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Hypertrophic Principles of Upper Lower Without Rest (Podcast) — Transcript

by Clark Kent · 4,141 words · 675 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:03I've been expecting you.
0:05Welcome
0:06to my classroom.
0:10Hey, pay attention. This is
0:14how to look sick as
0:18101.
0:20I want to preface this by saying I'm not
0:21here to say any specific sources. I've
0:23come to these conclusions already based
0:25on the data that I've seen, the podcasts
0:28I've listened to,
0:30um and I've also implemented that or
0:32integrated it in with what I've learned
0:34through college, anatomy, physiology,
0:36exercise physiology, etc. So, to me, um
0:40this always make the most sense how I'm
0:41about to explain things, and a lot of it
0:43relies on the actual mechanisms of
0:45muscle growth rather than a bunch of
0:47[ __ ] outcomes, right? Because
0:50I mean, you can walk outside and eat a
0:51block of cheese when it's raining, and
0:53then, you know,
0:54cite data saying, "When I eat cheese, it
0:57rains outside." Right? That's what an
0:59outcome is rather than the reason why
1:02things occur.
1:03Um so, that's why it's important to
1:05understand the why things work and not
1:08just look at
1:10outcomes from data.
1:12>> [snorts]
1:12>> Anyway,
1:14my training philosophy is based in low
1:16volume and higher frequency, so at least
1:19two times a week,
1:20preferably
1:22slightly more.
1:24So, why is lower volume better? First,
1:28let's talk about muscle protein
1:30synthesis versus
1:31myofibrillar protein synthesis. So,
1:36MPS, which is just the overall muscle
1:38protein synthesis, that's active during
1:40any kind of muscle tissue repair, right?
1:42It can be from just bouts of uh it can
1:45be from running, like literally any
1:47exercise at all. It can be some some
1:49cardiovascular endurance-based training.
1:51It does not have to be from lifting
1:52weights. Um
1:54myofibrillar protein synthesis on the
1:56other hand, or myops, is more specific
1:59to hypertrophy because myops refers to
2:02what's occurring within the actual
2:04myofibrils of a muscle cell, right? So,
2:06the contractile units, not the overall
2:08muscle cell.
2:09So,
2:11let's say we do one set in the gym,
2:14right? We're going to get
2:17on this This is a graph, by the way.
2:19Uh dotted line is going to be myops,
2:21straight line will be muscle protein
2:22synthesis.
2:24So, we do a set in the gym,
2:26get a good spike in myops,
2:28okay?
2:29But, with that,
2:31we're also going to get some
2:33muscle protein synthesis.
2:35Yeah, you can see.
2:38Do another set, you know,
2:40maybe
2:42you get a little bit more myops. So,
2:45at set two, myops is
2:48gets a little bit more, muscle protein
2:50synthesis
2:51going to keep going up.
2:53Do a third set,
2:56myops
2:57is going to go up a little more,
3:00muscle protein synthesis is going to
3:01keep going up.
3:04You do a fourth set, myops is going to
3:07go up
3:08and maybe like maybe 10 or 11 more,
3:11muscle protein synthesis is going to
3:12keep going up.
3:14And then, you keep doing more and more
3:16sets, your myops, right, is going to
3:18kind of just
3:20flatline. Your muscle protein synthesis
3:22can keep going and going and going and
3:24going and going
3:26off the damn chart, right? It's not
3:28necessarily indicative of actual
3:32contractile tissue growth, okay?
3:36So, that's why there are studies that
3:38say, "Oh,
3:40if I do a ton of volume, the these
3:42individuals who did
3:448 million sets, right? Their muscle
3:46protein synthesis just kept going up and
3:47up and up and up and it stayed elevated
3:49for weeks." You know why? Because their
3:51muscles are trying to recover because
3:53you've created so much muscle damage,
3:56not hypertrophy, that yes, your MPS is
4:00going to stay very high for a long time.
4:04So,
4:05what happens after you give it this
4:08stimulus, right?
4:10is if you can do a ton of sets,
4:13your MPS is going to return back to
4:16baseline. Now, that would usually occur
4:19within
4:2148 hours, maybe like 72.
