Dr. McGuff, thanks so much for this fascinating video. I’ve done HIT training since attending a Mike Mentzer seminar in St. Louis, MO in 1978, and I’ve enjoyed your work for many years. I’m 58 years old now and I happened to move to a 6-way split this August. Since I have retired from full-time work and work only part time as an author and speaker, I seem to be able to train more frequently and recover more quickly than in the recent past, perhaps because I can take it easy and rest whenever I feel the need. I too just work on one or two body parts each workout and my strength is at the highest level it’s been for many years. By the way, I gave a talk in Nashville this September to 900 physicians and allied health care professionals at the national conference of the Catholic Medical Association. Speaking as a psychologist, my talk was directed at medical burnout, the theme of the conference being “Physician, Heal Thyself.” Anyway, in a section discussing exercise as a method to help cope with burnout I recommended your Body by Science for the time-efficient and effective principles you explain. This video shows you have provided additional ways to fit effective training into the hectic schedule of a physician, or any busy person. Thanks again for all you are doing.
Kevin, We have such similar background and experiences, it is no surprise we are following parallel pathways. Keep up the great work spreading the word.
Dr. McGuff - thank you for all of your videos. I’ve been doing you program since 2020. Currently 55 years old and your workout coupled with a protein positive diet (not Keto, but rather just more protein that carbs) has me in the best shape I’ve ever been in. I rotate between a machine Big 5 workout and a dumbbell Big 5 workout and have found success with that. As time went on and the amount of weight used + TUL increased, I noticed that I needed more recovery time. As your book says, I have no stress or concern with that because I know that the recovery is such an important part of the program. I want to thank you for this program….it has been a lifesaver for me! God bless and Merry Christmas!
I've been doing something similar in terms of adding some contractions after my hard set. I'm currently doing a 3 way split and have tried it on arms and it's been working well. I'm 64 and I've really been pleased with the results. I'm going to try a 6 way split to see how it works. The only thing I wasn't sure on was whether you do the extra volume on each exercise if you are doing multiple movements per body part as you mentioned regarding your back or just extra contractions on one of the movements. One thing I really appreciate about your videos is your calm and non-dogmatic approach. If more people, especially those in the HIT camp, would adopt your way of simply stating what you think, what the science says, what you tried and how it worked the entire field of fitness and exercise would benefit.
Very helpful, as always! Thank you for sharing your knowledge as well as personal experiences in the gym. For people who “don’t have time” to exercise, this is a great example of how to work effective strength training into any schedule.
Well anecdotal or not , that’s been my experience, having used SS for some years ( a fews ago years now ) , I went back to 2/4 or slightly slower 2/6 , using consolidation routine A/B , within 4 weeks arms increased 1” .thighs 1” . 4lb BW increase , Up until this point no idea why ? You might be onto something here .Work out every 7 days but squat every 21 days .more or less stopped improving but given my age ,genetically bottominG out .You may recall ( but doubt it !) I called you from UK back in 99 , my wife suffers from Mcardles disease , asked you for advice . I’m 62 now ,still HIT , dodging the bullets that are common to my age so far . Thanks for these RU-vid vids ,very encouraging .looks like I’ll be giving you a call , just had surgery on rotator cuff tear ! Thanks ,Dave
Hey Doug, three years have passed since this video. I think we, your fans, deserve to know if you still second what you said in it and if you still try to add those faster extra reps to the small number of SuperSlow-cadenced reps. It would also be nice of you to answer these objections. First, if the coupling and uncoupling cycles is the main drive toward hypertrophy, why can you get big and strong without moving at all, with static holds and timed static contractions? Second, if you have to add those extra reps after going to MMF with SuperSlow, what happens to the 12 minutes per week approach to exercise? If just takes a lot longer to add those extra reps. Third, if there's no science behind the coupling and uncoupling cycle theory, why do you regulate your workouts according to such at all? You're the Body BY SCIENCE guru, after all.
Very smart way how to manage stress and match it with recovery ability and work schedule. Everyone has their own way of life including work stressors and recovery ability. Managing volume, frequency and intensity are principles of Mike Mentzer's Heavy Duty System.
