angle and potential pressure points on rhe joint such as spine?
I also wonder if other factors are recommended such as collagen and higher grams of protein per kg.
isn't it more a question about vitamin and diet deficiencies?
some conditions can only appear like osteoporosis like when I overdosed histamine through cacao...
Great video. What would be the recommendation for a 56-year-old who already swims 3-5 times per week but wants to add weight lifting (because Dr. Attia says so). Should I just lift once per week and keep the same swim schedule?
I'd guess swimming is an aerobic exercise, but would I be at less than 30% of the max weight needed for muscle mass?
Swimming is a great high repetition, low weight muscle workout on top of the cardio, so if you lift, I'd say go for heavy weights at low reps to be "balanced". You can do a whole body workout once a week, or what I like to do (I'm a runner who likes to run three times a week) is do the classic push pull legs split at incredibly high intensity to failure and then switch exercises until I'm failing to do even a bodyweight exercise like kneeling pushups, for example. My week looks like
Monday: Push
Tuesday: Run
Wednesday: Pull
Thursday: Run
Friday: Legs
Saturday or Sunday: Long Run.
Although one of my favorite training splits was
Monday: Upper Body
Tuesday: Run and Legs
Wednesday: Upper Body
Thursday: Run and Legs
Friday: Upper Body
Saturday: Long Run and Legs
Ab workouts are whenever it felt convenient and my abs felt healed from the last ab workouts. Typically three times a week on back and biceps day because I end up using my abs to stabilize those exercises to begin with.
@@TheSpecialJ11 This is great advice. I didn't think of swimming as a high-repetition low-weight workout, before but can see that point.
I'm a former cross-country runner/soccer player and might skip leg day in favor of an upper-body abs workout.
An excellent source for this subject is 'Hypertrophy: Muscle fiber growth caused by mechanical tension' by Chris Beardsley. It generally agrees with what is presented here; however, it provides more complete information on muscle physiology and more specific information on how different training strategies impact muscle hypertrophy. Also, the best source for understanding how to exercise each muscle group is 'The Physics of Resistance Exercise' by Doug Brignole. Most strength training info is based on folklore that is often inefficient, ineffective and unsafe.
Would it be more optimal to leave the major compound lifts for strength increase and use more isolation exercises for muscle size?
I like to mainly do compound lifts but feel this is very taxing when trying to increase the volume to increase muscle size.
I think I should probably use isolation for say biceps and triceps instead of doing more chin-ups and presses.
I guess it boils down to what muscles we want to grow and optimally to isolate that muscle (so long as it all ties in together).
As someone who lifted a lot for years as a young man, and lifts a little now, 40ish years later, for health, maintaining function and tone -- I think how you feel / risk of injury is a factor to consider.
Even as a young man, except to occasionally check maximums re my strength progression, I rarely did sets to complete failure. I was far less likely to sprain muscles, get sensations like shin splints (but in my arms), injure joints, etc, by using less weight, but doing more like 15ish reps vs. doing heavier weight and more like 8 reps.
PLUS, I could tend to do a LOT more total volume, since for me at 120 lbs for example, bench pressing 160 16 times was about like benching 180 lbs 8ish times, but obviously that was MUCH higher volume, and I could do lots of sets of the lower weight without too much fatigue or any pain/injury.
Each to their own, but unless you're seriously into lifting / strength / looking ripped (vs. being fit, healthy, toned, etc), you can get PLENTY of benefit without trying to act like King Kong.
Great video. Keep up the good work. Go Pirates!!
Go Pirates! Thanks!
Brad Schoenfeld -Number 1 authority on hypertrophy
In your opinion.
3 sets in the morning 3 sets in the late afternoon (6 sets on one day) two times a week, should put enough recovery between what amounts to 12 sets a week creatine used with this really makes that second round of sets in the late afternoon work well as it helps with the fatigue recovery. select a weight that is between 6-12 reps ... you can also run a 6 rep weight then for the following sets go down to 10 rep sets...
How tall are you? and what is the heaviest you've been?
