Overtrain to Gain

How and Why Planned “Overtraining” is a Key to More Size and Strength

     At some point, “overtraining” became a bad word in the world of strength training and muscle building.  Basically, or so the thinking goes, one of the keys to making continuous progress is ensuring that you never overtrain.  Many of the greatest strength athletes, not to mention strength coaches, of all time, however, thought that not only is overtraining not bad, but that it’s also a necessity once the lifter reaches a certain level.

     My original strength mentor was the late and great strength coach Bill Starr.  Starr wrote several articles on the need for overtraining.  He believed that, in order to make continuous progress, you must do “too much” for a certain period of time—the so-called “overtraining” period—before backing off after that.  It was during this “de-load” period when the athlete makes the most gains, but those gains would not occur without the overtraining that preceded it.

     This makes perfect sense.  Or it should.  I have often argued that the reason that the erroneously-termed HIT or “high-intensity training” became so popular is because it, absolutely and without-a-friggin’-doubt, worked for many a lifter when they first tried it.  In fact, it worked spectacularly well for them.  And why did it work for them?  (And why, you might ask, if it worked so well, do I often malign it as being a “bad” method of training?)  It produced fantastic results because, before the rise of HIT in the ‘90s—coinciding with Dorian Yates’s meteoric ascension as the king of mass-trumps-all-else in bodybuilding—most of those bodybuilders had trained for a long time (months or even years on end) with high-volume, high-intensity, and fairly high-frequency training.  In other words, the bodybuilding world and its bodybuilders had “overtrained” for a prolonged period—as in, perhaps the entirety of the 1980s.  So, when they went from 6-days-a-week of training using multi-set, multi-exercise, highly voluminous workouts to brief, infrequent, yet decidedly hard sessions, they grew like they hadn’t in years.  The only reason those HIT sessions worked, and were therefore considered “good,” was because of the “bad” overtraining workouts beforehand.  To put it another way, it was the “overtraining” that caused all those HIT-enthusiasts to gain so much muscle.  I understand that this way of looking at it “flips the script” but it’s still true.

     The opposite is true, as well.  If you train for a few training cycles of full-body workouts, limited sets and exercises, and 2-days-per-week of training and then switch over to a training program where everything (volume, intensity, and frequency) is high, you will make fantastic gains.  Sure, you will be “overtraining” but you will gain size and strength.  But it wouldn’t have worked without “undertraining” first.  Right now, if you have been training with brief, infrequent workouts and switch over to 8 weeks of John McCallum’s High-Protein, High-Set Program, you’ll gain muscle quicker than kudzu grows here in the American South.

     You can’t keep up a program like McCallum’s for too long, however.  Training like that—most modern-day gym-goers would definitely call that one overtraining—has its limits.  So, let’s look at how we might apply some “planned overtraining” to your workouts in order to make continual progress.

     Until the rise in thinking—for a little over 30 years now—that a lifter should only train a muscle group/lift once that bodypart has completely “recovered” from the prior training session, most successful strength programs centered around the understanding that a lifter should, over multiple workouts and several weeks, slowly reach the point that he is training “too much” before then backing off.  When the lifter then backed off in his training, his lifts would suddenly skyrocket.  Good strength coaches understand that gains are not linear in nature.  You train easy.  Then hard.  Then harder.  Then really hard.  Then you back off to easy again.  And then you make gains.  It’s called “cycling your training loads” and almost every great workout program to a tee has used it for success.

     Okay, before we go any further, a word of caution.  If you’re new to training—or have been training for months or even, heck, years without any substantial gains—don’t worry about trying to use any sort of planned overtraining.  You need to get on a back-to-the-basics (or start-with-the-basics) workout program consisting of a handful of lifts.  A full-body routine will probably work best, though you can also go with the “full-body split” route.  Either way, train with a few lifts 3 days a week and keep your sets/reps somewhere between 3 to 5 sets of 3-8 reps.  A good system, since we’ll be discussing him anyway in what follows, is Bill Starr’s heavy-light-medium, 5x5 program.  After at least 6 months of steady training, then you will be ready for the information below.  But it will help to know what to do once you reach that point, so please continue reading.

