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[Music]
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fore
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for
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fore
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for
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three days a week for me is kind of The
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Sweet Spot now it's us I mean over my
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career it's been three to four that's
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always kind of been the sweet spots you
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know a lot of preps I've ran four-day
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training splits but this one I'm
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definitely just going to stick to three
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and I caveat it with like okay it's
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three days per week and no more than two
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days in a row CU I know from past
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history more than two days in a row and
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Recovery is just not all that great and
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performance starts to take a little bit
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of a hit and this is the context of
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training with plenty of intent plenty of
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effort I'm sure I can spread the
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training out more so across the week and
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have less intensity there but again I
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just don't have the time you know to be
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devoting like five days six days a week
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in the gym because I want to make sure
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that you know I have family time in
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there right and I know from past history
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too like I could look at past history
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where I've like actually thrived the
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most in the gym as far as a performance
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standpoint meaning my ability to lift
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load my ability to increase reps that
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type of thing is when I've trained in
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that three to four days per week uh when
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it starts to creep over that it's yeah
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it's just don't recover too well what's
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interesting too is that i' I grew up in
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80s and 90s bodybuilding I've been
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through the 2000 2010s 2020s a lot of
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things are cyclical in this field so and
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I could be wrong but I'm going to throw
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this out there I think in the next year
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the low volume high intensity approach
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is going to get it's gonna make more
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noise and that's depending on who's
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preaching it right like usually it's
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like whoever's chirping the loudest out
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there and the most it's going to draw
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more traction so you know if we're
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having a lot of people throwing out high
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volume high volume high volume well
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let's wear a lot of people are going to
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start gravitating towards so I kind of
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just see like you know the Boward of the
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world right like they've been training
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three days a week for years and years
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and years and you know they're they're
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backing it up with the results so yeah
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that's kind of just how My Philosophy
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has been is that you know you just got
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to be able to recover and it's going to
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look different person to person so
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that's kind of where I'm at though
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longwinded answer there but I would
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throw some context
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there you mentioned the Bro splits I
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want to latch on to that for a second
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was that your first bodybuilding routine
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you ever and again you didn't consider
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consider it bodybuilding but was that
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would you say your first routine you
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kind of fell upon was the Bro split yeah
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pretty much I mean I'd learned that you
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just as a bodybuilder you train Le you
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train less than what I expected because
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when you first get into the sport you
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think these guys must train eight hours
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a day all this sort of thing but no I
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learned that you train a body part once
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a week and you split your whole body up
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into those various sessions throughout
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the week and that's what I did and I
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would argue I've I've manipulated it
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slightly I've changed it for the better
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more efficient now but largely speaking
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it's all the same it's all the same
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movements it's the same sort of volume
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it's the same split in terms of what
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days are do certain body parts and
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there's this old saying isn't it if it
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ain't broke don't fix it and it worked
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for me I was getting success so I felt
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no reason to change and 15 years later
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I'm still improving so I would I would
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argue that it watchs SP for me awesome
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so why don't you break that down first
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would you say now you've refined it to
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be productive for you and what what does
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that look like now so I will start the
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week I'll just I'll just itemize it for
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for the viewers because people like to
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know specifics so on Monday I'll train
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back on Tuesday I Will Do shoulders and
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triceps Wednesday is a rest day Thursday
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is legs quads and HS together Friday I
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do chest and biceps and then I do
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another shoulder workout on Saturday
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only because shoulders were a lagging
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body part for me and earlier in the
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career so I chucked in an extra shoulder
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workout on Saturday I've just kept that
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one in it's been the same split I've had
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certainly since I've been competing
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which has been 14
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years if your intensity is high your
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volume's most likely going to be a
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little lower if your intensity is lower
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your volume can potentially be a little
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bit higher I think something that maybe
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I've been called out upon a few times is
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that I am preaching that only low volume
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works I'm not necessarily preaching I'm
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just preaching that if you want to learn
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to train at a higher intensity you've
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probably got to follow that suit with a
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lower volume approach uh because
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otherwise you're you're really not going
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to be training at high intensity you
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can't train at super high intensity and
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super high volume you'll not be able to
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recover and progress at that kind of
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setup from the intensity and the volume
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side of things you can then sort of
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start to underpin what is going to be
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what will make up your recovery capacity
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and then what will make up your recovery
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capacity will then directly influence
