Almost all of this was new information for me, and I already do all of it because it either made sense to me, or made my training more enjoyable. I feel validated, thanks.
finally I got my answer about progressive overload, if I should progress on every set of every exercise or just take first set of every exercise as a "tracker", thank you, very good video
The % of 1RM sounds a little annoying for me because I have no idea of what is my 1RM truly since I don't usually do that so finding that number for all my exercises would be kinda annoying. But I really liked the idea of the first set being the benchmark. I log my train in the app and I always try to add a rep or two and that's basically how I know if I'm progressing. But as you said, sometimes IM resting more to achieve that extra reps and so on. So I think in my next bulking cycle that should be soon I will try to only use the first set as reference and always to as many as I can and that's will be the metric the I will use for checking my progress.
I never do 1 rep max either. But I use a formula that calculates your max and that's what I base my progress on. Generally speaking the lower number of reps you use in the calculations the better. So get nice and warm and pick a heavy weight you think you can only get 5 out of. Find a spotter and then bang out as many as you can get. Plug the number of reps in your formula and now you have a 1 rep max. It's not as good as actually maxing out. But as long as you use the same formula you should be ok.
Just find a rep range you prefer, like Menno says. If you do 8-12 reps, does that feel better/more fun than going 15-20 reps? Does it feel better than 5-7 reps? Then do it. Then, just take whatever weight you need to be about 1 or 2 reps away from failure in your set.
the interesting part was that he said that depending on your genetics, you might get 5 to 12 reps with your 80% 1rm, and that matters for selecting a useful rep range. this is interesting. it doesn't hurt to max out carefully. I usually max out without going NUTS, but then add a little bit to the number. that's my little hack. like if I can curl 65s once and it's hard. but like, it's not life or death kind of effort. I just assume my max is 70s
@@ausaevus Exactly this, which is why the 1RM thing is so abstract and arbitrary as a measurement/heuristic. Pick a rep range, get close to the top end in most sets and adjust, literally that is it!
I flat out don’t do 1RM attempts anymore. Since I turned 35, the biggest determinant for if I ended the year stronger or weaker than I was the year prior has been if I got hurt or not. One bad setback can take me years to recover from.
I know Jesus Varela from Spain, he has a similar method of training. 240kg raw natural bencher. First set 35%-70% of 1RM for high reps, then he autoregulate for 3 more sets to be in the 8-12 rep range. He focus on the progress of the first set (What he calls the Bilbo set). There's more in depth on his youtube channel.
Sets of 20-35 reps on lower body compound exercises has changed my quad girth, hip girth, compliments from women while wearing certain jeans, confidence in my capabilities in any endeavor, squat 1RM, deadlift 1RM, hip thrust 20RM, and so on. I used to hate doing high rep lower body compound exercises. Now I just hate how much of a bitch I used to be.
thats kinda nuts - always stuck with the conventional wisdow - high rep lower body sets are "too taxing" to the cardio system. Will try this out! Out of interest what exercises are you doing 25-35 reps with?
@ I was doing a lot of high bar squats, hip thrusts, and good mornings in this rep range. Barbell, bodyweight, or with dumbbells. Although barbell became my priority as soon as I had one at home. If you can elevate your heels on 25 lb. plates or wear weightlifting shoes for the squats, this would help a lot with keeping them quad focused which was my goal with the squats. You’ll obviously use far lower loads while doing this rep range, but this was intentional as I was in a home workout only situation for about 9 months which happened to be more hypertrophic for me than when I could lift heavier at the gym. If you do 35 bodyweight squats with slow eccentric, .5-1 second pause, then explosive concentric, they can be more challenging than you’d expect. Also, they are taxing on your cardio, but this can also be seen as an advantage if you’re considering it from the perspective of developing higher work capacity. Being winded from a set of 5-10 on squats isn’t necessarily helping anyone’s gains. I’d recommend avoiding a weightlifting belt if you can though as using traditional powerlifting breathing patterns and a belt will not allow your cardio to keep up well. The loads at this rep range are light enough to be perfectly safe on your back/core as long as form is solid which goes for low rep sets just as much of course.
@@BrandonRohe indeed just watch Mike Israetel with Mitchell Hopper doing exactly this, super slow belt squats for myo reps which can do what you're saying in less time, although can't imagine doing that every week of the program. Maybe high-rep straight sets as you do is doable each week - as a finisher or at the start of the session?
@ if you do 2-5 sets close to failure (which is a mental challenge to reach tbh), honestly even 1 set, of high bar squats with good form and tempo, this can create a great stimulus. I’d usually squat 2-3 times per week that way and it was plenty along with other lower body exercises. Mike’s training cues are a good portion of what I used while training this way.
Anecdotally, In the past I have plateaud quite noticeably when I have trained in the 3-5 rep range in an attempt to gain strength and enhance my ‘fast twitchy-ness’. And it is only recently that I have started to work more in the 6-12 rep range and noticed how much more naturally and easily my strength has begun to improve. I still do sets of 2-4 reps for the neuromuscular conditioning and ‘unlocking’ of peak force output - but beyond that, I’m lifting with slightly lighter loads and higher reps to actually drive growth and to increase my overall strength, and it seems to be working much better so far.
