More Support for Infrequent Whole-Body Workouts

So I did my first 5-compound-set workout yesterday (+ calves + ~HIIT cardio), and it felt better than I expected. Beforehand, I thought it probably wouldn't feel like it would be enough. But that was not the case. I felt good. It felt right. Total time under tension (excluding calves) was about 10.5 minutes (remember that I do each leg separately). The resistance portion of the workout lasted about 35 minutes, however this included calves, which I also did one at a time, on a stair, and unweighted for just over 50 ~slow, full-range reps for each calf. I didn't time the calf work TUT, but I figure that without them, the workout would have been about 30 minutes.

I expected the workout to leave me wanting, because I remember a time when I did 4-5 sets of a single exercise for a given larger muscle group, and not just one exercise for that muscle group. But that was then. True, I was able to get away with doing much more when younger, but I also didn't do the reps quite as deliberately and probably not to the same level of failure. And, as I got results, I kept adding to the routine. ("If some is good, then more is better.") Presently, I'm traveling that road in the opposite direction: just how little is enough. And it's a timely exercise since, as Doug McGuff said in the video I posted above, as we get older we are operating on thinner margins, with less room for error. And I wish to operate well within the margin. So much so, that I'm now exploring the lower end of that margin.

With any luck, I won't feel compelled to tweak this routine for a while. I'll keep any eye out for any changes in strength or body composition, and I'll report back any notable observations. At this point, I imagine few if any people care. But, if I can do as well (or better?) by doing less, I would imagine that might give some of you folks something to think about.
 
Frederick Foresight said:
So I did my first 5-compound-set workout yesterday (+ calves + ~HIIT cardio), and it felt better than I expected. Beforehand, I thought it probably wouldn't feel like it would be enough. But that was not the case. I felt good. It felt right. Total time under tension (excluding calves) was about 10.5 minutes (remember that I do each leg separately). The resistance portion of the workout lasted about 35 minutes, however this included calves, which I also did one at a time, on a stair, and unweighted for just over 50 ~slow, full-range reps for each calf. I didn't time the calf work TUT, but I figure that without them, the workout would have been about 30 minutes.

I expected the workout to leave me wanting, because I remember a time when I did 4-5 sets of a single exercise for a given larger muscle group, and not just one exercise for that muscle group. But that was then. True, I was able to get away with doing much more when younger, but I also didn't do the reps quite as deliberately and probably not to the same level of failure. And, as I got results, I kept adding to the routine. ("If some is good, then more is better.") Presently, I'm traveling that road in the opposite direction: just how little is enough. And it's a timely exercise since, as Doug McGuff said in the video I posted above, as we get older we are operating on thinner margins, with less room for error. And I wish to operate well within the margin. So much so, that I'm now exploring the lower end of that margin.

With any luck, I won't feel compelled to tweak this routine for a while. I'll keep any eye out for any changes in strength or body composition, and I'll report back any notable observations. At this point, I imagine few if any people care. But, if I can do as well (or better?) by doing less, I would imagine that might give some of you folks something to think about.
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Can you list the exercises you are referring to when you say 5 compound set? 5 sets of what, just curious.

My home gym has some limitations so in order to break up my monotony been doing a specific area each day to keep me involved.
 
El OchoCinco said:
Can you list the exercises you are referring to when you say 5 compound set? 5 sets of what, just curious.

My home gym has some limitations so in order to break up my monotony been doing a specific area each day to keep me involved.
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Sure. First, I'll tell you what equipment I use. I have the Perfect Multi-Gym, which I use only for pull-ups and chin-ups:


I also have these dipping bars, which I use for dips as well as inverted rows:

https://www.decathlon.ca/en/dip-bar...04-demodelsize-254/26187-demodelcolor-8379822

And, I have dumbbells exactly like these:

images


My first compound exercise is pistol squats, for which I use the dumbbells. I do the calf raises right after, to finish legs and to give my body time to rest for the upper body work because the pistols to failure are quite draining.

My next compound is either pull -ups (pronated, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip) or chin-ups (supinated, narrow grip about 6 inches apart). I now alternate these rather than do both in the same workout.

