Author Topic: Full body H/L/M routines and more from Casey Butt's  (Read 6750 times)

Offline Sergio

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The H/L/M Program
(Compiled from the various writings of Casey Butt by Nick Zezza)

Full-Body (Pre-H/L/M)

Start off by training the same exercises fairly lightly three times per week to get your body in condition for that type of training.
Pick one exercise for each body part (Chest, Back, Shoulders, Legs).
Do 3 sets in the 8-12 rep range. Leave at least several reps short of failure for each set.
-Bench Press
-Bent-Over Rows
-Overhead Presses
-Back Squats
EACH SESSION, add a rep to one set until you reach 12 reps on all sets. Add 5-10lbs of weight to that exercise and start over at 8 reps, building up as before. Once you no longer feel you can add a rep to one set three times per week (i.e. you are worried that you might not be able to complete all the reps, which shouldn't take long unless you are a rank beginner or started extremely light), add only one rep per week. You might try to add one rep to one set on Monday, but then you'd repeat the same workout on Wednesday and Friday with the same sets, reps and weight until going for another one-rep increase on the following Monday IF YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN - do not force your reps. This gives your body the time and practice it needs to adapt to the workload increase.
If your performance improves on a set that's a "vote" to continue the cycle, if your performance stalls or regresses on a set then that's a vote to change things around (rep ranges, break times, exercise selection, etc). If the "votes" say you've stalled for two weeks in a row then it's time to move on.

"Beginner's" H/L/M

On your first training day of the week, go near maximum on your sets.
On your second training day of the week, use 60%-80% of the weights (for the same amount of reps).
On your third training day of the week, use 85%-90% of Monday's weights.(Note: if Incline DB Presses are your main heavy day chest exercise and you recovery fairly quickly from them, then you might be able to use 80% of the weight on light day, and 90% on the medium day. For something like Squats however, particularly "power style", your lower back, hips and knees might need more rest and you'd only use 60% of the weight on light day.) When your Heavy day stalls for two weeks in a row then it's time to move on.

Intermediate H/L/M

Perform different rep ranges on the training days:
Day 1 - 5-7 reps
Day 2 - 12-15 reps (with 1-min breaks between sets instead of 2)
Day 3 - 8-12 reps
When you begin stalling on a day, back down. For example, if you're stalled at 100x7, 100x7, 100x6 on Mondays, go back down to 3*100x5 and build from there. If you do that, and build back up to 100x7,7,6 again (your performance didn't increase even after the deload), consider it a "vote" to move on.
You can move on at this point if you're bored, or, if you're intent on peaking with this exercise at a certain rep scheme (you really want to increase your Bench Press in the 8-12 range, and this scheme is allowing you to do so, even if your 5-7 rep day is stalled), then continue with it. If your Medium or Light day begins to stall just as the Heavy day has, though, then two of the three days (the majority) have stalled and it's time to move on.

(At this point, you can repeat all the above steps with slightly DIFFERENT exercises. For example, if you were doing Bench Press, Bent-Over Rows, Overhead Presses, and Back Squats, switch to Chest Dips, Chin-Ups, Behind-the-Neck Presses, and Front Squats. If you have enough experience on the "new" exercises, feel free to progress in an accelerated fashion. For example, you might try to add a rep to one set once per session. Once that stalls, perhaps try the increase every other session. Once that stalls, go back to progressing once per week as it was outlined in the first step of this guide. After that, you should be months or perhaps even years into the program depending on how much weight you started with each time through and how gradually you attempted rep/weight increases. Once you've completed Intermediate H/L/M with the new exercises, you can either repeat the process again with even different exercises (such as Incline Presses instead of Chest Dips), or the exercises from the first cycle again: Bench Presses, etc., or move on to the Advanced implementation.)

Advanced H/L/M

Perform different exercises and rep counts at each session over the course of the week:
Day 1 - Bench Presses - 5-7 reps
Day 2 - Dumbbell Pullovers - 12-15 reps (with 1-min rests)
Day 3 - Chest Dips - 8-12 reps
Try to add one rep to one set on each day.

Sample Routines

STRENGTH/BULK - For anyone looking to gain overall muscle mass
Heavy Day
Bench Press 5x5-7
Bent-Over Row 5x5-7
Squat 5x5-7
Barbell Curl 5x5-7
Abs 3x12-15

Light Day
Press Behind-Neck 4x10-15
Wide-grip Pull-Up 4x10-15
Sissy Squat 4x10-15
Forearm work 4-6x12-20
Neck work 4-6x12-20

Medium Day
Incline Press 4x8-12
Power Clean/High Pull 5x5-7
Front Squat 4x8-12
Decline Triceps Extension 4x8-12
Calves 3x12-20

Day 1
Bench Press 3x8-12
Front Squat or Squat 3x8-10
DB Lateral Raise or Wide-Grip Upright Row 3x8-12
Stiff-Legged Deadlift & Shrug 2x6-8
Barbell Curls 2x8-12
Overhead BB Triceps Extensions 2x8-12
Calf Raises 2x10-20
Abs 1-2x10-20