As a police officer and having to work shift work I use the following routine. To note I dont live near ultimate exercise facility or fancy gym. Day1 Back sqaut Front sqaut Military press Dumbell laterals Bent over dumbbell laterals Day 2 Bench press Incline press Deadlift Bent over row Chinups B.curl -1-2 work sets for each movement -cycle your weights over 10 weeks with weeks 9&10 being a max effort to improve your current 1,3,5,or 8 rep max set. -of course always use perfect form -train 1 day a week
Necessity really is the mother of invention. Followers need to pay attention to how people that do really hard and stressful jobs adapt their workouts accordingly. Lots of parallel thinking going on here.
This is a timely video to find. I'm still new to HIT, and while finding it quite effective doing a full body workout does leave me completely wiped out for at least a day, maybe two. I'm going to experiment with two way split, and maybe even three, four, or more. I'm also over 50, so that is certainly a factor as well.
A recent study in early 2023 showed that metabolites for joints as tendons and ligaments can be fully recovered by 36hrs of repeated stimulus (35-45 reps to the failure, 1 sec concentric & 3 secs exentric). This is joints specific. And something happens with jelly (grenadin) with joints, as leucine is for the muscle (science still hasn't turned over beside some alimentary deficiency). THAT'S WHY never train the same joint one day after another, and if in doubt... Don't train at all. So we can conclude that high reps low volume is as joints and connective tissue as HIT is for muscle fibers.
Thanks, Dr McGuff. Very interesting information. I am also a mature guy (64) looking to remain strong into later years, so this discussion is relevant to me. I am going to try the super slow set, along with an additional set of lower weight for more reps. Like you, I do think I gained a bit (not much) of size when I used higher reps, so this may be a perfect combination . Also, my job is certainly stressful, but my real question is how recovery is affected by my playing a sport on my off days from working out. I work out three days a week, and play sports on the alternate days. I have worked out so that I can remain athletic and enjoy sports. So far, so good on that. How can I tell if my off day sport is impeding my ability to gain muscle and strength from my workouts (and how the workout affects my ability to perform my sport)? Again, wonderful information and I am following you as we both travel down the road. Thanks!
Dr McGuff, thank you for taking the time in your busy schedule to share your most recent thinking and methods! Certainly more tools in the box! I am curious have you considered ADDING "BFR" (blood flow restriction) with it's submaximal LOW load (30% of 1RM) high reps protocol of 50 reps, 15, 15, 15 reps with 30 sec rest ?? Basically another way to add additional contractions?? Love to hear your thoughts on it since so much studies have been done on BFR (also known as occlusion training I think) for hypertrophy and rehab. Thank you.
About five years ago I lived very close to a gym, so I could pop in real quick every day and work on one body part. I was doing about 15 sets of 75 secs time under tension, with a 30 second rest in between. While I did experience about a 400% increase in strength(maxed nearly every machine), I got very little hypertrophy. Looking back, I think that my calories were too low, and possibly the rest times were too short to give best effort. I've recently started a myo reps program and seen good results. I think the main thing is not cheating on either end of the contraction, by taking the load off the muscle.
@@dr.dougmcguff282 A couple years ago I put my 72 year old father on BBS. He did construction most of his life, staying in the 220+ body weight area. Over the last 5 years, he's lost a lot of muscle, and so we gave BBS a try. Most of his lift weights went up 400% in about 3 months, and his everyday recovery was better, but he also didn't put on much size. I think he simply wasn't getting enough protein. I did a bit of research on sarcopenia, and that seems to be the consensus.
Interesting.. doing HIT I found that my limiting factor is not muscle fatigue, but systemic fatigue. My muscles might be good to go after 3=4 days again, but my whole body needs a week of rest.
If contraction volume is truly a significant variable to inducing hypertrophy then that fact runs contrary to the good results obtained from very few repetitions of very few exercises.
Hello! Love the book and teachings on RU-vid! Wow- super grateful for your willingness to share your findings! Found you in researching about month ago and began big 5 following slow protocol and pushing to exhaustion ... downloaded TUL app to record progress and have had amazing gains over past 4 weeks doing big 5 every 7 days... this is my question/issue: I’m 50 yrs old and have walked and done Pilates mostly through the years due to Hashimoto’s condition... whenever I’ve done intense exercise, my body has actually gone in reverse and has fought me and I feel more broken down rather than better...in finding your material I was excited that I could possibly gain muscle without over stressing my system (which causes Hashimoto flares- very real hard issue) so since starting your protocol I have felt great for 3 weeks until this week... each night around 7pm I’m completely out of steam and feel like I cannot function (I still have 3 sons at home and can’t continue this way😂) So do I need to wait longer between workouts and do I need to slow my weight/plate increases down? Was doing 7 days ... I’m very motivated and excited and discipline is not an issue -thanks for your input!
