High Frequency Full Body - Questions

Q

quads

New Member
I'm testing out a high frequency, full body split at an intermediate level. I essentially hit major muscle groups 6X weekly with 2-4 sets each, and maybe 1-3 sets of isolation movements for the arms. Reasoning for this includes better partitioning for less fat gain, increased strength through neural learning and some of you on the forums have suggested you've gotten substantially better hypertrophy results using this. However, I have three questions for the more experienced members here.

1. Has anyone noticed the need to replenish glycogen rather quickly before the next session?

Sometimes I do feel a bit "flatter" compared to low frequency (1-2x a week) , and I'm assuming this is due to a need for an increased carbohydrate intake.

2. Have anyone else besides Totetnanz and Joe.Muscle tried High Frequency routines?

3. And were they sustainable with Strategic reconditioning to dissipate the buildup of fatigue and re sensitize the body to growth? - I'm allowing fatigue to build up and not entirely recover, then using a 3:1 load to deload cycle, but I'm wondering about the long term.
 
Jester said:
2. Yes, it's fantastic if you find your optimal volume.
Click to expand...

That's the hard part unfortunately, I am currently trying a daily / weekly volume of the following with a rest / recovery day if needed

Chest - daily is 15 reps / weekly is 90 to 105 reps
Shoulders - daily is 15 reps / weekly is 90 to 105 reps
Back - daily is 20 reps / weekly is 120 to 140 reps
Squats - daily is 20 reps / weekly is 120 to 140 reps
Deadlifts - daily is 10 reps / weekly is 60 to 70 reps
 
mickc1965 said:
That's the hard part unfortunately, I am currently trying a daily / weekly volume of the following with a rest / recovery day if needed

Chest - daily is 15 reps / weekly is 90 to 105 reps
Shoulders - daily is 15 reps / weekly is 90 to 105 reps
Back - daily is 20 reps / weekly is 120 to 140 reps
Squats - daily is 20 reps / weekly is 120 to 140 reps
Deadlifts - daily is 10 reps / weekly is 60 to 70 reps
Click to expand...
I've been trying just sets a rep short of failure, been doing 2-3 sets for chest, 1-2 sets for shoulders, 3 sets of rows and 3 sets of chins. Daily.
 
Do you think that's too much? I don't recover daily to daily but with an occasional day off I fully recover. Maybe I could treat it like dual factor- still gain muscle despite declining performance occasionally due to fatigue? Then dissipate this with a deload week?
 
quads said:
I've been trying just sets a rep short of failure, been doing 2-3 sets for chest, 1-2 sets for shoulders, 3 sets of rows and 3 sets of chins. Daily.
Click to expand...

That would be too much for me, what rep range are you training in? What about legs?
 
quads said:
Do you think that's too much? I don't recover daily to daily but with an occasional day off I fully recover. Maybe I could treat it like dual factor- still gain muscle despite declining performance occasionally due to fatigue? Then dissipate this with a deload week?
Click to expand...

Possibly too much as you state you are not recovering on a day to day basis without a day off, I try to schedule a day off if necessary towards the end of the rep block as following HST strictly at the moment on a twice daily full body workout (upper body AM and lower body PM) alternating between an A and a B routine, so days off would be after the 95% workouts if deemed needed but definitely between the 100% and 100%+ training days.
 
Well, with the 8-12 rep range I recover in 24 hours. It seems to me the muscle can recover but when I get to sub 8 reps, recovery for that specific rep range (power 3's) definitely takes 4-5 days, which tells me protein synthesis probably takes less than 24 hours, but the CNS recovery for HEAVY weight takes forever.
 
mickc1965 said:
Possibly too much as you state you are not recovering on a day to day basis without a day off, I try to schedule a day off if necessary towards the end of the rep block as following HST strictly at the moment on a twice daily full body workout (upper body AM and lower body PM) alternating between an A and a B routine, so days off would be after the 95% workouts if deemed needed but definitely between the 100% and 100%+ training days.
Click to expand...
How have your gains been overall compared to 2-3x week frequency?
 
quads said:
How have your gains been overall compared to 2-3x week frequency?
Click to expand...
I haven't done 2-3x per week in years so hard to gauge really but I prefer to train each body part as often as I can now I am older, also I train a home so can train as often as I need / want to
 
Personally I think you are better off using RPE and bar speed to moderate fatigue and volume (ie auto regulate it) rather than sets, reps or percentages.
 
Jester said:
Personally I think you are better off using RPE and bar speed to moderate fatigue and volume (ie auto regulate it) rather than sets, reps or percentages.
Click to expand...

+1

Auto-regulation is essential if you are going to do higher frequency. You can't go balls to the walls every day when you are lifting that often. You have to balance out the hard days with easy days.
Lately, I do one higher volume day for lower and one for upper, then an easier day where I reduce the volume a bit, but maintain the load. I only increase the load once a week or so.

Assuming you are bulking right now? In my experience, higher frequency seems to require a higher intake of carbs to maintain strength and recovery. What are you doing for pre, intra and post workout nutrition?
 
Totentanz said:
+1

Auto-regulation is essential if you are going to do higher frequency. You can't go balls to the walls every day when you are lifting that often. You have to balance out the hard days with easy days.
Lately, I do one higher volume day for lower and one for upper, then an easier day where I reduce the volume a bit, but maintain the load. I only increase the load once a week or so.

Assuming you are bulking right now? In my experience, higher frequency seems to require a higher intake of carbs to maintain strength and recovery. What are you doing for pre, intra and post workout nutrition?
Click to expand...
Yes, Bulking.
Eating a shitload of carbs is what I'm doing for post workout nutrition.
I'm thinking though, do I really have to have session to session recovery to gain muscle? Isn't waiting 24 hours akin to just longer rests for more sets - which despite a decrease in performance would still be doing something for hypertrophy? As in - a fourth set at a high RPE session would be significantly lesser than what one could complete fresh - either in load or reps. But it'd still do something for gains. So, couldn't waiting 24 hours essentially be the same thing, and then I could manage long term fatigue after 3 weeks with a deload week? fitness/fatigue...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top