Day 2
Incline DB Press 3x8-12
Wide-Grip Pull Up 3x8-12
Bent Over Lateral Raise 3x8-12
Incline DB Curls 2x8-12
Skull Crushers 2x8-12
Seated Wrist Curls 3x10-15
Reverse Wrist Curls 3x10-15
Seated Calf Raises 2x10-20
Abs 1-2x10-20

Day 3
V-Bar Dips 3x8-12
Squat 3x6-12
Behind-Neck Press 3x8-12
Bent-Over Row 3x8-12
Preacher Curls 2x8-12
Overhead DB Triceps Extensions 2x8-12
Donkey Calf Raises 2x10-20
Abs 1-2x10-20

Heavy Day
Incline Press 5x5-7
Bent-Over Row 5x5-7
Clean and Press 5x5-7
Squat 5x5-7
Barbell Curl 5x5-7
Abs 3x12-15

Light Day
Cross-Bench DB Pullover 4x10-15
Wide-grip Pull-Up 4x10-15
Overhead Squat 4x10-15
OR DB Lateral Raise 4x10-15
Sissy Squat 4x10-15
Forearm work 4-6x12-20

Medium Day
Chest Dip 4x8-12
Power Clean/High Pull 5x5
OR Stiff-Legged Deadlift 5x5
Behind-the-Neck Press 4x8-12
Front Squat 4x8-12
Decline Triceps Extension 4x8-12
Calves 3-4x12-20

VERY ADVANCED/PRE-CONTEST - Very intensive routine. The vast majority of genetically typical trainees would gain muscle and strength much quicker on the routines listed before this one

Heavy Day
Incline Press 5x5-7
Chest Dips 5x5-7
Moderate-grip Pull-Up 4x8-10
Bent-Over Row 5x5-7
Clean and Press 5x5-7
DB Lateral Raise 4x10-15
Squat 3-5x5-7
Front Squat 5x5-7
Abs 3x12-20

Light Day
Cross-Bench DB Pullover 4x10-15
Close-Grip Pull-Up 4x10-15
Seated Bent-Forward DB Lateral Raise 3-4x10-15
Sissy Squat 4x10-15
Preacher Curl 4x8-12
Triceps Pressdown 4x8-12
Wrist Curl 3-4x12-20
Calf Raise 3-4x12-20

Medium Day
Bench Press 4x8-10
Parallel Grip OR 2-DB Bent-Over Rows 4x8-10
Behind-the-Neck Press 4x8-10
Roman Chair Squat 4x8-12
Stiff-Legged Deadlift 4x8-10
DB Curl 4x8-12
Lying Triceps Extension 4x8-12
Reverse-Grip Wrist Curl 3-4x12-20
Seated Calf Raise 3-4x12-20
Frequently Asked Questions

What should my starting weights be?

You can pick 75% of your 1RM and just do three sets of as many reps as you can do with it. In other words, you might get 10, 8 and 6 with 75% of your 1RM. Then you'd try to build up the reps over time... say 10, 8 and 7 next workout.

How much should I rest between my sets?

Take longer breaks of 2-3 minutes between sets on your heavy days, shorter rests of a minute or less on your light days, and 2 minutes rest between sets on your medium days. You could try getting a higher growth hormone release by resting only 1 minute between sets, but the decreased weight you'd then have to use would make it pointless.

How should I warm up?

Warm up based on the exercise - 2 warm-up sets for heavy exercises, 1 warm-up set for lighter exercises. You don't have to strictly time the warm-up set breaks. In the 8-12 rep range that usually means something on the order of 1-2 sets with roughly 50% to 75% of your top working weight for the day. That's for the compound lifts. For isolation stuff, one set with about 65% of your working weight is usually fine. In the 5-7 rep range, lifters typically use 60% and 80% for two warm-up sets.

Keep the reps low for warm-up sets (5 or fewer). There's not much use in warming up with higher reps - no matter how many reps you plan to do. It'll only result in some lactic acid build-up. You're better off adding in an extra set of 5 (or two) than doing higher-rep warm-up sets.

Should my increased rep be on the first set or the last set? In other words, if I'm doing 3*100x8, should next week be 100x9, 100x8, 100x8, or 100x8, 100x8, 100x9?

It's usually "easiest" to progress on the later set(s) than it is the earlier ones.

You also have to keep in mind that a one-rep increase in performance is approximately equal to a 3% increase in absolute strength. So going from an 8-rep failure effort to taking that to 9 reps is actually a very significant strength increase - too much to rationally expect on a regular basis.

Increasing a rep on your later sets, when you're already fatigued, isn't indicative of such a dramatic strength increase because recovery ability (ATP, CP replenishment, etc), is a large part of the adaptation.

This is actually part of the reason why advanced lifters do multiple sets and regularly increase by a rep only on the last set. In that case, that added rep might only be indicative of a 0.5-1% increase in performance, not an unsustainable 3% as would be the case if you added a rep to a fresh set every week (in the bodybuilding rep ranges anyway).

Is it better to perform the same exercises for different reps, or different exercises for the same reps?

It comes down to goals, experience, and abilities.

Training for peak strength and peak growth are generally two different beasts, often requiring different approaches (there's a big overlap there as well depending on rep range, the nature of the exercise (explosive vs. non-explosive, etc)).