Dr. McGuff, your approach and rationale seem to have evolved somewhat since the time you wrote BBS and the BBS Q&A book. Presently, you are doing rest-pause and/or drop sets, albeit using a split routine. However, on page 134 of BBS, in the section titled Roadblock-Excessive Intensity, you had concluded that such extra effort resulted in no additional benefit and severely compromised recovery. It was too much. (Whatever happened to that elevator button?) You noted in the video that, given your present work schedule and age, your split routine with intensity/volume enhancers seeks to get around your objective of maximizing adaptation without compromising recovery. However, on page 157 of the BBS Q&A book, in the section titled Doug McGuff's Most Productive Workout, when you were at your biggest and strongest, you performed 3 exercises every 12 days, divided into an A and B workout. (A = leg press + pulldown + overhead press; B = calf raise + deadlift + chest press.) You further wrote "In looking back I note that every time I've made dramatic increases in strength and size, it's always been as a result of reducing the volume and frequency of my workouts." However, Dr. McGuff, you are now a bit older since the publication of that book and a bit busier. Yet your overall volume appears to be higher. How would you reconcile that? As an aside, I am a fan. It is in part because of your books that I began reducing both the volume and frequency of my workouts. For that I am grateful.
Vel, This is the problem with writing a book. People will hold you to what you said despite your evolving experience. Listen to the video again as I explain how I reconcile my approach compared to my prior approaches. This does not imply a "once and for all" adjustment, rather a dynamic adjustment to my changing physiology and life circumstances.
@@dr.dougmcguff282 Thank you for your reply. Just a follow up question, if I may. Now that you have been doing this split routine for a while, how does it compare to your original protocol in BBS, in terms of any improvement or changes in strength, body composition, and recovery. P.S. Stay safe.
Hello again, Dr. McGuff. A quick follow-up question, if I may. Now that you have been doing a 6-way split routine to better accommodate your demanding work schedule, do you find any noticeable changes in strength or body composition as compared to when you were doing your more standard whole-body once-a-week routine?
Really interesting. This is pretty complex. Do you think you could write it up and publish online to make it easier to refer to? Also links to info on the various methods you mention at the end would be great. Thanks
The 3/7 method has been studied and sounds kinda like something you are talking about as far as getting extra reps in. Seems to work great, check it out
Doug - really interesting video. With respect to you theory of the need for a threshold number of contraction cycles where does this leave Times Static Contractions, John Little's Max pyramid or his Done in one. All three are built around a limited amount of movement or indeed no movement at all. ARe there still coupling/uncoupling actions in a static/isomentric. If in an isometric there is still a sequential recruitment of fibres ultimately reaching MMF under your model I'm assuming that they are not optimal in terms of hypertrophy?
Chris- I think it does not contradict John's protocols or any slow/no movement protocol. Sequential recruitment is still key IMO. As for hypertrophy....everything works....until it doesn't. I think some variation of protocol mitigates against optimizing neural/motor unit rate-coding and pushes towards a hypertrophic response. This is pure theory on my part sprinkled with some placebo effect and confirmation bias. I'm just thinking out loud with you guys. Also, the traditional slow cadence, MMF set is still the basis of my stimulus. The extra contractions are not done to fatigue or as the primary stimulus. I will carry them until the rep gets "boggy", but no further.
@@dr.dougmcguff282 Thanks Doug. I appreciate the reply and expansion on the ideas. I've been playing around with TSC after reading Ken Hutchins recent books. An interesting change.
@Dr. Doug McGuff Doug, I think you thoughts are in line with empirical evidence in www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30153194/ What do you think about it? How can we relate this paper with Carlson L, Jonker B, Westcott WL, Steele J, Fisher JP. Neither repetition duration nor number of muscle actions affect strength increases, body composition, muscle size, or fasted blood glucose in trained males and females. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2019;44(2):200-207.
