Great video, as always, Menno. It's crazy how common muscle confusion and program hopping are, even in 2024. I feel it's one of those things that people recite from their ''newbie'' phase as working. Because, as you mentioned, pretty much anything worked then. The Dunning-Kruger effect is full effect.
You are the first person I've heard explain "work capacity"! I've watched hundreds of fitness related content on UA-cam and have never heard this topic covered. My skullcrusher sets have been really weird (3 sets, 25/11/11 reps) and your explanation was really helpful. I realized I have other signs of fatigue as well. Thank you!
To be honest, he didn't explain much about it; he just said, 'probably benefit from a lower training volume.' When I do pull-ups I get 14 reps on the first set and second set after 3-5 minutes rest 8 reps. What do I practically do about it? I only do 2 sets of pull ups total a session anyway.
@@RezzGaming That seems like a normal progression to me, maybe a slightly high drop off but nothing really alarming. My current lat raise reps to failure over 4 sets are 14-10-7-6, for example. Not too different from what you're seeing. If you think you might be overtraining, your first adjustment should be to drop 1 session of pullups per week, and see if that makes a significant difference.
@@SeuOu I also have a big rep drop-off with other exercises, but maybe only 2-4 reps per set. I was stalled for half a year almost on everything, but have been doing low volume for just a bit over a month now and making progress again. 4-6 sets per muscle per week. So i guess that is what he means with ‘benefit from a lower volume’?
The work capacity concept was super informative! I hate when my first set is great and then the following sets I cant push the same rep count, but this actually made me feel a lot better about that! I thought it meant I was doing something wrong or just not pushing hard enough, but it turns out it means I'm probably in the sweet spot!
also try longer rest between sets. let the muscle refuel a lil more than standard 2-3min. 7 minutes or so pause im able to do like 10 sets, all with same reps and rpe8-9. So yeah thats 70minutes pause XD. This is at the end of my meso
@rando9574 Great advice, but I already spend too much of my free time in the gym! I'm trying to shorten that rest, if anything! Usually I rest 3-4 mins
@@DevonThorntonYou may be surprised, depending on the exercise, you could probably drop the rest to 2 minutes (maybe even 1, think wrist curls) and end up doing a similar amount of reps, perhaps only with a higher RPE, saves time in the gym and probably doesn’t matter much for muscle growth on certain exercises.
Great video Menno. I wonder if you want to do a video addressing gains in older people. At 58, I've made a lot of progress in the past 3 years. Sometimes I feel like i'm not gaining much, but if I look at where I was 3 months earlier i usually notice significant progress even if it's not obvious week to week.
Well I'm 28 and I absolutely don't see visible progress over 3 month periods, so the fact that you're an old man expecting noticeable development from week to week, you're obviously setting yourself up for disappointment. Look at Menno himself, he looked pretty much the same a decade ago and he is the guy you are taking advice from so calibrate your expectations accordingly.
As usual, Menno with incredibly insightful, pragmatic, novel advice. Succinctly and articulately dropping knowledge bombs to answer the exact questions I have for which the answers aren’t readily available.
Hi Menno, good video. But, you have to agree that progression also has its limits. No matter how we plan our training we will plato at a certain point, be it 10, 20 years. Because we can not progress infinitly. I would argue that if you have the best training program, nutrition, rest etc. the main thing that limits your progression be it mass or strenght are the natural levels of anabolic hormones in your body. And once you max that you will stop progressing whatever you do. The only way to progress from there is to introduce exogenous anabolic hormones.
You don't need maximal levels of anabolic hormones to progress. You can continue to build strength naturally well into your 40s. The rate slows , but shouldn't disappear or become negative. Best of all, this approach sets you up with the base for graceful ageing and enhanced lifespan/healthspan. Why introduce exogenous hormones if it will negate the health increasing effects of lifting?
Is a high fatigue index/low work capacity a problem in a vacuum if you’re still making progress? For example, any time I do biceps curls I usually lose a lot of reps after my top set (e.g. 12/7/6 at 0-1 RIR on each set) but am still making some progress on the top set over time. I chalked this up to genetics, I.e. I think I just have pretty much all fast twitch fibers in my biceps, but is this something I should be looking further into?
