50% More gym time for NOTHING? 2 New studies — Transcript

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1. 0:00A new meta analysis concluded that lifting weights is the most effective
2. 0:03form of exercise to get smarter. The researchers concluded:
3. 0:07“Resistance training was found to have the greatest impact on
4. 0:10overall cognitive improvement and inhibitory control.”
5. 0:13This proves once again
6. 0:14that there is no problem in life that cannot be solved by more biceps.
7. 0:18So here are two new studies to help you get better gains.
8. 0:22The first study is about training volume.
9. 0:24It comes from a famous exercise science lab,
10. 0:26but the paper, the write-up at least,
11. 0:29is as disappointing as Conor McGregor's recent return to the Octagon.
12. 0:33The researchers had 27 strength trained male athletes, so clearly serious lifters,
13. 0:38perform a 10 week run-in program with relatively conventional
14. 0:42training for male athletes,
15. 0:43and after that for six weeks they were divided
16. 0:46into a group that either increased their training volume by 50%,
17. 0:49so a dramatic increase in training volume, or they kept their volume the same.
18. 0:54Why or why didn't
19. 0:55they just have a 17 week study in serious lifters comparing higher to lower volume?
20. 0:59- I don't know.
21. 1:00The researchers noted that the high volume group
22. 1:02was the most extreme training volume ever documented in the literature,
23. 1:06saying it was a comparison between 40 versus 60 sets.
24. 1:09However, the researchers conflated volume in terms of total sets
25. 1:13for the lower body with the actual metric of interest,
26. 1:16which is sets per muscle group, and this was actually not nearly as high.
27. 1:20So I used fractional volume counting
28. 1:22to get the actual volume for the muscle groups that were measured.
29. 1:26This means that exercises that target a muscle group
30. 1:28very well, like leg extensions for the quads or squats,
31. 1:31they are counted 100%, but exercises that are not as effective,
32. 1:35maybe a clean or power clean for the hamstrings, for example,
33. 1:38are counted as half.
34. 1:39So I use some discretion here to get the exact figures,
35. 1:42but these will be ballpark correct.
36. 1:44Based on this more evidence based way to count the training volume
37. 1:48the training volumes were 25 sets for the quads,
38. 1:51specifically the vastus lateralis,
39. 1:52so 37.5 sets with the 50% higher volume.
40. 1:56We don't actually know because the training volume was only reported
41. 1:59for the base group, and they didn't report the actual training program for the 50%
42. 2:03higher volume group.
43. 2:03So I'm just going to go with a 50% increase.
44. 2:06And for the hamstrings it was 13.5 for the lower volume group,
45. 2:09so not extreme at all if you ask me,
46. 2:11versus 20.3 sets.
47. 2:13Improperly counting training volume is a mistake
48. 2:15I see so often on social media and even in exercise science papers.
49. 2:19Many people, for example, underestimate
50. 2:21the extent to which they get volume from compound exercises
51. 2:24for ancillary muscle groups. This leads to very weird distributions
52. 2:29of training volume where they overtrain one muscle group a lot,
53. 2:31but other muscle groups, for example, get very little volume.
54. 2:34For example, for the hamstrings, bodybuilders notoriously undertrain them
55. 2:38because they train “legs” and assume that exercises like squats train
56. 2:41the hamstrings, which is not the case.
57. 2:43Here you can see the results.
58. 2:45Muscle growth was substantially higher
59. 2:47in percentage terms, at least, in the higher volume group.
60. 2:50However, strength gains were a bit worse, specifically for the deadlifts,
61. 2:53and this was the only finding that was actually statistically significant.
62. 2:57So if you were just to go by statistical significance,
63. 3:00you would conclude that higher training volumes are bad for strength development
64. 3:03but neutral for muscle growth, meaning they are clearly a net negative.
65. 3:07However, this is called the P fallacy. In exercise science
66. 3:10when you have a short study like this with a trained sample,
67. 3:13who are not going to gain that much muscle mass over a six week period,
68. 3:16you have very low statistical power, which is the ability to detect an effect
69. 3:20if there is one.