So in your training, say you're doing the bench press. You can do 8 reps at 80% 1RM as your benchmark set at 1RIR. For all other sets you do for bench press you do as many reps as you can until you get to 1RIR again. The amount of reps achieved will depend on your genetics and recovery. e.g Doing 4 sets could go like this - 8 reps @1RIR, 6 reps @ 1RIR, 6 reps @1RIR, 5 reps @1RIR with 3 minutes of rest each If you've slept for 4 hours that night it could be more like 6 reps, 4 reps, 3 reps, 1 rep, because you've underrecovered. You'd only add weight if you managed 8 reps on your benchmark set. It's autoregulated because you're not progressing when you've achieved a strict 4x8, which doesn't adjust for individualisation or recovery factors. I'm aware this is all explained in the video but so far people in the comments aren't getting it
Yeah, I wasn’t sure I understood everything. I don’t think Menno specified if the benchmark set should always be 0 RIR/fail throughout the mesocycle, or if the RIR target for the week should be applied to the benchmark sets as well.
@@jaijaiwanted He didn't really clarify it, but it makes sense to push it as far as you can without going to failure. Taking it to 0RIR is only going to cause recovery issues for the volume sets so keeping it a consistent 1RIR seems the way to go. It fits in with Menno's philosophy of volume being king.
I spent years doing 5x5 with good effect. Then I did the dirtiest bulk known to man and did the Hepburn 8 sets of 3 reps program and got huge. These days, and I've been lifting for roughly 15 years now, I just do two sets per exercise, five or so exercises, starting with the heavy compound first, and then the others being accessory work. Wouldn't have it any other way.
Sounds awful to me. As in, I wouldn't like to do that, not that it isn't effective. I guess that is what Menno is getting at. Everyone has their own preferences of how they train. That's cool, if you ask me. Would really suck if there was a 'meta' that applied to everyone and everyone did the same thing. Boring.
This is how I've been doing all of my compounds for years. Naturally seemed like the best way to go about it. I guess I've been automatically autoregulating ;)
thx for the video menno. just two questions: 1. first set - how close to failure do you take it? let's say 2 RIR, are you getting anywhere to 0 during your mesocycle? 2. on the volume sets - you keep the same weight? can you also drop the weight from set to set? let's say, 30KG on the first and second set, than 28kg and than 26kg? for dealing better with fatigue and actually still have nice volume without losing so much reps?
I try to incorporate five by fives with three minutes rest on all compounds with a timer increase weight, whenever I can sometimes with Microplates I’ll take the Weight Whenever I can, it’s a process lol thank you so much
At 2:20, you said "people with the ACE 2 genotype", but I think you mean "ACE 'eye-'eye' genotype" (ACE I/I), as this refers to having two copies of the "Insertion" allele (as opposed to the D - Deletion allele).
Interesting, have to try that approach. E.g. Im in 8-12 squat reps feeling awesome, and I love doing it. I like endurance uphill rucking or cycling also. My quads overgrow the rest, and it looks ridiculous even more as my calves are not that proportional. When I was doing 5-8 i didn’t felt bad, but not significant results over long time. So by disappointment and injury avoidance I just stopped doing it.
The second week, do we just stop at 9 reps (or whatever we got previously) or is it AMRAP? When do we move up in weight? Do I just do this for a month then test my 1RM again for the next block? How frequently do we retest, then?
What's in this video is good, but did I miss the part where it talked through how to choose the number of sets by autoregulation? At least, there wasn't anything in the recap about that. So how do you choose the number of sets to do?
A few questions: 1) if i hit 10 reps of 80% of 1rm last week on my benchmark set, and im capable of doing 11 reps in the following week, do i do the 11th rep? Or stick to 10 and that inherently will shift more reps to the volume sets. 2) when do i re-evaluate my 1rm, and thereby increase the weight of my benchmark set. How often will i be increasing weight? 3) This seems applicable to accessory work too, of course. But sounds like it needs adaptation for say, lateral raises, where 1rm isn't really feasible. Thanks Menno!
I never count my reps especially when I cross 8 reps … till I don’t hit the end where I can’t do any more reps … always go till failure and keep switching exercises in different order next time while hitting that same muscle 💪
If I have a crap benchmark set, I only do that one set for the exercise, as opposed to to doing less reps on the other sets. This way I’ve still at least done one set for some stimulus, and I should be recovered by the next workout.
see the thing about going hard in 1st set is time of rest afterwards as you are more inclined to rest longer. if you keep a rep in reserve and do more volume in following sets you could just reduce the rest time and get a similar effect. no? how does auto-regulating and going hard differ from keeping reps in reserve and reducing rest time? i personally get way better results with short rest (under 1min) than i do with longer rest (2 to 3min), i tend to accumulate way less fatigue as well
Thanks for all the valuable information, I understand much better why I only reach 6 maximum reps at 80% of my max on the bench press. If I want to complete my bench press training with auxiliary exercises (pectoral and triceps work) should I follow the same methodology or should I aim for a higher number of repetitions and therefore lower the weight to be at 70% of my one rep max?
