Workout Rules and Recommendations 2023

Whats up people,

Every year around new years, I spent 2-3 weeks refreshing and updating my fitness knowledge. My first principle beliefs, my recommendations for workouts and exercises, my understanding of physiology, biomechanics, and nutrition, etc.

As I write multiple programs a year and get constant feedback and data from trainees, this yearly update keeps both my knowledge current and makes sure my programming is maximally effective.

My goal is to always challenge what I think I know. And what I am certain of, I want to find as much evidence as possible for it.

It would take a book to describe how my beliefs have changed over time, and unless you are fitness professional, I doubt this would be useful for any of you.

What would be useful is my Recommendations for how to have Good workouts and make your exercise time productive

I always default to emphasizing APPLICATION.

I assume you are reading this emails to learn and apply in real life, not to simply consume brain candy and read lengthy academic style discourse with no real point.

I could write a 10 page email explaining my reasoning and scientific rationale for everything I do...OR I could write a short 2-3 page guide on how to have effective workouts, build muscle, get stronger, and make the most of your time in the gym.

Context established, these are my Guidelines for Training in 2023

To preface, these are GENERAL guidelines. Not absolute rules never to be violated for fear of the Iron Gods punishing you.

• Train 2-3 muscles each workout
  

• do 4-8 sets per muscle, per workout.
  
  -To Note, Back is not one muscle, but multiple muscles that overlap. As you need to train multiple lines of movement to work all of these muscles, I always suggest performing 8 sets for back to ensure adequate stimulus,
  
  FYI-These sets are spread across all exercises performed. I am not saying to do 4-8 sets for every exercise you do
  

• This breaks down for 8 total sets for 2 muscles, to a possible 24 total sets for 3 muscles with 8 sets done for each. I would not suggest maximum volume for 3 different muscles in a workout, but it could be done.

• As a heuristic, I would suggest limiting a workout to 20 total sets (cumulative of all muscles trained) at maximum. Both for recovery sakes (thats a lot of sets), and times sake (you are going to be in the gym to get all that done)
  

• train to positive failure, or close to failure

• do 1-2 warmup sets of moderate reps, 5-10 reps is a good rule to follow. These don’t count as work sets

• do 2-3 working sets per exercise.

• You can do 1 set per exercise. If so, do that set to positive failure.

• If you do only one working set you can do more exercises in a workout
  Example; doing 4 exercises for one set each. This would be “HIT style” training
  -->This is personal preference if you like to train this way.
  

• all rep ranges work, provided sets are done to positive failure or close to it. When in doubt, 5-10 for compound movements, 8-15 for isolation

• If doing two exercises per muscle, do one lower rep exercises, and one higher rep exercise.

• If doing three exercises, do one low, one middle and one for high reps.

• train each muscle 1-2 times weekly

• train 3-5 days per week. 3 days you will always be recovered. 4 days is the sweet spot for double frequency, such as a PPL schedule where one of the days repeats each week.
  5 days or more, I assume you are a gym rat and you should know your body and how to setup your training for this already.
  

• control the eccentric on all your rep

• when in doubt, slow the reps down

• rest 2-5 minutes between hardest sets (the more fatigued you are, the more rest you should take)

• always be hydrated before you lift (this means drink water and consume enough sodium)

• train with the same core group of exercises year around

• rotate exercises to similar variations when workouts get stale and progress stalls (example, smith machine incline in place of barbell incline)

• get stronger over time in moderate rep ranges on productive exercises
  

• Take a break from training every 9-12 weeks. That means take a week off and DON’T lift. Allow recovery and super compensation to happen

• Always use a logbook to record sets, reps, and progression. Whether this an actual notebook, phone notes, an app, it doesn’t matter. Record

Clarifications, Since I know People Will have questions

• Yes, you could train only ONE muscle in a workout, or train your entire body if wanted. This is PERSONAL PREFERENCE. Overall, I GENERALLY find best for people to train 2-3 muscles per workout due it being simple to organize and follow

• 2-3 sets per exercise are working sets done to failure or close to it. Whether this is ONE set to failure, and one set close to failure, or 3 sets close to failure, or all sets close to failure, IT DOES NOT MATTER. What matters is intensity is being applied.

• Yes, you could do something High Intensity Training and do Only One set per exercise and do super low volume. Personal preference.

• Yes you could also attempt to do 10 sets per exercise and train every muscle twice weekly with 20-30+ sets. Good luck to you.

• FYI-You grow based on what you can recover from, not from how much you can train.

• NO, you dont need train to failure. But if none of your sets are hard and you are terrible at assessing your own effort, your half assed sets are not doing much. As I often say, 3/4 of Americans are overweight. You did not get fat from training too hard.

• Yes, you could do MORE warmup sets and do lower or higher reps. The point is you do something thats a warmup. Do not overcomplicate this

• Your reps could be slightly lower (say 4-8), or be higher (10-20). Personal preference. Figure out what works for you

• Eccentric control means controlled, that could be 3 seconds, 4 seconds, 5 seconds, 2.5 seconds, etc. Exercises with big ROMs will take longer than others. The point is not to drop the weight on yourself and have no control over it.

• You can train faster. This will make the workout more cardiovascular. This will not lead to more strength and muscle gains.

• Changing up your exercises constantly is how you make zero progress. Muscle confusion is bullshit

• To merit a deload from training you need to train CONSISTENTLY. If you cannot string together even 4 weeks of showing up at the gym, do not ask about deloads.

• You could not record anything ever. I find it doubtful you take your health and fitness seriously if you refuse to use numbers, the same way I would doubt someone who said they wanted to be rich but didnt check their bank account.

And LASTLY:

I have training guides for

Legs

Chest

Arms

Shoulders

Back

Thus if you are clueless on how to effectively train any major muscle group, get the respective guide and LEARN.

Questions? Feel free to comment