70. 3:21The researchers did
71. 3:22say they conducted an a priori power analysis, but they actually tested the wrong thing
72. 3:25or did the wrong analysis
73. 3:26because they looked the pre-post effect rather than the between group difference.
74. 3:30And we're not interested in
75. 3:32whether the study could detect if there was muscle growth.
76. 3:34We're interested in
77. 3:35if the study could detect the difference between the lower and the higher volume
78. 3:39on muscle growth, and this is very difficult to detect in such a short term study.
79. 3:44When new evidence is relatively weak
80. 3:45it’s very important to look at the prior evidence.
81. 3:47The best evidence we have to go at the moment
82. 3:49is the latest meta analysis in the literature on training volume.
83. 3:53The findings here actually fit pretty well.
84. 3:56They found that higher training volumes generally lead to more muscle growth,
85. 3:59but the effect becomes very unreliable at high training volumes.
86. 4:02So up to ten sets is relatively clear.
87. 4:0410 to 20 sets generally also more muscle growth, but the effect becomes
88. 4:08a lot more marginal. This study,
89. 4:10even for the quads, the higher volume muscle group, went from 25 to almost 40.
90. 4:14And there you know that the effect is very, very small.
91. 4:17So even if there was an effect which is suggested in the absolute
92. 4:21percentage increase, it wasn't actually likely to be significant either way.
93. 4:25So overall, I think this analysis confirms what we know so far on training volume.
94. 4:30Yes, there are generally benefits to higher training volumes, but they are slim.
95. 4:34And specifically for strength they are very inconsistent.
96. 4:38So the benefit on muscle
97. 4:39growth is a lot more consistent than the benefit on strength development.
98. 4:43If you're puzzled by the difference in strength and muscle growth
99. 4:45I recommend you watch this video where I explain that in more detail.
100. 4:48While these data are very interesting for people that want to find
101. 4:51the perfect volume and want to know one figure of how many sets should I do
102. 4:55per week,
103. 4:55there is actually, unfortunately, no such figure that I can give you
104. 4:59that works for everyone.
105. 5:00We know that recovery capacity is highly individual.
106. 5:03A given workout can take twice as long to recover from in a high stress situation.
107. 5:08For example, research has looked at students
108. 5:10doing the same workout during their exam week and out of their exam week.
109. 5:14During the exam week, when they are a lot more stressed,
110. 5:17they take approximately twice as long to recover from that workout.
111. 5:20Similarly, research has looked at the effect of sleep deprivation and
112. 5:24finds it as massive effects on nutrient partitioning and recovery capacity.
113. 5:28Then there are the effects of biological sex, training advancement, and probably
114. 5:31one of the most underrated factors of all of them is energy balance.
115. 5:35Most of these studies are conducted around
116. 5:37maintenance intake or in a slight energy surplus.
117. 5:40If you're cutting you can probably not tolerate nearly as much volume.
118. 5:44Research on wound healing and some studies on Ramadan fasting, for example, show
119. 5:48that recovery capacity is heavily impaired when someone is in significant
120. 5:51energy deficits, or in general, when their diet is just not that good.
121. 5:55And studies
122. 5:55that look at the effect of different training volumes within individuals,
123. 5:59so one leg doing higher volume, one leg doing lower volume,
124. 6:01find that some individuals
125. 6:02actually respond better to lower volumes, while other individuals respond
126. 6:06better to higher volumes.
127. 6:07So these overall studies on the averages are definitely informative,
128. 6:10and they form a good prior or a baseline for a recommendation.
129. 6:14In the end,
130. 6:14you have to tailor your individual volume to your individual recovery capacity.
131. 6:18If you're interested in getting a free estimate of your ideal
132. 6:22optimal training volume based on the best available evidence,
133. 6:25check out the MH physique app in the link in the description.
134. 6:27You can get a free trial with that link.
135. 6:30The second new study
136. 6:31also looked at the return on investment of spending more time in the gym.
137. 6:34However, instead of training volume, they looked at rest intervals.