Hey bro, just recently discovered your work and FFMI calculator. I had a question about the FFMI calculator. If you're at 20% bodyfat or above do you think the calculations are still valid? It's putting me in higher bracket as far as attainability than I think is right.
Could you please talk more about the ACE genotype study from 2005? Are youre assumptions drawn from this study really legit? And what exactly do you want to convey? Endurance-Type people should do higher reps, because the study suggested, that they gain more strength - but then you say, endurance-types dont really gain strength...
Squats and Deadlifts with the Benchmark set first. Thoughts? I've learned the school of warmup, and build up to peak set. Advice welcomed on that front to help try this out
it's fun to find this out. I usually go hard but safely, and tack a little extra to that number (which I assume I would've gotten if I really went for it)
My take 1: genetically I may well be suited to low rep training due to the fibre type composition - but my joints and tendons are genetically NOT - I feel I am more prone to injury and strain than others so stay well away from low rep 1-5 training. My take 2: I start my training week with 2 sets for every exercise - start with a load I can get for a target rep range and adjust from there - easy peasy CANNOT go wrong. And as a programming principle just so simple and works damn well. 1 RM who even knows it, you know!
@ it is for the first set like I said as in % of 1 rm, the rest is rir. You only have to do the % once, the rest will be just based on progressive overload
@@RezzGaming No, you're not choosing it, it's choosing itself, you see the difference, right? And yes, the rest is 1RIR, that's what autoregulation is.
@@drno62 I doubt there is any difference of taking a percentage of your 1 rep max vs. just taking a decent load for the first set and by going close to failure. The progressive overload is going to be what matters on your first set, week to week.
@@RezzGaming Yes, the progressive overload matters, what's your point? He's suggesting that you base the progression on the first set only and don't worry so much about the other sets. Why's that unreasonable? What are you trying to say here?
Would you do a video on what variables determine "work capacity"? I'm clearly fatigued very quickly, but I can't figure what exactly my bottle neck is.
What happens if you have several exercises for a muscle group? Your performance in the second and subsequent sets will also depend on rest times or how hard i went on the other sets... i imagine Menno does not agree with increasing the number of sets gradually? Otherwise it would be a much greater problem for additional exercises
Can you also progress reps to a certain point instead of increasing the weight each week? Like progressing your benchmark set from 8 to 12 reps with 80% of your 1RM over the weeks and then increasing the weight and try to hit those same reps and progress in the same fashion over time? Because here Menno says the number of reps should remain the same as you increase the load over the weeks, but there is not only one way to go about progression, right?
Hey menno what are your views on stretch mediated hypertrophy some people say it is beneficial some say it will be give same result as normal exercise (not focused on stretched position) , some say eccentric has only little more or close to hypertrophic value than concentric , what are your views on these things and on which these things we should focus on?
Ok so do 75% 1rm amrap; let's say for simplicity that's 100kg x10. Then repeat this 3 times with a given consistent rest period: so rest 3mins 100kg x9, rest 3 mins 100kg x8, rest 3 mins 100kg x6, or whatever. So, the simplicity is: the next workout's target is now to hit 100kg x11 on the first set? If the first set is still 100kg x10, then you're aiming to accumulate more volume in follow up sets? Is this right? I think "regulate by desired proximity to failure" is really squishy language. You can't feasibly do 3 compound exercises of 4 amraps each, so each of the 3 volume sets I think would quickly fall off in quality/rep count as the workout progresses. I guess that's the trade-off for the simplicity of progression and the short session lengths (since rest periods are the main constraint).
It suprises me that some people would be able to do 10 or 12 reps with 80% of their max and others do only 5 reps The one rep maxes are different for the two and I guess lower for the person who could do the 12. The number of reps they could do going from 80% of one rep max all the way up to the one rep max woud decrease much nore rapidly than for the other person. This seems at odds with some other things I have heard e.g. there being a standard calculator or tables. Doe anyone have thoughts on this?
is this approach also suitable if you are on a cut? do you still progressive overload like that by adding weight every week? I would also assume this autoreculates your recovery volume as well not just the intensity of your sets
Its not mandatory to add weight week to week. You have to keep 2-3 or less RIR and if you are training right the progression will appear automatically, you can use double progression with a rep target ( for example 5-8 at 0-2 rir), when you can do your benchmark set with the highest rir and reps in your range, then you add weight. And yes, your sets and progression should be the same, just that you probably will have to do fewer sets and you will progress slowly.
Great video, very insightful. I am just wondering: if you only progress on the benchmark set this set becomes harder throughout the meso, if you then reduce reps on the volume sets throughout the meso, are you actually getting more stimulus on the muscle over the weeks? If you increase reps/stimulus on set 1 but reduce reps/stimulus on set 2 and 3, are you actually implementing progressive overload? Dont you think you should at least MATCH the performance of set 2 and 3 throughout the meso?
Maybe, but remember it's one benchmark set. Whether it's to failure or a RIR, that's not a lot. Reduction in reps in volume sets isn't guaranteed, too. Say your benchmark for bench press was 100KG for 10 reps and you hit it, and it felt easy. Your following volume sets will help fill that out. They work as one.
