Mass-Building Variety

 

 Variety for Gains in Size and Strength

     I knew a super-heavyweight powerlifter at one time who never changed his training program.  And I mean never.  On top of that, he had been a highly competitive powerlifter since the ‘70s.  When I got to know him around 15 years ago, he told me that he had been doing, essentially, the exact same program for at least the previous 35 years.  He was also incredibly strong (even though he was older then than I am now).  And incredibly massive.

     His program worked.  It might work for you, too, but I doubt it.  Most lifters—bodybuilders, powerlifters, Crossfitters, and everyone in between—need more variety.  And even if your body responds well to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach to training, your mind, at the very least, needs a bit more variegation.  I have a feeling, however, that the majority of lifters do need variety for their body, not just their mind.

     On average, I think most lifters should change things up after 6 weeks of training on one specific program.  First things first, and let’s be very clear, you need to be on a program.  Implementing variety into your mass-building regimen doesn’t mean that you should change things up at each-and-every workout—not unless there’s a good reason for doing so, and it’s built into the program you’re following.  But any program seems to basically “run its course” for most lifters at around 6 weeks.

     I think the primary thing any lifter must decide is how many different programs should be employed.  Some lifters—the ones who typically don’t need a whole lot of variety, such as beginner or intermediate lifters—would do well with just a couple of different programs.  Six weeks on one program followed by 6 weeks on the 2nd, and then returning to the first program is probably optimal.  Even some advanced lifters would do well with no more than 3 different programs run cyclically.  But there are also plenty of lifters—especially ones that have years of training under their belts—who would do well with a handful of different programs run sequentially before repeating.

     If you’re fairly new to training—or if you’ve been training for a while but have yet to build the kind of muscle mass and strength you desire—then stick with only two different programs for the next 12 months or so.  Two different programs run over the course of a year (in 6-week training blocks) means that you will do each program around 4 times during the year.  That’s not too much but it’s enough to allow you to learn the programs.  You need time training on a specific program to learn its nuances and ways in which it works—and doesn’t work—for your body type.

     I believe it’s a good idea to make the two programs quite different from one another, although, no matter the program, they need to focus on basic, compound exercises, primarily full-body workouts (or only a two-way split), and set/rep ranges that are conducive to the goal(s) you are trying to achieve.

     Two great methods to alternate between would be any easy strength approach (such as my 30-Rep Program, but that wouldn’t have to be your only choice) alternated with a “brief-but-basic” program, such as “Super Squats” or a two-days-per-week, Ken Leistner-style workout.  If you were to choose this approach, then the following two workout programs are good examples of what you could use:

The 30-Rep Program

The 20-Rep Old-School Squat Program

     Once you’ve run three to four 6-week cycles, alternating between these two methods—or something similar—then you may come to understand that you need more or less weeks spent on each program.  Some lifters do well rotating every 4 weeks, while others will do better with going as long as 8 weeks before switching.

Advanced Variety

     In my last post on easy muscle workouts, I mentioned that I believe there are, essentially, 6 kinds of training that ALL programs fall under.  As long as a program “slots” somewhere within those 6 types then it will be effective so long as the lifter is using it for what it’s intended for.  As an example, if you wanted to be an elite powerlifter, but you followed a one-bodypart-per-day workout split using multiple exercises done for multiple sets with medium repetitions (a good split, potentially, for hypertrophy but without much in the way of strength gains) then, even though the workout is “effective” from a bodybuilding standpoint—and slots within the “high-volume, medium-to-high intensity, low frequency” model—it won’t be effective for you because that’s a crappy method for pure, unadulterated strength.

     By the way, I delineated the different methods of training to attempt to demonstrate an integral approach to strength and hypertrophy training, and how programs are not “good” or “bad” but are simply effective or ineffective based on the goals of the trainee and the trainee’s body type.  This is in hopes of getting rid of the “hate” you see lofted on certain programs, or the strict adherence to a certain program, where all other programs are “wrong” or “bad,” and there can only be one true way of training.  This “my way or the highway” kind of thinking that you see too often in certain lifting circles is deleterious to you and to the strength/bodybuilding community as a whole.  But my approach can also clearly demonstrate where there certainly are deficiencies in some methods of training.  For instance, if you follow a program where two of the training variables are low, and only one of the variables is high, then that program will NOT work.  Nor will a program where all of the variables are high (unless you’re an elite lifter; then the rules go out the window).  Don’t get me wrong, programs that follow one of these misguided ways can, and often do, work in the very short-term.  If you have only been training once or twice-per-week for the past 6 months, and you switch over to a high-volume, high-frequency, and high-intensity, as well as multi-split, multi-bodypart, multiple-workouts-per-day bodybuilding routine reminiscent of the “Barbarian Brothers'' you will gain some muscle—for about 3 to 4 weeks, and then it all comes grinding to a crashing, thunderous halt!  Conversely, if you have been training on a high-volume 6-on, 1-off split for the past year, and you make the switch to a H.I.T. program where you only train 2x-per-week, with each bodypart trained only 1x weekly for only 1 set—which, thank God, you don’t see as much these days even in H.I.T. circles—then you will get some great results.  For about 3 weeks.  Then it too would come to an equally screeching halt!

