Three eternal mysteries solved!

No, I did not get a glimpse at Trumps tax return, but I think I figured out some pretty cool bodybuilding stuff instead…

1. How many sets do you need to do?

In terms of volume, it needs to be considered per week, not per session. More sets will lead to more metabolic damage, resulting in a greater rate of adaptation, aka muscle growth. I wish I could give you a hard and fast number for how many sets you should do, but volume is very much dependent on the trainee and needs to be assessed on an individual basis. However, ten sets per muscle group on a weekly basis seems to be a good starting point. The set itself should be on the heavy side; think 80% of your 10 RM.

2. How often should you train each muscle per week?

At least twice.

In advanced lifters, we do know that muscle protein synthesis rates can rise and drop back to baseline in as little as 36 hours. Therefore, I think the traditional “train every muscle once a week”-split is nonsense. The reason being you are leaving too many sessions on the table by under-using you time. Muscles can recover within 48 hours, so you can train your chest more often than just on national chest day, aka Monday.

The key is to break the weekly volume into smaller portions and split it over several days. You could train chest Monday and Thursday. Instead of doing 20 sets in one day, think 12 sets on Monday and 12 on Thursday .

3. How long should you rest?

According to the latest research, rest interval  should be kept around three minutes for optimal hypertrophy. If that makes your workout too long, set up a program where you add a single joint exercise during the break when doing compounds. Think squats and curls, dead lifts and triceps extensions, military press and leg curls, etc..

So there you have it, three things that really matter resolved. As for Trump… who cares really? As long as you are huge, nothing can ever happen to you!

Happy gains!

Maik and Kieran

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