@TurnOntheBrightLights. True, but progressing on the benchmark set and regressing on the volume sets is a posibility, especially if you did some extra volume reps the week before. Have you actually applied progressive overload in that case?
mh.. i don’t really understand the reason of this “autoregolatory” system.. it’s seems like a way to overcomplicate things!🤔 percentage of 1RM, focus of max performance in the firts set and on thecnique in the following.. why all this? set a weight -> push to failure set a rest interval -> push to failure again set a thecnique -> follow that execution ALWAYS i don’t really see the problem or the difficuties 🤷♂️
When I started my transformation, my two main mistakes were lack of sleep and not eating enough. My weight stagnated for a really long period of time... And then I got myself a first diet plan (I got it from OnlyMeal, it's a complete fitness assistant). I realized that my previous food intake was way below my needs... In the beginning, it was really hard to eat so many kcal per day, but I got used to it. I started noticing real gains and it felt amazing. I finally feel amazing about myself, and I wish I had understood the importance of diet a lot earlier.
I don't know... you need to know (and constantly re-evaluate?) your 1RM for every exercise which I don't know as a "bodybuilder" and I don't care to know it. Also this sounds like the first set should always be the hardest which requires really good warm-up every time. Also, as someone mentioned in an other comment this sounds a lot like just a fancy name for "do 4 sets to failure". I think a simple double progression whith reps between 5-25 (depending on the muscle, exercise, safety and how it feels) where you always train hard und take most sets to failure is still and will be the best for 99,9% of people... but how to get to 100k subs with no new content? ;-P
I always found the problem with using 1RM percentage that I have no idea what my 1RM is. And to keep up with the 1RM number, I would have to test it too often, causing too much fatigue.
@@Klartext_TV I have done that, but he also adresses in the video that for different people, a percentage of for example 80%, of 1RM is going to produce a different number of reps for different folks. Which inherently means that a general 1RM calculator that you find online will produce very flawed results. Especially when you start basing it on higher ranges like 8 or 12 rep max.
I don't think you know what the "auto" means in "autoregulatuon". It doesn't mean "automatic". The prefix "auto" means *self*; autoregulation means *self-regulation*. It's in fact the opposite of "automatically" regulating.
@drno62 You're not understanding. I'm objecting to his definition. There's no difference, but Meno's definition implies there is. Obviously doing something AUTOMATICALLY is the opposite of auto (i.e., self) regulation.
@drno62 there isn't one. That's my point. His definition implies there is. Obviously doing something automatically isn't the same as self regulation. I suspect this is bc his first language isn't English.
Way too complicated. Just lift weights. None of that even matters if you are implementing progressive overload combined with proper time under tension and completing your sets to near failure. These experiment results change every other week but the basics above is time tested and ALWAYS provide results.
For those who need an exemple on how to put this in your workout. Lets say you are doing triceps push down. You can do 3 sets of 8 reps. The first 8 reps at RPE 5, the second at RPE 7 and the last one at RPE 10. By exemple, you have to have 5 remaining reps on the first set, 3 on the second and 0 on the last.
Almost all of this was new information for me, and I already do all of it because it either made sense to me, or made my training more enjoyable. I feel validated, thanks.
Awesome experience maaaaan
Same here
finally I got my answer about progressive overload, if I should progress on every set of every exercise or just take first set of every exercise as a "tracker", thank you, very good video
I'm doing a 25 minute presentation on lifting next week and will definitely be using the term 'cybernetic periodisation'
This actually has given me a rather good tip on how to fix some issues I see in my rest intervals, big thankyou
The % of 1RM sounds a little annoying for me because I have no idea of what is my 1RM truly since I don't usually do that so finding that number for all my exercises would be kinda annoying.
But I really liked the idea of the first set being the benchmark. I log my train in the app and I always try to add a rep or two and that's basically how I know if I'm progressing. But as you said, sometimes IM resting more to achieve that extra reps and so on. So I think in my next bulking cycle that should be soon I will try to only use the first set as reference and always to as many as I can and that's will be the metric the I will use for checking my progress.
I never do 1 rep max either. But I use a formula that calculates your max and that's what I base my progress on. Generally speaking the lower number of reps you use in the calculations the better. So get nice and warm and pick a heavy weight you think you can only get 5 out of. Find a spotter and then bang out as many as you can get. Plug the number of reps in your formula and now you have a 1 rep max. It's not as good as actually maxing out. But as long as you use the same formula you should be ok.
Just find a rep range you prefer, like Menno says. If you do 8-12 reps, does that feel better/more fun than going 15-20 reps? Does it feel better than 5-7 reps? Then do it. Then, just take whatever weight you need to be about 1 or 2 reps away from failure in your set.
the interesting part was that he said that depending on your genetics, you might get 5 to 12 reps with your 80% 1rm, and that matters for selecting a useful rep range. this is interesting. it doesn't hurt to max out carefully. I usually max out without going NUTS, but then add a little bit to the number. that's my little hack. like if I can curl 65s once and it's hard. but like, it's not life or death kind of effort. I just assume my max is 70s
@@ausaevus Exactly this, which is why the 1RM thing is so abstract and arbitrary as a measurement/heuristic. Pick a rep range, get close to the top end in most sets and adjust, literally that is it!
