Questions about training volume

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi Jordan,

Apologies if this topic was discussed elsewhere, but I had a few doubts regarding training volume that have been persistently bothering me for a while and am trying to better understand the reasons for manipulating training variables like volume like the way its done in many programs. I am considering lifters in the post novice stage (i.e., the lifter isn’t making progress on a session-to-session basis) looking to increase their strength.

Please correct me if I am wrong- Based on my understanding most programs have a microcycle typically laid out over an (arbitrarily) chosen period of a week. Then, typically, some variable is manipulated week by week - the BBM programs I have run for example (beginner and PB1) seem to ramp up volume for the most part (of course, this cannot be done indefinitely and after a few microcycles the rep ranges, exercise selection etc changes to continue driving adaptation). I assume the choice of 1 week microcycles as well as the choice to ramp up by X amount is chosen because it seems to be efficient for most people on average. Below are a few questions I had:

A. Assuming a lifter is getting stronger on a set amount of volume over a few microcycles. Can the lifter continue the previous microcycle’s dosage of volume/intensity/exercise selection ? For e.g., in PB1 a lifter runs week 1 until they stop seeing strength gains and then add the volume prescribed in week 2, and so on.

and a more general question -

B. When do you know its time to increase volume? the weekly microcycle seems arbitrary and I assume volume is to be added when the body is well adapted to the current stimulus. If that is the case and one has to program for oneself (assuming general strength and hypertrophy, no specific 1rm/competition goals) , is it sensible to use the general formula of

  1. perform a variety of movements in different rep ranges that suit personal goals and that cover most movement patterns for a set amount of volume
  2. increase volume when no progress is seen for (1)
  3. Change the movements and/or rep schemes when no progress is seen after (2)

?

Thank you for looking into my post, and I really appreciate all the awesome content you folks put out!

2

BN,

Thanks for the post and the kind words.

To begin, I do not think the terms “novice”, “post novice”, “intermediate”, “advanced” and so on are particularly useful. I also do not think the novice phase should be defined as session to session progression. I think adaptation rate is a bit more complicated than that. Rather, I would separate people into trained and untrained, mostly to communicate training history. Further questions would need to be answered for subsequent program management.

In programming terms, macrocycle refers to the long-term planning and is typically a year, a quadrennial, or similar. The mesocycle refers to a block, whereas the microcycle is the repeating workout/series of workouts within a mesocycle. It’s often a week long.

In general, we do not do many week-to-week changes for most of our templates. We often have some sort of on-ramp where volume is added to a particular level, then it’s held study for the rest of the mesocycle. We do not increase volume indefinitely and do not generally recommend this approach. The on ramp can be useful at building training tolerance and necessary work capacity early on in training, if needed. Once at “full dose”, the mesocycle can (and should) be run for long periods of time provided the person is getting acceptable results, enjoying the training, and has no other need to change things up. It is possible some people might respond to week 1’s dose and, if so, could run it for an extended period of time. However, I do not think that is a more productive way to run the program. Instead, I prefer people work through the program as its laid out. If they want to run the final week of a mesocycle until they stop seeing progress, that’s fine.

Regarding the week-long organization of a microcycle being arbitrary, I agree that the calendar makes us do interesting things by convention. That said, I’m not sure the weekly microcycle length has much to do with training load management in a program.

Regarding volume increase timing, volume is one of many variables in a training program. If a program is being adjusted based on lack of progress, we need more information about the program, goals, and so on to get a sense of what should be changed going forward. I discuss these things in some detail in the programming eBook accompanying the Low Fatigue Template.

I think my general programming heuristics would have some overlap to what you wrote, but would add some intensity and fatigue management rules in there. I do not think that adding volume in isolation is the solution to no progress, though it is definitely a variable I modify often.