Why Training EASIER Can Drastically Increase Strength (Ft. DataDrivenStrength) 

Since some of this material is even challenging for me, Josh and Zac have agreed to answer your questions. If you have anything you want to ask them regarding the research, submit your question below in this thread specifically, and they'll answer as many as they can. They're extremely informed. Very nice of them to do, so a big thank you to them! Ask away here ⬇️

The more I learn about exercise science... the less it seems I know

Tfw training easier is harder than training hard.

"Whereas a LOT of intermediates slam into a wall of multi-set RPE 8 volume." I feel personally attacked.

It's a good day when candito the burrito uploads

I train by the Spetsnaz pain endurance philosophy. I squat, bench, and deadlift at maximum RPE and maximum volume everyday regardless of joint pain or injuries. Im a quadriplegic.

Ahhhh sub maximal training 🧐 Great vid JC

The more experienced I become in lifting the more that training easier is true. You can make excellent progress without killing yourself abs being more strategic

Johnny: Train EASIER than last time! Coach Greg in the background: *NANI??*

I'm going to use an empty barbell and leave a couple hundred reps in the tank. Should get max gains

Dare u to drop the 7 week program

greg doucette: train harder than last time chongie bandito: train easier than last time

Totally agree! I am an intermediate level lifter and was burying myself being stuck in that same weight mindset. I started adjusting the weight to how it felt and doing the subsequent work light enough to keep feeling like the rpe level I was supposed to be at. Bench and squat blew up.

Thanks for what you do for the community. Have a good one Candito!

Louie Simmons smirking in dynamic effort day

17:09 That note hit hard. This might prove to be one of Jonnie’s most impactful videos. Thanks for all the awesome content!

Really well articulated. I'm on my last week of a block with couple lighter weeks coming up, but I'll have to incorporate these ideas in the next block.

Thumbnail time has me crying. I appreciate your dedication to this.

Wow. Thanks for posting this! I was looking for information on this exact topic this week and was having trouble finding anything on it

the guy squatting at 10 minutes turning the bar into complete jello is super satisfying

Videos going to be a banger!! Checking it out right now man!

Train to get stronger... or train to make the depressive thoughts and feelings go away... 2nd please

Thanks! I did this for years without having words to describe it.

Good stuff. Turns out I have been applying this concept to my training already. Now I finally understand how and why it works. Thanks!

Crazy you just uploaded a video on RPE. I'm really getting into it and downloaded a great chart tonight.

Fantastic vid mate.

What a good video. Educational, informative, applicable, just excellent!

You make great videos Jonnie. Keep it up

This is great information. It’s something I’ve intuitively known to be true for a while, but have never conceptualised it so clearly

Well this went far over my head. I'll be back after a nights sleep.

Was stuck at around 330 lbs in the squat for over two years, yet I was always the «hardest working» person in the gym grinding out reps. I obviously did not know much about programming but damn my RPE 10 sets would have made even David Goggins proud.

Fantastic video, and great both anecdotal and scientific evidence for not beating yourself up. You also managed to subtly outline all the problems with RPE (perceptual measure and people lie, especially themselves).

I really like the data driven portion of this. I have always felt that strength response was kind of a moving target - some lower RPE efforts lead to gains and training to high RPE (approaching failure) also generate gains, but I am never clear on how this works or when. This was a bit of an eye opener for me. I appreciate it very much, John and crew!

Thanks Candy Toe! My main takeaways are that in strength work is best done with progressively heavier weight, low reps, and little effort (low RPE). Save the high RPE work for bodybuilding and hypertrophy. Cookie cutter programs like 5/3/1 just won't cut it because they really don't factor stuff like this. I'm planning on getting to true strength work in the hopes that I'll really smash some plateaus!

This is interesting that you posted this as I'm currently restructuring my training with force production being the main focus. I started this week off hitting heavily fatigued (accumulated from previous weeks training at 85-95%) singles and then backing off to 80% of said single and pressing with as much force as possible, for eg bench hit 186kg with back off sets of 148•8kg for 10x3reps and I felt like I had more in the tank even though volume and intensity were both higher than the previous week doing 5x5 at 80% of projected max, I feel much better and the rest of the week will be working on speed/velocity work at very low %.. I'm clearly a newb with programming but judging by how I feel at the moment whilst simultaneously switching from night shift last week to day shift this week (which usually makes me feel worse) it's going to be a productive few weeks, hopefully..

This is the content the powerlifting world needs right now. Amazing work, Jonnie boy.

The only problem with this approach that I personally have is the inability to accurately judge RPEs bellow 9.

Absolutely quality Johnny

Great video Johnny

I saw an MMA fighter talking about training at 70% of their max effort 5-6 times a week rather than going 100% then needing 2 days to recover. By training volume at a lower intensity you can do 420% a week of effort as opposed to 300%. surely bring huge gains in the long term and less stress on the body. I'm always reminded of farmer strength

Louie Simmons: "You could not live with your high RPE sets for power development. Where did that bring you? Back to me."