I flat out don’t do 1RM attempts anymore. Since I turned 35, the biggest determinant for if I ended the year stronger or weaker than I was the year prior has been if I got hurt or not. One bad setback can take me years to recover from.
Learned this way of training in the course. Doing it since then. Amazing !
I know Jesus Varela from Spain, he has a similar method of training. 240kg raw natural bencher.
First set 35%-70% of 1RM for high reps, then he autoregulate for 3 more sets to be in the 8-12 rep range. He focus on the progress of the first set (What he calls the Bilbo set). There's more in depth on his youtube channel.
Sets of 20-35 reps on lower body compound exercises has changed my quad girth, hip girth, compliments from women while wearing certain jeans, confidence in my capabilities in any endeavor, squat 1RM, deadlift 1RM, hip thrust 20RM, and so on. I used to hate doing high rep lower body compound exercises. Now I just hate how much of a bitch I used to be.
thats kinda nuts - always stuck with the conventional wisdow - high rep lower body sets are "too taxing" to the cardio system. Will try this out! Out of interest what exercises are you doing 25-35 reps with?
@ I was doing a lot of high bar squats, hip thrusts, and good mornings in this rep range. Barbell, bodyweight, or with dumbbells. Although barbell became my priority as soon as I had one at home. If you can elevate your heels on 25 lb. plates or wear weightlifting shoes for the squats, this would help a lot with keeping them quad focused which was my goal with the squats. You’ll obviously use far lower loads while doing this rep range, but this was intentional as I was in a home workout only situation for about 9 months which happened to be more hypertrophic for me than when I could lift heavier at the gym. If you do 35 bodyweight squats with slow eccentric, .5-1 second pause, then explosive concentric, they can be more challenging than you’d expect.
Also, they are taxing on your cardio, but this can also be seen as an advantage if you’re considering it from the perspective of developing higher work capacity. Being winded from a set of 5-10 on squats isn’t necessarily helping anyone’s gains. I’d recommend avoiding a weightlifting belt if you can though as using traditional powerlifting breathing patterns and a belt will not allow your cardio to keep up well. The loads at this rep range are light enough to be perfectly safe on your back/core as long as form is solid which goes for low rep sets just as much of course.
@@BrandonRohe indeed just watch Mike Israetel with Mitchell Hopper doing exactly this, super slow belt squats for myo reps which can do what you're saying in less time, although can't imagine doing that every week of the program. Maybe high-rep straight sets as you do is doable each week - as a finisher or at the start of the session?
@ if you do 2-5 sets close to failure (which is a mental challenge to reach tbh), honestly even 1 set, of high bar squats with good form and tempo, this can create a great stimulus. I’d usually squat 2-3 times per week that way and it was plenty along with other lower body exercises. Mike’s training cues are a good portion of what I used while training this way.
Fantastic video! I always use autoregulation. your point about using the first set of an exercise as the assessment set is ingenious!
Anecdotally, In the past I have plateaud quite noticeably when I have trained in the 3-5 rep range in an attempt to gain strength and enhance my ‘fast twitchy-ness’.
And it is only recently that I have started to work more in the 6-12 rep range and noticed how much more naturally and easily my strength has begun to improve.
I still do sets of 2-4 reps for the neuromuscular conditioning and ‘unlocking’ of peak force output - but beyond that, I’m lifting with slightly lighter loads and higher reps to actually drive growth and to increase my overall strength, and it seems to be working much better so far.
So in your training, say you're doing the bench press. You can do 8 reps at 80% 1RM as your benchmark set at 1RIR. For all other sets you do for bench press you do as many reps as you can until you get to 1RIR again. The amount of reps achieved will depend on your genetics and recovery.
e.g Doing 4 sets could go like this - 8 reps @1RIR, 6 reps @ 1RIR, 6 reps @1RIR, 5 reps @1RIR with 3 minutes of rest each
If you've slept for 4 hours that night it could be more like 6 reps, 4 reps, 3 reps, 1 rep, because you've underrecovered.
You'd only add weight if you managed 8 reps on your benchmark set. It's autoregulated because you're not progressing when you've achieved a strict 4x8, which doesn't adjust for individualisation or recovery factors.
I'm aware this is all explained in the video but so far people in the comments aren't getting it
Yeah, I wasn’t sure I understood everything. I don’t think Menno specified if the benchmark set should always be 0 RIR/fail throughout the mesocycle, or if the RIR target for the week should be applied to the benchmark sets as well.
@@jaijaiwanted He didn't really clarify it, but it makes sense to push it as far as you can without going to failure. Taking it to 0RIR is only going to cause recovery issues for the volume sets so keeping it a consistent 1RIR seems the way to go. It fits in with Menno's philosophy of volume being king.
But in your example you hit 8 Reps already - does one add weight if those 8 reps are hit consistently? Or only with the first set?
@@imp187 Yes, if you hit 8 reps on the benchmark/first set then you add weight, the other sets are only supplemental
@@drno62 what you said is pretty much the same of what I commented and you told me I was wrong
Great vid - and like you said at the end, I am doing that instinctively anyway but its a great reminder to go back and check etc.