4:24Um but once it returns to baseline,
4:27atrophy begins. Your Your body does not
4:29have a process where you're able to just
4:32maintain muscle. Muscle growth is very
4:34binary. You're either growing or you're
4:36atrophying. Now, obviously the rate of
4:38atrophy
4:40um
4:41is not It's not crazy fast, right? It
4:43gets faster
4:45uh the longer you go without giving a
4:46muscle
4:47its proper stimulus,
4:49but it occurs a lot faster than people
4:51think.
4:53And so,
4:54given this fact, right? Your MPS is
4:56going to return to baseline,
4:58atrophy is going to start. And so, while
5:01your muscle is literally atrophying in
5:03contractile filaments,
5:07your muscle is Your Your whole muscle is
5:09still recovering from muscle damage. So,
5:12you're not getting muscle protein
5:13synthesis towards building that muscle.
5:15Your muscle is just trying The muscle
5:17cell is just trying to recover whilst
5:20you are literally atrophying still.
5:22Um there's a lot of immobilization data,
5:24other things that support this. I can go
5:27back and and dig all those up. I don't
5:29know But this isn't that kind of video,
5:30right? I'm not trying to prove to you
5:31anything. This is just the reasoning
5:32that I have come to
5:35and why I train the way I do.
5:37So, in essence, on a graph, right? If
5:40you take a low volume group
5:42and you look at the time
5:46versus protein synthesis occurring,
5:48right? So, in this one,
5:49um you can see that myops and MPS uh
5:53come back down to baseline at about the
5:55same time, which is more favorable,
5:58right? Because that means muscle damage
6:00has been repaired as well as
6:04you know, the stimulus of actual muscle
6:06growth coming back down. Whereas in this
6:08graph, right, the stimulus for growth
6:11has now returned to baseline, and now
6:14you are still recovering from muscle
6:16damage, even though maybe with more
6:18sets, arguably, maybe you can eke out
6:21like a tiny bit more myops. But, it's
6:24all about balancing stimulus to fatigue,
6:26right? It is a net stimulus model.
6:31I did not coin the term weekly net
6:33stimulus model. I'm not taking credit
6:34for that. Um
6:36but that's one word people use to
6:39describe it.
6:40We know that the only thing relevant for
6:42muscle growth is mechanical tension,
6:44okay? I'm not debating that. Muscle
6:46damage is a load of crap.
6:48I can go run a marathon, create a ton of
6:50muscle damage, recover from it, and I
6:52won't grow anything, okay? Look at
6:54marathon runners. Their legs are not
6:56big.
6:57And now that we've put into context
6:59muscle protein synthesis versus myops,
7:02why we care about myops instead of
7:03muscle protein synthesis,
7:05um there's also plenty of data to show
7:07muscle protein synthesis does not have
7:09to be um
7:12even elevated for myops to occur, which
7:14is crazy, right?
7:16So, the point of diminishing returns
7:18happens a lot more quickly than people
7:21think. And I can go on a separate
7:23tangent about fatigue.
7:26Maybe I will later in the video.
7:28Um
7:29but in ensuring that muscle damage and
7:33recovery has subsided by the time that
7:36myops returns to baseline, you're able
7:38to give yourself another
7:40very efficient bout of stimulus without
7:43worrying about the recovery demand
7:45impacting the ability to give that
7:47stimulus. Right? Because we know if
7:48you're recovering still from muscle
7:50damage, you're not really going to be
7:51able to give the same kind of stimulus
7:53to the muscle you want to work.
7:55And so what we're doing essentially is
7:56we're cutting out the middle man of
7:57fatigue. So,
7:59muscle protein synthesis and myops come
8:01back down, you can give yourself another
8:03spike throughout the week, right? Just
8:05give yourself spike after spike after
8:07spike after spike and efficient myops,
8:10not just a bunch on one day
8:15and then you have to wait it out to
8:17recover.
8:18You're basically constantly fighting um
8:21your body's adaptation, right? You're
8:23You're fighting to keep these
8:24adaptations. A lot of the ways that our
8:26body works is rooted in evolution.