For beginners and people interested primarily in strength development on a particular group of lifts, using the same exercises but cycling intensity/weights often works well. Oly Lifters train the lifts multiple times per week because they're after maximum progress on specific lifts. But they also aren't after any significant degree of hypertrophy. For instance, a lifter trying to improve a lift might do that lift several times a week at different intensities simply for a high volume of specific practice/training on that lift. In this case, H/L/M would involve more volume on the targeted lifts.

Short periods training the same exercises each day can sometimes give quick strength boosts because it's a type of specialization routine on these exercises - you're focusing all of your energy into only a handful of movements. However, most people will need to carefully cycle their training intensity each day (as outlined the the beginners routine article) or they'll hit a wall fast. Only the genetically very gifted can train the same exercises all-out three times a week. With proper intensity cycling even advanced trainees can grow using the same exercises three times per week (at the advanced level many prosper from using different rep counts on each of the training days, say 5-7, 8-12, 12-15).

For bodybuilding/hypertrophy purposes, H/L/M would involve a similar volume but greater variety, using different exercises at consistently moderately high intensity in order to stimulate hypertrophy each time. In this case, it's better to chose different exercises for the three days (except for short periods to provide variety). Keep in mind that this is assuming a lifter is past the beginner stage where they're going to grow quickly anyway and are better off concentrating on fewer lifts.

There's also a combination of the two. For example, heavy presses on Monday, lateral raises on Wednesday and medium presses on Friday. I find that sort of thing can often work well if you're primarily a bodybuilder, but also trying to specialize on a certain lift.

Of course, the lines aren't that clearly drawn, but that's the gist of it.

Whether you do different exercises each day or not also depends on your experience level and where you are in your training right now. Advanced trainees usually benefit from doing different exercises on different days, so that they don't overstress their joints. However, sometimes even advanced trainees can benefit from doing the same routine each day -- remember Reeves, Park, Schwarzenegger and many others reached the top of the bodybuilding world and built up largely or exclusively on these types of routines.

If you're going to use different exercises on each of the three days, then intensity cycling is done by the exercise selection more so than the effort you put into the exercises themselves. You do this by choosing exercises that stress the joints differently and with different loads. For instance, you could do Incline Presses on your heavy day, DB Pullovers on your light day, and V-Bar Dips on your medium day. You might go up to sets of 5-7 on your Incline Presses, sets of 10-15 on DB Pullovers and 8-12 on Dips. In that way, you'll save your joints, avoid overtraining and be able to hit the muscles hard three times per week. Benches, Inclines and Declines in the same week however, are very similar movements and unless you have big, robust joints you'll overtrain and plateau very quickly.

A similar example would be including Military (Front) Presses and Behind-the-Neck Presses in the same week. The two exercises should not be done with the same grip width or elbow positioning in order to avoid the two exercises overlapping too much. With BNPs, a wide grip (Snatch width grip) should be used while keeping the elbows back in order to place as much loading as possible on the side delts. With MPs, a just-beyond-shoulder-width grip should be used while obviously allowing the elbows to the front at the bottom. This is an Olympic Lift inspired technique (at least a pre-1972 technique when the press was still part of Oly Lifting) to get as much power on the lift as possible... without cheating or using the "Russian" style of course. Obviously, this doesn't erase the overlap between the two exercises because they're still both fundamentally overhead barbell pressing, but a wide-grip-elbows-back BNP is a significantly different creature than a shoulder-width MP to the front... to further that difference BNPs should be done with a slightly higher rep count (and slightly lighter weights are safer with that style of BNP since it really isn't suited to be a true "power" movement). Still, the overlap is there, but the style differences make one more of a strength/power lift and the other more of a "bodybuilding" exercise.

Which approach you take is your call, as each of them can work if you approach them right.

If I'm after maximum hypertrophy, could I simply make every session of the H/L/M routine a 'Medium' day, sticking in the 8-12 rep range, but allowing the exercises dictate the H/L/M pattern? Is it possible to recover from training this way in this rep range solely, without handling the heavier weights on a Heavy day, or the lighter weights on Light day?

Possibly. But depending on the implementation, your conditioning and your genetics it may or may not produce more hypertrophy than a more "conventional" H/L/M routine.

Hypertrophy can't be so easily broken into "5 reps is for strength, 12 reps is for endurance and 8 reps is for hypertrophy". Sure, theoretically that may be the intended focus of each rep range, with at least a reasonable scientific justification, and that may be traditional "wisdom", but in the long-term you'll often find that 5 reps, or even 12 reps, may build just as much muscle as sets of 8 reps. Some of the biggest drug-free quads have been on Olympic Lifters who practically never did more than 5 reps ...and look at Reg Park in the 1950s.

In addition, the whole purpose of the heavy day is two-fold...

1) To recruit the fastest twitch muscle fibers, and

2) To strengthen the joints, connective tissues and nervous system for lifting heavier weights.

So even if you want to go lighter because that's considered more "ideal" for hypertrophy, the purpose of the heavy day is to work with the medium and light days to promote growth and strengthening.