     Even though overtraining is feared by many modern gym-goers, and the supposed bane of muscle growth, you also have an opposing viewpoint from a minority of trainees.  There have always been lifters, and even strength coaches, believe it or not, who have claimed that “overtraining doesn’t exist.”  Or is incredibly rare.  Most of these lifters will tell you that, as long as you eat plenty of food and get plenty of rest, you shouldn’t even worry about overtraining.  I don’t think that is entirely correct, though most lifters would do better by focusing on eating enough calories and protein, getting plenty of growth-producing rest and quality sleep, and then adapting to frequent training, but there does come a point when one can do too much.  If you do too much for a prolonged period of time, you will then enter the realm of overtraining.

     Overtraining, though possible, is misunderstood by many.  The biggest misconception, probably, is that if you train a muscle while it’s still sore, you are now overtraining.  That’s just not true.  For example, when a lifter first starts a Starr-style H-L-M program, he will be sore.  Especially on the light day, since he will just have performed a heavy session of squats, presses, and pulls for near-maximal weights only 48 hours before.  This is natural and necessary.  But after a few weeks the soreness goes away and it’s no longer an issue.

     True overtraining has less to do with individual muscles (or muscle groups) having recovered completely from a session and a lot more to do with the central nervous system.  If you continually attempt to increase your workload, without using deload phases, you will reach a point of constant fatigue.  Signs of overtraining at this point include decreased performance of your lifts, decrease in appetite, an inability to get a good night’s sleep, being constantly tired even when you do sleep well, and a breakdown in form while training.

     A lot of lifters, even when they understand the need to cycle their workloads, will take a deload week before they should.  As soon as they start to feel drained in daily life, they assume that means it’s time to back-off in their training.  But that’s not necessarily the case.  When I was an elite powerlifter—capable of squatting and deadlifting 3 and a ½ times my bodyweight and bench pressing 2x bodyweight in the 181-pound class—I knew I was on the right track in my training once I felt constantly tired, irritable, and even once I came down with a cold because of my weakened immune system.  If that happened before a competition, believe it or not, I knew I was on the right track.  Why?  Because in order to increase my lifts by that point, I needed a big workload in training.  An increase in strength just wasn’t going to happen without it.  Of course, I couldn’t keep it up for an extended period of time.  Once I reached the point that I was continually fatigued and had trouble even getting out of bed in the morning, then I backed off in my training.  And my strength started to go up even more.  But those gains wouldn’t have happened without living in the “overtraining world” for a few weeks beforehand.

     The simplest template for planned overtraining—it can be applied to any “system” of training—is this one:

1. Train easy

2. Train hard

3. Train harder

4. Train the hardest with “all-out” sessions

5. Train even easier than easy

6. Repeat 

     Now, how long each phase lasts depends upon the lifter and the training methodology.  To start with, just do each phase from week-to-week or even just workout-to-workout.  As you get more advanced, and your work capacity increases, you can increase the length of time that you spend training harder and then all-out, but you would also have a longer “light” period of lifting.

     Let’s look at how this might be applied using Starr’s H-L-M training.  Here, you would do your “normal” training for 2 weeks, followed by a week of harder training, then a week of all-out training, followed by 1 “deload” week before resuming.  Before starting this training cycle, spend a week or two with some easy “break-in” workouts.  This is just one example of how you might go about it.

Weeks 1 and 2 - Hard, AKA “Normal”:

Monday - Heavy Workout:

On each lift for your heavy session, do 5 progressively heavier sets of 5 reps, working up to one maximal 5-rep set.

1. Squats: 5x5.

2. Bench presses: 5x5

3. Deadlifts: 5x5

4. Barbell curls: 5x5

Wednesday - Light Workout:

1. Squats: 5x5. At the light workout, you do 5x5 again, but you work up to a weight that you used for your 3rd set on Monday.  You use that weight for sets 3, 4, and 5.

2. Military presses: 5x5.  Use the same method as the 5x5 sets from the heavy day.  The nature of this lift makes it a “light day” exercise, since there’s no way you will use more than 80% of your max bench press weight on the military press.

3. Power cleans: 5x5, same as the military presses.

Friday - Medium Workout:

For the squats, bench presses, and barbell curls, work up to the weight you used for your 4th set on Monday.  Use that on your 5th set, as well.

1. Squats: 5x5

2. Bench presses: 5x5

3. Stiff-legged deadlifts or deficit deadlifts: 5x3.  Work up over 5 progressively heavier sets to one maximal set of 3 reps.  The nature of the movement and the decrease in repetitions makes the workload on this movement in-between your heavy and light day pull lifts.