138. 6:38Specifically, they looked at whether it's worth timing your rest interval.
139. 6:4140 trained lifters completed a lower body training program with either a fixed
140. 6:452 to 3 minute rest interval averaging at 2.4 minutes,
141. 6:49or a self-selected or auto regulated rest interval
142. 6:52where they rested you until they felt ready to perform the next set.
143. 6:56This resulted in an average rest interval of 3.7 minutes.
144. 7:00I would note this study is still in preprint,
145. 7:01so it has not yet been peer reviewed.
146. 7:03After eight weeks, there were clearly no meaningful
147. 7:05differences in muscle growth or strength development.
148. 7:08Muscle growth was measured in the calves and the quads, as muscle thickness
149. 7:11and strength was measured
150. 7:12as one rep max on the squat and isometric force in the knee extension.
151. 7:17These findings
152. 7:17support our earlier conclusion from a review from Brad Schoenfeld and me,
153. 7:21in which we concluded that there was probably no need to strictly time your
154. 7:24rest intervals, and most lifters can simply auto regulate their rest
155. 7:27intervals based on when they feel ready for maximal performance in the next set.
156. 7:32You don't have to actually have maximal performance in the next set,
157. 7:34but you should be ready to give it your all,
158. 7:36rather than still being completely out of breath
159. 7:38and being limited by other factors than muscular exertion.
160. 7:42However, resting as long as you want
161. 7:44comes with the downside of spending significantly more time in the gym.
162. 7:47Their workouts went from 56 minutes to 79 minutes,
163. 7:51meaning they were 29% less time efficient.
164. 7:54And importantly,
165. 7:55the self-selected group here was supervised
166. 7:57and they were not allowed to use their phones or hold conversations.
167. 8:00I know that there's at least one of you
168. 8:01watching this in the gym and sitting on a leg extension machine,
169. 8:04and you rest interval is now like 15 minutes,
170. 8:06so other people can't use the machine while you're watching YouTube.
171. 8:09F*ck you! Okay?
172. 8:10Another very important point is that this study is absolutely not proof
173. 8:13that resting more than two minutes doesn't give you any further gains.
174. 8:16One of our previous studies compared rest intervals of one minute versus
175. 8:20three minutes, and we found significantly greater strength gains and a strong
176. 8:23trend towards more muscle growth as well.
177. 8:25Subsequent research confirmed that resting longer
178. 8:27can improve strength and size gains because it adds total volume.
179. 8:30If you rest longer your muscles are more recovered, you do more work.
180. 8:34The extra work is more mechanical tension on the muscle
181. 8:36and therefore you get more gains.
182. 8:38Just like with training volume, however, it's clear that the marginal increase
183. 8:41you get when you start resting a lot longer, or when you do much higher
184. 8:44training volumes, becomes very slim. After about 90s of rest,
185. 8:49the latest meta-analysis found no more clear evidence
186. 8:51that there was actually still further muscle growth.
187. 8:53In conclusion,
188. 8:54if you're not constrained by time, you can just autoregulate your rest intervals.
189. 8:57Rest as long as you want
190. 8:58until you feel ready for maximal performance in your next set.
191. 9:02However, if you do value maximal time efficiency
192. 9:04you should probably cap your rest intervals to 90s or less.
193. 9:08In the end, the total repetition volume is what matters the most.
194. 9:11If you are going to rest a long time in between your sets -
195. 9:13for God's sake,
196. 9:14make sure you let other people join in on your equipment, and definitely don't
197. 9:18hog multiple pieces of equipment with very long rest intervals. Okay?
198. 9:22Since timing your rest intervals is a pain in the ass, in my app
199. 9:25I recommend that you auto-regulate your rest intervals.
200. 9:27There is, however, a stopwatch function if you do want to time
201. 9:30your rest intervals,
202. 9:30and for maximal time efficiency you could employ something like myo-reps.
203. 9:34Myo-reps are also supported in the app
204. 9:36and they have been shown to be extremely time efficient.
205. 9:39You can get a two week free trial with the link in the description.
206. 9:43See you next time.