But having said that, you don't even have to do 3x5, 5x5, 3x3 or anything else thought of as traditionally heavy. Heavy day gets associated with lower reps because that's the appropriate day for it if you were going to do that sort of thing. I usually put the lower reps on heavy days as an example of that's when to do it, but you certainly don't have to. You can do singles, partials, lock-outs, one set to failure in the 6-8 rep range or whatever. In that case, make sure the weights are heavier than your medium day, but because you're only doing one set you should be able to handle more than the medium day when you do several sets.

What I'm saying is, heavy day must stay heavy, but you can't keep doing the same thing week after week or make the volume too high or you will burn out. Use variety to make it interesting and target what you need. Don't get caught in only one rep scheme forever. Rotate 2-4 week cycles of different heavy day schemes as you get more advanced to keep from going stale and keep progressing.

Keep in mind, many pre-steroid era bodybuilders and lifters (Reg Park, Steve Reeves, Eiferman, Ross, Kono, etc.) did stick to one rep range all the time and usually the same exercises every session as well - they'd simply adjust their effort level by how they felt. That ability to instinctively know what their bodies needed and could handle was not only critical in allowing them to train full-body three times per week, it's also what made them champions. Marvin Eder and Doug Hepburn also cycled their training loads to different degrees, with Hepburn being very structured about it and eventually winning the World Weightlifting Championship as a result. Most of what went on to become the Soviet system of periodization was taken from Hepburn's concepts. Kono cycled his loads, but more instinctively. Park went for broke all he could, ate like ten men and slept like a newborn to support that. So it's definitely do-able and definitely worked for those people. But those guys were conditioned for it, had natural healthy diets, and the most successful ones had great genetics to go with it.

The cycling ideas presented in the H/L/M program (heavy, light, medium - different exercises on different days) were pioneered by people like Bob Hoffman (who began prescribing something similar in the 1930s) and Bill Starr (who wrote about it extensively from the 1960s to present). Its design is a way for people to get the variety needed to continue progressing, but also to allow recovery for people who would normally hit a wall on a fixed 3-day/week full-body routine.

Of course, if you change exercises each session, but stick to the same rep range you're still building in a fair bit of variety into the program and that might be enough to allow you to keep progressing without grinding to a plateau.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: From my experience studying H/L/M, rep ranges are generally over-analyzed to death. The whole purpose of H/L/M is to provide nearly all the necessary rep ranges in one program. On top of that, different exercises are placed on the different days as well, providing even more variety. So even if you think you should be doing 8-12 reps on everything:

(1) Chances are, that won't last long anyway, because most productive exercises have some overlap as it is. Take Overhead Presses and Behind-the-Neck presses for example. Both are highly regarded as the best delt exercises. Someone may put their Overhead Pressing on Heavy day and Behind-the-Neck pressing on Medium day. If they are done in the same rep range, however, there is very little variety there and the muscles are essentially doing a very similar movement, for a similar amount of weight, for nearly the same amount of reps. This is just an example, and not true for all productive exercises (i.e. the ones we SHOULD be doing...), however there seems to be a trend (another example would be Squats and Front Squats).

And (2), Some exercises aren't even suited to certain rep ranges (for example, you wouldn't be doing DB Pullovers for 5 heavy reps; they are much suited to higher reps in order to provide a break from chest pressing while still bringing about a growth stimulus through fatigue-based training).

Remember the whole point of H/L/M: to provide variety in order to train hard and promote growth three times per week. The more variety provided by the exercises, the less there is a need to cycle rep ranges as well. For example, if you do deadlifts on your heavy day, and chin ups on your light day, the two exercises themselves are very different, in which the weight being moved are on quite different planes of motion (at least compared to the back squat/front squat example). In that case, one could essentially do the same amount of reps on both days. Before you go searching for "very different" exercises just so you can train in the same rep range, keep in mind that generally the best exercises are at least somewhat similar in terms of motions. In other words, bench presses are quite different than chest flyes. But chest flyes are definitely inferior compared to v-bar dips (which would have an overlap with bench presses). Trainees would be much better off including the most productive (generally compound) movements to include in their training, and cycle intensity accordingly depending on the need for variety.

Not to say that it's impossible to do the same rep range three times per week (after all, in the beginning of H/L/M
you are doing the same exercises in the same rep range), but the more advanced you get, generally, the more variety you need. Otherwise, plateaus will come much sooner and you're more likely to become frustrated and switch to something else (which might work for a while, but not in the long run).]

Why start with 8-12 reps?

The reason I recommend higher reps to beginning lifters is because I know most people are interested in bodybuilding and general fitness, not Olympic Lifting (in which case the recommendations would be different) and it's a safe place to start. During the first few months, strength and hypertrophy gains are made just as quickly if a person trains lightly as if they train heavily (shown many times in the research) - so it's more prudent (i.e. safe) in my opinion to start light, perfect form and do the traditional bodybuilding rep ranges.

Also, with higher rep, lighter work in the 8-12 rep range you're not riding as close to the edge of nervous system and connective tissue overtraining, so you don't have to back down as regularly... which in itself is another plus for hypertrophy.