8:28It's very inefficient and metabolically
8:30expensive to keep muscle. So, what you
8:31You are You are literally fighting your
8:34body's biology to keep the muscle and
8:38you have to do that as frequently as
8:39possible because atrophy occurs
8:43very quickly as well.
8:45So, this is why we do low volume and we
8:48do high frequency so that we can just
8:51keep giving ourselves stimulus, comes
8:53back down, stimulus, comes back down,
8:55and we're not worried about the fatigue
8:57aspect or or muscle damage.
8:59Now, a couple words about fatigue.
9:02Fatigue is not just feeling tired, okay?
9:05It's It's negative physiological
9:06feedback that your your brain picks up
9:09that you cannot avoid. It's not
9:11something you can just bypass.
9:14And when we train, we accumulate fatigue
9:17within a session and post session. Um
9:21there are a ton of mechanisms at play. I
9:24don't need to get super deep into the
9:26physiology behind a lot of it cuz I just
9:28I think it's going to overcomplicate it
9:29unnecessarily. I would never program
9:31more than two sets for a given exercise
9:35because I think right around then you
9:36start to get the
9:38um
9:39diminishing returns for sure, especially
9:41if you want to keep your frequency high.
9:43Again, right? Arguably, you can still
9:45get a little a little more stimulus, but
9:47you're going to be creating a lot more
9:49muscle damage beyond a certain point.
9:52And that point occurs very quickly,
9:55especially when you're training very
9:56hard. I'm trying not to overcomplicate
9:58things, but there's just so many little
10:00nuances and things to take into account.
10:02It's like, "Woo."
10:05All right. So, what I personally do is
10:08an upper lower split without rest unless
10:10I have to.
10:13I would not recommend that.
10:16I just I can't take rest days. So,
10:22this is the way that I found I can see
10:24the best results and still train all the
10:25time. It's super fun. I'm just in an
10:27infinite cycle of upper lower upper
10:29lower upper lower. So, that's that's
10:30Yeah, so the golden rule is to load each
10:32joint action with at least four or maybe
10:35six sets for a given week. Um but you
10:38have to remember which muscles are
10:40active and some of that overlap because
10:42it will play a significant role. So, you
10:44know, think of something like the lats,
10:46right? The whole lat is active on a lat
10:49pulldown,
10:50but, you know, prioritizing shoulder
10:53adduction is going to be a little bit
10:55more lower lat, whereas shoulder
10:57extension is going to be slightly more
10:59upper lat. And so, I would say if you
11:03want to be very maximalistic about it,
11:05on every single upper day, you do one
11:07set of each exercise for the specific
11:09joint action, so that you can
11:12um
11:13account for a bit of that overlap cuz
11:15there are I mean, obviously, you're
11:16still mainly training the same overall
11:17muscle, it's just slightly different
11:19regions.
11:20Same thing with the chest, right? When I
11:22do an upper chest movement,
11:24I'm doing some kind of shoulder flexion
11:27um with slight adduction.
11:30And then when I do, you know, something
11:32like a pec deck, I'm prioritizing
11:34horizontal adduction, um which I'm going
11:37to get a little bit of upper chest
11:38activation, but mainly,
11:40you know, uh mid chest. So, throughout
11:43the week, right, I'm kind of rotating
11:45between either doing
11:47two sets of a joint action that will hit
11:51every region of the muscle, or on a
11:54given upper day, I might do one set and
11:57one set. It just depends on how long
11:59it's been since you've hit that specific
12:02joint angle. Because we know that
12:03atrophy happens very quickly, so because
12:06hypertrophy is specific to the fibers
12:08that are experiencing the highest
12:10degrees of mechanical tension,
12:13we don't have to worry as much on a
12:16higher frequency upper lower split about
12:18atrophy occurring within those specific
12:20fibers for that given joint angle,
12:22right? So, um I'm just going to use the
12:24lats here cuz it's very easy to do so.
