Y sobre su papel en una rutina de alta frecuencia, comparando el volumen por minuto en una 5x5 y en un EAV:
High Frequency vs. High Volume
On the surface, it might seem that my High Frequency Training plans are nothing more than a high volume program dressed up in a clever guise, but that simply ain't true.
Here's why:
Even though I'll admit that the genesis of my High Frequency plans was in accordance with basic high volume principles, they're not the same. If the answer to adding muscle was merely increased volume, then I'd simply add more reps, more sets, or more load to, say, three workouts each week. But there's a distinct flaw with this approach: it's not conducive to total-body workouts.
Eventually, the number of sets, reps, and exercises would protract each workout to the point of oblivion. Not to mention how damn fatigued you'd be by the time you reached your last few exercises.
High Frequency plans allow for a very high volume throughout the week by incorporating rest periods – even if just 8-24 hours – between workouts. This brief period of rest and recovery is enough to recharge your nervous system...if the weekly plan is intelligently designed.
If you can't recruit your highest-threshold motor units, then you're never going to build muscle fast. I've found ways to trick the nervous system into recovering more quickly between sessions by manipulating training parameters.
If your nervous system has recovered, you can train again, even if less than a day has passed! And that's what separates my High Frequency programs from any high volume plan.
Volume Defined
Before I delve deep into the elements of High Frequency programs, let's talk about the true definition of volume. Specifically, I want to talk about exercise volume.
I think many people are confused about what exercise volume consists of: volume isn't merely sets multiplied by reps. Exercise volume is defined as the load lifted times the total number of reps.
Load x Total Reps = Exercise Volume
Let's make things simple and start with a bench press workout. Let's say you used five sets of five repetitions (5x5) with ~85% of your one-repetition maximum (1RM). If your 1RM for the bench press is 350 pounds, here's how the volume would look for your bench press workout:
300 lbs x 25 = 7500 lbs
Due to the relatively large load, longer rest periods are often prescribed. Every coach differs on this point, but I often prescribe somewhere around 135 to 150 seconds rest between sets of the same exercise with the 5x5 method (more on this later). For now, all you need to know is that you performed 5x5 with 300 pounds with 135 seconds rest between sets.
Nevertheless, 5x5 appears to be anything but high volume. In fact, one of the tricky parts of writing articles is to try and explain training variables whose definitions have become as loose as a middle-aged porn star. Indeed, I'm still not sure what high volume means, but traditional linear periodization plans pair the highest volume phases with the lowest intensity (percentage of 1RM) phases, so I'll run with that concept.
The 10x10 method is considered one of the more efficacious "high volume" plans in some bodybuilding circles (not mine). To demonstrate my point, I'll use the same bench press example with a person that has the previously defined 1RM of 350 pounds.
For the 10x10 method, a load of approximately 60% of 1RM is often prescribed. The load is relatively low because the design of the system is such that incomplete rest periods are often prescribed (e.g. 60 seconds between straight sets) along with a large amount of total reps. So let's calculate the exercise volume for the 10x10 method with the above example.
210 lbs (60% of 350 lbs) x 100 (Total Reps) = 21,000 lbs
That's a much higher volume than what was yielded by the 5x5 method. But let's take the comparison between the 5x5 and 10x10 methods a little deeper to really understand what's going on. The following example is actually more complicated than I want to make it, but I need to establish my point.
To compare the exercise volume of these two methods, let's say the 5-rep set took 15 seconds to finish. Since 10 reps is twice as much, we'll say each set took 30 seconds. The duration of each bench press session looks like this:
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I'm throwing out all these numbers to you to demonstrate the importance of understanding the variables that constitute the exercise volume of a session. Specifically, I want you to notice the calculated volume per minute. This is what really matters in an effective workout. We want to get the most "bang for the buck" per minute since each High Frequency session should be as short as possible.
If we merely compared 10x10 and 5x5 by calculating sets times reps, the 10x10 method is four times higher (100 vs. 25). When we add the loading element, the 10x10 method is 2.8 times higher (21,000 vs. 7500). And when we factor in the volume per minute, the 10x10 method is only 2.2 times higher (1500 vs. 667).