Great video, and very insightful! This sounds like pretty standard training for high load power (higher force/lower velocity) development though with maybe more sets than normal to accumulate greater volume. It's just swapping percentages for RPE. I'm not sure if you've read the Periodization textbook by Tudor Bompa and Carlo Buzzichelli, but it delineates some of what is being discussed here in a percentage based format. The five rep difference when working at an RPE of 5 with 10RM loads is what they would call a buffer. In percentage based terms, doing 3 reps at 80% of 1RM would be a 10% buffer because 90% of 1RM would equate to about a 3RM load (obviously with significant inter-lifter variation). 5-10% buffers for strength development, 10-20% for high load power (what is basically being discussed here), and 20-40% buffer for low load power development (high velocity movements similar to conjugate programming). So doing sets of 3 at 80% of 1RM or a 10% buffer (~5RPE) and accumulating volume is just training high load power with possibly greater sets than normally used to hit the volume target. It's a good tactic for strength development as high load power and strength have significant overlap.

I'm already excited for Coach greggs angry answer to this

@Barbell Medicine had a concept during one of their podcasts discussing programming variables such as lowering backdown volume sets to around 65-70% which could impart more stress with less fatigue. Sort of lines up with the idea that lower RPE volume work can be effective. It’s been fantastic for me. Awesome video legend!

Thanks for this man.

5:16 This reminds me of when Chad Wesley Smith talked to Mike T on Jugg Life about doing 8 sets of 3 one day with 515 which is like his 20 rep max, so that's RPE _negative 7_ Kind of mind boggling at first to think that can still be used for "training."

Alpha Destiny has left the lobby

The Datadrivenstrength is revolutionary in both content and coaching. - Happy client

Athlean x: Why training easier is killin ya gainz

Thanks Johnny. This is probably the biggest flaw with rpe as we know it, and why I tend to use percentages.

I am an intermediate lifter. Recently I have switched to a more bodybuilding oriented style from powerlifting (My 1st meso starts with 85% of my 10 rep) and that first week is an RPE 7 with no rep goal in mind with weight jumps and volume increases to keep the RPE relatively consistent until the last few wekks of the block where it jumps to 8 and 9. This has worked pretty well for me. for example i did incline db for 3 x RPE 7 and my reps were 12, 10, and 9. next push day i add a set. Even if im fried in thhe fourth set next week and i get like 6 i still accumulate a pretty decent amount of volume over time by using this. This isnt really on topic with the video but i already typed this out lmao

This is what coach Ray preaches to me.

"80% for a set of 8 RPE 7.5".. Googles RTS RPE Chart: 8 @ 10 = 79%

I'm gonna have to watch this a couple timea

What up candito!

I needed to hear this...

Love the thumbnail time.

Gotta he honest everything candito tries to explain comes out long-winded and tangential, while I immediately understood the takeaways from the DDS section.

15:33 for key insight

Hey Johnny, currently running Texas method and think I was meant to see this video as my volume days are starting to suck and PR's are just about stall. Thanks man

Top notch 🔥

Drop the 7 Week eyebrow prince also check ur email

Honestly, I run a percentage based 5/3/1, and always short myself 2-3 reps on the as many as possible last set. Grinding and running too high an RPE makes me progress slower, and just puts me at risk to injury. I progress way faster by not grinding. I prefer to focus on a lower RPE gauge and do things that increase difficulty with that lower RPE, like pause squats, longer times under tension, shorter rest times, etc.

The way I like to calculate my sets is based on how many reps I need at a given weight to match estimated 1RM. For example, if I bench 315 1RM and my workout that day is like this, my set calculation would be as follows: Warmup: 225 * 6. 225 AMRAP ~ 12. This is 6/12 of a set. Set 1: 275 * 6. 275 AMRAP ~ 6. This is 6/6 of a set. Set 2: 275 * 3. 3/6 of a set. This day I did 2 sets to failure then if I add all those fractions up.

The study looks into only one aspect which is is improving strength over the short term. While staying away from failure may be optimal for short term strength gain by maximizing intensity to volume ration, which theoretically checks out, hypertrophy gains that contribute to the long term strength goals are overlooked by the studies.

If I do a set of 8 with zero reps in reserve, the next set with the same weight will be 5 reps at max even after 10 minutes of rest. You can't do 3 by 8 with the same weight and say your intensity is high. Unless you are a crossfitter and have really good muscle endurance.

Very interesting. Just 3 weeks ago I started doing 10 sets of 5 for both deadlifts and squats to accumulate more volume than I’ve ever done, keeping the weights lower than ever. I’m pretty fried after doing the 10th set but the speed of the reps appear to be fast and keep the same velocity throughout all the sets. I’ll be doing the same thing for bench press going forward.

I was an intermediate lifter before taking a 4 year break from lifting, I was killing myself in the gym and now when I got back to it, I'm making way faster, consistent gains while training easier and never going anywhere near failure on main compound lifts. Wish I had this knowledge when I started the grind.

Awesome thank you

Sick video

I think its important to state what RPE10 is for some people. One could define it as having nothing else to give, dying the way up and barely completing the rep. But usually it is deemed that RPE 10 should be a technical breakdown point meaning you do not have any more controlled reps in you. You might get one or two fugly reps, but that not the point of training.

this is a great video I share a very similar approach with my client base with great success

babe wake up. new candito vid

Brilliant!

