NO MORE JUNK VOLUME

YO, WHAT IS UP, MY BRUDDAHS!

Ahhhh, nothing like a Saturday— I’m not gonna lie, when I have a fully free Saturday to BANG SOME IRON, it’s not uncommon for me to spend 2-3hrs pretty much doing everything.

It usually goes like this, I start with some Squats take some good time there and work my way up to a good weight, then I hit some chin-ups while I’m warming up/ramping up for benching between rest breaks— then I hit 3-4 heavy sets on the bench, move forward to some DB Rows, then I hit some Face Pulls— OBVIOUSLY I could call it a day, but then I hit THAT NECROMANCY, work my way up to a heavy single, then Lateral raises, then some supersets of biceps and triceps HAHAHA

Is this OPTIMAL!? HELL NO!

I do it just because I freaking LOVE doing it— it’s therapeutic, my ritual, a way to dial in my body and mind— but in all fairness, I’m probably just introducing JUNK VOLUME to everything that comes after those Face Pulls.

The question is.

How do you know a set is building muscle and is not junk volume?

Volume is the amount of total weight you moved in a given session, you simply multiply the number of reps by the number of sets by the weight you're using, let's say you're benching 165lbs for 5 sets of 8, your volume would be:

165 lbs x 5 sets x 8 reps = 6600lbs of VOLUME.

The current scientific literature on muscle physiology, says that volume is directly correlated to muscle hypertrophy, which means, that if you're progressively increasing the total poundage in your workouts, your muscles will get bigger, assuming a few criteria are met.

This progressive increase in volume is how you introduce PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD when you're trying to generate muscle hypertrophy AKA making your muscles get bigger.

So here is the difference between QUALITY VOLUME, and JUNK VOLUME.

• QUALITY VOLUME

Is when you introduce a high-quality stimulus to your muscles that will be conducive to adaptation in a given set.

To introduce high-quality stimulus your muscles need to be RECOVERED, they need to be able to perform at the best of their ability, so you can introduce a stimulus that challenges the current capacity of the muscle.

Let's say you could squat 3 plates (315lbs) for a set of 5, if someone had a shotgun pointed at your family jewels and told you to do so, that's your maximum capacity, the point where you would reach failure.

As long as you're introducing a stimulus that goes anywhere from 1 to 5 reps shy of failure, you're introducing a big enough challenge for your body that the brain will go.

"Oh shit, I'm pretty close to failing this task, I need to create an adaptation that will ensure that I don't".

The brain is a prediction machine, it'll always try to predict what will happen in the future, so the correct stimulus will make it very clear to the brain how it has to optimize itself and the body in order to raise the odds that you're going to succeed in the tasks you engage with.

• JUNK VOLUME

Is when you already introduced the high-quality stimulus, and you proceed to add volume that doesn't challenge the muscle beyond its current capacity because you read online that volume is directly correlated with hypertrophy.

The key here is RECOVERY.

After you went there and benched as heavy as you could to introduce mechanical tension, then hit whatever exercise with high reps in order to introduce metabolic stress, your muscles are toasted.

Let's say they're now operating at 30-50% capacity, if you just keep adding volume when you're already toasted, the only thing you're building is the capacity to perform at 30-50% capacity, you'll build WORK CAPACITY, which has its place when training for sports and endurance-oriented activities, but is not conducive AT ALL to muscle hypertrophy nor any high-intensity activity that requires strength, speed, and/or power.

If you want to optimally build muscle and strength, you need to make sure that in every workout, you're performing as close to 100% as you can.

That's why it's a bad idea to do 45min of cardio right before you lift, you've sapped your energy systems of valuable resources reducing the quality of your lifting session.

That’s why it’s a bad idea to establish a fixed rest time of 1min between sets, you’ll end up hitting a set while you’re not yet 100%, so take whatever time it’s necessary for you to feel fresh and hit the weights hard.

That's why it's a bad idea to go hit a muscle again even when they're still sore from the last session just because a piece of paper said so.

That's why it's a bad idea to just add volume for the sake of it, you're not fooling anybody, your brain is way smarter than you, and will only create the adaptations you seek if it's indeed an absolute NECESSITY.

So hit every set with 100% of your ability, by applying REAL EFFORT and making sure you're RECOVERED.

That’s how you avoid JUNK VOLUME.

STAY ON THE IRON PATH!

Big KISS

THE POTATO MAN