I am increasing one set by one rep each training day. Would that progression slow down size gains if my body was re-cooperating faster than that schedule and I was physically able to increase more than that, or does that not matter for hypertrophy?

In the longer term of the overall cycle it doesn't matter - you're better off consistently increasing performance just slightly. If not, you'll plateau sooner and your gains will stop altogether.

So, if you hit 3*160x5 on week 1 and you get in the gym on week 2 feeling great, do you simply do 160x6,5,5 ... even if you feel like 3x6 is attainable?

Generally, yes. Holding back is actually the tough part for most people because they have a "I must work as hard as possible at all times" mentality.

The question really comes down to how fast you think you can advance. For how long do you think you can keep adding a rep to all 3 sets a week? If you started with 3x150x5, then 3x150*6, 3x150*7, etc, then in five weeks you'd be doing 3x150x10. The only way gains like that are going to keep going is if you started off very light - otherwise you'll quickly hit a wall and have to switch things up (and/or deload). In six months time you'll probably be no further ahead than if you just did a longer cycle of 5,5,5 - 6,5,5 - 6,6,5 - 6,6,6 - 7,6,6 - etc. Of course, if you did that, you'd probably start slightly heavier as well, because you don't need to leave as much room for aggressive performance increases each week.

Keep in mind, protein turnover happens at a snail's pace (at least as in a few weeks) so pushing all-out every day really isn't going to accomplish anything that ramping more gradually won't, as long as you end up in the same place in a few week's time. In the end, it's the average workload performed over several months time that dictates growth, not what you did on any given day. In that case, it's very hard to beat a one-rep per week type scheme because even though the individual workouts are moderately hard (but not all-out) the average weekly load over time is high because there's really no "down time". When added up over a period of time, you've lifted a lot of weight, probably the same or greater as if you started lighter, progressed faster and then deloaded. In the long term, in terms of how the body responds to its environment, that's what matters.

Sometimes you can ramp up more aggressively, but that's usually reserved for when calories, nutrition and rest are really good. In that case you might go for shorter 4-6 week cycles. But for "normal" life the one rep per week rule is easier to maintain and almost like clockwork in terms of getting you there in the long run... distractions and boredom can become factors eventually though.
Further Reading

« Last Edit: January 03, 2016, 09:37:16 AM by Sergio »

Offline Sergio

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Re: H/L/M routines, from Casey Butt's
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2016, 09:24:06 AM »
Here are parts of the high interesting interview of Casey Butt for www.muscleandstrength.con

Part 1:











Offline Sergio

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Re: H/L/M routines, from Casey Butt's
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2016, 09:30:06 AM »
Part 2:

Muscle and Strength: So, if a full body routine is the way to go, and a natural has about a one hour training window, that would imply that there are limited exercises a natural will use each week. What exercises should be at the core of every natural full body routine, and should the same exercises be performed during every workout?

Casey Butt: It very much depends on the experience level of the trainee.  Most people tend to look at weight training as something that impacts only the muscles when, in fact, the picture is a bit more complex than that.  Anytime a weight is lifted the major systems stressed can be broken into five main categories:

The muscle fibers themselves
The connective tissues (i.e. tendons and ligaments)
The nervous system (central and peripheral
The biochemical systems (anabolic and catabolic hormones both locally in the muscles and systemically throughout the body)
The bones
Bones are not stressed by training to the point where they require significant recovery so they can be essentially disregarded from consideration.

The fundamental flaw in HIT logic is that the founders considered training only from the perspective of Seyle's General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS).  That is, it was based on a single factor model of the training response - you stress the muscles then you must wait for them to recover and get stronger (i.e. grow) and only then can you train again.  It is quite logical, but incomplete because many systems are stressed by training and they all don't recover in the same time frame.  For instance, after even intense training of 16 sets to failure per body part muscle protein synthesis has been shown to return to baseline within 48 hours.  Beginners, because they are far from their potentials and the loads they lift do not significant disrupt and stress the connective tissues and nervous system, can train again, practically full bore, 48 hours after their last session.

As trainees become more advanced, however, they gain the ability to better recruit the muscle fibers (motor units) as the nervous system improves it's neuromuscular coordination.  At the same time, increased hypertrophy further makes the muscles stronger.  The result is that now the trainee starts to become strong enough to significantly stress the joints and connective tissues and also can recruit motor units 'efficiently' enough to tax the nervous system as well.  Now, he cannot train again, full bore, on the same exercises again in 48 hours - the nervous system and connective tissues will typically require longer than that to fully recover and allow full strength to be demonstrated again.  Don't forget that the nervous system is the master controller of all muscular contraction and if it 'says' you're not recruiting the muscle fibers at full force (i.e. maximum rate coding) then it's not going to happen no matter how 'good' you might feel.  Similarly, the connective tissues contain sensory organs that relay information about joint integrity back to the central nervous system - if the surrounding muscles and connective tissues cannot hold the joint sufficiently stable the nervous system will not allow the major muscle groups to be fired at full force.

Reg Park, natural bodybuilder

Typically, the 'solution' to this, based on a single factor training model (the GAS) has been for the trainee to simply wait until he's fully recovered, without considering which aspects of his physiology are really requiring the extra recovery time - the muscles or nervous system and connective tissues?  The shortcoming of this approach is that growth in the muscle is actually complete within 48 hours of training and the rest of the time is simply waiting for other systems to catch up - time that could be used to stimulate the muscles again.