As long as you can add a rep or a bit of weight each week, I don't think there's any issue. Remember these are diagnostics for analyzing plateau's...if you're still progressing, there's no plateau and no need to analyze further.
If it were me, I would just add weight and adjust volume. A small increase of 2.5-5lbs should suffice. Lower the repetition range but keep it realistic for remaining consistent on sets across. For example, if you can currently curl 100lbs on a straight bar for the repetition range you mentioned above, then simply add 5lbs and reduce the repetition range down to 6 or 8, then try to maintain that range for all the proceeding sets.
They're the same thing. Everyone who thinks otherwise didn't understand the practicality of what you're asking. If you progressive overload, you have increased volume. If you increase volume, you've progressive overloaded.
Thank you Menno for all your content. I have a question that is relevant for a lot of people I think. Lets assume your muscles of "interest" are Chest, Shoulders, Bicep. If you train only these muscles direct and all the other upper body muscles indirect. Could you grow these three muscles faster than if you would make a full upper body workout or a full body Routine. So if we assume you have a muscle building ability of 1kg/month, by training only the previously mentioned muscle groups you would gain all of that mass in that three muscles. And if you would train the full body, the 1kg/month would distribute all over the body? I hope you understand what I mean. Thanks and best regards from Austria
Absolutely. This is specialization and lots of bodybuilders do this when they have lagging body parts. The rate of muscle growth will be dependent upon the intensity of training, caloric intake, recovery ability, and genetics. You won't necessarily grow muscle "faster" per se, you'll just be focusing your efforts on the specific muscles you mentioned, rather than allocating resources systemically.
Speak for yourself, Menno. My lateral raises are being progressively overloaded faster than every other muscle group in my body. Six weeks and I've gone from 10 to 22.5 lbs for sets of eight. I'll be doing 60 lbs lat raises in no time!
What if you start out weight training 7 days a week? If you have no signs of overtraining but you are just sick of going every day, what happens if you take a couple of days off, would you gain body fat? Of would you gain more muscle faster because of greater rest?
Are not some exercises good enough that even if you "max them out", (like with the lateral raises) they are still worth continue doing at your max instead of switching?
What about lat pulldown when you reach max weight and your gym doesn't have a way to add more weight ? Like let's say you do 4 sets and 12 reps in each set by lifting 200lbs on a lat pulldown so what are you going to do ? I say lower the weight and do it slowly and hold for 2s in the eccentric and concentric. But hey maybe I am wrong 😅
Power lifter size and strength correlates strongly, but would that hold for non-power lifters? Competitive runners are people who have largely the same genetic phenotype + the training. The same should be true for power lifters. The reason that I say this is that I don't really find that strong a correlation at the gym. I see some pretty smallish guys with pretty amazing squats for their size. I realize this is anecdotal and that yes, size should be a pretty good predictor of strength, but the VERY strong correlation that you note for power lifters may be much lower when generalized to the more intermediate lifting community.
I swap out every 30 days. Then after 30 days I swap back. Works great. Worked fine for Jack Lalanne too, natty until his 90's. Just go hard in that month. Every 2 days basically(pending on movement) 4 sets, lots of gains. Then your tendons get lots of rest as next month do tendon strengthen exercises.
Does taking a break (as advised by Dr Mike etc) count as muscle confusion? I'm not talking about a break following systemic fatigue but a break which then gives a "shock" when you restart - which is somewhat akin to newbie gains.
Not an exercise scientist (I'm a medical doctor, who has a bit of experience). Yes, any break of any kind following a training run of over 8 or so weeks can give a slight boost. But then again, that's mostly a complex combination of muscle healing, glycogen sequestration and of course some hypertrophy benefit. Rates of growth can very soon hit the pre break levels. Source: I don't have studies to quote, but some of the exercise physiologists ik seem to concur
Dr Pak says one may progress indefinitely on minimum-effective-dose training, and he seems to have research to back that? Your thoughts, Menno? If I'm in no hurry, does it matter? Won't plateus clear themselves in time, due to various other factors besides volume, if I simply plug away with an MED approach?