12:26If I were doing something like an upper
12:28lower rest, upper lower rest, etc. And
12:32let's say like, you know,
12:34I hit two sets of a wide grip here, one
12:37set of a sagittal movement, right? This
12:38is in the sagittal plane, shoulder
12:40extension. If I was to do that, like a
12:41close grip thing, and then a wide grip,
12:44so I balance biasing the upper and lower
12:46fibers of
12:47the lats, and then I go back to a two
12:50sets of a wide grip on the next upper
12:52day.
12:54That's a lot of time before [snorts]
12:57I would then hit these specific fibers
13:00in a single arm lat pull down again,
13:02right? A lot longer than if I were to
13:04just do
13:05upper lower, upper lower, upper lower.
13:09Yes? Does that make sense? So,
13:12I think if you train that way with rest
13:14days on your upper and lower days, um
13:17you can get away with a little bit more
13:18volume, and you also don't have to worry
13:21about leaving a rep in reserve. I would
13:23say if you do what I do with upper lower
13:25without rest, you need to leave a rep
13:28reserve on some sets. I would definitely
13:31recommend it. Just experiment a little
13:32bit, throw it in there.
13:34Um
13:36Again, this is just kind of an overview.
13:38But as far as like indirect work for
13:40secondary muscles goes, I do not count
13:42that in my volume.
13:43Um I do not count back training towards
13:45biceps. I think if you do that, you are
13:47doing something horribly wrong.
13:49Um same with triceps and chest, like any
13:51of that. I think that's a load of
13:52garbage. You do have to keep some of
13:54these overlaps in mind and nuance it a
13:57lot more when you do upper lower with no
14:00rest days, right? Because the fatigue
14:02cost is going to be greater than if you
14:06were to actually take programmed rest
14:08days.
14:09Sometimes if I'm doing something like a
14:10shoulder press on a given day, right?
14:12I'm going to be mindful of when I train
14:15shoulder flexion for the upper chest
14:16because that's going to destroy my front
14:18delts. So maybe on that day,
14:21um where I have a shoulder press
14:22program, I could do something like just
14:24doing a pec deck. And then the next
14:26upper day,
14:27um
14:28I can do one set of a pec deck and then
14:30one set of an upper chest thing.
14:32And by only having 48 hours between
14:34that, I know that uh
14:37my upper chest fibers are not going to
14:39atrophy that much just because
14:41um that prior workout, I did not hit it
14:44specifically.
14:45Right? And they're also getting a slight
14:47indirect stimulus from pec deck. So a
14:49lot of these things are very, very
14:51nuanced.
14:52In summary,
14:54with upper lower on a higher frequency
14:57without rest days, I don't have to worry
14:59as much about training those specific
15:02joint actions because those fibers will
15:05not experience as much atrophy as
15:10if I were doing upper lower with rest.
15:13If they're doing upper lower If I was
15:14doing upper lower with rest days, I
15:15would worry a little bit more. So
15:17basically, as I go throughout the week,
15:19I'm I'm rotating all these exercises
15:21here and there. I just like, you know, I
15:23look at my notes, I'm like, "Okay, did I
15:25hit this joint action last time? Oh, I
15:27didn't do any direct work for these
15:29specific muscle fibers. Okay, I'll throw
15:31that in this workout." And then if I did
15:33do that the workout before, then I'll
15:34say, "Eh, it's fine. I don't need to
15:37worry about hitting the specific fibers.
15:39I can mitigate that atrophy a little bit
15:41just by hitting the overall muscle um
15:45and prioritizing maybe, you know, a
15:48different part of that same muscle, if
15:51that makes sense. Not all joint actions
15:55are created equal within the same muscle
15:57regions if if a certain part within a
16:01muscle group or muscle does not have the
16:05same attachment. So, let me explain,
16:09right? If I'm hitting hamstrings, the
16:11whole hamstring except for the biceps
16:14femoris short head, I believe, is
16:17trained when you do a stiff-legged
16:19deadlift. So, in order for
16:22my biceps femoris short head to not
16:25atrophy,
16:26um I'm making sure that I hit a
16:29stiff-legged deadlift on one hamstring
16:32focus day, and I do at least, you know,
16:35just throw in one set of a hamstring
16:37curl. And then on the following lower
16:39day, I'll do two sets of a hamstring
16:41curl,
16:42but not work on the hinges.
