There Is A Method to the Madness

The Efficiency Paradox: Quality vs Quantity in Strength Training

• Rob Maxwell, M.A.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most importantly, why things work. Hence the name there is a Method to the Madness. Before I get started today, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412, hello everybody. 886-451-2412. Hello everybody. Rob here and we're going to talk some fitness. As usual.

Speaker 1:

I saw some research lately that's been kind of recycled once again, but it was always something that really grabbed my interest and it was something that I have really been passionate about, like one of the areas of health and fitness and strength and conditioning that I always took an active part in the debating process and all that good kind of stuff because it's actually pretty interesting. And all that good kind of stuff because it's actually pretty interesting. But it was basically some new research done and you know, I kind of laugh as I sit here when I say new research done, because this argument has gone back at least since the 1970s and when I got involved in my career, starting my career in the early 90s, it was a hot topic and I guess 90s it was a hot topic and I guess kind of coming back as a hot topic, but the science is pretty much more clearer now and the science is on the side, so it's not that much debate, but there's still some debate and that debate is quality versus quantity in strength training and, to be more specific, multi-sets versus single-set protocols. So I saw I wouldn't say an argument, but it was on one of the social media platforms and a person was going back and forth with another person in the industry I'm not really sure in the physical fitness industry. I should clarify I'm not really sure if the one person had much credentials at all. I'm not really sure. But I know the one person who was going at him does and he's pretty high up in my industry as far as being a researcher, a PhD guy, a guy that's authored a lot of books and he's pretty much high up with a lot of the sports medicine areas of focus. So he knows what he's talking about. That's the long and short of it. I'm not sure if the other guy does so much, I don't know, but anyway, I came across the argument of this basically being multi-set training versus single set training, and the guy that I know I follow him and see what he has to say here and there basically retweeted it, so to say. And so that's where I saw it and so I read it and then I opened it up and I opened up the study he was speaking of and it just got me thinking. It got me reminiscing a little bit about how this was such a huge debate in the 90s and here we still are. So he shared again the knowledge that pretty much we know that it doesn't take nearly as much volume as we think it does to increase our strength levels.

Speaker 1:

All right, so let me break some stuff down for you a little bit. Volume is how much work that you do, and work in regards to strength training is going to come down to the amount of exercises you choose, the amount of sets you do, and I trust my listeners here knowing that basically a set is a grouping of repetitions. So repetitions can come down to a product of volume as well. So there are high volume folks. Not too many left anymore. They're kind of carryover bodybuilders from the 1970s and I'm going to explain that a little bit. So Muscle Beach is a big part of California and bodybuilding lore and I'm a fan of a lot of those guys.

Speaker 1:

I think Arnold Schwarzenegger's been a pretty good role model through the years. Well, a good role model I don't mean to say pretty good, but I mean I like him and everything, and he'll be the first to say that he's not an expert in health and fitness, he is an expert in bodybuilding. I still think he gives pretty good advice. I mean his latest thing is trying to get people moving again and create some positivity in his podcasts and his emails and stuff. So I mean I think he's fine and I think his message has always been good. He makes it very clear that when he was in his 20s training as a bodybuilder and probably his 30s too I'm not quite sure how old he was when he retired from bodybuilding, but he makes it clear that he was a bodybuilder and he was not an exercise physiologist and he was doing what he knew to do, based on what the other guys were doing. So it's not a knock on him. Some of the training methodologies that they pushed forward, it's just what they were doing. So it's not a knock on him. Some of the training methodologies that they pushed forward, it's just what they were doing. Now, a lot of people have taken it since and not understood it very well, but that's not his fault.

Speaker 1:

But they would do a lot of volume. So again, what volume is? It's sets and exercises. They would do sometimes two training sessions per day of splitting up their body into different muscle groups. So he might do chest in the morning and then back at night, and then the next day legs in the morning and then shoulders at night, and then the next day he might do biceps in the morning and triceps at night, something like that. They did a lot of different variety in their split routine. So that is a high volume style workout and he would do upwards of 20 sets per muscle group. Now you have to. You also have to keep in mind that.

Speaker 1:

So those guys in those days and he is very clear and open about it, and it's just the culture in general were taking a lot of anabolic steroids, and anabolic steroids help people recover. That's what they do, they allow the muscles to recover so people can train more frequently, train harder and recover, and that is why they grow. So is that good? Of course not. That's not great for the health and that's not anything that I've ever advocated, but they could get away with that very high volume training because they were doing things like that. Now, a lot of people, as you might guess, then saw how these great pros were training and they started to train that way. And the next thing, you know the old, you know guys at your local gym, at your local Gold's Gym, at your local World Gym, if you remember that place, and nowadays at your local, say, planet Fitness or LA Fitness or wherever, are kind of like following similar split routines. So that is called high volume training. So I caught you up there.

