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Reignite Progress with New Science

In this article, you will learn more about:

Using myo- reps to reactivate mechanisms f or muscle growth

Using higher training f requency to make better progress

Using both light and heavy days in your program

For those of you who dont know me (and that is probably most of you), Ive been working as a coach for the

last f if teen years or so. Ive worked with clients ranging f rom average Joes to elite athletes, and in the past ,

even coached a Mr. Universe and a to p f ive f inisher in the Mr. Olympia. Ive also published hundreds o f art icles

and during periods when Ive had that pesky virus called writers block-itis, Ive worked behind the scenes with

new training methods and dietst rategies (to the delight o f all my clients who get t o be my personal lab rats).

The results have been fo rmidable, if I may say so myself, and this art icle is a brief overview of some of my

latest ideas.

For t he few of you who are able to get through one of my articles without having to resort t o several double

espressos and an oxygen mask, bear with me. My head sometimes f eels too big for my body, and when I f eel

the need to empty it of some of my thoughts, it wont be small drips of informationit will be more like a

tsunami. Bathroom breaks along the way are not only acceptablethey are also an utter necessity.

Occlusion training

In recent years, there have been several paradigm shif ts in training theory as new research is published. Of

particular interest is occlusion t raining, where subjects with what looks like a large bloo d pressure cuf f on the

arm or leg have induced signif icant muscle growtheven in trained elite lif tersusing ridiculously low weights

at 2030 percent o f ones one rep max. Yes, whole body occlusion by tightening the cuf f around your neck isst ill a funny not ion, and I know a few who have tried it (a f riend of my cousins distant relatives brother, not

me).

Later studies have shown that you can achieve a similar ef f ect without occlusion cuf f s s imply by exercising to

the point of f ailure. The criterion to get a training eff ect appears to be a high muscle f iber activation, and this

is obtained f rom the very f irst rep of heavier weights (in the range of 1RM to 8RM). With lighter loads (12RM o

more), however, you need to work closer to f ailure and will only reach the ef f ective range on the last reps of

the set

The metabolic consequence of the lack of oxygen, known as hypoxia, increases muscle f iber activation earlie

in the set. It also seems to amplif y the ef f ect of the mechanical tension applied. If you want to obtain naturalocclusion, you need to choose exercises and a rep execution that keep the muscle under const ant tension.

This makes isolat ion exercises especially suitable whereas compound or complex lif ts such as squats,

deadlif ts , and Olympic lif ts are not. Go CrossFit (sorry, couldnt help it) and you risk running out of breath and

compromising technique way before reaching the f ailure point .
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Mathias Wernbom in his lab/torture chamber.

When doing a Pub Med search on occlusion, the name Mathias Wernbom shows up quite of ten. Mathias is a

Swedish scientist and researcher who is passionate about hypertrophy, and Im f ortunate enough to know him

Several long discussions and emailconversat ions where he eagerly shared research results and insights (ma

of which is unpublishedthe peer review process has its pros and cons) have contributed to the developmen

of myo- reps. The myo-rep protocol is basically a rest- pause method with some similarities to DC training, but

also has some important dif f erences.

A brief

synopsisof myo-

reps

Af ter warm

ups and a

f ew

minutes of

rest , unrack

the chosen

load and doreps until

you hit the

f ailure

point

(leaving

one rep in

the tank

can be a

good idea).

This is the

activationset. Re-

rack the

weight,

count three

to f ive

deep

breaths,

unrack, and

do a set of

three tof ive reps.

(Thats

about a quarter of your f irst set. For example, complete f ive reps when you did 20 reps on the f irst set.) Now

re-rack, rest , and repeat until you hit another failure point. This is the auto regulation aspect. On some days

and on s ome exercises, you may only get something like 20 + 5 + 4 reps, but on other days/exercises, you ma

get 20 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 (or more). The point is t o achieve high muscle f iber activation on the activation set

and extend this ef f ect by balancing on the verge of f atigue to perfo rm more ef f ective reps, taking advantag

of all the hypertrophic signaling ef f ects o f occlusion t raining.
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For t hose of you who are imagining a scientist as a skinny geek with a white lab coat and binocular glasses (a

I did), I can tell you right now that Mathias blew that image out o f the proverbial water the very first time I met

him. He truly is one who both t alks t he talk and walks the walk. The man is as big as a housea bulldozer in

the heavyweight category. Oh, and Mathias is no st ranger to st icking giant biopsy needles into his quads af ter

a brink of death, 50-rep set of leg presses and then limping over to the electron microscope to see how the

piece of meat (which was part o f his muscle just a f ew seconds ago) responded to the onslaught. Anyway, the

point is he has observed that myo-reps with weights f rom around 50 percent of a 1RM can be equally ef f ectiv

to occlusion training with 2030 percent of a 1RM. The myo- rep protocol that I recommend for replacing

occlusion training is 20 to 25 + 5X or even up to 25 t o 30 + 6X if you want to be really bold and have a highpain threshold.

