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02-07-2004, 03:43 PM
| #2 (permalink) |
| Making Progress Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 260 Rep Power:   |  This is not a discussion of whether higher frequency splits are better/ worse than low frequency/high intensity. Do not turn it into 1. I simply want to lay out possible higher frequency splits and training styles in 1 thread. After this introduction, I will begin with 2x per week splits, then move onto 3x per week. After the basics, I will explain ways to periodize the splits, and how to attain specic goals, targets etc. |
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02-07-2004, 03:45 PM
| #3 (permalink) |
| Making Progress Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 260 Rep Power: | 2x per wek training The spilts: Upper Lower or Chest shoulders back Arms legs each done 2x per week. The days I would advise are either: mon tue thu fri or mon wed thu sat The volume of each workout will be reduced from what it would be if you were training a muscle once per week, but the total volume will be kept the same, or slightly higher. Example Upper body split Mon-Upper Incline bench Cable crossover Military press CGBP T-Bar row BB curl Tue-Lower Squat Leg press SLDL Calf press Leg raise Thu-Upper Pullup(weighted if nessecary) BB row Hammer curl Flat bench Skullcrushers Side lateral raise Fri-Lower Deadlift Leg curl Front squat Calf raise Crunch All 3 sets of 6-8 reps. DO NOT GO TO FAILURE stop 1 or 2 reps shy. Training to failure twice a week will overstress the CNS too much, and lead to overtraining. In other words, you will burnout. |
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02-07-2004, 03:45 PM
| #4 (permalink) |
| Making Progress Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 260 Rep Power: | 3x per week training These will consist of full body workouts. These workouts however, do not need to be the same. In fact, I would advise having at least 2 or even 3 different workouts and cycle between them throughout the week. This will help to prevent boredom. I would perform the workouts either: Mon Wed Fri or Tue Thu Sat This ensures you are rested well enough to perform the next workout. Again, overall volume should be kept the same as is you trained a muscle once a week. Example full body workouts Mon Squat SLDL Calf raise Incline bench Military press Pullup Hammer curl Wed Front squat Hamstring curl flat bench Side laterals CGBP BB row Crunch Fri Deadlift Leg extension Decline bench Skullcrushers Pulldown BB curl leg raise all sets 3x6-8 There really are endless options for 3x per week trining though. It would be possible to split it into 4 days, but only train each muscle 3x. For those of you that cant stay out of the gym. Mon Squat Cable crossover Side laterals Skullcrushers BB row Wed SLDL Pullup BB curl leg raise Thu Front squat Seated calf raise Flat bench CGBP Calf press Sat leg press Hamstring curl Incline bench Military press Pulldown hammer curl As previously stated: DO NOT GO TO FAILURE stop 1 or 2 reps shy. Training to failure 3x a week will overstress the CNS too much, and lead to overtraining. In other words, you will burnout. |
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02-07-2004, 03:46 PM
| #5 (permalink) |
| Making Progress Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 260 Rep Power: | Making things a little more exciting: Method 1 Conjugate splits This method I would apply to the 2x per week splits. It entails splitting the workouts into 2 seperate days, each with seperate goals or rep ranges. Example split mon-upper strength, 5-6sets of 3-4reps tue-lower hypertrophy, 3 sets of 6-8 reps thu-upper hypertrophy 3 sets of 6-8 reps fri-lower strength, 5-6sets of 3-4reps I would advise that on the hypertrophy days, you use one of the workouts listed above. And for strength days, stick to mostly compound lifts, and do multiple sets. Example workouts Mon Upper strength Bench Military press Pullup BB row Tue Lower hypertrophy(choose from above) Thu Upper hypertrophy(choose from above) Lower strength Squat SLDL Good morning Calf press All lifts are 6 sets of 3-4 reps. This type of split will enable you to gain considerable strength, whilst not neglecting hypertrophy. In fact, you will obtain both myofibrilar and sarcoplasmic growth. basically that means you will get a lot stronger, and add more mass. |
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02-07-2004, 03:46 PM
| #6 (permalink) |
