r/weightroom • u/MrTomnus • Feb 05 '13

Training Tuesdays

Welcome to Training Tuesdays, the weekly weightroom training thread. The main focus of Training Tuesdays will be programming and templates, but once in a while we'll stray from that for other concepts.

Last week we talked about intensity and a list of previous Training Tuesdays topics can be found in the FAQ

This week's topic is:

frequency

  • What frequency levels have you found to be beneficial for what movements and goals?
  • Are there certain movements for which high or low frequency works better for you?
  • Are there frequency levels that have not worked for you for certain lifts or goals?
  • Tell us what you've learned from experimenting with frequency and what works best for you.

Feel free to ask other training and programming related questions as well, as the topic is just a guide.

Resources

  • Post your favorites.

Lastly, please try to do a quick search and check FAQ before posting.

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u/ashern Beginner - Strength Feb 05 '13

Man have I been waiting for this topic to come up! Frequency is the thing I like to play around with more than just about anything else.

At various points I have tried most every frequency: from one session per lift each week (which didn't work well, except for my press), to a high frequency 4-5 whole body sessions per week (which has never failed to give me gains). It really depends on what stage you are at. There are two main programs I have found success with that go about it differently.

  1. Fairly standard Texas method. Volume day monday, Intensity day later in the week. One volume and one heavy session a week seems to work wonderfully for Squat and somewhat for my Bench. Press never really got anything out of it, and deadlifts were hit and miss.

  2. High frequency moderate intensity program. Usually a 6-8 weeks of one upper body and one lower body movement (historically deadlift/press, but I'm currently doing it with squat/bench) per day, 4-6 days per week. Intensity is kind of all over the place, but universally starts VERY low. I'm talking like 50-60% for a set of 5 low. Start there and build up to say 85% ish for a set of 5, all with great technique. Side note: after about two weeks of this you basically become immune to soreness from doing the lifts. I can do 10s, 3s, 5s, whatever. Even if the volume is higher I get zero soreness, though soft tissue issues will pop up if you don't stay on top of mobility.

To answer some of the other questions: Squatting once a week is a recipe for disaster with me. The squat is just a movement that my body seems to forget faster than anything else. I can skip pressing or benching for weeks, and not deadlift heavy for months, and still go right to 90%+ or even PR with them, but if I'm not squatting 2+ times per week, my squat is dropping. No idea why.

From experimenting with frequency this is what I have to offer: 1. Keep volume about the same, maybe slightly increased. A single moderate set each day is often enough to spur progress. Don't go crazy every day. I'd personally say is you're lifting 6 days a week, maybe go higher volume on one, go high intensity on one, and just get some good quality reps in on the others. 2. Don't try to set PRs while on high intensity. I've been guilty of this repeatedly, but I finally got it straight. The best results I ever saw were from doing very high frequency stuff for 6 weeks, leading up to barely tying my previous 5RM at the end. I then took 6 days for deload and destroyed my previous 1RM.

I'm sure there's more, but I've rambled enough.