4. Barbell curls: 5x5

Week 3 - Harder:

Here, you follow the same routine as the 1st 2 weeks, but you add 2 back-off sets to your lifts on the heavy day and 1 back-off set to the medium session.

Monday - Heavy Workout:

1. Squats: 5x5, 2x8

2. Bench presses: 5x5, 2x8

3. Deadlifts: 5x5, 2x8

4. Barbell curls: 5x5

Wednesday - Light Workout:

1. Squats: 5x5

2. Military presses: 5x5

3. Power cleans: 5x5

Friday - Medium Workout:

1. Squats: 5x5, 1x8

2. Bench presses: 5x5, 1x8

3. Stiff-legged deadlifts or deficit deadlifts: 5x3, 1x6

4. Barbell curls: 5x5, 1x8

Week 4 - Hardest:

The “all-out” week adds more total sets per lift and more back-off sets.

Monday - Heavy Workout:

Instead of doing 5x5, you will do 8x5.  Work up over 5 progressively heavier sets, the same as the other weeks, until you reach your maximal set of 5 on your 5th set.  Now, try to get 5 reps with that weight on another 3 sets.  You might only get a set of 4 reps followed by 2 sets of 3 reps.  That’s fine.  Do 2 back-off sets of 8 reps the same as week 3.

1. Squats: 8x5, 2x8

2. Bench presses: 8x5, 2x8

3. Deadlifts: 8x5, 2x8

4. Barbell curls: 8x5, 2x8

Wednesday - Light Workout:

This is the one workout that is the same as the other weeks.

1. Squats: 5x5

2. Military presses: 5x5

3. Power cleans: 5x5

Friday - Medium Workout:

At the medium session, you will do 8x5 again, but you will work up to the weight that you used on your 4th set from Monday and stick with that weight on sets 4 through 8.  Do 2 back-off sets again instead of just 1.

1. Squats: 8x5, 2x8

2. Bench presses: 8x5, 2x8

3. Stiff-legged deadlifts or deficit deadlifts: 8x3, 2x6.  Same as the other movements, just with a reduced number of reps.

4. Barbell curls: 8x5, 2x8

You should feel drained by the end of this week.  That’s the point.  You will gain most of your strength in the following couple weeks after this one.

Week 5 - Deload Week:

In this week, you only do 2 workouts, cutting out the Wednesday workout entirely.  Each session will be “light.”  Work up to what you used for your 3rd set on the previous heavy days and don’t do any more than that each session.  Cut out the deadlift and pull work entirely.

Monday and Friday:

1. Squats: 3x5

2. Bench presses: 3x5

3. Barbell curls: 3x5

     When you return to the gym in week 6, you start the 5-week training cycle over again, attempting to “beat” all of your weights from the previous weeks.

     More advanced lifters can increase the number of weeks spent training “harder” and “hardest.”  In fact, a better template for the advanced trainee would be to spend 3 weeks training “normal” followed by 2 weeks of “harder,” another 2 weeks of “hardest” but then he might need 2 or even 3 weeks of de-load training.  Advanced lifters can benefit from training both harder and lighter for longer cycles due to the nervous system stress of moving really heavy weights.  What makes you “advanced,” by the way, has nothing to do with how long you’ve been training but how strong you are—or how quickly your muscle synapses can “fire” if you’re a bodybuilder pursuing hypertrophy.  Don’t follow this “advanced” advice even if you’ve been training for years but can’t squat double your bodyweight (unless you’re a heavy or superheavy competitor).  In that case, just follow the program as outlined above in 5-week training blocks.

     By the way, I think Starr’s system is absolutely one of the best there is for building size and strength.  If you want to discover pretty much everything there is about his entire methodology, then you might want to consider purchasing my book The Strongest Shall Always Survive: Lifting Lessons from an Iron Legend.  Now, I will say that, once you become highly advanced, you might need something else.  For example, I used Starr’s methodology, for the most part (along with occasional forays into Westside and Hepburn-style training), to become an elite powerlifter.  But once I was elite, I needed some higher volume, higher frequency training.  I used Sheiko at that point, but then ended up using a synthesis of Russian training, Westside, and Starr’s workouts.  Anyway, my point is that you can use systematic overtraining for more than just with Starr’s methods.