@@dr.dougmcguff282 Thanks for the interesting videos and for taking time to answer questions, it's really valuable to hear your opinion on new topics, or come back to the old one with a fresh new look. I also appreciate your genuine effort to improve the situation in healthcare. A question on this: do you still believe that it's paramount to reach failure in the first 90 seconds? How about reducing the weight and reaching failure within 25 repetitions? Recent studies suggest that reaching failure is what really matters, at least when it comes to hypertrophy; if weights can be reduced, that is an advantage in terms of safety (e.g. they say that biceps tendon can torn more easily when working with heavy loads over long periods of time). I guess that the goal is to stay in the anaerobic range, but I am curious to know if you've somewhat changed your views over the years. I find the split regime to be a very good suggestion. I've recently started to train three times a week, 1st session push upper body exercises (vertical + horizontal: pectorals, deltoids, triceps, intrarotations), 2nd session pull exercises (pull-downs, rows, biceps), 3rd consists of legs and a bit of shoulder exercises. Each muscle group works really hard but only once a week, or every ten days. I would not manage to sustain three big-5 sessions with the same frequency. I also do a HIIT session or sauna at the end of each cycle, and inspiratory muscle training on a daily basis. I don't feel fatigued and it's been working great so far. I must point out that I am in my 40s.
Doug is it feasible to try this 6 days in a row or is it better to take at least a day after each workout? i work 2 jobs at the moment and i feel short workouts like this could work
Thanks for sharing this with us. I think it would be great to expand on the subject, and why a greater number of shortening-stretching cycles would be beneficial. It is not clear if it is a matter of greater volume, or only of greater amount of mechanical damage within the same TUL, for a more fast cadence.
There is a budding discussion of this video in Drew Baye's private Facebook forum The HIT List; intelligent lifeforms sincerely interested in this and other HIT-related topics would be most welcome there. I assume Doug is familiar with the work of Fisher & Steele regarding whether varying the reps while keeping TUT similar and training to MMF made a difference. Incidentally, when I used a 3-way split (I now use a 2-way) my training sessions were: 1) chest, shoulders & triceps; 2) upper back, neck & biceps; 3) legs, lower back & abs.
Uh-oh. Prepare for a shit-storm! Seriously....this is only a hypothesis with a huge placebo effect thrown in. Also, I am not a study involving college students for 12 weeks, or Discover Strength clients. I am a 57 year old dude working one of the most stressful jobs on the planet, but still wanting to be swole as possible. Just sharing what I am doing. Not advocating for others.
Thank you very much for your videos. They are great for us to keep learning and motivating us from new studies. My question is What make then the difference between superslow sets or isometric workout and the method you say in this study? thanks a lot, and again, very grateful to keep us informed.
I have question for you... what to do if i want to workout everyday? How to do it? Is it possible to make body by sience + split... to workout everyday? Why for full body workout you use only 1 workout for each muscle? Is it possible to worout very slow like in body by sience but use few different workout for bicept... few for triceps etc and finally make full body workout but during full week (each day training different muscles). Best regards :)
Correct. 5 body parts, but legs get done twice. One compound session and one single joint session. Chest/neck flexion--Back/neck extension--Single joint legs/abs--Shoulders/lateral neck--Arms--Compound Leg.
Helpful ideas to be tested. I am 65 and my biggest subject is how much recovery time with calorie surplus is needed after a workout before I can fast to keep the fat off and stimulate stem cell creation. Right now I fast every third day after rotated compound workouts and I have good muscle growth but I also gain fat. I do not want to cut heavily or fast longer as I am worried about loosing muscle. At my age it is too hard to build it. I am at 20% body fat and would like to come down. I am doing HIIT but no cardio. Any recommendations?
I started using your HIT system(watched videos, read books-Mike Mentzer/Drew Baye /Arthur Jones etc.) for the first time starting back almost ten yrs ago. It worked great quickly put on 30-40 lbs of pure size and muscle and hit 405 on the bench just past my mid and into my late 40s. However- Im guessin due to my age(now 52) Im barely able to get to the gym. Ive experienced chronic weakness starting a few yrs ago at or around age 50-to the point where i can barely workout maybe once or twice a month and with little or no weights at all (mostly rubber bands and cables). I'm off the Creatine but Im on TRT which helps some-but nothing really seems to work. I had a exam done nothing seems unusual other than I am still heavy (275) at 5 '9". Anyway I was wondering If I should just walk and do the elliptical and just forget about any strength training-any advice is appreciated.
I guess what I am asking (since you have medical training especially) is what type of an affliction would cause flu like weakness/unusual strength loss that isnt readily detected by a basic exam . Also, what should be my next step or what type of testing/medical exam should I try next since nothing showed up on a basic physical with a blood/stool sample given. I have sleep apnea (and that is/was some of the problem) as well but I have improved my sleep hygiene but it is still a problem.
