When I train, I always have Mike's voice in my head for: - Technique = "Quality reps only" - Effort = "We're here to fuckin work" - Execution = "slow, slow, SLOW" - Last Rep = "as if another one"
I was kind of surprised by the content of this video tbh. I expected Mike to say that the biggest factor is how many times you approach failure in a workout. But I guess his point is that that only matters, if you do all of the above.
When you actually know what you're talking about and you do it in a deliberately unscripted style it's pretty easy. Slip ups happen when you try remember a script
Spent 8 years lifting not making as much gains as I’d like, having to do ridiculous volume to get any sort of doms the next day… always thought I was going to about RIR2. Found out last week it was prob about RIR7 or more on most exercises and since changing to going to failure(not gonna do failure for long - just getting used to it) I’ve been progressing like crazy. 20kg+ on leg press in a week lol Thanks for everything, Mike!
@@Kuchipop Facts. I think I got stumped because my trainer from a few years back who introduced me to RIR said an RIR7 feels like when the weight slows down, which was obviously his experience...but for me I can do another 5-10 reps after the first slow rep.
How can you be on RIR7?! I don't understand how you can possibly not go to failure, you just do the exercise until your muscles can't do it anymore. There isn't even pain involved really. Am I doing it wrong and just don't know it? How can I, a complete lifting beginner take every set to failure and others don't do it until years in their training? I must be doing something wrong right?
This is such a good summation for beginners and a great reminder for those of us who have been training a long time and might be caught up in the little shit. Amazing content as always!
I've definitely got caught up in the little shit. Probably laziness on my part. It totally is. Lol But in the last month I've been trying to fix it. 1.5 months only & it seems to be working
YAY! New favorite training RU-vidr! Pushed previous favs Jeff Nippard and Athlean-X (Jeff Cavaliere) to side instantly! Love the "academic approach delivered in fun, plain language" - yet still eloquent. Uni feels like a lifetime away, but would have loved a professor like you!
I’ve been working out for almost 10 years coming up in March (since I was 14) and I’ve made so many mistakes. Every day I feel like I learn something new about working out. Only in the past few months have I really started training with 0-3 RIR. Never came across my mind to challenge my muscles like that. I would always “fluff and pump” light weight. I’m seeing more changes in my body now than i ever have. Kudos to mike mentzer intensity ideology and dr Israel’s tips for volume and intensity.
Ive been lifting as a hobby for 20 years or so and competing in combat sports for 8 or 9 years (stopped about 4 years ago from wear and tear in my body). Twoce a day 5 or 6 days a week with a focus on performance increase and endurance. I find it so difficult to get out of the mindset of just blasting everything until im almost throwing up and then dragging myself home to recover for the next one later that day/night. Im now trying to trian in a more healthy way and maintain an aesthetic, athletic look. It's so hard to break basically a lifetime of habits. I must be training with shitty form because even the "high volume" workouts you mention are less than im doing, and i dont exactly look like a bodybuilder, lol. I probably need a rainer to look at my approach, but in the meantime this channel is super helpful so thanks for the info. I had an S&C coach for a few years who used to constantly berate me for "overtraining" but i thought she was just a pvssy who didnt fight so what did she know 😂. Looking back i wish id listened more because im riddled with little injuries mow im mid thirties and fighting is behind me.
If you want to drive home the point of this video, find his video on optimizing your bicep work outs. I went from 9-12 sets per week for biceps to 4 sets per week and barely recover by the next week. This man is a genius and/or a masochist.
As a PhD in engineering I’m hearing high quality materials here! I developed the quality by research, my engineering problem solving but it’s awesome to learn the foundations from Dr. Mike and save time reinventing the wheel.
Frickin love this channel. By far, by bar, by -- wait for it -- far, the best channel for learning the ins and outs of weight training and hypertrophy (I feel like I've watched them all too). As most do, I started out completely backwards. I've been studying Dr Mike's tips for about a year and it's completely transformed my programming. I can do two sets of most exercises nowadays (after a thorough warmup) and be destroyed (great pump, etc), yet recover on time for session two of that week. And with myoreps and myorep matches, it's even more effective. I'm doing upper/lower split, 4 total days per week and feeling so great about it. Thanks again and as usual!
I love this guy…. I have been training since dec 2022… I have learned this the hard way…. All the points dr Mike has mentioned are gold stuff… people don’t get results from gym is becoz they don’t do things right…. Thank you dr Mike ❤
On week two of the RP app. Still super weird to see reps of 13 and 17 called out. Feel like I double/triple check all my to make sure I’m following the program correctly. Love the app so far!