16:45So,
16:46I'm making sure the biceps femoris short
16:48head's not experiencing any atrophy, um
16:51and still benefiting from high
16:52frequency. Same thing goes for the long
16:54head of the triceps, right? Because the
16:56long head of the triceps does shoulder
16:59extension, if I do a movement that
17:01involves shoulder flexion, right? Think
17:03of a press or like a JM press,
17:05the long head of the tricep is shut off,
17:08and it's not active, um because you're
17:10creating antagonist joint torque at one
17:14part of the tricep by doing shoulder
17:16flexion. Like, think of a rubber band,
17:18right? You're like stretching it at one
17:20end, but then you're shortening it at
17:22another. So, nothing's happening. It's
17:24not producing any any work because
17:26you're performing the opposite joint
17:27action at one end of the muscle in this
17:30in this long head specifically. So, if
17:32you want the long head to benefit from
17:33high frequency,
17:35right? Let's say one upper day I do one
17:37set of a JM press and one set of a, you
17:39know, normal rope extension.
17:42Right? Cuz a rope extension will hit all
17:43heads of the tricep, but also hit the
17:46long head. The next upper day, I'll just
17:47do two sets of a rope extension with no
17:50JM press, and that's going to hit all of
17:51the tricep heads.
17:53Again, these are very slight nuances.
17:55Um, I would not worry about trying to
17:57bias little things like that.
17:59Um,
18:00especially if you're newer to training.
18:02It matters a lot more if you're really
18:03trying to squeeze out the last bit of
18:05recruitment you can from those those
18:07those specific fibers, you know what I
18:09mean? When like biasing stuff. So,
18:10another thing with upper lower is
18:13what matters the most in terms of what
18:15you want to prioritize is how you
18:16sequence things.
18:18Um, personally, you know, I leave arms
18:19for the end for instance of every upper
18:21day because I know that that's a strong
18:23point for me, but
18:26I do rotate through having a different
18:27focus on every upper day
18:29um to
18:31maximally recruit those top end muscle
18:33fibers. So, I have one day where I do a
18:35shoulder focus, one day where I do a
18:37back focus, and one day where I do a
18:39chest focus. And all I'm doing, I'm not
18:40adding more volume. I'm just hitting it
18:42earlier in the session. The upper and
18:44lower days that I post I I do exactly as
18:47shown with that exact rep scheme.
18:50I can talk about a couple other things,
18:52right? Like rep schemes. Uh, we know
18:55that
18:56with things like fatigue, higher reps
18:59are going to give you more of that
19:00typically for no additional benefit
19:03unless you are so stupid that you can't
19:06standardize your form with low reps.
19:11I hate when people say that. like Oh, uh
19:14uh volume is bad because like you can't
19:16standardize your form if you do lower
19:17reps. Like
19:19Okay, then just standardize your form.
19:21Don't be an idiot. But lower volume
19:23allows us to preferentially bias those
19:26harder to recruit muscle fibers that are
19:28only turned on during the highest
19:29degrees of effort. So, by um decreasing
19:33our perception of effort, you know,
19:34picking stable exercises, lower rep
19:37ranges, you know, maybe like the four to
19:39seven-ish range. That's usually what I
19:40stick to.
19:41Um
19:43you are allowing your body to send a lot
19:45more of that effort perception towards
19:49your actual set, right? So, you're able
19:51to get more what we call motor unit
19:53recruitment, which just refers to the uh
19:56body's like the degree of neural drive
19:58you get to the muscle because it'll at
20:00the end of the day it is all
20:01neuroscience, truly.
20:03And our brain has finite resources,
20:06right? If we could just train every
20:09muscle at the same time we would, but
20:10you can't do that because of your
20:13perception of effort.
20:14So, in preferentially biasing those type
20:162X fibers to the max, which, you know,
20:18they experience atrophy quickly, like
20:20all that, you're going to be growing a
20:21lot more than if you're doing a bunch of
20:23garbage volume um and using muscle
20:25fibers that are lower down the motor
20:27unit pool.