Speaker 1:

Now let me talk a little bit about intensity and then the opposite approach to that, and then I'm going to wrap it up for you so you understand the method to the madness. So intensity isn't volume. Intensity is how hard you train, meaning how close do you get to what is called muscular failure. The closer you get to muscular failure, the more intense the set is. So that's what intensity is Now one of the problems I've always had with some of the research they were doing when they were comparing multi-set programs versus single set or low set programs, is that they didn't do a good job in the studies I saw in the earlier days of quantifying and qualifying what constitutes a set.

Speaker 1:

So somebody might say, yeah, they're doing four sets of 12 of this and four sets of 12 of this and four sets of 12 of that, and my question and many people's question was well, how close were they to failure and can we really call that four sets? I mean, what if they did 12 reps but they could have done 20, then that doesn't really constitute a set. So some of the earlier research I have a problem with because they never really clarified that very well. So, and I'll get into the research and the more the latest research in a second. So the opposite of the high volume folks were the very low volume, high intensity folks and in the early days that was called HIIT training, high intensity training, not to be confused with H-I-I-T or high intensity interval training. But HIIT training was pure strength training and it was very high intensity, meaning every set to failure and you would do less sets.

Speaker 1:

Now there's a lot of people giving credit for that way of thinking. One of the most famous was Arthur Jones, who invented Nautilus, and he also invented the Nautilus style of training and it was basically somewhere around 10 to 12 exercises, taking the sets to failure, and roughly 8 to 12 reps. That varied a little bit and that was all you did. So you did essentially 10 to 12 exercises. You were in and out of the gym in 20 to 25 minutes, not including your warmup and depending on how fast you went. So that was very high intensity training. There were a lot of other variations to that, like different styles and different people giving credit and all that good stuff.

Speaker 1:

Now I happen to know and got to know a lot of the old Nautilus folks. I never met Arthur because he had passed by the time. I met the folks that worked with Nautilus. I worked with the medical director for quite some time. I met Arthur Jones' son, whose name is Gary Jones and he is the founder of Hammer Strength, and he became a pretty close acquaintance of mine that I got to know, talk to. He didn't really get into the exercise science side of things as much as he got into the exercise manufacturing side of things, obviously creating hammer strength, which was a brilliant idea, which essentially if you don't know what it is, it is selectorized machines using free weight. So he was able to cross the bridge because there was all of this silly, you know rumor that you know well, some real athletes don't use machines, which is silly, and some people shouldn't use free weights, which is also silly. I mean, they're just tools. And he was able to cross the bridge with hammer strength and say, well, this is a machine that uses free weights. So, you know, let's everybody use this and they're great pieces of equipment for sure, as is most good pieces of equipment free weights, machines, all good. So I got to know a lot of the early guys that were involved. So I was able to read a lot of the early research and studies and I became an advocate more of less volume, more intensity style training.

Speaker 1:

I've never been a zealot. I've never believed that it's all or nothing was something. I've never believed that one style of training works for every single person, because that's just not true. There are a lot of variables, including personalities and psychological profiles, all kinds of things. But I do know this and the research backs this up, that lower volume. And again, I'm not a zealot of saying, oh, one set per exercise, it's like. Well, that depends. Is it a warmup set? You know all these kinds of things has to be one set. Now, I don't believe that. I think there are many ways to get the Rome, so to say. But I do know that less volume, higher intensity meaning bringing your load, bringing your set close to muscular failure does work and that's what the latest research showed, and it's just replicating research I've seen over and over and over. And the thing I love about this research is it's very clear.

Speaker 1:

Both work Like higher volume training with a little bit less intensity. And, let's face it, you can't use maximal intensity if you're doing a lot of volume. Right, I mean, that's just common sense. And that's one of the beauties of higher intensity, low volume training is, you know, you're not doing set after set after set, so you give a lot more focus and energy to that one set. I mean, it's just human nature, but the studies indicate that both styles work, as long as you don't over train with the higher volume.

Speaker 1:

And that's a big if, like you don't know. I can guarantee you this. If you're doing double split routines and you're doing 20 sets per muscle group, you're going to over train and I don't care what you're taking. That is just a recipe for over training. Somebody might get away with it for a week or two, but that is absolutely overtraining. But if you did something less than that, like, say, half the volume, which is still pretty high volume training, yes, that's going to make you stronger, and nobody ever said it's not. But here's the thing that the high volume folks need to understand. Low volume works too, and the studies have absolutely shown that. They've taken different exercises. They've taken every exercise. I've seen these studies with every major gym exercise you can do, from leg press to b, you want to pick and the research is absolutely clear that three sets of moderate intensity is essentially equal to one set of higher intensity.

