More Support for Infrequent Whole-Body Workouts

Frederick Foresight said:
Back to the topic at hand. Despite my having reduced my workout frequency from twice a week to 3 times every 2 weeks a few months a go, a couple of my joints have been increasingly vying for attention, and my sleep has become somewhat fractured. Admittedly, I'm under a bit more stress these days, but that's just life.

And so, I decided yesterday to reduce my resistance workout frequency to once a week. Again. I've done it before for well over a year, as I reported in the past, and didn't seem the worse for wear. I recall being better rested and having less joint awareness. I will just have to be a little more conscious of my caloric intake, which I was planning to do anyway. Working out only once a week should make that easier. My workout will continue to be 10 hard compound sets to true failure plus a set of calf raises, followed by about 5-6 minutes of ~HIIT. I will, once again, do an additional ~HIIT workout, perhaps adding a minute to it, during the week.
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Go slower, lighter and more volume.
Your joints will love you!
 
DTB2 said:
Go slower, lighter and more volume.
Your joints will love you!
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I do go slow. Six to 8 seconds per rep, as I've noted in the past. Usually 6. But I go all out to full concentric failure to static (in good form), where I continue to exert for a few seconds and then exaggerate the negative. It adds up. Even if it were not for the joints, my sleep has become a bit more fractured, which suggests that I might be overdoing it. I'd rather err on the side of undertraining than overtraining. So either I have to do fewer total sets per workout, lower my intensity, or lower my workout frequency. I chose Door No. 3.
 
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Okay, a bit of "deep thinking" here. So I reported almost a week ago that I will be doing only one full-body workout a week comprising 10 compound sets and one isolation set. This is down from 3 such workouts every 2 weeks (averaging 1.5 times a week), which I had been doing for a few months and which was down from twice a week, which I had been doing at this volume for something over a year before that.

Now I'm thinking that I might do two 5-set full-body workouts a week rather than the one 10-set workout (excluding the isolation set, and ~HIIT cardio which I always do at the end of a resistance routine). It's the same reduction in volume, obviously, but each workout will be more bite-sized. I'm leaning in this direction because I can divide the workout into 2 almost identical workouts (I like uniformity). This will allow me to do each workout with greater intensity because of the lower volume, and make each workout that much more doable even if I find myself fairly busy and taxed.

The funny thing is that, even well into my 40s, I was spending upwards of 7.5 hours in the gym, and now this proposed workout amounts to little more than rounding error by comparison. If someone had told me at that time that this is where I would be today, I would have laughed at him. I guess the laugh's on me. :D Even so, I only wish I had done all this experimenting sooner.

I've taken a planned 10 days off since my last workout as I've been feeling increasingly fatigued, so tomorrow is Day 1 of this experiment.

Any thoughts about this latest twist among you folks who work out regularly?
 
DTB2 said:
Gotta get a set of curls in, right?!
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No, calf raises. I’m doing pronated pull-ups and supinated rows on one day, and supinated chin-ups and pronated rows the next. I read a study (and posted it a while back) that concluded isolation exercises don’t really add anything in terms of strength or size if relevant multi-joint exercises are done. The reason for calf raises, then, is because, although squats work the calves, the range of motion is limited for calves when doing squats.
 
Frederick Foresight said:
No, calf raises. I’m doing pronated pull-ups and supinated rows on one day, and supinated chin-ups and pronated rows the next. I read a study (and posted it a while back) that concluded isolation exercises don’t really add anything in terms of strength or size if relevant multi-joint exercises are done. The reason for calf raises, then, is because, although squats work the calves, the calf range of motion is limited.
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Wow, proud of you. Not even a show muscle-LOL
 
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