For beginners, none of this is a problem because, as I said earlier, they don't have the ability or even need to impose heavy training stresses on their bodies systemically to illicit a training response.  The more advanced the trainee gets, however, the larger the training stress must be and the more recovery of the different systems involved becomes an issue.  Most advanced trainees know they simply cannot pound the same exercises heavily three times per week. This is somewhat intuitive because advanced trainees' bodies are very accustomed to the stresses of lifting and no longer respond as easily to training as beginners.  They need more loading to cause the cellular disruption that stimulates growth, and this high loading also imposes longer recover times on the other systems (nervous system, connective tissues, etc.).

The currently standard approach to this is for intermediates and advanced trainees to simply perform more volume, both more sets and more exercises, per body part.  This also has the advantage of allowing the advanced trainee to use a variety of exercises and train different aspects of each muscle group.  And it does work because many fine advanced physiques have been the product of it.  However, this does not address the reality that if you take seven days between training muscles, growth only occurs for two of those days.  Wouldn't it be much more ideal to take advantage of the other five days as well?

In order to do that the intermediate and advanced trainee has three options:

He or she can train the same exercises three times a week but use different loading patterns (sets, reps and total volume) on the different days so as not to repeat the stress that the nervous system and connective tissues 'see' more than once a week.
He/she can use completely different exercises on each of the training days, achieving essentially the same effect.
A combination of the first two.
In each case the goal is to stimulate muscle growth three times per week instead of just once, but vary the training stress each time so the same loading pattern is not repeated on the nervous system and connective tissues, and thus not disrupting their timely recovery.

The first step into the intermediate stages would be to perform the same exercises three times per week, one exercise per major muscle group, with the same rep count, but simply vary the load.  Monday could be heavy day, with the trainee going to near maximum on his/her sets, Wednesday may be a light day with only 60-80% of Monday's weights used, and Friday would be a medium day consisting of 85-90% of Monday's weights.  This is Bill Starr's classic approach to weekly periodization for lifters.  It is common for trainees to underestimate the importance of the light and medium days in this scheme.  In this case the light day serves as what was referred to as a "feeder" workout in the 1970s - the lighter weights bring fresh blood through the muscles, "massage" the joints and foster faster recovery from the heavy day.  Without the light day, overtraining is actually more likely to occur.  The medium day, while not maximal, still employs weights heavy enough to provoke a growth response (training to only 90% of the failure point can be theoretically argued to be as effective as actually hitting failure in terms of muscle stimulation).  In addition, medium day is a perfect day for trainees to perfect their form and use very strict lifting cadences - this in itself makes 85-90% of maximum seem much heavier.

Marvin EderThe next evolution would be to perform different reps on the different training days, but still just one exercise per major muscle group.  For instance, Monday might be heavy sets of five, Wednesday lighter sets of 15 with shorter breaks between sets and Friday moderately heavy sets of 10 reps.  In this way the trainee performs a variety of rep counts throughout the week, stressing the muscles, nervous system and connective tissues in different fashions.  A further evolution would be for the trainee to perform different exercises on each of the three weekly full-body sessions.  Using the chest as an example, dips could be performed on Monday, flat dumbbell presses on Tuesday and incline presses on Friday.  The nature of these exercises and rep counts are chosen so that the heavy, light and medium scheme is preserved.

For instance, heavy sets of 6-8 reps of dips may be performed on Monday, whereas Tuesday would see lighter sets of 12-15 reps on flat DB presses.  Friday may consist of moderate sets of 10 reps on incline presses.  Although the stress on the body would fall in the heavy, light and medium ranges, the trainee would actually be training hard on all three days and therefore effectively stimulating growth three times per week.  If a trainee wishes to stick to a single rep range the exercises themselves must be used to impose heavy/light/medium days.  For instance, bench presses on heavy day, DB flyes on light day, and incline presses on medium day - all for the same number of sets and reps.  In this case the very nature of the exercise enforce different magnitudes of loads - a trainee will use the heaviest weights for bench presses, the lightest weights for DB flyes and 75-85% of his bench press weights for incline presses, thus maintaining a heavy/light/medium pattern across the week.

At some point during the advanced stages the trainee will begin performing two exercises per major muscle group, particularly on the heavy day.  This might start with the introduction of lighter dumbbell work after the major exercise for each body part.  Now the 60-minute training session rule no longer rigidly applies.  Advanced trainees may need more disruption to the system than can be produced in one hour - particularly on heavy days.  The hormonal response to training is a function of the severity of the disruption caused by the training stress, so advanced athletes may not fit the 45-60 minute rule at all.  For them it may logically take a longer period of more severe loading for the cortisol:testosterone ratio to go sour.

Advancing further, very experienced trainees need more training load to elicit further gains, and now the training effect may not even be effectively stimulated in one session.  The standard approach would be for the trainee to split his routine so more work can be performed for each body part per session and the training stimulus achieved that way.  However, it is not the only viable option and does not have the support of the body of scientific research or the training of elite strength and power athletes.

