Auto-regulated Volume

[Patrick Laughlin]

I've seen a methodology whereby after a given lift in a day's workout you'd provide a score (-2 to 2). This score is based on how sore you are from the last time you trained this lift. That score is applied to the targeted sets for the next time you'll train, and so on. Supposedly, the volume is always auto-regulated to how much recovery capacity you have. In the context of hypertrophy, is this a sensical thing to do? So far it seems like the best tool we've got to determine volume, other than historical data.

Some thoughts:

• It leaves out motivation and tiredness.
• It leaves out performance. This may not matter in relation to hypertrophy.

[Austin Baraki]

If your training is designed reasonably well and if you train consistently, you will probably not be getting especially sore on a regular basis, much less after every session in order to use this method.

[LeonSquatsky]

I've seen a methodology whereby after a given lift in a day's workout you'd provide a score (-2 to 2). This score is based on how sore you are from the last time you trained this lift. That score is applied to the targeted sets for the next time you'll train, and so on. Supposedly, the volume is always auto-regulated to how much recovery capacity you have. In the context of hypertrophy, is this a sensical thing to do? So far it seems like the best tool we've got to determine volume, other than historical data.

Some thoughts:

• It leaves out motivation and tiredness.
• It leaves out performance. This may not matter in relation to hypertrophy.

I have a question. Is the idea to assess soreness a week later? (That sounds hard, especially if you train more than once a week. Am I sore because of what I did yesterday, 3 days ago, or 7 days ago?(

[Michelle1]

I think the advice (relating to soreness) is directed at bodybuilders doing body part splits (~20 sets per body part) who are doing a lot of supersets and drop sets going past failure every session. They are part of a culture that says “if your not sore you didn’t do enough” - the advice is saying you can grow at lower soreness levels and is intended to reduce the soreness that an athlete is experiencing. The training that results from the advice is likely better than where the trainee started.

The advice would be irrelevant if you are following the barbell medicine template design that auto regulates through RPE. Because the aim of training is to increase performance - auto regulating based on performance makes mor sense.

Getting sore isn’t the aim of training but a side effect.