What training style works best for YOU?

[teamD]

Hey guys,

I love to play around with different training styles/methods and I just wanted to hear what you all have found to be the most successful for you. Personally I have changed things around the past 3ish years and have been able to put on 25-30lbs of stage weight in just 3 years.

I started with a Push/Pull/Legs DC style for the first year. Moved into Chest & Shoulders, Back, Legs(split hams & glutei/quads), Arms and always keep it at 5x a week starting out with my first 2 movements being a true failure set + a backdown set before moving into a little volume. Most of the time I spend less than 75 mins in the gym unless i get stuck talking to someone or less if its arms. Offseason weight went from 185-220. Contest shape went from 160-188. And im talking peeled not lean.

I would like to start to get a little more hyper-focused on detailing my physique as I have clearly built a solid foundation. What works for you and why do you believe it to do so?

[Bnizzle163]

It is my personal belief that basically any training protocol will work so long as:

1. It follows the principles of some form of progressive overload.

2. Training intensity is high enough (load on the bar and proximity to failure 0-3 RIR).

3. Frequency and volume are tailored to land somewhere between MEV and MRV (minimum effective volume and max recoverable volume).

4. Adequate recovery is in place (nutrition, sleep, stress management).

That said, I like to program blocks of lower volume, HIT style training followed by more volume based blocks using a simple form of double progression.

[teamD]

Yea I mean as long as youre providing enough stimulus to grow it doesn't matter if youre doing "x" or "y". Intensity is always a factor. Just looking to see what others have enjoyed or seen progress with!

[Bnizzle163]

Yea I mean as long as youre providing enough stimulus to grow it doesn't matter if youre doing "x" or "y". Intensity is always a factor. Just looking to see what others have enjoyed or seen progress with!

I personally enjoy higher volume. I love to train and love the feel of a skin splitting pump so what I enjoy most is: push/pull/legs/off/push/pull/legs/off. I'll typically run a 5-6 week mesocycle where in the last week I throw in some muscle rounds and if I'm feeling a bit frisky, a widow maker here or there . Then it's absolutely time to deload as my entire soul is crushed lol.

[Teammaurerpower]

Hey guys! Just joined and I’m loving the format:

with that being said, I’m with Bnizzle on all his points and I’ll add one as well. I personally believe you have to be able to adhere to the type of training style and it should interest you to be able to dig as deep as you need to go to help produce the best results.

[Tommy]

I like all the answers above. A Simple way to put it is.....the best program for you is the one you will follow and the one you believe in.

[Saiyan_Blood]

I mean I agree that adherence and consistency is king, but as my physique has changed my training style has had to change. I used to train 6 days a week on a PPLPPL split with a day off at the end. But, I also started as a 145lb men's physique competitor. 4 years later I weighed in at 198 peeled for my last show.

The biggest difference for me has been a switch to less volume and higher intensity. This has come along with requiring more off days. I now train 4 days a week and am making great progress. As you get bigger and stronger, you have more muscle to repair and can do more damage to it. This leads for more rest days. Recovery is king for gaining size.

I still believe I need mass everywhere, so I use a 3 way DC training split and have been seeing great progress from that.

[Dirkmoneyshot]

Hey guys,

I love to play around with different training styles/methods and I just wanted to hear what you all have found to be the most successful for you. Personally I have changed things around the past 3ish years and have been able to put on 25-30lbs of stage weight in just 3 years.

I started with a Push/Pull/Legs DC style for the first year. Moved into Chest & Shoulders, Back, Legs(split hams & glutei/quads), Arms and always keep it at 5x a week starting out with my first 2 movements being a true failure set + a backdown set before moving into a little volume. Most of the time I spend less than 75 mins in the gym unless i get stuck talking to someone or less if its arms. Offseason weight went from 185-220. Contest shape went from 160-188. And im talking peeled not lean.

I would like to start to get a little more hyper-focused on detailing my physique as I have clearly built a solid foundation. What works for you and why do you believe it to do so?

I think the question you should be thinking about is what is going to work for you. I've been going at this for 23 years now, trained more competitors that I remember, and what I would tell the 18 year old me is that this is a long journey. That probably applies to life in general and the idea that we over estimate what we can do in a year but under estimate what you can do in 10. If you believe this is something you are going to be doing for the next couple decades, BACK OFF THE HEAVY WEIGHTS. Yes I said that and will stick by it. I won't deny that a lot of the muscle I have is because of going to the gym with the mentality of pushing the absolute heaviest weights possible. However I honestly believe I could have developed the same amount of muscle by using other types of intensity methods. In addition to having the same amount of muscle I believe I would not have had the injuries I went through, I would not probably need a knee replacement in another 20 years, my joints would not hurt, so on and so on. Now let me preface this just a little bit. I fully believe everyone should focus on strength for a couple of years once you get past the initial stages of training. My feelings:

First 2 years - Volume (Figure out mind muscle connection)
Next 3 years - Strength (Develop your CNS)
Years 5+ - Volume

Maybe its where I live but I never see anyone running rack drop sets. When I started rack drop sets on side laterals was just a given. Pre-exhaust, supersets, tri-sets. Any of those are great for increasing intensity and adding volume. Continue to progressively increase weights over time but keep reps higher.

Just an old grumpy man's thought and one more thing - What you are doing for your diet at 20,30,40 will need to change just like your training.

[ucsumma]

This is a tough question for anyone to answer objectively, because it's going to be human nature for most people to say their most-effective style is the one they're currently using (otherwise there'd be a bit a cognitive dissonance).

With that preamble out of the way, I think the most effective style for me is what I'm currently doing.

DC-style 3-way split with 2 days on, 1 day off. The focus on obtaining the most "effective reps" keeps junk volume at a minimum and assures I'm giving real intensity to the limited sets I allow myself.

I will say hands-down the biggest driver of my progress was incorporating rest days. I used to train 7 days a week because I thought I was "hardcore".

Older and wiser me realizes my priorities were misaligned; I was more concerned about the activity than the result.

[bobby3QZ]

I love to workout with someone else, simply making more than my opponent, and organizing kinda competition. But it's pretty important to warm up yourself, before such training. Workout stuff that can help with pain relief and warming up - for me it's Chirp wheel, which I found here ( weblink: https://www.escapemonthly.com/chirp-wheel-review/ ). I've tested it for few weeks already, and I'm glad I've got it.

[LG1]

Probably deserves its own thread. What do you guys think about the “scientific” way of training as per mike Israetel of renaissance periodization?

also. With respect to intensity and auto regulation. What do people think of RPE? I am personally not a fan of RPE unless someone is extremely honest and fully in tune with their body. Otherwise it appears way too subjective to me.

[johnathna]

I'm a douchebag and that's why I was banned.

[davg]

I still haven't found the perfect formula, so I'm trying different things. Right now I do three workouts a week with weights, and I also do 15 minutes of abs every day. I've changed a lot of workout programs.

[msilva]

Honestly the biggest i got was doing the dc two way.I was in my late twenties mind you.Last year i ran Scott's fortitude training and got great results,Just started back up after a year off and will rotate fortitude with dc and Skip's progressive volume routine.