     Below are the 6 training “types” along with some examples of the kind of programs that would fit each type (which I didn’t include in my easy muscle article).  When the middle variable is listed as moderate-to-high, whether or not it would be used as a “moderate” or a “high” variable would depend on the lifter’s level of experience.  Beginning to intermediate lifters should stay (for the most part) in the moderate range, whereas advanced lifters would need to have the 2nd variable high in order to have continued progress.  Keep in mind that “intensity” in the below types is used how it is among weightlifters and powerlifters: as a % of your one-rep maximum.  Basically, the higher the intensity, the heavier you are training.

• High volume, moderate (to high) intensity, low frequency.  Examples: Typical American bodybuilding split; one-bodypart-per-week training (separate days for chest, legs, arms, etc.) for multiple sets (16 to 20 sets or more) of multiple reps.  Good for hypertrophy for those lifters that respond well to volume and plenty of sets with heavy weights (“powerbuilding”).  Should never be the first type of training used by someone who is just starting to lift.

• High volume, moderate (to high) frequency, low intensity.  Examples: ‘80s style bodybuilding splits, such as 6-on, 1-off program where the body is split 3 ways, and you have one day for chest, shoulders, and triceps, one day for back and biceps, and one day for legs and abs.  Sets are not as high as in the first method (typically 9-12 per bodypart) and reps would be the same.  Good for hypertrophy for lifters that respond well to volume, but with a bit more frequency than the previous high-volume group.  Also good for bodybuilders who like to use less weight in order to “feel” the muscle.

• High intensity, moderate (to high) volume, low frequency.  Examples: The kind of training used by a lot of (mostly American) powerlifters where you squat, bench, and deadlift only once-per-week.  If you like to squat on Monday, bench press on Wednesday, and deadlift on Friday, this is you.  The “Hepburn method” where you do 5 to 10 singles with 90% of your 1-rep-max, then follow it up with 5 sets of 5 reps with 70% of your max would slot into this type, and anything of a similar nature.  Good for any strength athletes that respond well to low-frequency programs.  Also, if you’re a bodybuilder that responds well to high-volume, moderate-to-high intensity, and low frequency, this would be a good method as a change-of-pace, and it would work well if you wanted to switch over to strength training.  Methods using this type are also good for lifters who want a combination of strength and hypertrophy.

• High intensity, moderate (to high) frequency, low volume.  Examples: the 3-to-5 method of training, most “Soviet” methods of weightlifting and powerlifting, a “beginning” Bill Starr-style H-L-M program.  You could even slot some H.I.T. programs into this type.  The “old-school” Nautilus methods or Mike Mentzer’s training in the ‘70s (not the crap he wrote in the bodybuilding magazines in the ‘90s) would be examples.  They used only 1 or 2 sets per bodypart (low-volume) but the frequency was actually fairly high, 2 to 3 times per week.  Methods of this type—similar to the other high-intensity type above—are also good for a combination of strength and hypertrophy

• High frequency, moderate (to high) intensity, low volume.  Examples: Any easy strength method and almost all of the HFT (high-frequency training) programs that I have on the blog would be slotted here.  In fact, a lot of the programs that I write about fit this type of training.  These methods are generally believed to only be good for strength (most detractors would say the volume is too low and the weights are too heavy to stimulate hypertrophy), but I think some lifters will also gain muscle utilizing them.  Whether or not they are good for muscle growth, these methods are always good at quick strength gains.

• High frequency, moderate (to high) volume, low intensity.  Examples: My last easy muscle article fits this type of training to a T, along with most bodyweight programs.  If you ever tried a “100 push-ups per day” challenge for a month, or something similar, and got good results from it, then you respond well to this sort of training.  This training is not very good at producing strength gains, but it will produce good muscle gains in some lifters.  It’s especially good for older lifters.

     Maybe in another post, I’ll get into the pros and cons of each kind of training.  For now, however, let’s just look at how a more advanced lifter could utilize the above training types to his advantage in an example scenario.

     As an example, let’s say you’re a bodybuilder who does respond well to the typical American bodybuilding approach of multiple sets-per-muscle group, and training each muscle group only once-per-week.  In this case, you should primarily follow the high-volume, high-intensity, low-frequency approach.  But you should also pick a couple of the other types of training to use on occasion.  Here is what (approximately) 6 months of training might look like utilizing this strategy:

1st 6 Weeks: High-Volume, High-Intensity, Low-Frequency

     For the first 6 weeks of training, use the following split:

Monday: Chest

Tuesday: Back

Wednesday: Legs (quads, hamstrings, calves)

Thursday: Shoulders

Friday: Arms and abs

     For each muscle group, utilize 4 to 5 exercises for 4 to 5 sets on each exercise, which means somewhere between 16 to 25 sets per bodypart.  Keep your reps (largely) in the 6-8 rep range.  Use as many “intensity techniques” as you want - drop sets, forced reps, pause reps, supersets and tri-sets, et al.

