Periodization for Size vs Strength (What the Science Says) 

Hey All! - Alpha Progression App: alphaprogression.com/HOUSEOFHYPERTROPHY + Click Read More for further discussion on "periodization" Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:37 Part I: More Muscle Growth? 3:28 Part II: More Strength Gains? 6:47 Part III: Returning to Muscle Growth 12:17 Part IV: Summary Other Periodization Styles for Hypertrophy or Strength: - Block, reverse linear, and mixed session are some other styles of periodization. Unfortunately, these are a lot less studied currently so not strong conclusions can be made about their effectiveness for strength or size. - We could even "periodize" our training through other ways. For example, across a training block, you may add more sets across weeks. Technically, a recent study somewhat explored this, we dissected it in a previous video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yrtsa3swsAo.html - It did lead to more hypertrophy and strength! but there are crucial considerations as detailed in the video. For example, the groups that added sets across weeks also ended up performing a higher number of average sets overall, so this could explain the findings. - You could also "periodize" by varying the exercises you perform across sessions or weeks. However, we have research suggesting this probably just produces similar hypertrophy to training with the same exercises every week, these ideas were touched on in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-H3IN8yUHTeY.html Examining the Term “Periodization” More: Periodization suggests dividing your training into "periods", so undulating approaches may not strictly fit this. Instead, some may say undulating is just a form of "programming" and not "periodization" Some may define periodization as making long-term changes in volume (sets x reps) and intensity. The linear approach does this (increases intensity and decreases volume over time), but the undulating approach may not as we're performing the same sessions every week. Due to this, some might suggest undulating models are just a form of "programming". However, it is actually possible for you to combine linear and undulating models. You do this by varying the rep ranges you perform in a week, but still decreasing the number of reps across weeks. For example, week 1 you may perform 12 reps on Monday, 10 reps on Wednesday, and 8 reps on Friday, in week 2 you perform 10 reps on Monday, 8 reps on Wednesday, and 6 reps on Friday, and so on). Fewer studies have used this approach, the large majority just involve comparing the linear and undulating approaches as described in the video. Finally, some might say periodization can only really be applied over 6 or more months, and since most studies are 12 weeks or less, they fail to provide a true insight into periodization and are instead just providing insight into shorter-term "programming" strategies. So overall, it's clear that there's no single way to think about periodization.

The more I read/watch on sports and muscle physiology, the more I am convinced we should train whatever we want.

To any beginners/people that just started lifting. Hypertrophy, sets, reps, splits, nutrition and fitness in general are one of the biggest rabbitholes to fall into. If you are just starting out, stick with exercises you like doing and structure your workouts how they suit your lifestyle, not the other way around. Don’t do the same mistake i did when i first started Lifting, by trying to do the best, most effective workouts my body could take. I stopped enjoying lifting and quit after a few months. We’re all in it for the long run. And consistency is key. Don’t forget to have fun. And dont confuse yourself by trying to optimize everything from the getgo. Enjoy the ride.

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 🏋️‍♂️ *Introduction to Periodization* - Periodization is a key component for accelerating gains and minimizing plateaus in physique and strength development. - Linear and daily undulating periodization are common approaches, involving manipulation of training variables over time. - Linear periodization decreases volume and increases intensity over weeks, while daily undulating periodization varies the number of reps each session. 01:37 📊 *Meta-analysis on Muscle Growth* - A 2022 meta-analysis found no significant difference in muscle growth between periodized and non-periodized training. - The analysis included both trained and untrained subjects. - Muscle growth did not significantly differ between linear and undulating periodization models. 03:32 💪 *Effects of Periodization on Strength Gains* - Periodization led to greater one-repetition maximum (1RM) strength gains compared to non-periodized training. - Limitations exist in the studies, and the potential influence of lower reps and heavier loads on strength gains is discussed. - Undulating periodization may be more effective for increasing 1RM strength, especially in trained individuals. 06:47 🤔 *Long-term Considerations and Muscle Hypertrophy* - Studies with suboptimal periodization for muscle building may influence results, indicating the need for further research. - Limited evidence suggests that varying rep ranges, especially avoiding very low reps, could be beneficial for long-term muscle growth. - Individual differences in muscle response to different rep ranges emphasize the potential benefits of varying rep ranges. 08:51 📚 *Studies on Rep Range Variation* - Studies, such as the Kramer study over 9 months, indicate that varying rep ranges may lead to greater fat-free mass and indirect muscle growth. - Ascending pyramid training with a wider rep range showed superior muscle mass gains in older untrained women. - Individual differences in response to specific rep ranges suggest the importance of flexibility in rep range selection. 10:15 🏋️‍♀️ *Practical Recommendations for Rep Range Variation* - Varying rep ranges may optimize muscle growth by addressing potential individual differences in response. - The evidence is not strong enough to mandate rep range variation, and personal preference in training style remains valid. - Suggestions include linear, undulating, pyramid approaches, or different exercises for the same muscle with varying rep ranges. 13:18 🤯 *Summary and Considerations* - Periodized programs show similar muscle growth compared to non-periodized programs, and hypertrophy does not significantly differ between linear and undulating periodization. - Strength gains are generally greater with periodization, especially undulating periodization in trained individuals. - Personalized considerations for rep range variation should be based on individual responses, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Made with HARPA AI