I spent years doing 5x5 with good effect. Then I did the dirtiest bulk known to man and did the Hepburn 8 sets of 3 reps program and got huge. These days, and I've been lifting for roughly 15 years now, I just do two sets per exercise, five or so exercises, starting with the heavy compound first, and then the others being accessory work. Wouldn't have it any other way.
Sounds awful to me. As in, I wouldn't like to do that, not that it isn't effective. I guess that is what Menno is getting at. Everyone has their own preferences of how they train. That's cool, if you ask me. Would really suck if there was a 'meta' that applied to everyone and everyone did the same thing. Boring.
@@ausaevus What would you do?
This is how I've been doing all of my compounds for years. Naturally seemed like the best way to go about it. I guess I've been automatically autoregulating ;)
Good stuff. Jam packed.
thx for the video menno.
just two questions:
1. first set - how close to failure do you take it? let's say 2 RIR, are you getting anywhere to 0 during your mesocycle?
2. on the volume sets - you keep the same weight? can you also drop the weight from set to set? let's say, 30KG on the first and second set, than 28kg and than 26kg? for dealing better with fatigue and actually still have nice volume without losing so much reps?
This sounds similar to dynamic double progression, where also the first set defines the load increase and the others are just for volume.
I try to incorporate five by fives with three minutes rest on all compounds with a timer increase weight, whenever I can sometimes with Microplates I’ll take the Weight Whenever I can, it’s a process lol thank you so much
I love this!!!
At 2:20, you said "people with the ACE 2 genotype", but I think you mean "ACE 'eye-'eye' genotype" (ACE I/I), as this refers to having two copies of the "Insertion" allele (as opposed to the D - Deletion allele).
Interesting, have to try that approach.
E.g. Im in 8-12 squat reps feeling awesome, and I love doing it. I like endurance uphill rucking or cycling also. My quads overgrow the rest, and it looks ridiculous even more as my calves are not that proportional.
When I was doing 5-8 i didn’t felt bad, but not significant results over long time. So by disappointment and injury avoidance I just stopped doing it.
For a new lifter, would they even use auto regulation when they don't have a 1rm yet?
How would they determin rep targets?
My guess would be that you wouldn't. Just pick a starting weight, and increase from there. You would eventually slow down.
The second week, do we just stop at 9 reps (or whatever we got previously) or is it AMRAP? When do we move up in weight? Do I just do this for a month then test my 1RM again for the next block? How frequently do we retest, then?
Man, yeah I will surely program my training like that😂.
What's in this video is good, but did I miss the part where it talked through how to choose the number of sets by autoregulation? At least, there wasn't anything in the recap about that. So how do you choose the number of sets to do?
A few questions:
1) if i hit 10 reps of 80% of 1rm last week on my benchmark set, and im capable of doing 11 reps in the following week, do i do the 11th rep? Or stick to 10 and that inherently will shift more reps to the volume sets.
2) when do i re-evaluate my 1rm, and thereby increase the weight of my benchmark set. How often will i be increasing weight?
3) This seems applicable to accessory work too, of course. But sounds like it needs adaptation for say, lateral raises, where 1rm isn't really feasible.
Thanks Menno!
1) always try to progress on the benchmark set
3) good point
Hi Menno, great video. How do you incorporate warmup sets in this setup?
Isn't this just a fancy name for "do 4 sets to failure"?
haha yes!
I never count my reps especially when I cross 8 reps … till I don’t hit the end where I can’t do any more reps … always go till failure and keep switching exercises in different order next time while hitting that same muscle 💪
If I have a crap benchmark set, I only do that one set for the exercise, as opposed to to doing less reps on the other sets. This way I’ve still at least done one set for some stimulus, and I should be recovered by the next workout.
see the thing about going hard in 1st set is time of rest afterwards as you are more inclined to rest longer. if you keep a rep in reserve and do more volume in following sets you could just reduce the rest time and get a similar effect. no? how does auto-regulating and going hard differ from keeping reps in reserve and reducing rest time? i personally get way better results with short rest (under 1min) than i do with longer rest (2 to 3min), i tend to accumulate way less fatigue as well
Thanks for all the valuable information, I understand much better why I only reach 6 maximum reps at 80% of my max on the bench press. If I want to complete my bench press training with auxiliary exercises (pectoral and triceps work) should I follow the same methodology or should I aim for a higher number of repetitions and therefore lower the weight to be at 70% of my one rep max?
Hey bro, just recently discovered your work and FFMI calculator. I had a question about the FFMI calculator. If you're at 20% bodyfat or above do you think the calculations are still valid? It's putting me in higher bracket as far as attainability than I think is right.
Where did you get your hair transplant? looks good
Could you please talk more about the ACE genotype study from 2005? Are youre assumptions drawn from this study really legit? And what exactly do you want to convey? Endurance-Type people should do higher reps, because the study suggested, that they gain more strength - but then you say, endurance-types dont really gain strength...
what about increasing volume over time? is it needed at all if you progress in load/reps week to week?
Squats and Deadlifts with the Benchmark set first.
Thoughts? I've learned the school of warmup, and build up to peak set.