Speaker 1:

Now, again, there's a lot of variables, but the key to the research is it works. So if it works, why not do it? I mean I can give you a why nots on both sides. I mean, again, there's a method to the madness why not do it? Oh, I don't know. Maybe, like you, have a tendency to not handle your time very well. Like you know, you have a lot of time during the day and you've had issues with going to bars and gambling. I mean, I'm just being facetious here, but like, well, that's a reason. So like, if it's better for you to go to the gym and train every day for an hour and a half rather than go and waste your money somewhere where maybe you shouldn't. I mean, I'm being facetious, but I'm also not Like, in other words, there's worse places to be than a gym. So that's a situation where you can go. Yeah, you know, I want to spend more time in a gym because I just like it there. Well, there you go. You can do that. But just don't think that that is superior, physiologically speaking, than doing lower volume. So that would be a reason why you can do that.

Speaker 1:

Now, why would you want to do the higher intensity? Well, guess what? The number one reason given to us experts and to the media and everybody else why only 28% of our population is physically active Time. Time is the number one reason always given I've harped on that over, over and over on this podcast and in my emails and everywhere else Time. Okay, there are some time constraints, of course. I've also said in the past and I'll say it again it's also a priority issue, but time is given.

Speaker 1:

So if you know you can go to the gym and strength train and you can get in and out of there in 30 minutes, do a full body workout at pretty high intensity and I'll close with talking about that here in a minute, because that's important Pretty high intensity, and you can get everything done two to three days a week and then you can do your other exercise, like cardio and whatever, then I just solved the problem for you and now what you have to do is you have to understand that it absolutely does work. Now you have to be mentally prepared to give a good effort. So again, if you're going through a phase in your life where you know you don't really want to go to the gym and give it a lot of effort, but you like going because you see your friends, so you want to go a little bit more, or it's a good place for you to escape, I get it. Man, that is absolutely fine. Go for it, that'll work.

Speaker 1:

I'm not one of those people that says it's this way or the highway, or if you're not going to give full effort mentally and physically, why waste your time? I don't believe that. I think the only time it's dangerous is if you're not paying attention to your form and you get hurt. But those are two different things. But if we know that higher intensity, harder workouts that are briefer and you don't have to spend as much time in the gym work and somebody has time constraints, why not? I mean, it only makes sense that someone would do that.

Speaker 1:

I can share all these studies with you and show you I've always been a person that says you know, let's put together the program that works best for the individual. I like all styles of training for the most part, but like ultimately I always fall back to for my own personal workouts. It's like I can tend to be a little bit of ADD and I can get bored. So if I know I'm going to the gym and I'm doing multi-sets on an exercise, I'm just not going to give it the full attention that it deserves. So I do better when I know I'm doing a minimal amount of work with maximal effort. Does that mean like one set of this or that? No, not necessarily. It means I'm going to be properly warmed up and I'm going to give each exercise one max effort, for sure you know, and then that's it. But I might do a warm-up set or two.

Speaker 1:

So again, you don't have to be a zealot, you just have to understand the principles behind it that we grow, we get stronger from intensity. There is just no way around that. Sat there and you did three sets of 10, let's say, with five pounds, just throwing random weights out there, and you normally can do 10 or 15 pounds, but you do three sets of 10 with five pounds of, say, dumbbell curls. No, you are not getting anything out of that physiologically. You are getting something out of there, burning some calories and probably getting some maybe some good gym meditation, I like to call it. You're focused on working out. Yeah, that's great. So again, I don't say it's a waste of time, but it's. You're not getting the physiological strength benefits from that. So we do have to understand that we get stronger via intensity, not volume. All right, and everybody's level of volume is up to them how much time they have and what is their motivation and what do they like to do. Those are all big parts of it, all right.

Speaker 1:

So I hope this helps you and please share this podcast with anybody that you think will help them get motivated and get to the gym and put in a good effort, because I can't stress enough how physical fitness is one of the best things we can ever do for ourselves. Exercise is a life and a game changer. Thank you for listening to today's show. I ask you to please follow this show on wherever you get your podcasts and also please hit automatic downloads. It really helps me and it helps the show door company in volusia county with the best product with the best service. I can vouch for jeff and zach hawk, the owners. They are great people. If you need any help with your garage doors, give them a shout. 386-222-3165.

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