| Making Progress Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 260 Rep Power: | Periodization Is the organisation of training into blocks. Each with a specific goal. The general idea of the methods I will advise is to significantly increase the difficulty of training over a short period, 2-3 weeks for example. Then take a step back, and allow your body to catch up. The easier weeks will give you the most hypertrophy, as your body will be adapting to the stimulus from the very tough weeks. Option 1 volume loading As it sounds like, this entails increasing the volume(more specifically the number of sets) that you train with. I would adivse starting with 3 wets per workout, and each workout, add a set. The problem you are left with now, is how to know when to stop adding sets, and when to have an easier week. I have found the best way to do this is to go by how you feel. If you feel overly lethargic in your high set workouts, take a deload. I assume this would happen between 7 and 9 sets per workout, depending on the person. Here is a basic 4 week cycle, assuming you train a muscle 2x per week in an upper/lower split: week 1: first upper/lower days 2 sets, 2nd days 3 sets week 2: first upper/lower days 4 sets, 2nd days 5 sets week 3: first upper/lower days 6 sets, 2nd days 7 sets week 4: first upper/lower days 8 sets, 2nd days 8 sets week 5, the deload. You will perform 1upper and 1 lower workout, 2 sets per exercise. Next to come is intensity loading...ill do this when I come back from work. Any questions so far? Option 2 Intensity loading Intensity refers to the distance one performs from their repetition maximum. for example if you failed at 10 reps with 100lbs on bench press, your 10RM would be 100lbs. 70% effort would be 70lbs, 85% effort 85lbs etc. The first thing that comes to mind when I think about intensity loading is HST. Using full body workouts. I will not write anything about HST, but I will post a link to the website, where a detailed explanation can be found: www.hypertrophy-specific.com a further description of HST can be found here http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...threadid=280813 I have not seen much literature about twice per week training, and manipulating intensity, but in the future I will experiment with something along the lines of this: All weeks have 2 upper/lower body workouts. The above listed workouts can be used. All 3 sets of 6-8 reps week 1 all sets 1 rep shy of failure(90% of 8RM for example) week 2 all sets to failure week 3 all sets to failure + 2 forced reps/rest pause reps week 4 all sets to failure, followed by a dropset of 60% of the weight you just used week 5 deload, as with volume loading. Option 3 frequency loading Indicates training with the same volume in workouts, more times per week. For twice per week training. One may choose to increase the number of workouts to 6 per week(3upper/lower) much alike fortified irons hypertrophy program. There are however many options, I will list my favoutite ideas below. All 3 sets of 6-8 reps week 1: 2 upper + 2 lower workouts M,Tu,Th,F week 2: 3 upper + 2 lower workouts M,Tu,Th,F,Sa week 3: 3 upper + 3 lower workouts M,Tu,W,Th,F,Sa week 4: 3 upper + 4 lower workouts M,Tu,W,Th,F,Sa,Su Week 5, and 6 if needed(as this will be very taxing) deload For a full body split, you may like to do something like this: Week 1: 2 workouts Week 2: 3 workouts Week 3: 4 workouts Week 5: 5 workouts Week 5: Deload Option 4 Density loading Density refers to the amount of work one does in a specific time. Say for example you perform 15 sets of 6-8 reps in an hour, increasing density would mean doing 16, or 17 sets. This can be achieved by reducing th rest time between sets. And/or adding more sets. This is similar to volume loading, but not entirely the same. Week 1: 75secs between compounds, 60secs between isolations Week 2: 60 secs between compounds, 45 secs between isolations Week 3: 60 secs between compounds, 45 secs between isolations, add 1 set ofeach exercise Week 4: 45 secs between compounds, 30 secs between isolations, add another set of each exercise Week 5: Deload Further options You'll have to be very careful with the length of your loading weeks in the next cycles I suggest, as you will be loading more than 1 variable at a time. Overreaching will occur very quickly, so regular deloads would be required. Volume + frequency loading For this I would advise a 4 week cycle, 3 weeks load, 1 week deload: Week 1: 2x upper+2x lower workouts, 3 sets per workout Weeks 2 and 3: Upper/lower/rest/repeat every