Gold content. 📚🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 Enjoyed every second!

Really cool! The future research I'm most looking forward to is how to identifying the individuals who do best with different volumes and rep ranges

Here supporting this AMAZING channel.

This is a REALLY well done channel man! I just subscribed. I love training with science. And this channel feeds me exactly what I need

Thank you for your excellent work, I always enjoy watching your content!!

It all works, just use them all at some point, it adds variety. Over analyzing over 10% differences not worth the time and energy, doing what suits you at any given time is more productive.

This app looks absolutely awesome!

Another vid well done friend. Great info. My legs have always responded to 20 rep squats. Other body parts respond to 8-12 reps (arms). Change is good.

This is one of the best channels on youtube

What about periadization vs none in the context of accumulated fatigue and stress - week 1: 50% of max, week 2: 75%, week 3-8: 90-100% then repeat vs always do 90-100%

I think the best thing would be to vary the rep ranges and see which one works best for you, very good video

Periodization has been powerlifting protocol forever.. and the starting sets and reps were often called the "hypertrophy" phase

for me I feel periodization helps me get some improvements when I stuck, unable to increase more weight but when add more sets or add more reps with the same weight (or even more weight with less reps) later on I can lift heavier in the subsequent weeks. other than that I feel it helps me not get too boring, too.

Thank you HoH for another interesting video - I always look forward to the next video. Since watching the channel I've also been reading various sports science papers, including those you kindly give links to. Sadly I have to say that based on the papers I've read over the past 18 months I've concluded that sports science research is surprisingly poor. It seems that various issues, that should never happen in a research paper, are very common - badly designed "experiments", ill-defined or even undefined concepts, data recording & data analysis not being done blind - thus introducing the possibility of bias & deliberate manipulation of the data and results, inappropriate statistical analysis etc., etc. These issues often occurring in papers from very well known names. Therefore the HoH is absolutely necessary to point out these shortcomings & separate the wheat from the chaff. 👍

For that reason in my training program is undulating in every session. Example: bench press 6-8 tô failure, next, super set Peck deck 15 reps 30seconds rest. After The last set, i take a 3 mins rest and Go to incline bechpress 8-12 tô failure. Every session, the First exercice is with more load and less rep, and this one is my benchmarking to see If i progressing week by week. Seeing great results with this. In 4 weeks my bench went from 20kgs in each side to 35kgs.

I like using daily periodization. It helps me to work on strength, while also using my final set to do 12+ reps, and focus on the stretch and mind-muscle connection.

Make a video on hyperplasia and hypertrophy studies thanks

Ondulating reps with a few select exercises weekly, is the best thing i ever did in my training career so to speak.

Back in high school, this is the method my weights coach implemented for our weights program. We normally started our "working sets" around 65%-75%, and increased the load while decreasing the reps per set. All I'll say is I was so much stronger using that method as opposed to a standard method of weightlifting. I managed to reach 300lb bench in high school as a 220 pound male. 🤷‍♂️

Are there any studies of inverted pyramids? That is, starting heavy and then lowering the set weight, because naturally you can lift a lot more if a small warm set is done before.

Can you make a video where you collect all the best undisputed facts about muscle gains that we know of so far. Not the ones that are open for discussion, but the facts that we know are cemented.

I usually train with DUP, it's the bulk of training sessions. But when I'm getting ready for competition or hitting a PR, I use linear periodization.