I'm 37 years old 5'8 tall used to be 100.5 kgs but through 18-6 regular Intermittent Fasting,calorie restriction primarily refined carbs and processed sugar lost 22.5 kgs currently at 78.5 kg
Muscle growth can be sought from a sexual motivation perspective, but some of us are already highly satisfied in this realm. Some of us simply don't extract good rewards from any kind of obsession regarding looking attractive, sexual appeal, etc etc...
I ask myself what would be the best training and muscle parameters to promote healthspan from a functional standpoint. By functional I mean resistance to stress, good scores on well-being, capacity to retain performance, knowledge, cognitive flexibility, immunocompetence, resist aging, maybe longevity.
In this case, is hypertrophy really a good parameter to focus on ? Or strength, stamina, mobility, agility, flexibility would be superior atributes ?
Optimal:
10+ sets/week (as long as you are able to recover)
minimum intensity = 30%RepMax
reps = close to failure
twice a week slightly better than once
OK, so I have the maximum one-repetition weight, I take 30% of that and find out I can do x reps to total exhaustion, so my reps per set is x - 4. So, how many sets should I do in a session and how long should I rest between sets?
I have a question related to volume, what about time under tension? What, if any, does research show about the speed at which repetitions are performed? I'm thinking that in order to increase tension time (slower reps) that one might need to lift even less weight in order to meet a certain number of repetitions.
Great videos you are sharing.
There's a good channel that covers lifting basics, Renaissance Periodization, that goes into that. Slowing down the negative part of the lift, return to lower position, for most forms, improves hypertrophy gains. Or so they say, but that guy's credentials seem pretty solid.
Especially later on in life you'll be wanting to do whatever builds the most fast twitch muscles.
I don't see anyone covering the psychological effect of the different training strategies. For instance I usually feel much better when I hit muscle failure in multiples exercises, and that last for days, furthermore, this positively influence my the other training sessions.
Another aspect of your point is the impact of boredom. I always do whole body because I find focusing on just a couple of muscles boring.
Great Video as usual I personally think that for natural lifters Mike Mentzer is right when he said that you cannot train with intensity and volume or you end up with Diminished Returns only trial and error finds the sweet spot which differs for the individuals ability to recover
probably because building strength is not only about workings out but many other factors as body condition quality of protein eaten quantity quality of sleep and dealing with oxidative stress
The only thing you need to get started is enthusiasm. Then, somehow, you need to teach yourself consistency.
how about if you manually load, that is pick up and throw piece by piece, 10000 lbs of mail , freight, and bags in 15 minutes, and you do this several times a day for 25 years is that good exercise.
How do you define recovery? Is it the time needed to do more work than in your last workout? About 1-2 days between workouts? Or can it be of much shorter duration such as time between sets?
Hi Nic,
In your The Most Powerful Habit to Extend Life video I understood the studies emphases strength over mass or size. At 5:42 in this video you mention there may be a more optimal rep range for strength, then went back to muscle growth (which is the topic of this video). Any chance of a short to go into the detail and any other differences, sets and to failure perhaps?
In my mid 50’s I’m less interested in “attracting all the ladies” (who am I kidding 😄) and more in my health-span, hence strength vs size.
Cheers
Most of your weight lifting journey was similar to mine albeit a generation earlier. I joined my first gym a year after I graduated high school. I was 6'4/160, and a rail thin ectomorph with a concave chest. My maximum bulk weight was 250 which I achieved via buckets of weight gainer. Naturally I felt bloated because I was. Needless to say I gained size but not much aesthetics.
Great video. I was wondering “what about frequency” 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I got you, Antonio!
Can you define recovery?
At my age, I feel it's too dangerous to test for a one rep max. Is there some rule of thumb such as "a weight that gives you 8 reps to failure is approximately 70% of your one rep max?"
Say sina I said: salam dash refighet kheyli basavade سلام داش به رفیقت بگو خیلی با سواده
واقعا با مطالعات مروریش حال میکنم. خیلی منو آپدیت کرده.
Question - 3-4 reps in reserve per total exercises for the total volume over the week or per set or per session or per exercise? I’m lost.