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you know how much work you can do what
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is actually Progressive for you as an
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athlete because that's going to vary
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from athlete to athlete but it's also
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going to vary over over time it's a
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moving Landmark this is not a thing that
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is fixed in stone one set of hack squats
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right now might be absolutely great for
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you and you might be producing results
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progressively overloading but in some
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future realm you might be able to do two
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sets because you're getting more sleep
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or you're eating more food or whatever
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the the approach you're taking is to
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improve recovery capacity namely I think
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one of these things that I think I see a
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lot of athletes that come under my wing
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is the first thing I would do is have
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volume set at a a pretty standardized
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sort of relatively low Baseline maybe
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lower than what they've been doing and
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we'll go for a round of each session
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with execution clips and we'll find and
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pinpoint areas in which that athlete can
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improve execution Clips come across to
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me and often there are things we can
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improve I will hold volume at that set
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up until we get to a point where
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everything looks Picture Perfect
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strength is rising and when I say Pitch
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Perfect I don't mean form is looking
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looking like something out of an
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exercise Library I mean that form is
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adequate it's safe but there is effort
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and intense in the movement in every
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single
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exercise how do you like to approach
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your training you know you got that high
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effort like Ben or yeah like Ben Howard
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he likes that high intensity uh not
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training as frequently we'll say
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majority majority of the times out of
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the Year from when I spoke to him I
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don't know if things have changed now
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and then you have like this super high
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volume six days a week kind of training
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where are you relative to that Spectrum
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where do you kind of lie and how do you
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like to do things I'd say I'm closest to
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the low volume end I I tend to lean more
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that way and I I used to be really high
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volume you know since I've started
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bodybuilding I literally went in two
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years ago with zero understanding um I
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was you know just sort of floating
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around doing bits and Bobs and looking
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back on it I kind of think the sessions
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that I was doing in the gym and
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you know the lack of plan or the L lack
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of progression over time and the just
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those sorts of things I just I made a
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lot of mistakes um with my training but
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speaking to people over the last couple
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of years and see you know how did you
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build that or you know what do you do
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that that helps you kind of build X Y or
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Zed or how do you make this much
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progress has helped because what I have
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done and what I did after I guess it was
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after world so this last offseason was I
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made a note of cutting junk volume
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cutting those sets that you're just not
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really doing anything with it's just
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it's just filling up time in the gym and
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it gives you a nice pump and it makes
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you feel good but they don't really
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build the muscle and I think that's what
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I've learned a lot is it's it's all
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about the intensity in terms of my
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training I've built it back up to five
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days a week but I did drop down to four
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days a week after well in in the
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offseason because I noticed that as my
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sessions were getting progressively
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heavier and harder it was taking more of
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a toll on my body before the competition
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I was training five times a week um and
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that was pretty standard I generally do
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that but as I find that I'm struggling
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to recover even though I've got the food
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going in even though I'm focusing on you
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know sleep and all the other things that
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you need to do if my training is just
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too too intense to keep up with the five
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times a week I can scale it back a
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little bit and just focus on the areas
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that I'm trying to improve in terms of
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what I am doing it's I'm only squatting
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once a week now I'm only doing one sort
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of quad focused leg day and then I do
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the hamstring strs again with another
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hip hinge in with my back day at the end
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of that because I still feel that I need
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to bring those up right as
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an man he must like 12 hours a day no
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way I work out about right now maybe 2 2
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and 1/2 hours a day it's not the length
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of the workout it's the intensity is it
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it's the intensity and the quality of
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the workout you start out on Mondays
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working legs on Tuesday I go in I work
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chest and triceps on Wednesday I work
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back and biceps Thursday again I be
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starting all over again do you take any
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time off Sundays work at Monday through
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Saturday and I take is the best way to
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make good gains super sets are focusing
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on one body part at a time definitely
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focusing on one body part at a time I'm
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a huge believer in like the good old bro
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split type workouts where you just
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destroy one body part train a full
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intensity on that day other every other
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style of workout works as well I just
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like that style and I think you should
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be putting all your focus and energy
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into like each set that you're doing not
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worrying about oh I just did a set of
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chest I'm a super set with back like to
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me that's insane you haven't rested
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enough to give all out for both
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sets
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[Music]
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for
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for
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[Music]
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for
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[Music]
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for
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for
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for