Myonuclei and muscle size

Ingrid Marie Egner at the University of Oslo has contributed to a paradigm shif t in hypertrophy research in

recent years. Ill try to explain this in short and s imple terms because this is the f airly advanced stuf f . See,

there exists a certain ratio between the s ize of a muscle cell and the number of nuclei that it has. Generally

speaking, the more nuclei, the bigger the muscleor at least the potential for a bigger muscle.

One of several mechanisms of hypertrophy is the activation of satellite cellsdormant s tem cells located in

the vicinity of muscle cells. These satellite cells merge with muscle cells and donate their nuclei whenconditions demand it. For this to happen, the muscles must be subjected to mechanical overload. Occlusion

research has shown that the metabolic ef f ects o f high rep training also activates satellite cells, even in the

presence of low mechanical tension. This, in turn, explains how occlusion and metabolic st ress are believed to

amplif y mechanical loading.

Ingrid and her team fo und that even when a muscle is subjected to deloading, or to rest ing and consequent ly

shrinking (atrophies), the number of nuclei is maintained. This is probably the reason f or the muscle memory

ef f ect. When you start training again af ter a hiatus or longer period of rest , you will quickly return to your

previous muscle size and s trength. The muscle is s imply seeking to maintain the relationship between the

number of nuclei and its size and it respo nds quickly to s timuli. You all know that it takes less time to recover

lost muscle mass t han it takes to surpass your previous best s in muscle mass, but to know the underlying

reason is valuable both in the name of exercise science and in order to st imulate f urther research. Ingrid and

her group recently made headlines with t heir research showing how anabolic stero id use/abuse leads t o a

higher number of myonuclei than what can be achieved naturally.

If you cant increase the number of nuclei, there will be a limit to how large the muscle can be, and the more

advanced you are, the harder it is to st imulate this mechanism. Studies into the repeated bout ef f ect show

that whereas moderately advanced lif ters can see a muscle protein synthes is (MPS) anabolic response f or 24

48 hours af ter a workout before returning to baseline, advanced lif ters may see the same MPS peak but the

duration is sho rter, on the order of 1216 hours. Extreme eccentric protocols utilizing loads heavier than a

concentric 1RM have been shown to reactivate satellite cells. Alas, this type o f training can also cause

microt rauma, inf lammation, and brutal soreness , which require several days of recovery. A low training

f requency with extreme training proto cols requires a long t ime to make a not iceable impact on the myonuclei

pool.

Wernbom has seen that you can achieve satellite cell activation even in elite and well trained athletes with

occlusion and light weights. See the f ollowing illustrat ion and note that f ree f low is without occlusion.


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The free flow group was only a few repetitions away from failure on the first set and probably had very high

levels of muscle f iber activation (as per the aforementioned criteria). Bloo d f low restriction (BFR) equals

occlusion. Take particular note o f the response at its peak only 24 hours af ter the workout f or the f ree f low

group (MRF positive is activated satellite cells).

Sparing the nervous system, joints, and connective tissue f rom excessive mechanical tension, the inf lammatio

that arises f rom this type of training is usually transient and the muscle can be trained with a high frequency.

Wernbom showed me research where they observed dramatic increases in muscle cross-sections over a f our

week period with twice daily occlusion training of the quads. These were advanced lif ters without any

measurable increases in muscle size f or many months bef orehand. This is to be expected. If you already spen

several hours at the gym with high loads, it is dif f icult to increase volume or loading signif icantly over a certai

time span. The elite spend several years building up volume, so dont think that you can get away with

haphazardly jumping straight into a high volume rout ine if you come f rom a HIT background. The recovery

capacity is also t rainable but unf ortunately doesnt increase proportionally to training volume. So the myonucl

count, and muscle size remains unchanged until you do something drast ic (or smart).

Train more of ten

In my opinion, f requency is the most underrated training variable. Mos t lif ters are all too eager to increasevolume by doing more sets and more exercises. Honest ly, do you really believe that you need f our dif f erent

biceps exercises to get bigger arms? I think there isnt anything that st agnates progress more or f aster than

training volume, especially combined with excessive f ailure t raining and intensity techniques such as f orced

reps and super/triple/giant sets.