Now the trainee may need several heavy sessions in a row to produce improvement.  At this advanced stage the first evolution would be for the heavy/light/medium pattern to morph into a heavy/medium/light pattern.  The total weekly loading remains the same, but following the heavy day with a medium day instead of a light day, just 48 hours later, does not allow for full recovery and further cellular disruption is caused.  It is crucial that the next day, however, be a genuine light day.  As the trainee advances even further the weekly load might become heavy/medium/medium.  Then heavy/heavy/light, heavy/heavy/medium and finally, if the trainee poses truly superior recovery abilities all three days heavy.  It is around this time that the trainee may even begin training more than three times per week.

At such an advanced and extreme stage of loading however, it is very unlikely that the trainee could maintain such intense training for periods of longer than a few weeks - even though a very large weekly load is required to disrupt this trainee's homeostasis and produce a training response.  At that point it becomes imperative that the trainee start implementing the heavy/light/medium scheme over the weekly load rather than just daily.  In other words, the trainee may train medium for one week, heavy for two weeks and then a light week.  This is advanced periodization and has been the cornerstone of practically every great Olympic athlete's training of the past 40+ years.

So, as you can see, it isn't just as simple as, "Everybody should do this routine."  The sad part is that with the introduction of steroids into bodybuilding the science and art of drug-free training entered a stagnate age with very little advancement being made into the proper evolution of drug-free training.  Split routines, while they do have their place even for drug-free trainees - particularly for refinement and pre-contest - work most effectively in conjunction with steroid use.  In order to make the fastest possible progress, most typical drug-free trainees trying to get bigger and stronger simply need the hormonal cascade caused by working the whole body at one time and then allowing sufficient rest for improvement to manifest itself.

Heavy Compound ExercisesGoing back to the question of exercise selection, there is one over-riding truth that applies to all levels of drug-free trainees:  For maximum productivity, training must revolve around the free-weight compound movements.  This has been verified time and time again both in the scientific research and in-the-trenches gym experience.  For beginners and intermediates, very few isolation exercises should be included in the routine and only to address muscles that absolutely do not get sufficiently targeted by the major exercises (Squats, Presses, Rows, Pull-ups and Deadlifts).  Examples might be direct calf, ab, forearm and neck work.  This holds true even at the advanced stages, although then free-weight isolation exercises may be added to heavy days and/or chosen on lights day to better allow the joints to recover from the preceding heavy and/or medium days.  Having said that, if an advanced drug-free trainee wishes to address a perceived weakness, he/she is still much better off doing that by proper selection of an appropriate compound exercise than an isolation.  Going back to the chest example, V-bar dips would be a much more productive way to bring up lagging outer pecs than DB flyes.

The basic rules are:

A routine of 6-8 basic free-weight exercises - including squats, bench presses, overhead presses, rows or pull-ups/downs, calf raises, barbell curls, crunches - all performed for 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps and repeated three time per week.
Cycling of poundages via various implementations of the heavy/light medium scheme.  Different intensities, rep ranges and/or exercises may be used on each of the training days.
Additional exercises are added to the routine (particularly on heavy days).  The trainee begins arranging training in periods of medium, heavy and light weeks rather than just days.  The 60-minute training session rule no longer rigidly applies.
Again, a long response but it was hard to briefly address the question without being vague and incomplete.

Muscle and Strength: On to the next controversial issue... diet. I'm sure that you're aware of the study regarding sumo wrestlers, revealing that they have an incredible amount of muscle mass despite not lifting weights. There are also numerous studies which reveal that the human body appears to be very anabolic when over-eating in short-term durations.











Muscle and Strength: Speaking of protein you feel it's important for a natural lifter to over-eat protein as we have a tendency to do? I see a very wide daily protein recommendation, depending on which guru is speaking. I've seen recommendations as low as 70-100 grams per day, and recommendations of over 400 grams per day. What are your thoughts on this?

Casey Butt: Most credible scientific research that's been done has concluded that hard training bodybuilders and strength athletes need up to 1.76 to 1.8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight per day (g/kg-bw/day) as an optimal protein intake, on a long-term basis.  At the same time, it's been found that 1.41 g/kg-bw/day is required to achieve neutral nitrogen balance in strength training individuals.  So the research-supported optimal amount of protein comes out somewhere between 0.64 to 0.82 grams per pound of bodyweight per day (g/lb-bw/day).  Considering that the average person is about 15% body fat, it's roughly between 0.75 to 0.96 grams per pound of lean body mass (g/lb-lbm/day).  To cover the bases, I'd tend to err on the high side of that and aim for 0.96 g/lb-lbm/day - so 1 gram per pound of lean body mass per day is a nice round number to work with.

When protein intake goes above that, the body will increase it's protein oxidation rate and will convert the additional protein into glucose and possibly then body fat (if calories are above maintenance).  So if a bodybuilder habitually consumes too much protein it won't be forced into the muscles causing "extra" growth, it will simply be converted and eliminated by the liver and kidneys.  In the end, the muscles won't see any more amino acids if a person eats 10 g/lb-lbm/day than if he eats 1 g/lb-lbm/day because the body will simply "deal" with the extra amount.  In fact, it appears that under such high protein intakes a person is actually more likely to have a negative nitrogen balance than if he just ate less protein.