Gosh...if gaining over multiple years what you could have gained in 1 year doesn't sound awful, you're basically correct. Just keep in mind that MED is not a static volume, i.e. it increases over time as your muscles adapt. For example, if you keep other variables constant, if your current MED for biceps is 4 sets per week, eventually 4 sets will be drop below your MED and you will permanently plateau until you increase volume up to your new MED. This effect is one of the driving ideas behind deloads, which among other things resensitize your muscles to stimulus, effectively lowering your MED volume after it's gone too high for you to keep up with.
@SeuOu I like your answer but have doubts about a couple of points: 1) that it would take as much longer as you say (seem to be forgetting diminishing returns of increasing volume); and 2) that you really would need to do more and more for MED. Look at Jeff Alberts: he has peaked his champion physique on not particularly high volume.
Sometimes, specially when you training 10+ years, progress is not worth effort. You will gain little to nothing with giant effort. So... You just train to stay healthy. Maybe myostatin studies will change something. Will see.
I agree. At some point you may as well just train to maintain. I feel I'm bulking for six months and gain 1-2 pounds of muscle, which I'll invariably lose in the subsequent cutting phase (because even lean bulking add some fat). At this point, I feel I'm better off just focusing on my diet and try to be at 12% in the winter and 10% in the summer.
When the gym rats are changing the lifting program every month in order to "sock the muscle" it is completely bulshit, how in the heck can you have weight overload if you're changing so often your lifting program before even you can benefit from this particular program?
Addressing the confusion around muscle confusion confusion
Great video, as always, Menno. It's crazy how common muscle confusion and program hopping are, even in 2024. I feel it's one of those things that people recite from their ''newbie'' phase as working. Because, as you mentioned, pretty much anything worked then. The Dunning-Kruger effect is full effect.
You are the first person I've heard explain "work capacity"! I've watched hundreds of fitness related content on UA-cam and have never heard this topic covered. My skullcrusher sets have been really weird (3 sets, 25/11/11 reps) and your explanation was really helpful. I realized I have other signs of fatigue as well. Thank you!
GVS is the first one I remember talking about it
Agreed!
To be honest, he didn't explain much about it; he just said, 'probably benefit from a lower training volume.'
When I do pull-ups I get 14 reps on the first set and second set after 3-5 minutes rest 8 reps. What do I practically do about it?
I only do 2 sets of pull ups total a session anyway.
@@RezzGaming That seems like a normal progression to me, maybe a slightly high drop off but nothing really alarming. My current lat raise reps to failure over 4 sets are 14-10-7-6, for example. Not too different from what you're seeing. If you think you might be overtraining, your first adjustment should be to drop 1 session of pullups per week, and see if that makes a significant difference.
@@SeuOu I also have a big rep drop-off with other exercises, but maybe only 2-4 reps per set. I was stalled for half a year almost on everything, but have been doing low volume for just a bit over a month now and making progress again. 4-6 sets per muscle per week. So i guess that is what he means with ‘benefit from a lower volume’?
Never heard of the Fatigue Index before. Going to keep an eye on that. My reps drop pretty fast.
The work capacity concept was super informative! I hate when my first set is great and then the following sets I cant push the same rep count, but this actually made me feel a lot better about that! I thought it meant I was doing something wrong or just not pushing hard enough, but it turns out it means I'm probably in the sweet spot!
also try longer rest between sets. let the muscle refuel a lil more than standard 2-3min. 7 minutes or so pause im able to do like 10 sets, all with same reps and rpe8-9. So yeah thats 70minutes pause XD. This is at the end of my meso
@rando9574 Great advice, but I already spend too much of my free time in the gym! I'm trying to shorten that rest, if anything! Usually I rest 3-4 mins
@@DevonThorntonYou may be surprised, depending on the exercise, you could probably drop the rest to 2 minutes (maybe even 1, think wrist curls) and end up doing a similar amount of reps, perhaps only with a higher RPE, saves time in the gym and probably doesn’t matter much for muscle growth on certain exercises.
Thank goodness! I never believe that muscle confusion theory 💯
Changing exercises can be beneficial to your joint health.
What a great advice. Thank you for sharing
This is such great troubleshooting advice.
Great video Menno. I wonder if you want to do a video addressing gains in older people. At 58, I've made a lot of progress in the past 3 years. Sometimes I feel like i'm not gaining much, but if I look at where I was 3 months earlier i usually notice significant progress even if it's not obvious week to week.
