So here we are again…..
If you’ve been involved in the fitness / bodybuilding / powerlifting world for any time at all then you’ve either had or been witness to this debate multiple times. So if you’re already firmly in the camp of one side or the other and you want to go read something else, I won’t blame you.
But as I’ve said before, anytime that I get hit multiple times in the same week with the same question, then it usually gets put in the “potential articles” pile on my desk. I got hit with this one 3 times this week, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on the issue.
And the issue at the heart of the debate is this: To get bigger and stronger, is it necessary to use multiple sets (high volume) or can you get the same results (or better result) from training just one all out set to failure??
Like most debates in the fitness/lifting world this debate doesn’t address several key issues. Primarily because most of the people that get embroiled in debates like these don’t know what these key issues are.
“Debates” on the internet on this topic usually end with one guy pointing to Dorian Yates and his Mentzer-esque HIT philosophy and the other guy pointing to Arnold and his 30-set Arm Routine as ‘PROOF!” that one side or the other is correct.
So what are my thoughts…..
I’ll start by pointing out the fact that there is no shortage of successful lifters and bodybuilders that train with approaches at both ends of the spectrum. So for anyone to come out and say that ONLY one way or the other can work hasn’t spent enough time training around really big strong lifters to see multiple approaches work. Either that or he is using “science” to back up a claim for one method over the other. I can tell you right now that there is “science” in abundance to support either side of the argument.
So after giving this some thought and reflecting on my own experiences as a lifter, a coach, and an observer I basically think it boils down to a few issues……
Those that have success on the “one set to failure” type of program have basically 2 things in common.
- First, they tend to be highly neurologically efficient. Highly. Very naturally explosive. The athletes I have trained that have had success on the very low ends of the volume spectrum tend to be competing at a very high level in an explosive sport like track and field. They are capable of imposing a tremendous amount of stress on their bodies with not very much work. So a single set of 5 reps (done all-out) is a different event for a very high level shot-thrower than it is for a more genetically average athlete. I have not had good results with this caliber of athlete on higher volume training programs. But these athletes are the exception and not the rule. And they are exclusively male.
- They tend to be extremely aggressive trainees who have an iron-will under the bar. They have grit and determination and will push what might be a 5RM for you and me into a 6-7RM. They will not quit on a weight. They have mastered the ability to grind under heavy loads and will do so for more reps than you think they ought to be able to do. (Any chance that there is a link between aggression and explosion??? Maybe starts with a T???)
The other issue that I think NEVER gets discussed in the power lifting or body building world is the issue of the TIMING of certain low-volume routines. What do I mean by this?
One of the hallmarks of advanced level programming is the concept of accumulation / intensification phases. We wrote about it at length in Practical Programming for Strength Training if you want the details. But basically it boils down to this….peak strength is best achieved by a very high intensity / low volume phase (maybe a few weeks) that immediately follows a phase (or multiple phases) of very high volume / high frequency training. The idea of course being that the lifter approaches the cusp of overtraining by over reaching a bit with volume during the accumulation phases, then drastically peels back volume, and ramps up the intensity for several weeks leading into a meet. It works. It’s one of the easiest and most reliable advanced training programs to set up for a lifter. I’ve done it many times.
I also had my own experience with this phenomenon back in college when I was about 20 years old. Interestingly enough, I stumbled onto the discovery by accident and didn’t actually realize I had discovered anything until several years later when I put the pieces together of what actually happened to me.
But at the time, I was training with a crew of bodybuilders in College Station TX and everyone in the group was basically following a 3 on 1 off type of bodybuilding split with TONS of volume per body part. Our routines looked something like this:
Day 1: Chest, Arms
Day 2: Legs
Day 3: Shoulders, Back
Day 4: Off
Repeat.
So every muscle group was getting hit 2x/week with probably 10-20 sets at each session. I grew and had a pretty good physique mainly because my nutrition was totally on point and I was 20 years old.
After a couple of years of this, I switched gyms and began training with a new training partner. He was older and bigger and so I kinda followed his lead. His philosophy was that each muscle group should only be hit 1x/week for no more than 6-9 sets. So I did what he did. And I went from 180 to 205 in just a few weeks. It was an amazing amount of growth in a short period of time. My other training partners accused me of taking steroids it was so rapid.
So what the hell happened?
Well, since I didn’t really know anything about programming at the time, I just attributed everything to the new program I was on!!! It was magical!!!! The truth was, of course, is that the new program I was following worked so rapidly mainly because of the TIMING. After 2 years of basically overtraining with too much volume and frequency, my body rebounded like crazy when I drastically dialed back the volume and frequency.
I think the same thing happened to the bodybuilders of the Dorian Yates era. For decades many of these guys had been following in the footsteps of Olympians like Arnold and Lee Haney. Very high frequency, very high volume. And these guys set the tone for the elites and average Joes of the gym world. Everyone did what they did. Well then you had the successes of Mike Mentzer and his protégé Dorian Yates who set a new standard for size on the Olympia stage.
Leaving the discussion of the advances in chemistry aside for now, Dorian ushered in the HIT era of training where the elites of the bodybuilding world as well as the average Joes at the Y started doing a lot less. And my guess is that many of them had the same experience that I did. They fucking grew. And they got stronger.
And like me, they judged the two approaches independently. They failed to appreciate the effects of a very low volume or “one set to failure” approach immediately following years or even decades of over reaching with excessive amounts of volume.
So do my ramblings end the debate? Unlikely. But maybe it will give some context. The best way to think about your training may not be to think in terms of High Volume vs Low Volume as an either/or approach. Perhaps the best results come from the intelligent management of periods of higher volume with periods of lower volume/higher intensity. My recommendation is not to spend years on either at the exclusion of the other like the dumb bodybuilders and college kids of the 90s did.