Advice welcomed on that front to help try this out
this is more like strength training, what you said. this video is more about muscle building
So you’ll need to find your 1rm for every single exercise first? Would you just calculate this or actually go and perform it?
it's fun to find this out. I usually go hard but safely, and tack a little extra to that number (which I assume I would've gotten if I really went for it)
My take 1: genetically I may well be suited to low rep training due to the fibre type composition - but my joints and tendons are genetically NOT - I feel I am more prone to injury and strain than others so stay well away from low rep 1-5 training.
My take 2: I start my training week with 2 sets for every exercise - start with a load I can get for a target rep range and adjust from there - easy peasy CANNOT go wrong. And as a programming principle just so simple and works damn well. 1 RM who even knows it, you know!
No hate, but this seems like a complicated way of saying pick a rep range you prefer for your first set and do all your sets with your preferred rir.
But it's not "prefered" it's unveiling itself from your performance.
@ it is for the first set like I said as in % of 1 rm, the rest is rir. You only have to do the % once, the rest will be just based on progressive overload
@@RezzGaming No, you're not choosing it, it's choosing itself, you see the difference, right?
And yes, the rest is 1RIR, that's what autoregulation is.
@@drno62 I doubt there is any difference of taking a percentage of your 1 rep max vs. just taking a decent load for the first set and by going close to failure. The progressive overload is going to be what matters on your first set, week to week.
@@RezzGaming Yes, the progressive overload matters, what's your point? He's suggesting that you base the progression on the first set only and don't worry so much about the other sets. Why's that unreasonable? What are you trying to say here?
do you still count and write down the reps of the volume sets? or is this data no longer useful as we only look at the benchmark set for comparison?
Would you do a video on what variables determine "work capacity"?
I'm clearly fatigued very quickly, but I can't figure what exactly my bottle neck is.
Can anyone help me with this.
On the first set are you training all the way to failure, like an as many reps as you can with say 80% of your 1RM?
What happens if you have several exercises for a muscle group? Your performance in the second and subsequent sets will also depend on rest times or how hard i went on the other sets... i imagine Menno does not agree with increasing the number of sets gradually? Otherwise it would be a much greater problem for additional exercises
Can you also progress reps to a certain point instead of increasing the weight each week? Like progressing your benchmark set from 8 to 12 reps with 80% of your 1RM over the weeks and then increasing the weight and try to hit those same reps and progress in the same fashion over time?
Because here Menno says the number of reps should remain the same as you increase the load over the weeks, but there is not only one way to go about progression, right?
Hey menno what are your views on stretch mediated hypertrophy some people say it is beneficial some say it will be give same result as normal exercise (not focused on stretched position) , some say eccentric has only little more or close to hypertrophic value than concentric , what are your views on these things and on which these things we should focus on?
Ok so do 75% 1rm amrap; let's say for simplicity that's 100kg x10. Then repeat this 3 times with a given consistent rest period: so rest 3mins 100kg x9, rest 3 mins 100kg x8, rest 3 mins 100kg x6, or whatever.
So, the simplicity is: the next workout's target is now to hit 100kg x11 on the first set? If the first set is still 100kg x10, then you're aiming to accumulate more volume in follow up sets? Is this right?
I think "regulate by desired proximity to failure" is really squishy language. You can't feasibly do 3 compound exercises of 4 amraps each, so each of the 3 volume sets I think would quickly fall off in quality/rep count as the workout progresses. I guess that's the trade-off for the simplicity of progression and the short session lengths (since rest periods are the main constraint).
can you explain how to progress with full body workouts? I feel like I can increase weight/reps way sooner with PPL. What am I doing wrong?
At my age of 67, finding my one rep max on every exercise will just injure me. The last effect I want! Any suggestions?
It suprises me that some people would be able to do 10 or 12 reps with 80% of their max and others do only 5 reps
The one rep maxes are different for the two and I guess lower for the person who could do the 12. The number of reps they could do going from 80% of one rep max all the way up to the one rep max woud decrease much nore rapidly than for the other person. This seems at odds with some other things I have heard e.g. there being a standard calculator or tables. Doe anyone have thoughts on this?
is this approach also suitable if you are on a cut? do you still progressive overload like that by adding weight every week? I would also assume this autoreculates your recovery volume as well not just the intensity of your sets
Its not mandatory to add weight week to week. You have to keep 2-3 or less RIR and if you are training right the progression will appear automatically, you can use double progression with a rep target ( for example 5-8 at 0-2 rir), when you can do your benchmark set with the highest rir and reps in your range, then you add weight.
And yes, your sets and progression should be the same, just that you probably will have to do fewer sets and you will progress slowly.
Should I lower the weight for the volume sets?
Great video, very insightful. I am just wondering: if you only progress on the benchmark set this set becomes harder throughout the meso, if you then reduce reps on the volume sets throughout the meso, are you actually getting more stimulus on the muscle over the weeks? If you increase reps/stimulus on set 1 but reduce reps/stimulus on set 2 and 3, are you actually implementing progressive overload? Dont you think you should at least MATCH the performance of set 2 and 3 throughout the meso?