     Here is what a chest workout might look like:

• Incline Barbell Bench Press: 5 sets of 6-8 reps (not counting warm-ups)

• Flat Dumbbell Bench Press: 4 sets of 6-8 reps

• Wide-Grip Dips: 4 sets of 6-8 reps

• Incline Dumbbell Flyes: 4 sets of 6-8 reps

• Cable Crossovers: 5 sets of 12-15 reps

2nd 6 Weeks: High-Volume, High-Intensity, Low-Frequency

     For the 2nd 6 weeks, stick with another round of HV, HI, LF training, but change up your split.  Your new split could look like this:

Day One: Chest and Shoulders

Day Two: Quads and Calves

Day Three: Off

Day Four: Back and Triceps

Day Five: Hamstrings, Abs, and Biceps

Day Six: Off

Say Seven: Repeat

     Utilize around the same amount of sets as your first 6 weeks, but reduce the number of exercises.  Employ only a couple of exercises per bodypart, but perform each exercise for 6 to 10 sets, so that your bodyparts get anywhere from 12 to 20 sets per training session.

     Here is what a typical back and triceps session might look like:

• Wide-Grip Chins: 6 sets of 6-8 reps

• Close-Grip Cable Rows: 10 sets of 10 reps

• Skull Crushers: 8 sets of 8 reps

• Weighted Close-Grip Dips: 6 sets of 6 reps

3rd 6 Weeks: High-Volume, Moderate Frequency, Low Intensity

     For the 3rd 6 weeks, switch over to a 3-on, 1-off program where you do no more than 10 sets per bodypart.  In fact, I think for this split, the best way to train each bodypart is with 3 exercises for 3 sets each, so that you end up with 9 sets total for each muscle group (although you could do 6 sets for your smaller muscle groups if that works better for you).  Your training split might look like this:

Day One: Chest and Back

Day Two: Legs (quads, hamstrings, calves)

Day Three: Shoulders, Arms, and Abs

Day Four: Off

Day Five: Repeat

     Here is what your leg day might look like:

• Squats: 3 sets of 10-12 reps (not counting warm-ups)

• Reverse Lunges: 3 sets of 10-12 reps (each leg)

• Leg Extensions: 3 sets of 20-30 reps

• Lying Leg Curls: 3 sets of 20-30 reps

• Romanian Deadlifts: 3 sets of 10-12 reps

• Standing Leg Curls: 3 sets of 10-12 reps (each leg)

• Seated Calf Raises: 2 sets of 20-30 reps

• Standing One-Leg Calf Raises: 2 sets of 20-30 reps (each leg)

• Donkey Calf Raises: 2 sets of 20-30 reps

     The key to making this program work is not accidentally overdoing it with the intensity.  Use a weight that allows you to “feel” the muscle group well, and stop each set a few reps (or more) shy of failure.  The volume and moderate frequency is what produces hypertrophy here, and that needs to be kept in mind.

4th 6 Weeks: High-Volume, High-Intensity, Low-Frequency

     For the 4th 6 weeks, return to the same program you deployed for the 1st 6 weeks.  Once again your split would look like this:

Monday: Chest

Tuesday: Back

Wednesday: Legs (quads, hamstrings, calves)

Thursday: Shoulders

Friday: Arms and abs

     If you want, you could change exercises from what you initially used, but that’s not necessary.  In fact, you might want to use almost the exact same program to see if you’ve made progress as far as strength and work capacity goes.

5th 6 Weeks: High-Frequency, High-Intensity, Low-Volume

     By this time—after almost 6 months of steady training on high-volume routines—it’s time for a complete change of pace.  This is the exact form of training often not used by high-volume lifters, which makes it perfect here.  Any easy strength program is perfect for this 6-week training block.  I’m not going to list an example split (this should be a full-body program) since I’ve written about this form of training rather extensively.  If you haven’t done so, then read my 30-Rep Program for the kind of training this 6-weeks would entail.

Closing Thoughts

     Please keep in mind that the above training example is just that: an example.  And it’s an example that would work well for the volume bodybuilder.  Case in point: I’m not a volume lifter.  I respond well to frequency, which means that if I was designing 6-months of training for myself, or someone similar, I would do 4 6-week blocks of high-frequency training, with a couple times a year slotted in for volume or intensity.  My point is, if you’re not a volume lifter, don’t use the training system above.  And if you are a volume lifter, then, by all means, use it.

     For many lifters and bodybuilders, variety is the spice of training life that makes muscle growth continuous.  Don’t neglect it!  And remember, the best workout program is usually the one you’re not doing.

     Perhaps in a future essay, I will cover variety when it comes to nutrition.  If there’s a subject among lifters that's more divisive than training, it’s without-a-doubt dietary advice.  Until then, good luck and good training.  As always, if anyone has any questions, please email me or leave them in the “comments” section below.