496: Listen to Life's Lessons in Training

So although the debate over whether or not just a set or two done with high intensity is just as good as being a volume junky doing tons of sets is largely over – most research seems to indicate more is better to a degree – there are still some that hang onto the idea that volume may in fact be overrated for some people. Again volume means weight times reps times sets or the total amount of work you do in a training session. As I’ve discussed on the show before there is some research that show some people just continue to activate or turn on more and more muscle the more the keep hitting it, while for others it seems more muscle mass only gets activated during training up to a certain point after which more seems to be perhaps overkill. The tricky part of so many studies which call into question the importance of training volume is that they’re typically done on relatively untrained participants and so we are always left with the reality that those result probably apply to people not very trained – of course it doesn’t take much to create a response when the body is used to no or minimal training – but what about in advanced lifters who train hard and often – clearly they must need more of a stimulus. Well that was what intrigued me to review today’s study on 79 men and women – the participants had been weight training for 4 years on average. We discuss the study and further thoughts on manipulation of resistance training variables. John always reviews the full-text of every article, but you may view the free abstract by clicking here: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/James_Steele4/publication/266746184_The_effects_of_low_volume_resistance_training_with_and_without_advanced_techniques_in_trained_participants/links/546b0bc10cf2397f783039b1.pdf .