Well, idk chainging volume overtime just seems like too much of a hassle, especially if you wanna hit your muscles as equally as possible (via load). But i do believe in periodizing rep ranges because well when we're more bulky, we tend to progress a little easier in terms of strength but definently harder in terms of reps, but when i'm leaner, harder with weight but easier to progress with reps, and i think that is because when i'm bulky i tend to put my stress on my cardiovascular system so it makes sense that i tend to get tired faster, but when i'm leaner it's less stress so i can push more reps and potentially get closer to failure via higher rep ranges.

When will the series on strength training arrive?

Still waiting about velocity loss threshholds for strength and hypeprtrophy😅

Undulating splits is by far the best. The downside to bodybuilding is how personalized it needs to be. There about 3 dozen things you need to be doing all at once for it to work.

Hello! Please, could you share the source on the pyramid image on 2:15, the one about research methods. Thanks

7:31 GYATTT

Since the body has 3 energy systems , should we not focus on tut instead of rep range? Coz tempo can change reps in sets, instead I try keep sets between 15 and 90 seconds as over 2 mins you enter oxidative energy system and therefore better o2 turn over rather than stored glucose for energy which means endurance training over hypertrophy training. Just a thought

In my opinion. It's not periodization directly it's novelty. Each time you periodization and change the stimulus, you're providing the muscles with a new adaptation signal.

I typically have two to three exercises per muscle group. For example, chest = incline dumbells, incline flys, flat bench. Each chest workout the reps flip. workout one: heavy incline dumbells, medium weight/rep flys, higher rep bench. Workout two = heavy bench, medium flys, higher rep incline dumbells. I hit each muscle twice a week so I find in each week im doing a low rep bench and a higher rep bench and a low rep incline dumbells and a higher rep incline dumbells. But I am not ultra rigid either. Sometimes the thought of doing a heavy bench press is just beyond me some days. I just have the mindset that as long as the chest is targetted heavy with something, any one of the three exercises, then it will be fine until the next workout a few days later. And it is.

Hey. Check the hypertrophy study from Enes, De Souza on 52 sets per week per muscle group as the most hypertrophy building. Apparently, new studies point towards going one rep shy from Rhabdo.

Individual differences on rep ranges should (at least partially) be because every person has different lactate threshold so their muscles could fatigue earlier. A study comparing rep ranges between two groups: *20 long distance runners, 20 sprinters, with rep ranges 6-12 reps. *The same amount for each but with rep ranges from 30-35. *The same groups but the rep ranges are beyond optimal for building muscle, with rep ranges over 50. Would they find differences between responses from long and short distance runners?, long distance runners would see better hypertrophy response with more rep ranges?, sprinters would see better results with less rep ranges?

PeriodiSation.

Did they control for whether the periodization was renaissance or not? That's my question

I always thought periodization was a term more geared towards advanced trainers. Personally, I find that maintaining non-periodized approach is sufficient for me.

It has become abundantly clear that one size does not fit all, therefore an individual must experiment with 1. What's effective for them, and 2. What their goals are. Clearly a budding powerlifter will not be spending the majority of their time in the 8-12 rep range, however to completely ignore it would be short sighted.

Hi What do you think about cable pull through exercise? Is it good gor glutes hypertrophy?

I usually do 2 sets to failure but I might try to do one low one high and see if I see any better progress I have been at a Plato on preacher curl for some time 3 weeks I'll try this and see if it change anything I will continue to write lifts down Reps and weight (energy levels too)

I have a question i couldn't find an answer to on Google. If there is a difference between gains made by training for example my arms only vs training full body for a long period. I tried searching but all google shows me is full body vs split but I'm not interested in split training because it's training all muscles in a whole week but each muscle group once a day, that's not what interesting to me I meant if arms trained alone would show more gains than training my arms while other muscles like my quads competing for proteins and natural anabolic hormones

What about varying loads combined with varying rep ranges? Like on a last set of 3 x 10 at 70% 1RM you add 2.5kg on the last set.