Johnny got the strongest eyebrows for sure.

thanks jonnie .. this has fucked with me for years .. i thought it was just me and iw as like yeah how do people do rpe 8 or 9 for 3 sets of 8 thats insane .. haha thanks for sharing man this is a lot more clear

RPE 1 guys to get strong AF!!!!!

I trained with 100 percent RPE training for a period and made decent progress, but the backoff weight selection was so difficult for me. I tried hitting true "RPE X" for those backoff sets instead of undershooting as many do, and probably did more work than the person who wrote it intended me to do. For the last 6 months I've been on different programming that is mostly RPE top sets and then a percentage of the top set weight for backoffs. I've made much more progress with this style of programming. The mix of self regulation/skill in selecting top set weights and the objectivity of the backoff set loads is a good balance. And yes, most of the backoff work ends up being RPE 6 or lower

If you put all of this info in a program/workout guide I will give you my soul

So to put some numbers for a hypothetpical intermediate lifter: A basic program might call for deadlifts at 3x8 @rpe8 which equates to about 74% according most RPE tables. Our lifter’s max is 450 lbs. so the basic program would have the lifter do 3x8 w/ about 335lbs. However this suggests that it would be more beneficial to do 6x4 at ~335lbs (which should be about RPE 4). And maybe doing the top set at a true 4 reps at RPE8 which is ~84%=~380 before backing off to sets of 335. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, please! Personally this *sounds* really good and that the science backs it up. I’d love to implement this into my training

this is the first thing i considered when i saw RPE based training programs written out. "3 sets of 5 at RPE 8? Does that mean that i want to get to RPE 8 by the last rep of the last set? I'm gonna get more tired as I go..." It's definitely weird to think about when you expand RPE beyond single reps and bar speed on a specific set

I gotta be honest I don’t think I could distinguish rpe 6 from 4 or 5. That is why I use linear progression with block periodization wile paying attention to rpe until I can get enough experience to where I could tell exactly how much I have left. I feel that rpe is the single greatest thing a lifter could master. I have had many days where I have worked 12 hour shifts and the weight feels like it’s going to kill me but then I don’t miss a single rep.

Saving it for later.

THE GOAT

Atwood’s deadlift is literally perfect

I was just about to say hol up my man, whats with the speed work from westside then but my boy instantly spit some fax about that too. Is he getting into my head?

Thanks Jonnie.

This seems to align well for both squat and deadlift, in my experience. Trained all three lifts with light weights, higher reps for around 2 months. Could max my deadlift at a meet, and even though I didn't max my squat I'm sure I could have, given how smooth my current 1rm felt. Didn't really do much for my bench, I think. Did misgroove my last attempt, tho, so who knows.

Completely agree it worked for me

goooooodly content

Love the thumbnail, Respect Candito, hAnDSomE bean

Hey Candito, your 6 week program is amazing but is there anything you would modify/change about it all these years later now that you have more knowledge and experience?

I've primarily used 5 sets of 10 reps with 50-60%. It's not too easy and it's not overly fariguing. I haven't used RPE but it seems like an similar alternative for those that don't like to calculate percentages

Seans squat looks horrendous lol.

Wow, high sets low easy reps always helped me gain the most strength but i thought it may have been from other factors cause it ran contrary to what i knew at the time…

OK DDS YOU GET THAT CANDITO FEATURE

Wish I would’ve seen this before my shoulder injury

It seems that the data driven science guys were talking about force production, not hypertrophy. What I got was that the earlier reps in a set allow for more force production, as the set goes on fatigue from each rep increases disproportionately resulting In less force production. Thus by the rule of specificity the reps towards the end of the set are worse for increasing 1rpm because they are less specific to force production. I.e for the sake of increasing force production it may be more beneficial to do the same weight for less reps but the at same amount of volume. Thus you will skip out on the less efficient reps towards the end of the set. However, this doesn't seem to have anything to do with hyoertrophy. Evidence suggests that hypertrophy and strength are typically closely related (i.e athletes with more muscle tend to be stronger). To my understanding what is most important for a hypertrophic stimulus is as much volume as possible at an appropriate intensity as to not jeopardize the rest of your workouts during the week (fatigue management). It's generally easier to get more volume in with higher repetition sets that may be less efficient for force production. It makes me wonder where that balance is. It seems to suggest to me that = volume at lower repetitions will result in the same hypertrophic stimulus (based on how I understand hypertrophy) and a greater force production stimulus. However, accumulating a lot of volume with lower repetitions may be difficult. I think this is why barbell medicine programs tend to switch between higher repititions and lower repetitions in different cycles. To sort of achieve the best of both worlds.

How do you go about tracking your progress? I usually don't move the weight throughout a workout unless it's time to permanently increase the weight (judged by RPE). If you're constantly changing the weight to stay at a specified RPE, that seems really hard to track progress accurately and know when to add weight.

This is actually so true, I was doing 4 sets to failure on bench and my bench didn’t go up at all after 2 months... hopped on this mans 6 week program and my max shot up 25 pounds first cycle