     Let’s turn our attention to some split training models.  First, let’s look at how you might use this approach for high-set, low-rep training.  When it comes to building both size and strength, you just can’t go wrong with doing multiple sets (8 at the minimum, possibly as high as 15 to 20) of low reps (5 reps or lower).  With this kind of training, the higher the sets, the lower the reps.  I’ve written multiple recent articles on this method, so I won’t get into all of those details here.  But here is what a training program might look like using a full-body split schedule:

Workout One:

Squats: 10x3

Bench presses: 10x3

Barbell curls: 10x3

Workout Two:

Deadlifts: 10x3

Military presses: 10x3

Weighted chins: 10x3

     You do each workout 3 times in 2 weeks by training 3 days per week and rotating between the two workouts.  So, the first week you train with W1 on Monday and Friday, and W2 on Wednesday.  In the 2nd week, you would reverse the order, doing W2 on M/F and W1 on W.  So, how would you go about using planned overtraining with this program?  You have some different options.

     The first option is to keep the workouts the same from a set/rep standpoint but let the weights utilized during each training phase vary.  For example, when doing 10 sets of a certain rep range, the general advice is to use a weight where you could get double the reps if you were going to one, all-out set.  For 10 sets of 3 reps, you use a weight that you could do for a max set of 6 reps.  For 8x5, use your 10RM.  But you can start your training cycle by reducing the weight, so instead of a 10RM weight for 8x5, use 80% of your 10RM for a week or two.  After that, go to a week or so of 90% of your 10RM.  Then, for another couple weeks, use the “standard” recommendation of 8x5 at your 10RM.  Then, for the “harder” phase, add 5 to 10 pounds to your 10RM and do 8x5.  Finally, for your “hardest” week(s), add another 5 to 10 pounds and attempt 8x5.  For these weeks, you should use a weight where you can NOT get 5 reps on all of your sets.

     Another method is to simply increase your sets from phase-to-phase.  So, you might start with only 6 sets of 5 reps, then go to 8x5.  After that, do a week or two of 10x5.  Finally, for the “hardest” phase, use 15x5.  For the deload phase, go back to 6x5 and repeat the cycle.

     You can also simply increase the frequency of your training.  This works particularly well for squats, overhead presses, and any of the quick lifts.  In other words, lifts that respond well to high-frequency training.  You can also use it for other lifts, assuming you also cycle your training loads even during the higher-frequency weeks.  Utilizing a 2-way split—such as the 10x3 program above, though I would substitute a quick lift for the deadlifts—your training might look like this:

Week 1:

Monday: Workout 1

Wednesday: Workout 2

Friday: Workout 1

Week 2:

Monday: Workout 2

Wednesday: Workout 1

Friday: Workout 2

Weeks 3-5:

Monday and Thursday: Workout 1

Tuesday and Saturday: Workout 2

Weeks 6-8:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Workout 1

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: Workout 2

Weeks 9-10:

Monday: Workout 1

Friday: Workout 2

     Okay, what about more conventional bodybuilding methods?  What would planned overtraining look like for something such as a 3-on, 1-off split that focuses on hypertrophy?  Well, for one, you can pretty much take the advice for the high-set, low-rep training and apply it there, slowly increasing either poundage, volume, or frequency for several weeks before then backing off and repeating.  But let’s look at it in a little more detail.

     Here is another example of how the bodybuilder might use this methodology following a 3-on, 1-off schedule:

Hard or “Normal” Phase:

Day One - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps:

Bench presses: 3x6-8

Incline dumbbell bench presses: 3x8-10

Incline dumbbell flyes: 3x12-15

Military presses: 3x6-8

Seated dumbbell presses: 3x8-10

Side lateral raises: 3x12-15

Skull crushers: 3x8-10

Cable pushdowns: 3x10-12

Day Two - Legs:

Squats: 3x6-8

Front squats: 3x8-10

Leg extensions: 3x15-20

RDLs: 3x8-10

Lying leg extensions: 3x10-12

Standing or seated calf raises: 6x10-12

Day Three - Backs, Biceps:

Wide-grip chins: 3x6-8

One-arm dumbbell rows: 3x8-10

Seated cable rows: 3x15-20

Barbell curls: 3x6-8

Incline dumbbell curls: 3x8-10

Cable curls: 2x12-15

Harder Phase:

Day One - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps:

Bench presses: 5x6-8

Incline dumbbell bench presses: 5x8-10

Incline dumbbell flyes: 4x12-15

Military presses: 4x6-8

Seated dumbbell presses: 4x8-10

Side lateral raises: 3x12-15

Skull crushers: 5x8-10

Cable pushdowns: 3x10-12

Day Two - Legs:

Squats: 5x6-8

Front squats: 5x8-10

Leg extensions: 3x15-20

RDLs: 5x8-10

Lying leg extensions: 3x10-12

Standing or seated calf raises: 6x10-12

Day Three - Backs, Biceps:

Wide-grip chins: 5x6-8

One-arm dumbbell rows: 5x8-10

Seated cable rows: 3x15-20

Barbell curls: 5x6-8

Incline dumbbell curls: 4x8-10

Cable curls: 3x12-15

Hardest Phase:

Day One - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps:

Bench presses: 8x6-8

Incline dumbbell bench presses: 6x8-10

Superset:

   Incline dumbbell flyes: 6x12-15

   Cable crossovers: 6x12-15

Military presses: 6x6-8

Seated dumbbell presses: 6x8-10

Side lateral raises: 6x12-15

Skull crushers: 8x8-10

Cable pushdowns: 6x10-12

Day Two - Legs:

Squats: 8x6-8

Front squats: 6x8-10

Superset: 

   Leg extensions: 6x15-20

   Sissy squats: 6x15-20

RDLs: 8x8-10

Lying leg extensions: 6x10-12

Standing or seated calf raises: 8x10-12

Day Three - Backs, Biceps:

Wide-grip chins: 8x6-8

One-arm dumbbell rows: 6x8-10

Superset: 

   Seated cable rows: 6x15-20

   Wide-grip lat pulldowns: 6x15-20

Tri-set:

   Barbell curls: 6x8-10

   Incline dumbbell curls: 6x8-10

   Cable curls: 6x12-15

Deload Phase:

Day One - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps:

Bench presses: 2x6-8

Incline dumbbell bench presses: 2x8-10

Military presses: 2x6-8

Side lateral raises: 2x12-15

Cable pushdowns: 2x10-12

Day Two - Legs:

Squats: 2x6-8

Front squats: 2x8-10

RDLs: 2x8-10

Standing or seated calf raises: 3x10-12

Day Three - Backs, Biceps:

Wide-grip chins: 2x6-8

Seated cable rows: 2x15-20

Barbell curls: 2x6-8

Cable curls: 2x12-15

     The amount of time that you train with each phase should depend upon your work capacity.  However, I think that, overall, hypertrophy training should involve longer time spent in each training phase—2-3 weeks per phase seems to work best.  For instance, you need to train long enough in the “hardest” phase that your body needs a few weeks training in the deload phase.  But you also need enough time in the “normal” and “harder” phases to prepare your body, and its work capacity, to be capable of handling the all-out phase of training.  One idea is to do the above—or something very similar—for 3 different training cycles.  In the 1st cycle, spend 1 week in each phase.  In the 2nd, 2 weeks.  And in the 3rd, 3 weeks.  As you advance even more, you can spend more time in the “harder” and “hardest” phases, and less time in the “normal” and “deload” stages.  That advice applies to all methods of training, not just hypertrophy training.  Advanced lifters should always spend more time “overtraining” than other trainees.

     When you are in a planned overtraining phase, it's vital to ensure that you are getting adequate sleep and quality nutrition.  You should eat even more calories than usual while overtraining and get more protein.  Starr’s advice to consume 2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight daily is good advice while overtraining.  It’s going to be incredibly hard to make it through a planned stage of overtraining without following this advice.  Starr also advocated mega dosing vitamin C during this training period.  He suggested 1,000mg of vitamin C before bed, along with magnesium and calcium supplementation.  He also recommended consuming another 2,000mg throughout the day.

     The fear of overtraining, unfortunately, has prevented a lot of modern lifters from progressing as much as they would otherwise be capable of.  Don’t let that be you.  If you want to gain, you really do need to overtrain.

     If you want more information on Bill Starr’s training methods, then purchase my book on his training.  You can find more information on it and all of my books at the My Books page of the blog.

     As always, if you have any comments or questions about overtraining, leave them in the “comments” section below or send me an email if you prefer private correspondence.