Of course you want to vary the rep ranges otherwise you’re creating weak points meaning you are setting yourself up to grow quickly if you were to focus on those weak points, but you could just not allow them to develop in the first place and get that extra growth all along the way. Hard sets with loads less than 60%1rm are a bit less effective for growth than those with over that, so maybe do most work in the 6-15 rep range (60%1rm may be a 20RM but with fatigue and tempo it’s probably going to be 15-18 reps, unless the ROM is very short), but still some 16-30’s (and 4-5’s) so you can get that extra 1% or so of growth that comes from not letting weak points develop. Also, making sure to actually get to failure or beyond like with lengthened partials is very conducive to getting closer to your maximum potential.

Periodization definitely works, but i dont subscribe to it for two key reasons: 1- it typically requires an overtraining period, followed by a deload. Id rather train below the threshold of overtraining, and maintain it for much longer. 2- it assumes linear progess. We aren't machines. We often experience things outside the gym that affect our performance. It also assumes you are in perfect health every day. I prefer to train intuitively, avoiding things that cause pain, pushing hard when im fresh, pulling back when i feel "off". Just my take

Can you make a video about how much does cardio affect muscle growth?

Wonder what Dr Mike thinks?

bro,is dumbell curl better than strict curl?

🙏

Yes yes lets decipher the studies on what anyone with a logical brain and a little experience in the weight room can tell you. Provided the person talking isnt biased by trash influencers or literrature (Not talking about House of Hypertrophy with that statement just to be clear).

HI is there a study about people who can build muscle with heavy weights only like kevin levrone🙋🏽‍♂️

Pretty sure you can easily become a good sport's physiology professor.

Long 2 weeks😣

How do they measure hypertrophy ? Sets of 4-5 reps build less size than sets of 10-12 reps everyone can verify that but it is mostly because of water/glycogen. It seems that when they measure hypertrophy they cannot tell the difference between contractile components and non-contractile components. So higher reps will always appear to be superior while they are not. There was also a study with a few sets of 2-4 reps leading to some size gains but when another group added a set with 50% of 1RM to failure they had nearly 2x more size gains. Once again that is not “real size”.

JUST realized that smart-sounding commentators on here didnt/dont even WATCH the videos lol 😂 😂

I thought periodisation is about longjevity in strenght training. Stemming from the idea that your body cant handle only a limited number of sessions or weeks doing max strength work

Ayo bro what’s with the green thumbnail guys?

👍🏻

One answer: Hypertrophy Clusters.

Why did the low rep group did less volume? That is another anomali in the studies

the thumbnails will soon be completely green

So always use pyramids?

So basically, hit the gym for weight lifting and get close to failure. 👍🏻😚 got it

4 reps is fine for hypertrophy

dude, you spilled the beans on the last min of the video on the however bit ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-H-DffGucBNk.html. if Periodization builds strength, then you will have more hypertrophy if you switch to hypertrophy reps and sets after you build the extra strength. how is this hard to understand? First you build the strength, you keep the weight same and you do more reps (8-35 as you mentioned) and you have hypertrophy faster, since periodization builds strength faster. are you overcomplicating it on purpose?

.

This video was just confusing.

Basically HIT training

a lot of the studies u show practically cannot be applied in most cases. And theres a lot of basic explanations for the rep range phenomenon, almost like they enjoyed the higher rep ranges and some people do not have the endurance to do high reps, whilst others have. 4-8 reps is the best, no matter who you are, that is the actual practical science that we know today. 4 reps is 4 effective reps. 30 reps, 3/4 of them do not do anything that goes toward the actual mechanical tension process that occurs and the Only way to build muscle. Muscle damage and metabolic stress have been debunked very easily, im surprised you still believe it in, studies can easily prove something when it is not designed well and practically is not accounted for. If metabolic stress really mattered, why are strongmen and powerlifters are jacked. You cannot train for type 1 and 2 muscle fibre size. That again is just trivial. Every powerlifter I know does sets of 5 for quads, and their quads are always bigger than those that do everything else. The metabolic stress "muscle growth' will be temporary inflammation. The best thing to do would be to actually take time off after these studies for 2-3 weeks to see the actual lean tissue gained after a period of training.

Training for hypertrophy doesnt need any kind of periodization ever if everything is already good in the programming.

second or something

The evidence for benefits of periodization presented here is the weakest of any video you've ever produced (that I have viewed). You've killed whatever small interest I had in trying it. Bottom line: As long as one is progressing, there is no reason to try periodization.

This comment contains nine words consisting of at least three symbols.

first or something

First

Video says nothing,,,blah, blah