However, there are a few other downsides to such a high protein intake.  For one, if the body up regulates enzymes that are responsible for protein oxidation, then you will always need that high protein intake to break even.  In a sense, your body has become a protein burner, and if you don't take in a huge amount of protein day-in-day-out, then you'll slip into a negative nitrogen balance every time you let your protein intake drop for a few hours.  You're not getting anything out of it, but you're now forcing yourself to habitually need a high protein intake or you'll go catabolic.  Another significant downside is that high protein intakes have been shown to lower testosterone levels - obviously something of critical importance to avoid for a natural bodybuilder.

Protein IntakeBut just as the body needs time to adapt to a sudden dramatic increase in calories, protein intake is the same.  Your body won't become a raging protein-burning furnace just because you had a high protein meal.  If so, a steak would set you off.  Similarly, if you go a day or so with low protein intake, your body won't lose all its muscle - luckily the liver acts as a buffer, has a higher protein turnover rate, and absorbs a portion of daily protein intake fluctuations.

At the same time, studies into the phenomenon of "catch-up growth" in underfed animals suggest that the enzymes responsible for increased protein oxidation seem to take two-to-three days of high protein intake in order to be up regulated to the point where they catch up with the increased protein.  Until that time the increased amino acid levels in the blood will promote muscle protein anabolism.  During such periods it has been shown that protein intakes as high as 3.3 g/kg-bw/day (also stated as 1.5 g/lb-bw/day  or 1.76 g/lb-lbm/day) can promote maximum growth.  This has been suggested as one of the factors responsible for the rapid increase of lean body mass in the early stages of protein and calorie over-feeding during "catch-up growth".  After three days, however, the body simply gets better at eliminating the extra protein to the point where you're no farther ahead.

Similarly, if you suddenly start consuming less protein, it will take several days for the urea-cycle enzymes to be down-regulated and the body to lower its rate of protein degradation.  The body will also get more efficient at "recycling" amino acids by salvaging them from the urea cycle.  Before that happens, protein synthesis will be lowered in the muscle, while degradation continues at its normal pace - you'll won't grow and you'll probably atrophy somewhat.  When the urea-cycle and urea-salvage pathways get up to speed, however, the situation will normalize as the body becomes more efficient at how it handles its amino acid reserves.

As was discussed earlier, the muscles are only in an anabolic state for 36-48 hours following training (incidentally, muscle protein synthesis appears to peak at about 24 hours after the training session).  So, accounting for digestion transit times, I recommend that bodybuilders consume most of their dietary protein in the several hours before training to roughly 22 hours afterwards.  Between 36-48 hours after training a trainee doesn't need any higher protein intake than a sedentary individual - which is about 0.80 g/kg-bw/day or roughly 0.43 g/lb-lbm/day.

My advice for natural bodybuilders is to either keep protein intake fixed at roughly 1 g/lb-lbm/day or, if they wish to take advantage of any potential growth benefits of short-term protein over-feeding, take in up to 1.76 g/lb-lbm/day in the 2 hours before and 22 hours after heavy training sessions. The day after that, protein intake should be lowered back down to 1 g/lb-lbm/day.  To avoid adaptation to habitually high protein intakes, I then recommend at least one day of lowered protein intake of roughly 0.43 g/lb-lbm/day at least 48 hours after a heavy training session.

This type of protein cycling is most practical on full body routines.  For instance, if you train Monday/Wednesday/Friday, with Monday heavy, Wednesday light and Friday medium you could eat high protein on Monday (1.76 g/lb-lbm/day starting about 2 hours before the heavy workout and continuing for the next 24 hours), then on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday you'd go back to taking in 0.96~1.0 g/lb-lbm/day.  On Friday (medium day) you'd up it to 1.76 g/lb-lbm/day again (similar to Monday).  On Saturday and Sunday, in order to stave off adaptation to high protein intakes during the week, you'd lower protein intake to 0.43 g/lb-lbm/day - this could also serve as carb-up days for Monday's heavy workout and the rest of the week.

At the more advanced stages, when training is arranged as several heavy days in a row, followed by several lighter days to allow for nervous system recuperation, then protein cycles could become deeper, with up to three days of high protein intake followed by three days of lowered intake.

This is all assuming that calorie intake is sufficient.  When calories go down, protein requirements go up.  But there is very little scientific research available concerning protein requirements of bodybuilders in calorie deficits.  In any case, experience and common sense would have to be the discriminating factor - as it should be in all training and nutrition related considerations.

I've probably made it sound overly complicated above, but it really doesn't have to be - the simplified version is that your body isn't stupid, it likes to preserve homeostasis, and it needs more protein in the day or so following heavy training.  Eat more protein after you train hard and then eat less around the days that you're not training heavy so your body doesn't adapt to constantly excessively high protein levels.

Offline Sergio

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Re: H/L/M routines, from Casey Butt's
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2016, 09:35:34 AM »
Part 3:















John Grimek



















Drug Free Natural Bodybuilder