Next are inverted rows. So the day I do pull-ups, I will do supinated rows, and when I do chin-ups, I will do pronated rows. Both are at ~shoulder-width hand placement.

After that, I do dips.

And then I finish the resistance portion of the routine with push-ups. I no longer do them with my feet elevated, because I find that when I do the as described in this video I posted recently, with the glutes tucked in and held tight, I can make it as challenging if the cadence is slow enough and the range of motion is complete:

Frederick Foresight said:
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As an aside, I completed my abbreviated routine for the second time yesterday, and I noted the times under tension:

Pistol squats: ~130 seconds per leg (followed by slow, full-range, unweighted calf raises, ~200 seconds per leg).

Chin-ups: ~95 seconds. (Full range, with no hanging at the bottom, but held for an extra second or 2 at the top.)

Inverted rows: 110 seconds, with no hanging at the bottom. Again, full range, although getting the chest to touch the bar becomes progressively more difficult towards the end because of the increasing pump.

Dips: ~75 seconds. Full range, all the way to the bottom (perhaps more than necessary, but I love the stretch) and not holding the locked position at the top). I'm a bit disappointed with the TUT for this exercise.

Push-ups: ~135 seconds.
 
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I've just completed the third workout with my lower volume regimen, as detailed previously. A couple of changes going forward. I will be doing the push-ups with my feet elevated again, but with the same body positioning as outlined in the push-up video I posted recently. That is with the glutes tucked in and held tight. It makes a difference. I found that I began doing a few more reps than I wish to do to failure at my current cadence, and the angle of the push-ups with my feet on the floor seems to have gradually caused my compromised left shoulder to flair up for some reason. I'm very attentive to form, so I guess the peculiarity of my old shoulder injury doesn't like that body angle. It is the only recent change to form that I have made to exercise movement, and so I am inclined to believe it is the culprit.

The other change is that instead of doing the reduced volume workout twice a week, I will revert to 3 times every 2 weeks, as I had been doing before I reduced the volume. This reduction is motivated in part by my shoulder discomfort, which I hope will resolve as I go back to doing push-ups with my feet elevated. In due course, I will decide if I want to do this very low volume workout twice a week.
 
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CaptainObvious said:
Here is how I began the routine. I started with my usual warm shower. When finished I slowly dialed it back to cool, not cold. That was the first few times. After that each day I dialed it back more and more. Took about 2 weeks to get to actual cold water. Today I have found what I thought was a warm shower was actually pretty damn hot. I now start with luke warm/cool, dial it back to cold and while the first few seconds are a holy shit moment, it really isn't all that bad after 30 seconds or so. It feels much colder on your head and face than on the rest of your body, so I focus more on the body. I usually last about 2-3 minutes in that cold water. I'm telling you, it's worth a try for a few weeks.
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https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/how-an-ice-bath-may-undermine-your-weight-workout.343368/
 
This video isn't about whole body workouts, but it stresses the importance of moderating volume and frequency in the face of high intensity:


What I found interesting was the frequency with which Tom Platz's trained his legs. Not that I would space my (leg) workouts that far apart, but I found the balancing of the 3 variables (volume, frequency, and intensity) instructive.

John Heart, who was a competitive bodybuilder, has some informative videos on his Youtube page.
 
And even though this fellow, John Heart, thinks training should be done fairly infrequently, he is not a fan of whole body workouts as you become more advanced:


He wrote in an article that the best progress he made his best progress with Mike Mentzer's "Ideal Routine" which was a fairly low volume split routine calling for 4 days rest between workouts. He had already been training for 8 years before starting this routine. Here is the article, which also outlines the routine:

http://oldbutstrong.co.uk/brothers/result-producing-routine-john-heart
 
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On his YouTube channel, Heart often refers to having to lift heavy weights to failure to maximize muscle growth. However, in this one, it seems that he came across some research (a topic, along with research, that I brought up in other threads) concluding that lighter weights yield a similar result if also taken to failure:


Here is the video discussing the research that John Heart referred to:

 
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