Getting in shape and developing a desirable physique is a goal of many people worldwide. Additionally, there is a plethora of information out there about how one might get in shape. However, the problem is that, in order to achieve different goals in the gym, one must train in different ways. Thus, the majority of this information only focuses on one aspect of training. In this article, a workout plan that provides the best results for all aspects of gym progress will be provided.
First, the three forms of gym progression that one would be trying for must be identified. These three forms are strength, athleticism, and hypertrophy.
Now, according to studies reviewed by Jeff Nippard, the best way to train for hypertrophy is by increasing the muscle’s time under tension to a moderate rate. In other words, this means that if one wants their muscles to grow as much as possible, they want to be trading with medium weight for a moderate amount of reps (8-10).
Furthermore, based on different studies reviewed by Jeff Nippard, the best way to train for strength is with low time under high muscular tension. In other words, this means, in order to develop as much strength as possible, one must train with heavy weight for a lesser amount of reps (3-7).
Finally, according to studies reviewed by PGA Performance, the best way to train for athleticism is to train the muscles under exercises that require lots of body control as well as quick explosive movements. This type of training is called plyometrics.
Now, in order to train all of these most effectively, it seems simple; one just has to implement movements that utilize medium, small, heavy, and fast reps. However, this becomes difficult when recovery is factored in. One simply will never make progress if their muscles are not fully recovered by the time they train the next session.
This is because when muscles grow in size, strength, and utility are a result of your body healing microtears in the muscles and building them back stronger to keep those microtears from happening again. That’s why it’s also important to train as hard as possible each session so one can continue to make those microtears and continue the cycle of growth.
Circling back to recovery, the problem is that many of the strength and plyometric exercises work multiple muscle groups in the body, which makes it harder to isolate different muscle groups and separate your workouts so that only certain muscle groups are working on certain days. A common example of this is the push-pull-legs split, which structures all the exercises where one is pushing weights on one day, the exercises where one is pulling weight on the next, and the exercises where one is using their legs on the last day.
The problem with this split is that it doesn’t allow for any strength or plyometric work, only hypertrophy.
Unfortunately, the problem of simultaneously diversifying training and allowing for recovery is almost impossible to solve by splitting up the workout. To solve this, the new workout plan is going to take advantage of something called the repeated bouts syndrome. According to academic studies reviewed by Jeff Nippard, the repeated bouts syndrome is your body‘s ability to adapt its recovery to training at a higher frequency. In other words, the more one trains their muscles in a state of fatigue, the better the muscles will adapt their recovery rate to catch up with the frequency of training. When utilized to its fullest, this will allow one to train essentially every single muscle group every single day.
Thus, this draws the conclusion that the best possible workout plan for maximizing all forms of gym progression is a full-body workout split that utilizes exercises that fall within the categories of hypertrophy, strength, and plyometrics training. Additionally, if one has different goals in the gym, they could substitute one of these methods for one that would better suit their goals. Furthermore, in order to make the split effective, one must train at a high intensity every single day so that they may trigger the repeated bout syndrome and develop the ability to recover between sessions.