Well I'm 28 and I absolutely don't see visible progress over 3 month periods, so the fact that you're an old man expecting noticeable development from week to week, you're obviously setting yourself up for disappointment. Look at Menno himself, he looked pretty much the same a decade ago and he is the guy you are taking advice from so calibrate your expectations accordingly.
Changing exercises isnt only suboptimal it also occupies the lower moral ground or so ive heard
As usual, Menno with incredibly insightful, pragmatic, novel advice. Succinctly and articulately dropping knowledge bombs to answer the exact questions I have for which the answers aren’t readily available.
Great advices !
Excellent information here
Hi Menno, good video. But, you have to agree that progression also has its limits. No matter how we plan our training we will plato at a certain point, be it 10, 20 years. Because we can not progress infinitly. I would argue that if you have the best training program, nutrition, rest etc. the main thing that limits your progression be it mass or strenght are the natural levels of anabolic hormones in your body. And once you max that you will stop progressing whatever you do. The only way to progress from there is to introduce exogenous anabolic hormones.
thats not true, its possible to progress towards infinity and live forever
You don't need maximal levels of anabolic hormones to progress.
You can continue to build strength naturally well into your 40s. The rate slows , but shouldn't disappear or become negative. Best of all, this approach sets you up with the base for graceful ageing and enhanced lifespan/healthspan.
Why introduce exogenous hormones if it will negate the health increasing effects of lifting?
could you make a video on balancing weightlifting and kickboxing?
Is a high fatigue index/low work capacity a problem in a vacuum if you’re still making progress? For example, any time I do biceps curls I usually lose a lot of reps after my top set (e.g. 12/7/6 at 0-1 RIR on each set) but am still making some progress on the top set over time. I chalked this up to genetics, I.e. I think I just have pretty much all fast twitch fibers in my biceps, but is this something I should be looking further into?
As long as you can add a rep or a bit of weight each week, I don't think there's any issue. Remember these are diagnostics for analyzing plateau's...if you're still progressing, there's no plateau and no need to analyze further.
@@SeuOuexactly what I immediately thought too
If it were me, I would just add weight and adjust volume. A small increase of 2.5-5lbs should suffice. Lower the repetition range but keep it realistic for remaining consistent on sets across. For example, if you can currently curl 100lbs on a straight bar for the repetition range you mentioned above, then simply add 5lbs and reduce the repetition range down to 6 or 8, then try to maintain that range for all the proceeding sets.
Dope video. Very informative.
Which is more important, progressive overload or volume?
They're the same thing.
Everyone who thinks otherwise didn't understand the practicality of what you're asking. If you progressive overload, you have increased volume. If you increase volume, you've progressive overloaded.
@@jamesgazeley no they aren't
@@jamesgazeleybro is onto nothing
Yes
Progressive overload. Which can be done by increasing reps, or weight or better technique.
brilliant video !!!!!
Thank you Menno for all your content. I have a question that is relevant for a lot of people I think. Lets assume your muscles of "interest" are Chest, Shoulders, Bicep. If you train only these muscles direct and all the other upper body muscles indirect. Could you grow these three muscles faster than if you would make a full upper body workout or a full body Routine. So if we assume you have a muscle building ability of 1kg/month,
by training only the previously mentioned muscle groups you would gain all of that mass in that three muscles. And if you would train the full body, the 1kg/month would distribute all over the body? I hope you understand what I mean. Thanks and best regards from Austria
Absolutely. This is specialization and lots of bodybuilders do this when they have lagging body parts. The rate of muscle growth will be dependent upon the intensity of training, caloric intake, recovery ability, and genetics. You won't necessarily grow muscle "faster" per se, you'll just be focusing your efforts on the specific muscles you mentioned, rather than allocating resources systemically.
Speak for yourself, Menno. My lateral raises are being progressively overloaded faster than every other muscle group in my body.
Six weeks and I've gone from 10 to 22.5 lbs for sets of eight. I'll be doing 60 lbs lat raises in no time!
What if you start out weight training 7 days a week? If you have no signs of overtraining but you are just sick of going every day, what happens if you take a couple of days off, would you gain body fat? Of would you gain more muscle faster because of greater rest?
Are not some exercises good enough that even if you "max them out", (like with the lateral raises) they are still worth continue doing at your max instead of switching?
Could you do a video on how to maximize newbie gains?
