Volume dosage at the beginning of the program

Training Q&A [Moderated]
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Hi Doctors,

I have been listening to some programming podcasts, and I was confused about volume. Here’s my question below:

**For example if person was running last week of 7 week strength focused program and he was doing 16 sets/week for back and 17 sets/week for chest. He moved on another new 7 week strength focused program and he moved all weekly sets ~ 10 at first week of the program (and he gradually increased them week to week). **

Should’ve he remained all sets, or at least reduced a bit of them for first week, or he did the right thing here?

Cheers,
Dan

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Dan,

As I understand it, the crux of the question relates to how should volume be manipulated between different training programs. However, I do not think that we can reduce programming down to just volume. Here are some of the considerations I’d be making when it comes to program management:

  • Was the individual responding well to the initial program? If so, why stop it/change it significantly?
  • If the individual wasn’t responding well, what is the proximate cause, e.g. training load (the experienced training stress) too low or too high? Environmental inputs (e.g sleep, nutrition, motivation, etc.)…and so on
  • If training load was too low, increasing volume while keeping other factors the same may be a reasonable idea, provided the other factors of the program were correct for the goal, such as average intensity, exercise selection, proximity to failure, and so on.
  • If training load was too high, reducing volume may be necessary, though I’d want to look at the other factors too.
  • If training load was fine, maintaining it from block to block is a reasonable idea. In that case, a small training load reduction (e.g. deload) may be reasonable between blocks to give the lifter a break if they need it/want it. The “correct” size of the deload is mostly speculative.
  • Why did the program last 7 weeks? Scheduling aside, it may be better to have some flexibility with the program to run it as long as it’s working well, which may be shorter or longer.

We cover this in more detail in the Low Fatigue eBook

-Jordan
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Jordan,

Person stopped running that program primarily because he stopped noticing improvements in strength (SBD) after 5th week, no matter how much he increased training stimulus. His diet was good as well as sleep.

Dosage was fine, he was sometimes experiencing DOMS, sometimes not.

He’s now running new strength focused 7 week program and if that responds well, he will run last week until it stops giving results.

Summaring this, if the previous dosage didn’t give him wanted results (16 and 17 sets and RPE), should he reduce it in new program, or keep it, or do something else?

Thanks for reply!

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Hmmm, that timeline doesn’t really make sense to me, e.g. “stopped noticing improvements in strength after 5th week” on a 7-week program. I would not stop doing a program after 1-2 weeks of no progress. Also not sure what you mean about increasing training stimulus on a program he was already on. That doesn’t make sense to me either. That said, if he didn’t respond to increased training stimulus, I’m not sure increasing training stimulus via volume is the answer.

I am not sure the previous program was faulty and I don’t know enough about the program to have a sense of if volume is too low (or high). Based on only knowing the number of weekly sets for two muscle groups, the volume looks low. I don’t really think sets/muscle group/week is a useful volume tool for strength though.

It would be difficult for me to recommend running a 7-week program that follows this style of thinking.

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