When it comes to your ability to build muscle, there are many factors that come into play. One of the biggest though, which sometimes can get over looked by personal trainers working with bodybuilders is total volume verses frequency.
A high frequency program and a high volume program do not necessarily mean the same things and knowing the difference is key to your getting the results you’re going for – that goal being to build muscle.
High Volume Workout Programs
High volume workout programs are going to be those that have you doing a lot of exercises and sets with each session that you do.
This would be typical of someone who goes into the gym and does a workout consisting of 5 sets of squats, 4 sets of deadlifts, 3 sets each of leg extensions, hamstring curls, leg presses, and lunges, and then finishes off with another 6 sets of calf raises.
That is one heck of a lot of volume for a single session.
The problem with this type of set-up is that while it is definitely going to enhance the amount of exercise the muscle is able to be subjected to in a single instance, it’s not going to overly improve your overall strength because let’s face, if you’re doing 20+ sets each workout, you won’t be lifting maximally on all of them – your body simply can’t handle that.
Likely, you’ll be doing some sets close to max, but most of them will be around 70-75% of 100% full effort.
High Frequency Workout Programs
Next up on the list are high frequency programs. These then are going to be ones where you aren’t doing a whole lot of volume per session, but are working each muscle more frequently.
So for example, rather than the last workout (which would likely only occur once per week), you hit the legs with 3 sets of squats, 3 sets of stiff-leg deadlifts, and 3 sets of calves on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
This is going to be the better option for building muscle because not only will you be able to lift heavier with each set you do, but you’ll also be stimulating the muscle more times each week. This is what is going to cause the most tissue growth.
The drawback to this set-up is you will not do as much variety for each muscle group, but, in all reality all you really need to build serious muscle mass is the ‘big five’ exercises, the squat, deadlift, row, bench press, and shoulder press.
Once these are in the program as often as possible without compromising rest, you will see solid muscle gains.
So, next time you’re tempted to go into the gym and just annihilate a muscle in a single session, reconsider. You definitely want to lift to 100% effort levels, but do so with fewer, heavier sets rather than just fatiguing it from sheer volume alone.
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