There exists a certain threshold of work that you have to exceed in order to st imulate an adaptat ion (i.e.

strength and muscle growth). This threshold increases with training age and experience. However, a common

misconception is t hat if you double the training volume, you also double the stimulus. Sorry, but if it were that

easy, we would all be massive just f rom copying the high volume routines o f Arnold or Ronnie. Anyone who

idolized Arnold back in the 80s or Ronnie back in the late 90s knows f or a f act that this line of logic didnt turn

out as well as we hoped.

Meta-reviews (Rhea, Wernbom, and Fry) indicate t he training variables, which will provide maximum eff ect,

based on a cross -section of available research and observations . Loo k at the f ollowing graph as a model

loosely based on this where the lower part of each set range applies to beginners. The upper part of the rang

applies to advanced lif ters.


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As you can see, the do se-response curve increases sharply at f irst but then f lattens out unt il it eventually

drops. Excessive volume will require more recovery t ime obviously. At best , you create low grade inf lammation

and that soreness we all secretly f all in love with. At worst , you get injured or f all into t he spiral of overtraining

Doubling the volume f rom one to two sets f or a novice and f rom two to f our sets f or an advanced lift er could

potentially increase the training ef f ect f rom about 50 percent to about 8090 percent. Doubling the number of

sets again for the advanced lif ter f rom fo ur to eight sets only increases the ef f ect f rom 8090 percent to (a

hypothet ical) 100 percent. Double it again to sixteen sets and youll be way over to the lef t where you f ind

yourself sliding down the steep slope o f the curve, acutely leading to overreaching and accumulating into

overtraining or even repetit ive st rain injury over the long term.

In some cases, it is absolutely worth doing those extra sets to potentially squeeze out 10 percent extra gains

but it is easy to f orget that this will also increase recovery requirements. We can saf ely and logically assume

that a high volume requires a lower f requency to work over the long haul.

Now, do a litt le thought experiment f or mewhat if you could be satisf ied with an 80 percent t raining ef f ect a

a more conservative volume if it allowed you to recover f aster and train more of ten? Lets say that you can

achieve a hypothet ical 100 percent t raining ef f ect by doing eight sets , but you need f our days of recovery

enabling you to hit t hat muscle group once every f ive days. Over f if ty days, this is ten workouts , so lets give

a theoretical value of 10 X 100(%) = 1000. If you can get 80 percent t raining eff ect with f our sets and it allows

you to t rain every other day or even every day, over f if ty days, this is 2550 training sess ions and by the sam

logic 2550 X 80(%) = 20004000. That is two to f our t imes more gains, bro! Yes, I know that this is a purely

theoretical calculation, but if we loo k at so me anecdotal stuf f coming up next, it may very well be a valid

assumption.

The Frequency Project

Let me tell you about t he Frequency Project f rom 2009, a collaborat ion between the Norwegian Powerlif ting

Association, the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, and Olympiatoppen.


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Advanced and elite powerlif ters were divided into two groups. One group t rained the classical power lif ts

(bench press, squat , deadlif t, or variations of these) three days a week with a program developed by national

head coach Dietmar Wolf . The second group divided the same weekly training volume over six days (i.e. half a

many sets each training day as the three times a week group). Average intensity/load was equalized between

groups.

Twenty-three-year-old Carl Yngvar Christensen, a multiple world record holder and a genetic freak of nature but

also a product of high frequency training

The results havent been published in peer-reviewed journals nor have they received the at tent ion they

deserve. It kind of looks like the NSF would rather keep it a closely guarded secret and dominate international

with their lif ters instead of share what they have learned with the rest of the world. As a powerlif ting nation,

Norway is actually a fo rce to be reckoned with. A handful of lif ters dominate t heir respective classes, perhapsnot in total medals, but Norway is a country with a population half that o f New York where mos t o f the

adolescents are either partying or doing CrossFit and not easily swayed into moving heavy slabs of iron

through space in a misty f og of chalk and bromance with Rammstein playing at f ull volume. Compare that to th

giant locomot ive that is Russia, where boys are recruited when theyre barely out of kindergarten and then

selected based on those who have the genetics and work ethics to survive brutal training regimes over a

decade or more. And lest we forget , I doubt that the WADA shows up at their doo rstep at 4:00 a.m. to make

them pee in a cup for a drug test . Just s ayin. Norwegian lif ters have to expect and accept this as a regular

occurrence if they want to avoid being shut o ut of the organizat ion and society in general with cheater

tatt ooed on their fo reheads. But lets look at the study results:


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As you can see, there was a pret ty dramatic dif f erence in both strength gains and muscle mass af ter the

twelve-week study period with a clear advantage to the group training six days per week. In f act, the to tal

st rength gains in the six times a week group were double those o f the three times a week group. Even if this

was a classical strength training program, muscle cross sectional area (CSA) increased by an incredible 510

percent in the six t imes a week group with no change (and even some regression) in the three t imes a week

group. Oh, and loo k at that f reak who gained 30 percent in his vastus lateraliseveryone knows a guy like tha

And we all envy him or whisper s tero ids when he isnt within hearing dist ance.