20:28Now, when I say the word motor unit
20:29pool, that just refers to um
20:35every level of muscle fiber that is
20:37recruited based on
20:39how much neural drive is going to them.
20:42And so, something like a type one fiber,
20:43which is aerobic, right? Used for things
20:46like running, day-to-day exercise or
20:48activity, they are always active and
20:52they will be maximally recruited every
20:53time that you maximally recruit type 2X
20:56fibers.
20:58But on the flip side
20:59trying to max out lower down muscle
21:01fibers
21:03is going to give you a very quick point
21:05of diminishing returns because they are
21:07maxed out very quickly and sure they
21:10have some capacity for growth.
21:14And now you know muscle fibers like it
21:15is a spectrum from type one to type two
21:17X.
21:18They're still there's no point in trying
21:19to go lower down the motor unit pool to
21:22bias those fibers when
21:24they're going to grow regardless
21:27and you could be spending that time
21:29instead maxing out your type two X
21:30fibers which have a lot more capacity
21:32for growth
21:33and as a byproduct
21:35the all the other muscle fibers will
21:36still be getting good enough stimulus to
21:38grow.
21:39But yeah, the fiber type argument is
21:41another reason why lower volume is
21:42better and why we don't need to bias
21:45those lower down fibers and we want to
21:47maximize our motor unit recruitment
21:49because you cannot get maximum motor
21:51unit recruitment if you have a lot of
21:52fatigue and muscle damage built up that
21:54you need to also recover from.
21:56And if there is a specific muscle region
21:58that you want to bias
22:00then make sure you are giving it proper
22:01frequency and the proper stimulus to
22:04grow. I think that
22:06that about sums up why I do upper lower
22:09six days a week um very low cortisol
22:13split and I get to train every single
22:14day and do all the optimal low volume
22:17[ __ ] without all the fatigue. I can get
22:20into each of those specific mechanisms
22:22more in other videos. This is just kind
22:23of a scatterbrained ramble. Thanks for
22:26watching. I'm going to see you Alex in a
22:27couple days
22:28and um
22:29I also have a full presentation on
22:31neural mechanical matching that I made
22:33back at college. So if you all want to
22:36see that badly enough I'll drop it. It
22:38basically just refers to
22:40um
22:41training muscles where they have the
22:42best leverage and why and
22:46guess it's more like analyzing
22:47biomechanical stuff but
22:50yeah.
22:51Hope this helps and um hope you guys
22:53study cuz there's going to be a quiz at
22:55the end of my semester. There's no
22:57summer break around here.
23:01Thanks for watching.
23:05I could also talk about central nervous
23:07fatigue, which I didn't really
23:10because my split kind of ignores that a
23:12little bit.
23:13But again, when you're doing less
23:14volume, you're not building up as much
23:15central nervous fatigue. I don't know. I
23:17think a lot of that is overstated.
23:22If you're not familiar with what central
23:23nervous fatigue is, basically when
23:26muscle damage is present, your body has
23:28receptors that pick up that damage
23:32and they send that signal through your
23:33bloodstream.
23:35Those those, you know, those
23:36inflammation signals through your
23:37bloodstream to
23:38your brain and your brain's like, "Eh, I
23:40don't want to train as hard now because
23:42of that muscle damage I have to repair."
23:45Which is why usually
23:47I would advocate for taking rest days.
23:51Which is why I think
23:53like it's better to take rest days than
23:55not at all.
23:58But if you're doing already like pretty
23:59low volume you're probably going to have
24:01less muscle damage to recover from in
24:03the first place, um thereby not having
24:05as much central nervous fatigue. You're
24:07getting less of those signals, less
24:09infla- inflammatory signals, right? Um
24:12so because the way CNS fatigue works is
24:15even if I do like biceps the day before
24:18and then I go hit legs the next day your
24:20brain is still going to be detecting
24:22those signals of inflammation from the
24:23muscle damage in your biceps and so
24:25you're going to get less recruitment
24:27that your brain is able to give and
24:28allocate towards your quads.

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