Progressive Overload

[Freddy Dalley]

I am a 20 year old student and I started training around 16 and in the last year I have begun to get more serious. I was going sometimes twice a day early in the summer however I have since got a job and work has stepped up and this combined with the fact I have moved further away from the nearest gym mean I feel like i am doing less now.

I play rugby for my university team and for this reason much of my training has been devoted to strength with lower rep ranges but often many sets of excersizes working the same muscles just slightly different variations. I think this means I accumulate quite a large amount of volume. I am now looking to go into more Hypertrophy route.

My question is, in terms of progressive overload, having trained much more this time last year will I struggle to see results or does your body “reset” itself? This would mean that i could start from scratch and get stuck into a hypertrophy based routine without trying to match the workout frequency from last year.

[Anonymous]

I am not quite sure if I understood the question but if you were wondering if detraining/’re-sensitization’ is a real thing the answer is yes. So even if your volume was higher at some point last year it doesn’t mean you have to out-do all that volume now to produce results. Just get back to the gym with the new plan and start making progress with those new rep ranges and what have you. Also, if you haven’t done hypertrophy specific training before that in of itself is a new stimulus to your body.

[Joe]

Freddy Dalley wrote:

I am a 20 year old student and I started training around 16 and in the last year I have begun to get more serious. I was going somes twice a day early in the summer however I have since got a job and work has stepped up and this combined with the fact I have moved further away from the nearest gym mean I feel like i am doing less now.

I play rugby for my university team and for this reason much of my training has been devoted to strength with lower rep ranges but often many sets of excersizes working the same muscles just slightly different variations. I think this means I accumulate quite a large amount of volume. I am now looking to go into more Hypertrophy route.

My question is, in terms of progressive overload, having trained much more this last year will I struggle to see results or does your body “reset” itself? This would mean that i could start from scratch and get stuck into a hypertrophy based routine without trying to match the workout frequency from last year.

I think the main things that will improve everyone’s training the most, will be the same things that will help you the most as well. Improve form, lower volume, focus on getting more out of less. (Taking sets further with better form). Volume get help when your new, but eventually it hits a point of diminishing returns. So you have to improve other variables. Make sure you watch all the videos in my “help and guide” section, get your head around my concepts and some of my workouts…and yes, you’ll be able to make great progress, not needing the volume you had before.

[Author]

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