Take a deep breath because I'm about to take this concept a few steps further!
Opposites Attract
I often get asked why I prescribe such short rest periods. Why not longer? First and foremost, shorter rest periods increase your fitness levels due to a higher cardiovascular demand. Second, shorter rest periods train your body to clear lactate more quickly.
Finally, research at the University Blaise Pascal in France demonstrated that three-minute rest periods were just as effective as five-minute rest periods for recovery. So more rest isn't necessarily better for performance recovery – there's a saturation point (something I ascertained years ago).
Furthermore, the importance of Sherrington's observation of reciprocal innervation can't be overlooked. Basically, reciprocal innervation states that when a muscle group is stimulated, the antagonist is inhibited. For example, if you're performing a set of biceps curls, your triceps are being inhibited.
This is a key principle in the organization of your nervous system, and it carries over into the design of many of my programs – especially my High Frequency programs. So even though you're not resting your entire body when you perform a biceps exercise between your triceps exercises, your triceps are being inhibited while you perform the biceps movement.
This inhibition is akin to giving your triceps a quick nap that accelerates recovery. A good example is static stretching after your workouts. The static stretch inhibits or relaxes your stimulated muscles, which allows for faster recovery.
Nevertheless, where most people get confused is when I prescribe, say, 60 seconds rest between sets of exercise pairings. If you're pairing bench press with rows, and if each set lasts 15 seconds, then the actual time between sets for the sameexercise isn't 60 seconds – it's 135.
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So when you pair exercises, you can keep the rest periods relatively short, but allow for plenty of recovery. Even though it might seem that this doesn't constitute true recovery
(since you're performing another exercise), don't forget about reciprocal innervation.
Now, let's get back to the comparison between 10x10 and 5x5.
Exercise Pairings: The Great Equalizer
Up to this point, you're probably not overly-impressed with the effectiveness of exercise pairings. Well, I'm about to show you how powerful they really are!
The variables in Table 1 show that the exercise volume of the 10x10 bench press workout with 210 pounds and 60 second rest periods equals 21,000 pounds. Since the 10x10 method is often designed with a body part split, we need to throw in a back exercise: rows.
To keep things simple, let's say you used the same load for the row as you did with the bench press.
So now the total workout volume doubles to 42,000 pounds (21,000 pounds for both the bench press and row). Importantly, the length of the workout must also double sincestraight sets are performed. This protracts the session to 28 minutes (actually, it's even longer when you consider the time to switch exercises, but I'm keeping it simple). The doubling of volume is neutralized by the doubling of the session length. Therefore, the volume per minute remains constant.
Now here's the real kick in the ass: when you throw a row exercise into the 5x5 plan, the duration of the session remains constant since 135-second rest periods were used. So now the volume of the 5x5 session doubles while the session length remains constant. Here's how they match up.
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Voila! The magic of exercise pairings! By using exercise pairings, I was able to prey upon the apparently huge volume difference between the 10x10 and 5x5 methods. Not only are the volume per minute levels closely matched with the incorporation of exercise pairings, but the duration of the 5x5 session is 2.5 times shorter!
Also take note of the workout volume: you must perform 2.8 times more volume to get a volume per minute level that's only 167 pounds higher. Considering that the 10x10 method is almost 900 pounds higher/minute without the 5x5 exercise pairings, I think it's safe to say that exercise pairings are indeed powerful.
So I dragged you through this long-winded comparison between what initially appeared to be two drastically different volume methods. For simplicity, I compared 10x10 with 5x5 since they're two of the most popular methods out there, and most importantly, because the volume of 5x5 training appears to be significantly lower than 10x10 – but it doesn't need to be!
Honestly, 5x5 is far better for hypertrophy (in my mind) than 10x10 for many other reasons. Because of the relatively low load, incomplete rest periods, and a high number of repetitions, the amount of high-threshold motor units that you can recruit with 10x10 just isn't up to par.