Low Volume, High(er) Frequency

Many of you are hitting bodyparts/lifts once a week because that is all you can recover from.
Many people with so-so recovery would like to train more frequently to maximize stimulous/response cycles. Problem is, when they attempt to increase the frequency, they outstrip their ability to recover. One solution is to keep the volume quite low--at least until work capacity comes up. Here is an example of a format I have used with some people:

Monday
Upper back/legs ME
Chin-up 4 x 6
Barbell Curl 3 x 8
Squat or deadlift variation (switch every week) 1 x 1

Wed
Chest/Shoulders/Tricep ME
Bench Press Variation (switch every week) 1 x 1
Incline DB Bench 3 x 10
Lateral Raise 4 x 8

Fri
Upper back/legs Rep Work
T-Bar Row 5 x 5
Dumbbell Curl 3 x 8
Box Squat 2 x 10 Bicep 6 sets

Sun
Chest/Shoulders/Tricep Rep Work
Dumbbell Bench 4 x 10
Dip 3 x 8
Military press 4 x 6

All max-effort lifts change every week, repetition work lifts change every four weeks, or as needed.

Iron Addict

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Many of you are hitting bodyparts/lifts once a week because that is all you can recover from.

a bodypart once a week is far from ideal. in fact, it's TOO MUCH rest bordering on deconditioning every week. HST theories specify 36 hrs as a reasonable recovery time while louie simmons specifies 72 hrs for his layout. either way, hitting a body part a min of 2x per wk should be min - unfortunately the body part once a wk which is not based on any sound weightlifting principles has become the more common approach for bbers and enthusiasts of today - the refrain being that 2 or more times per week is overtraining or only for plers...
and yet, some oly lifters (excluding the super heavies) have physiques that are far better than 99% of body part 1x per wk lifters... this given that oly lifters lift almost every day. you'd think ppl would open their eyes but it just doesn't happen - probly because M&F and Flex have made ppl believe that bodybuilding is some voodoo thing. it also doesn't help when most of the "pros" training moronically themselves (nowadays), but are blessed with good genetics and large amounts of AAS.

oh BTW, IA, that's an elegant routine

Thanks IA.

On Fridays workout, what do you mean where you've put "bicep 6 sets" next to box squat?

It may be possibl;e with the right amount of volume to hit a boody bpart 2 times per week but the effectivness of such workouts is questionabe. I bench twce per week with 99% of the time is done by doing a light day and a heavy day and also varying excersizes. It borders overtraining and i've ended up overtrained several times. There is no way I could do the same thing for all of my main bodyparts. Overtraining would surley occur. Injury would also be likely.

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the oly lifters i trained with didnt lift (almost) everyday. and normally they just went in and hit a few singles and left. their training is based on explosive movements and mainly for back and legs. squats and pulls.

36 hours is not enough time to recoup if you pounding away. 72 hours is border line, juiced or clean. i do much better when i have 96 hours.

silver how about posting up your journal in the journal section so we can see what you do and what kinda #s you hitting. reading someones training log is far more beneficial than stuff randomly posted in the training section. most of the guys in this section post their logs up for all to see. you may be a 300lber benching 600 raw or you may weigh 185 and only pull 225. we dont know til you post it up.