other workout adding 1 set per exercise. It will look like: 3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6 (sets per exercise) Week 4(and 5 if nessecary): deload Frequency + Intensity Week 1: 2x upper 2x lower 3 sets per workout Week 2: 2x upper 2x lower 3 sets per workout to failure Week 3: upper/lower/upper/rest/lower/upper/lower 3 sets to failure + a dropset of 60% of the weight u used on the last set of each exercise Week 4(and 5 if nessecary): deload Summary of periodization You can load Volume, Frequency, Intensity and density. This is not an exhaustive list though. It is possible to load more than 1 variable at once, 2 or 3 can all be used concurently. The only difference being the length of the loading phase must be shorter, and the deload possibly longer. |
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02-07-2004, 03:47 PM
| #7 (permalink) |
| Making Progress Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 260 Rep Power: | Conjugate periodization This is a way to peroidise your conjugate split. Most of my information was obtained by reading the periodization for bodybuilders articles, written by Lyle Mcdonald. There are basically 4 different rep ranges. 1-4reps 4-6reps 7-12 reps 30-40reps There are 3 types of muscle fibre, Type I and types IIa and IIb. The type II fibres are the largest, and hence Bodybuilders should focus their efforts on enhancing them. Low rep training(1-4) is for strength, and Myofibrilar hypertrophy, hypertrophy that is, of the actual muscle fibre . this accounts for roughly 80% of the actual muscle. his type of training activates the type IIb fibres mainly, with some action from the type IIa. the 4-6 rep range also emphasises Myofibrilar hypertrophy to a large extent, but also contributes to Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, this being the growth of exerything else.(mitochondrion number, water levels etc) this contributes the other 20% of the muscle. 7-12 reps emphasises sarcoplasmic growth, with little myofibrilar growth. 30-40reps is for increased capillerisation of the muscle, therefore allowing more blood, and therefore nutrients to themuscle. Thats enough of all this science mumbo jumbo, lets talk about how you can implement this into your training. Firstly, you must determine your goals. Choose 1 or 2 rep ranges which you really want to improve on. These ranges will be worked heavily, and the others will be worked at maintenance. Take for example a bodybuilder, wishing to improve strength mainly. A good lower body split could be: Day 1 Squat 7 sets of 1-3 reps Front squat 3 sets of 4-6 reps SLDL 2 sets of 7-12 Calf raise 2 sets of 7-12 Day 2 Deadlift 7 sets of 1-3 reps ham curl 3 sets of 4-6 Leg press 2 sets of 7-12 leg extension 1 set of 30-40 seated calf raise 2 sets of 7-12 here is a list of training/maintaing loads to go by: rep range....training load...maintaining load 1-3..............6-10 sets........2-3 sets 4-6..............4-8 sets..........1-2 sets 7-12............3-6 sets..........1-2 sets 30-40..........1-2 sets..........1 set Full text of the above protocol can be found at: www.mindandmuscle.net |
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02-07-2004, 03:48 PM
| #8 (permalink) |
| Making Progress Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 260 Rep Power: | Upper body conjugate splits As Lyle didnt underline any of these in his article, I think Ill put some together for you guys. All of the following splits will be based around a 2x per week upper/lower split Ill start off with splits concentrating on strength: Strength emphasis: Monday Bench 7 sets of 2-3 Incline bench 3 sets of 4-6 Military press 3 sets of 6-8 Pulldowns 2 sets of 8-12 BB row 2 sets of 8-12 Bicep curls 1 set of 30-40 Thursday Pullup 7 sets of 2-3 1 arm DB row 3 sets of 4-6 Chest dips 2 sets of 6-8 Side laterals 3 sets of 8-12 CGBP 3 sets of 8-12 Tri pushdowns 1 set of 30-40 After a while, you may feel happy with your strength gains, and wish to concentrate on more sarcoplasmic growth, whilst maintaining strength. A good split would be: Sarcoplasmic emphasis Monday Incline bench 4 sets of 8-12 Cable crossover 2 sets of 30-40 Side laterals 2 sets of 30-40 Pullup 2 sets of 2-3 BB row 3 sets of 4-6 BB curl 2 sets of 30-40 Forearm curl 1 set of 30-40 Thursday Bench press 2 sets of 2-3 Military press 2 sets of 4-6 Skulls 3 sets of 6-8 Pushdowns 1 set of 30-40 1 arm rows 4 sets of 6-8 Pulldown 3 sets of 8-12 Hammer curl 3 sets of 8-12 |
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