Junior f emale lif ter Erle Engmark f ollowed an auto regulated high f requency program under my tutelage. Aft er

only nine months o f specif ic training fo r powerlif ting (including suit and shirt work), she beat the nat ionalrecords in all three lif ts as well as the to tal. She later won t he national championships and is now on the

national team receiving f ull support and individual programming f rom their expert trainers. And yes, shes s till o

a high frequency approach that the NSF adopted and further developed in the wake of the Frequency Project.

Its kind of sad to see how many fitness enthusiasts cling to the prevailing and dogmatic notion from the

bodybuilding world where it is believed that you will blow up f rom overtraining if you do squats more t han once

every f ull moo n. If you even publicly entertain the twisted and ludicrous concept of combining squats and

deadlif ts in the same workout , baby Jesus will cry and you will be submitted to exorcism and restrained in a

straitjacket.

An important caveat of the Frequency Project is t hat in order to achieve a high volume and f requency, intens it

measured as a percentage of the 1RM was relat ively lowan average of 73.1 percent. See the graph below,

showing weekly number of reps per exercise (of the bench, deadlif t, and squat) as well as intensity expressed

percentages o f the 1RM.


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Seventy-t hree percent is a load that most people can lif t f or 1012 reps. Loo king at the training logs, lift s wer

usually performed in the three- to eight-rep range. In f act, they never grind or t rain to f ailure in training; maxin

only happens in competition. Reduce neural stress and improve recovery and the power lif ts can be very

successf ully trained 46 days per week. This is in stark cont rast to the local hero at the gym who, on every

Mondayinternat ional bench press daykeeps grinding out twenty sets o f bench presses to f ailure with

f orced reps aided by a spot ter who happens to have a set o f enormous biceps f rom repeatedly saving his

bench buddy f rom a crushed rib cavity every time the barbell hits a st icking point and f ree f alls down to his

underdeveloped, overtrained chest, obvious ly with the same load on t he bar as has been employed theprevious 23 years o f benching. His Gainer2000 shake is gulped down with a goo d conscience even though

hes so f atigued that he can barely hold his camera phone steady to pos t shirtless self ies on Instagram and

Facebook. #hardcorebro #nopainnogain #nobrainnopain

If you are interested in some f urther reading of the ins and outs of high f requency training, read Matthew

Perrymans excellent book Squat Every Day (I happen to have a couple honorable mentions in it). Google

legendary Bob Peoples and his training philoso phy or even renowned weightlif ting coach John Broz, who som

of you might have heard of . The Glute Guy Bret Contreras also had great success with his daily squatt ing

experiment and has published some stuf f on it. There lots of reading material out t here if you care to look.

Summary how can this be set up in a training program?

OK, so weve covered a lot of ground, and I hope youve made it this f ar.

The main points are:

Reactivate satellite cells and myonuclei additions by using high rep myo- reps instead of , or in addition

to , occlusion t raining. I recommend proto cols o f 1520 + 4X and 2025 + 5X, but start conservatively

with o nly one set and one exercise and increase only when you see that you can survive and thrive on it.

Aim f or a total of 3550 reps per muscle group. This will prime you f or the heavier loading in the 7085

percent range as early as 2448 hours later.


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Use a higher f requency approach, training each muscle group at least three t imes per week and even

more productively four to s even times a week. I know that some of you, especially those who have a

functioning social lif e outside of the internet and Facebook, will cringe at the thought of spending every

day in the gym. Just remember that the above high rep, myo- reps protocol can be improvised at home

with body weight exercises and elastic bands or even sandbags o r other light to moderate weight

implements.

Use a higher weekly volume, but remember that if you double or t riple the f requency, that in itself

increases volume. Simple math shows t hat if you previously did eight sets twice a week for a t otal of

sixteen sets, doing three sets on a s ix times a week program yields a weekly volume of eighteen sets .

Also go back and review the do se-response curve, where a conservat ive bout of volume combined with

a high training frequency will ensure a suf f icient st imulus that you can easily recover f rom.