Maybe, but remember it's one benchmark set. Whether it's to failure or a RIR, that's not a lot.
Reduction in reps in volume sets isn't guaranteed, too. Say your benchmark for bench press was 100KG for 10 reps and you hit it, and it felt easy. Your following volume sets will help fill that out. They work as one.
@TurnOntheBrightLights. True, but progressing on the benchmark set and regressing on the volume sets is a posibility, especially if you did some extra volume reps the week before. Have you actually applied progressive overload in that case?
@@BearFackerr I think so. I'm going to try it for 3 months 😀
@@TurnOntheBrightLights. haha enjoy bro!
*Dr Mike intensifies*
I wanna see them debate this method. I think it makes more sense using what’s described in this video
??
So just go to failure on every set?
mh.. i don’t really understand the reason of this “autoregolatory” system.. it’s seems like a way to overcomplicate things!🤔
percentage of 1RM, focus of max performance in the firts set and on thecnique in the following.. why all this?
set a weight -> push to failure
set a rest interval -> push to failure again
set a thecnique -> follow that execution ALWAYS
i don’t really see the problem or the difficuties 🤷♂️
100% agree, too complicated 👎. Add reps or weight to what you did the previous session. Done ✅
When I started my transformation, my two main mistakes were lack of sleep and not eating enough. My weight stagnated for a really long period of time... And then I got myself a first diet plan (I got it from OnlyMeal, it's a complete fitness assistant). I realized that my previous food intake was way below my needs... In the beginning, it was really hard to eat so many kcal per day, but I got used to it. I started noticing real gains and it felt amazing. I finally feel amazing about myself, and I wish I had understood the importance of diet a lot earlier.
IGNORE ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS. Give me a recipe for chocolate cake
wtf has this got to do with autoregulation
Interesting to find the lack of bot replies to the bot comment
✝️💪
I don't know... you need to know (and constantly re-evaluate?) your 1RM for every exercise which I don't know as a "bodybuilder" and I don't care to know it. Also this sounds like the first set should always be the hardest which requires really good warm-up every time. Also, as someone mentioned in an other comment this sounds a lot like just a fancy name for "do 4 sets to failure". I think a simple double progression whith reps between 5-25 (depending on the muscle, exercise, safety and how it feels) where you always train hard und take most sets to failure is still and will be the best for 99,9% of people... but how to get to 100k subs with no new content? ;-P
Was like No:222
Is Menno really in this liminal space, empty office or is it a generated background? This is important in regards to if I consider his advice or not.
If he's lost in the Backrooms is his advice more or less trustworthy?
I always found the problem with using 1RM percentage that I have no idea what my 1RM is. And to keep up with the 1RM number, I would have to test it too often, causing too much fatigue.
Use a 1rm calculator
Just test it and take a few days off
@@drno62 And do that every month? Not really an option.
@@Klartext_TV I have done that, but he also adresses in the video that for different people, a percentage of for example 80%, of 1RM is going to produce a different number of reps for different folks. Which inherently means that a general 1RM calculator that you find online will produce very flawed results. Especially when you start basing it on higher ranges like 8 or 12 rep max.
@@DrStench13 Why would you need to do it every month? You do it once to set your starting weight then progressively overload
Sound overcomplicating stuff. But the video is very bad on explaining how to actually do it.
The first video on this channel that i dislike
aka DYNAMIC DOUBLE PROGRESSION🤣
Was thinking the same thing dude
I don't think you know what the "auto" means in "autoregulatuon". It doesn't mean "automatic". The prefix "auto" means *self*; autoregulation means *self-regulation*. It's in fact the opposite of "automatically" regulating.
But it is self-regulating..
@@drno62Did you watch the video? He literally defines it as "automatically regulating"...
@@eric1020 So wait, what's the difference between 'autoregulating' and 'self-regulating' to you?
@drno62 You're not understanding. I'm objecting to his definition. There's no difference, but Meno's definition implies there is. Obviously doing something AUTOMATICALLY is the opposite of auto (i.e., self) regulation.
@drno62 there isn't one. That's my point. His definition implies there is. Obviously doing something automatically isn't the same as self regulation. I suspect this is bc his first language isn't English.
Way too complicated.
Just lift weights. None of that even matters if you are implementing progressive overload combined with proper time under tension and completing your sets to near failure.
These experiment results change every other week but the basics above is time tested and ALWAYS provide results.
It's really not that complicated
Definitely too complicated. Add reps/weight to your previous session, that is all ✅
Fitness content is pure slop these days. Makes me glad j learned to atay in shape 25 years ago.
There is the guy who acuses people of other countries without evidences, that says a lot about you people.
For those who need an exemple on how to put this in your workout. Lets say you are doing triceps push down. You can do 3 sets of 8 reps. The first 8 reps at RPE 5, the second at RPE 7 and the last one at RPE 10. By exemple, you have to have 5 remaining reps on the first set, 3 on the second and 0 on the last.
I'm pretty sure that's not the point he was making...
Interesting but that’s not what was described in the video
That comment was meant for another video… maybe? 😅
That is exactly the opposite of what he is saying.
@@BenjaminTorres1 can you explain whats wrong?