Muscle building is really just 2 words "progressive overload".
thank you!
if variety only was only slightly behind doing the same thing every week, then it might be worth it if there are other benefits.
Great vid
What about lat pulldown when you reach max weight and your gym doesn't have a way to add more weight ? Like let's say you do 4 sets and 12 reps in each set by lifting 200lbs on a lat pulldown so what are you going to do ? I say lower the weight and do it slowly and hold for 2s in the eccentric and concentric. But hey maybe I am wrong 😅
Great
But what to do when your on the max of your maximum muscular potential (based on the FFMI calculator)??
Option 1) Cut your volume by 2/3rds and use the extra time to enjoy another hobby. Option 2) Special Supplements.
Power lifter size and strength correlates strongly, but would that hold for non-power lifters? Competitive runners are people who have largely the same genetic phenotype + the training. The same should be true for power lifters. The reason that I say this is that I don't really find that strong a correlation at the gym. I see some pretty smallish guys with pretty amazing squats for their size. I realize this is anecdotal and that yes, size should be a pretty good predictor of strength, but the VERY strong correlation that you note for power lifters may be much lower when generalized to the more intermediate lifting community.
I swap out every 30 days. Then after 30 days I swap back. Works great. Worked fine for Jack Lalanne too, natty until his 90's. Just go hard in that month. Every 2 days basically(pending on movement) 4 sets, lots of gains. Then your tendons get lots of rest as next month do tendon strengthen exercises.
Lol
Does taking a break (as advised by Dr Mike etc) count as muscle confusion? I'm not talking about a break following systemic fatigue but a break which then gives a "shock" when you restart - which is somewhat akin to newbie gains.
Not an exercise scientist (I'm a medical doctor, who has a bit of experience). Yes, any break of any kind following a training run of over 8 or so weeks can give a slight boost. But then again, that's mostly a complex combination of muscle healing, glycogen sequestration and of course some hypertrophy benefit. Rates of growth can very soon hit the pre break levels.
Source: I don't have studies to quote, but some of the exercise physiologists ik seem to concur
@@sukeshsubaharan4324 This is my understanding, as well.
💪💪💪
Please can you make a video for coming back to gym after stopping for more than 2 years, how much volume.... should up protein intake...
Dr Pak says one may progress indefinitely on minimum-effective-dose training, and he seems to have research to back that? Your thoughts, Menno?
If I'm in no hurry, does it matter? Won't plateus clear themselves in time, due to various other factors besides volume, if I simply plug away with an MED approach?
Gosh...if gaining over multiple years what you could have gained in 1 year doesn't sound awful, you're basically correct. Just keep in mind that MED is not a static volume, i.e. it increases over time as your muscles adapt. For example, if you keep other variables constant, if your current MED for biceps is 4 sets per week, eventually 4 sets will be drop below your MED and you will permanently plateau until you increase volume up to your new MED. This effect is one of the driving ideas behind deloads, which among other things resensitize your muscles to stimulus, effectively lowering your MED volume after it's gone too high for you to keep up with.
@SeuOu I like your answer but have doubts about a couple of points: 1) that it would take as much longer as you say (seem to be forgetting diminishing returns of increasing volume); and 2) that you really would need to do more and more for MED. Look at Jeff Alberts: he has peaked his champion physique on not particularly high volume.
Sometimes, specially when you training 10+ years, progress is not worth effort. You will gain little to nothing with giant effort. So... You just train to stay healthy. Maybe myostatin studies will change something. Will see.
I agree. At some point you may as well just train to maintain. I feel I'm bulking for six months and gain 1-2 pounds of muscle, which I'll invariably lose in the subsequent cutting phase (because even lean bulking add some fat). At this point, I feel I'm better off just focusing on my diet and try to be at 12% in the winter and 10% in the summer.
💪✝️
😸😸
When the gym rats are changing the lifting program every month in order to "sock the muscle" it is completely bulshit, how in the heck can you have weight overload if you're changing so often your lifting program before even you can benefit from this particular program?
"Never plateau again". Bs client marketing bro.
Is that menno physique is natty ?(fake netty ?)
pls saar
@@user-pr7pd9wd5b calm down bro
Man, I love Dutch people.
Dankjewel 🙏
7:30 wait wait since when did woman become people?