This guy is completely right I did 9 past failure sets of quads yestersay and 4 sets of calves and I looked like a penguin shuffling out of the gym with my legs shaking, I’ve always done atg squats but these super rom movements are fire esp on leg extensions and continuing as if to do another until the weight doesn’t move more than 2 inches from a full stretch is the best training I’ve ever gotten I love his full stretch training because it lets you go past failure on most movements and I still believe I’m getting stimulus with long length partials until I can’t move the weight at all
I appreciate these videos so much. No weird grinning energetic waving arms uncontrollably at me like a used car salesman... (why so many youtubers think that is necessary is beyond me) no 'This is the one true way', just information well thought out and presented... and this video had the best placed namaste I've ever seen.
10:07 - I was literally thinking about how you must dislike German Volume Training before you got here in the video. Fantastic explanation that makes fantastic sense. I’m constantly learning more beyond Poliquin that I never understood a decade ago.
One of the best videos! 💯 I learned so much. Explains why training too close to failure and AT failure got me injured, as well as not realizing I had been stronger and leaner when I used to stop with 2 RIR.
Great info as always, Dr Mike. It makes me wish you could be a fly on the wall for my week's workouts, watching me do all my sets and taking notes to give me some guidance on what I should adjust or un-fuck. I think my form is solid and my structure is okay, but my gains are slow. Some of it I blame on muscles that are just stubborn (i.e. my pecs), but others I wonder if I'm doing something wrong or not enough.
What if your wish came true, and I was a fly on the wall, but then I just buzzed and shat on your power rack and you swatted at me and I flew away? - Dr. Mike
Dr. Mike, will you do a video on Mike Mentzer’s style of training? It’s basically 1 set to total failure per exercise. Only one set. Apparently it works well.
@@szklanyy this. Plus Mike and Dorian didn’t used low volume or one hard all out set. They used multiple sets with enough stimulus to generate response but they don’t count them.
If you want good results for the long term results, high quality and intense focus is king. Programming is the Queen that stops you then pushing yourself too hard, and points you in the not stupid direction. It's just like people who focus on not having 'unclean foods and diet soda' but couldn't tell you even roughly how many calories you have.
For too long I was obsessed with meeting a set quota per muscle group from week to week. Eventually said F-it and focused on doing 3-5 quality sets a week and have been graced with expedient gains and just feel better overall.
@joshmoronstein I thought so too, but I do go pretty close to failure and to failure on isolation exercises. Granted I might have to increase the number over a long period of time. But for now it works.
Everyone has negative things to say when you make progress, nobody will ever tell you to keep up the good work. I'm here to tell you to keep up the good work!
The robot sound at 15:40 is extremely well done. I was listening to it in the background and had to go back and watch the video to make sure you didn't pull out a turntable.
Excellent video! It’s good to be reminded of which key variables are important in structuring an effective program. It is kind of an art and science, and knowing your body well.
Mike I love the way you explain training I thought that I would never find a guy like yourself that also trains and is highly capable of doing the exercises great job 👏
Very informative, thank you. Your approach/mindset is what I’ve held for the last few years now. Playing Disc Golf at the frequency that I do will throw in additional variables and has almost completely functioned as my lower body workouts. Pitch Count (especially after 30miles in a weekend) can leave my shoulder off limits for 5 days. Sometimes I’ll bruise or pull something, other times I will be playing 15miles in a day. It’s now the off-season and I can do more lifting to compensate and continue with the gains
Damn, thanks Mike. This was a really helpful reference for me. If my sets decrease in reps on gymnastic ring dips throughout the workout maybe my quality and technique are decent enough, I may decide to decrease my sets from 4-6x4-6 down to 3-4x4-6 and see how that goes. I was not needing more sets as I had thought. I was getting more volume in my workouts, but I wasn't feeling 100% by the next push day session.
I agree with this absolutely from a training focus standpoint. But I think if we’re talking key factors for growth we need to talk about the bodily state ie nutrition and hormonal/health profiles.
Mike, I have a favor to ask from you, from coach to coach: Please make some content on endurance and conditioning! there is so many contrary beliefs out there between coaches and educators :(
I took your advice on quantity from another video, and wrote out my program with quantity first. Thought it was the right way, and works out very well.
It's interesting because there is the debate high volume vs low volume, but with rp's system (a lot of people suppose it to be high volume) and for big muscles I dont go over 10 sets per week at the end of my meso (like a "low volume" approach), but for biceps and delts i go over 20 and 30 respectively
Good stuff. Using decent technique i have been going heavy, to failure way too often. It left me asking if everyone who lifts was just always in a constant state of pain, fatigued and never feeling recovered. I have to force myself to do less volume though i can do it, my body doesnt actually appreciate it. Scaling back volume only, i have felt 100% again on off days and not like my cns is attacking me every day.