Personally, I like the sequence high rep myo- reps, potent iating high load, low rep powerlif ting in the three- to

six-rep range the next day followed by higher volume and moderate intens ity the third day. By higher volume,

remember that 612 reps are already double the t ime under tension as 36 reps, so either limit it to 34 sets

or do a cluster rep set up of 68 sets o f 24 reps with short rest between sets us ing elastic bands or chains

f or maximum explos iveness (also known as accommodat ing resistance training). Follow this rotation with eith

a rest day (in my experience, high volume requires more recovery than high intensity) or go right into high rep

myo-reps on day four.

If you want to implement this on all muscle groups, it will obvious ly end up being a full body program, but

consider picking a few select muscle groups that you want to f ocus o n and just add high rep myo- reps the da

prior to your main workouts. This way you can keep using your pref erred 5/3/1 or 5 X 5 rout ine, the 2- or 3- wa

DC splits, t he Wests ide program, or the upper body/leg or push/pull splits. The poss ibilities are endless.

I do prefer to keep the signal for the training effect that Im after as clean as possible for a muscle group in

each workout. So I recommend that you stay within a given loading and rep range (e.g. 36, 69, 912, 1215,

etc). You may use dif f erent rep ranges and loads f or dif f erent muscle groups, though, so adding high rep myo

reps training fo r the upper body to your heavy leg workouts will potentiate the heavy upper body work in the

next session where you may add in high rep myo- reps f or t he legs.

If you want to ask quest ions in the comment section, remember that it is hard to give you a def initive answer.

When Im designing training programs f or my clients, it is based on a comprehensive evaluation of training

histo ry, goals, and individual response. Results so f ar have been amazing. One guy with seven years o f

training experience did six reps with his previous 1RM in the bench press af ter o nly two weeks, and another

guy added 20 kg to his 5RM squat in the same time f rame. Its t oo soon to t ell about hypertrophy obviously,

except f or reports of visual improvements in fullness and density, but I have no doubt that the increased

st rength will translate into more muscle mass in a few weeks time.

A f inal reminderdont think that youre one o f those special snowf lakes who these guidelines dont apply to.

Start conservatively with a low volume of only 23 sets and see how you do with a higher frequency first . Onlaf ter 23 weeks when youre absolutely certain you can recover f rom the f requency should you consider

increasing the number of sets. And thats only if youre absolutely certain that the gains youre already seeing

can be improved. It is all too easy to become overzealous and burn out too fast, so enjoy continuous progres

instead o f adding in that extra set or exercise here and there and eventually slipping down the slippery

overtraining slope on t he right-hand side of the dose-response curve.

References

Here are some selected references. Unfort unately, I couldnt f ind all the ref erences t hat I wanted to include an

much of the content is based on unpublished work.


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Adams GR, Bamman MM (2012) Characterizat ion and regulat ion of mechanical loading- induced

compensatory muscle hypertrophy. Compr Physiol 2(4):282970.

Bruusgaard JC, Johansen IB, Egner IM, Rana ZA, Gundersen K (2010) Myonuclei acquired by overload

exercise precede hypertrophy and are no t los t on detraining. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 24;107(34):15111

6.

Bruusgaard JC, Egner IM, Larsen TK, Dupre-Aucouturier S, Desplanches D, Gundersen K (1985) No

change in myonuclear number during muscle unloading and reloading. J Appl Physiol 113(2):2906.

Burd NA, West DW, Staples AW, Atherton PJ, Baker JM, Moore DR, Holwerda AM, Parise G, Rennie MJ,

Baker SK, Phillips SM (2010) Low-load high volume resistance exercise stimulates muscle protein

synthesis more than high-load low volume resistance exercise in young men. PLoS One 5(8).

Burd NA, Andrews RJ, West DW, Little JP, Cochran AJ, Hector AJ, Cashaback JG, Gibala MJ, Potvin JR,

Baker SK, Phillips SM (2012) Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates dif f erent ial

muscle protein sub-f ractional synthet ic responses in men. J Physiol 590(Pt2):35162.

Raastad T, Kirketeig, A, Wolf , D, Paulsen G (2012) Powerlif ters improved st rength and muscular

adaptations to a greater extent when equal to tal training volume was divided into 6 compared to 3

training sess ions per week (abstract). Book of abstracts, 17th annual conf erence of the ECSS, Brugge,

47 July, 2012.

Wernbom M, Apro W, Paulsen G, Nilsen TS, Blomstrand E, Raastad T (2013) Acute low-load resistance

exercise with and without blood f low restriction increased protein signalling and number of satellite cells

in human skeletal muscle. Eur J Appl Physiol 2013 Sep 28 [Epub ahead of print]

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