@@jimperry4420 just do the super slow reps- but with really light weight on machines only-no free weights. I just do one/maybe 2 body parts at a time and stay out of the gym until your fully recovered.
@@MississippiWopGenius396hey buddy, just saw your comment. I am 30 but suffer chronic disease called Crohn's since 16, and longer term issues with histamine and depression since was a baby. Finding Nutritional Therapy (B Vitamins!!) And Dr Jack Kruse and Carnivore saved my life. I've been off meds for 8 years (an irreversible disease the docs told me I'd need surgery with no meds after just 1 year, its been 8 an im thriving). Kruse is all about reverse ageing the mitochondria with Sunlight, Grounding and limiting tech to optimize circadian rhythms. Also suggests cold water immersion which i use regular For Carnivore and B Vits look up Elliot Overton. Plus dr shawn baker. You can also do Keto with veggies or paleo, but think long as u got lots of B vits like thiamine u will be thriving Im now doing doug mcguff and getting strong every week
Slightly off topic, but in your description of training for legs I have heard that you are doing adduction and abduction. Without wanting to seem too dogmatic about what is described in Body By science, therefore essentially compound exercices that stimulate large muscle groups, I have always thought that this type of exercises was rather useless if we consider other types of exercises, for example leg press, deadlift or squat. Do you consider these exercises rather essential as isolation movements, or they can be avoided in favor of leg extensions, leg curls or some kind of glute machine? Thanks
Yup...too dogmantic. Big 5 is like a index mutual fund. Covers the whole body in a productive way, but does not optimize forever. Always something to rely on and go back to, but also something to deviate from in order to produce a novel stimulus or focus on areas that normally only assist.
Dr. McGuff, please say something about warm up sets preceding the recommended one set of maximum effort. What's the general recommendation for people over 50? thanks alg
If the cadence is controlled and form is good, the warm up is built into the early part of the set. No additional warm up needed (except what a particular person might prefer to be mentally prepared).
@@dr.dougmcguff282 it's interesting. I perform better when I do a light set of 10 reps and test. Then go into the big five. Why's that? Is it getting the blood pumping that's causing me to feel I have more power?
Among those who strength train with more of a power lifting approach, full body workouts can take a lot of time. So you find some people who use a “one lift per day” approach, in order to fit more frequent workouts into smaller time windows. Seems philosophically similar to what you are doing. Interesting theory about more contraction cycles being helpful for hypertrophy, with something around 25 being good. This is conventional wisdom in the barbell world for some coaches. Classic set/rep schemes are 3x10, 3x5, 5x5, etc., or between 15 and 30 reps per exercise. I assume you were familiar with this. Did it somewhat inform your theory?
from what I heard, are you saying that slower cadence protocols like super slow do NOT promote hypertrophy more than more traditional protocols? If I’m interested in bodybuilding, would a more traditional split be more effective?
Nope. Not what I'm saying. Slow cadence, sequential recruitment and muscle fatigue are still the backbone. To eek out more, I hypothesize that this MAY be a component to shift the adaptation more towards hypertrophy and less toward neuromotor adaptations. Whether or not to split depends on your stage of training, your life stressors and your personal stress tolerance. For a young, carefree person getting good sleep and nutrition a full body routine 2X/week or every 4-5 days is likely to produce the fastest rate of growth IMO.
Thanks for sharing. So the single slow cadence set, followed by higher rep set(s), is only specific to when one may only work one body part at at time?
it is not clear that the reps are with a fast cadence, they could be slow too. But if there is greater mechanical damage due to the increase in reps. Doug is establishing a relationship between volume and hypertrophy.
@@DanScottChannel Maybe saying "mechanical damage" is wrong. Let's say that the shortening-stretching cycles of actin and myosin filaments are related to hypertrophic stimulation. At least this is what Doug is telling us despite not being able to prove it scientifically. Anyway I do not think that makes a big difference, there are studies that show the same levels of hypertrophy with different repetition rates.
No. Just the situation that I am using it in. Since I am only doing one part at a time, I feel a little more secure really hammering the individual body part.
also i beleive this is a 5 way splitt ? BACK, ARMS, SHOLDERS, LEGS, CHEST ... unless i missed something? lol thanks if you can clarfiy, keep up the good work
also you seemed to have discovered whats known as drop sets which some bodybuilders do. knobody calls it reverse pyramid training, , and you gave a good rationael for them