I know the comments are funny and witty but I just wanted to say that I’ve been implementing Mike’s principles he talks about into my training and I’ve already seen a noticeable difference. It’s only been two weeks. I feel better, I feel stronger and I know I look bigger. These quads don’t lie 🤫
I check many boxes but am doubting frequency and intensity, I know my body well for my current plan, I put on 10-15lbs about every 3 months minus some that life gets in the way. All being said I started a diary, have been great on exercise and just started nutrition. It’s holding me to structure and in a few months I can look back and judge myself whole heartedly. With your expert laws I have written down in the back of my journal.
1. I hired a personal trainer to show me how to do exercises. 2. Pick a weight where I can do a couple sets of 10-15 reps. 3. If it ain't sore, it can be trained again. My n00b routine.
This is the best video so far. Exactly what I was trying to explain to one of my clients... I wonder how much people will now go "well it doesn't matter how much sets or reps I do,its all about the effort" and they continue to do like 20 sets of 60 reps with 8 pound dumbbells...
So if I’m trying to lose weight (currently 5’3”M 168lbs, goal 120lbs) my thought is: - 1350 cal intake a day (2 meals a day) - Full body workout 2x a week (2-5 sets per week) Tues/Thurs - 30 minute stair climber Wed Goal 1: Get to 160lbs. over a span of 4-6 weeks. Goal 2: maintenance for 2-4 weeks Goal 2: Cut to 150lbs (Repeat until at 120) Am I off in my logic? I don’t want to lift too heavy and too often because I want to keep my muscle weight down, but I want to maintain my muscle and not lose all of it. And cardio is low because I am losing a bit of weight (1-1.5% per week) and don’t feel the need to be more aggressive.
The elephant (what really matters the most) in the room is your genetic androgen receptor distribution. I have overdeveloped (according to Menno's FFMI calculator) shredded calves that I never specifically train (besides in compound movements like lunges etc.) and underdeveloped upper arms that I progressively overload and deload with "perfect" slow slow techniques and wide range of volume. Just enjoy the process and resist the lure of social media "perfection/expectation", which inevitably leads to body dysmorphia.
When I first started "training" we didn't have this kind of info. I had a book that kinda helped, "The Body Sculpting Bible for Men". I still had to trial and error, no idea how to diet either. Advice from gym bros who didn't really know, or were full of hsit. Thanks for this constant, actual advice!
The app has me doing only 4 sets of chest per workout, twice a week. I initially thought it's not enough volume. 4 weeks later still only doing 4 sets but have increased both reps and weight. Best meso I've had so far! I used to start each meso with 16 sets. Finally got that lower chest developed so I don't look like I have boobies🤗
Excellent point! Each one of us knows intuitively this point. The number of reps or sets or sessions we can tolerate depends in first place on how we do the execrcies, right? Like Andy Gaplin mentioning that it is not which exercise is more important than how we do those exercises.
Mike you have amazing amounts of muscle your users would like to see what you look like more lean not crazy lean but enough to really see your muscle separations and this also could show people you know how to loose fat and still keep muscle .I already know but it would be cool for you to walk us through it with your own personal experience.Thanks and I love your sense of humor 😊
Could we get a video on WHY strength training and hypertrophy training are different? It makes no sense to me that the body would evolve separate pathways to build massive strength and to build muscle, since it seems like the whole point of building muscle is to increase strength. It’s like if certain types of learning grew a bigger brain, but didn’t make you smarter. What would be the point??
RP has covered it a ton in their books and other videos. It comes down to the body only having so much bandwidth to go around. If you train for strength, under 5 reps, the resources are spent on recovery because fatigue and damage shoot through the roof. Muscle growth is done by increasing the volumes or keeping volumes high and the reps higher than 5 to net the best stimulus to fatigue so resources can be spent on building muscle with a much smaller amount going to recovery.
They are far more similar than different. Strength training just also implies practicing the application of strength in both technique, psychology, and neuromuscular coordination and focus is placed on hypertrophying whatever muscles will help you move the most weight not what makes you look bigger. Otherwise everything just boils down to the body making a muscle bigger so it can handle more load. Other things like changing muscle fiber types matter very little or stuff like sarcoplasmic vs myofibular hypertrophy which likely don't occur at all in any meaningful way.
Adding to what covered in cooments above. There is quite difference to lift weight once and lifting it for many reps. You can call it "strength endurance" vs "strenght".
@@kozmo7 when you train for strength do you train isolation too? Like biceps triceps? And if so do you train them for strength too and at what reps 3 to 6 also?
I personaly train every muscle group about every 4-6 days (asymetrical split), cause my job as a nurse hurts my recovery so much, that those typical "2x p. Week" Splits just don't work for me. I just can't recover from a session within 2-3 days while daily doing 20k+ steps, pushing beds and lifting heavy people on shift
