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[weblinkindianet]

@pooterlaws Microcyle is generally a week, but some people have longer durations (8-9 days).

Failure training is extremely hard and difficult, make sure you're actually failing, 24 rep failure is mostly because of metabolite accumulation (the burning sensation) and not true local muscluar failure.

Yes, increase the weights and train to failure. You can start by increasing it and working near 10 reps, and stopping a rep or two before failure and then slowly within 1-2 weeks you'll be accustomed to lifting heavy and you can start pushing failure.

Also, never compromise on technique, no matter what, the technique should stay ABSOLUTELY IDENTICAL every rep every set every week, and you have to progressively overload with these factors in place

 

[pooterlaws]

@weblinkindianet Isn’t 12 sets per microcyle too little? How many chest exercises can I do in a day?

 

[weblinkindianet]

@pooterlaws 12 sets is nearing the upper limit btw.

I'd challenge you to perform more than 6 sets of heavy, failure sets for a muscle group in one session and still be able to perform anywhere near your peak performance for the next sets.

A good marker for identifying junk volume is when your performance on a muscle group starts to plummet significantly and disproportionately in subsequent sets.

Given the makeup of the muscle fibers in the chest, they recover relatively slow. You can perform something like 2, atmost 3 exercises for chest per session. This can be something like 2 sets of Incline Smith Press, and then 2 sets of Pec Dec Press, or a High to Low Cable press (try finishing these with partials after the last rep).

 

[devotedbaker54]

@pooterlaws As the other comments have said, your workout plan has too much volume and lacks balance.

If you are working out 6 days a week, do a traditional Push-Pull-Legs split. That is you have a Push day, then a Pull day, then a Leg day, then repeat.

Push -- Chest, Shoulders, Triceps -- You are currently doing Chest and Shoulders on back--to-back days. But Chest exercises (especially benches and presses) use the shoulders as well, especially the front delts. Keep one Push day Chest focused, one Shoulder focused. You can get away with doing Lateral and Rear delt work on Chest days.

Pull -- Back, Biceps -- You are not doing any traps (upper back) exercise so include those. Face Pulls, Reverse dumbbell flies, Shrugs are the best.

Legs -- Have a good balance between working your Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings and Calves. Currently you are doing only Quads (Leg extensions, Leg press) and hamstrings (Leg curl). For glutes, include Hip Thrusts, Squats (Glute + Quad) Romanian Deadlifts (Glute + Hamstring) in your regime. For calves, Calf raises will suffice.

As for lowering volume, as a general rule, you should be doing not more than 6-9 sets per muscle group and not more than 10-20 sets overall per day. Anything over this is junk volume. So you need to shift around your exercises.

Your idea of going high intensity is a correct one and will also help with decreasing junk volume. Quality over quantity. Instead of just cranking out reps, go heavy and focus on your form and tempo.

 

[pooterlaws]

@devotedbaker54 So will I be doing chest, shoulders and triceps all on a single day twice a week? Let’s say I do three exercises per muscle group, wouldn’t the sets in total amt to 27 sets in total for a day?

 

[weblinkindianet]

@pooterlaws 3-4 sets of Chest, 2-4 sets of triceps and 2-3 sets for delts.
That would amount to something like 7-11 sets total per session.

 

[pooterlaws]

@weblinkindianet Woahhhhh so I’ll only be able to do just one set of incline, one set of flat bench and one set of cable flies??

 

[devotedbaker54]

@pooterlaws You don't have to do all exercises on one day. You can do, say, only flat and incline press on your 1st Push day, and then cable flies on your 2nd Push day

 

[weblinkindianet]

@pooterlaws 2 sets of incline and 2 sets of cable flies is more than enough, you don't really have to perform flat bench since the costal (lower) and sternal (mid) pec fibers have similar leverages.

You can choose to perform flat bench on another day and pair that with a pec dec, or even a Clavicular Pec (Upper) cable press

 

[pooterlaws]

@weblinkindianet Okay but these two sets of incline and cable flies must be very difficult, high intensity low rep sets and must go to failure right?

 

[weblinkindianet]

@pooterlaws Yes. Correct

If you really push them hard, you'll be dying every set and taking a long time to recover between sets, but that's a good thing.

For example, when you push to failure on cable flies/presses, you'll start losing full ROM after that last rep, push this to failure too (these are known as lengthened partials, they're extremely hypertrophic)

 

[pooterlaws]

@weblinkindianet So partials is basically me giving my all even though I have no energy left in the tank?

 

[weblinkindianet]

@pooterlaws Energy is not the correct term here. You don't wanna be out of breath if that's what you mean.

Partials is True Local Muscular Failure, since failure means that you can basically not move the load anymore.

People generally confuse RIR 0 to Failure. They're not the same

 

[pooterlaws]

@weblinkindianet So partials are half reps should only be done after I’m done with the main sets

 

[devotedbaker54]

@pooterlaws No, you'll be doing Chest and some triceps on one day, and Shoulders and some more triceps on another day.

(Treating Shoulders as one muscle group, as all shoulder exercises will use the front, lateral and rear delts to varying degrees)

Or you can do heavy chest (presses), light shoulders (lateral and rear delt) and light tricep work on one day, then lighter chest (flies), heavy shoulders (front delts) and heavy triceps on the other day.

Point is to go hard and heavy and do 2 or 3 exercises max for each muscle group, and give it your all during these 6-9 sets.

 

[weblinkindianet]

@devotedbaker54 Performing pressing movements for chest would provide enough stimulus for the front delt for most of the people, and that's why it's a strong point for most.

Also, the lateral and front delt have very similar leverages in an overhead pressing movement, thus you can treat your pressing movements, lateral raise movements as an exercise for both the delts.

 

[pooterlaws]

@devotedbaker54 So my ceiling is 9 sets a day? So that means I can do only 5 sets of chest exercises and 4 sets of tricep exercises a day?!

 

[devotedbaker54]

@pooterlaws 10-20 sets a day

6-9 sets per muscle group

If you can do more than this simply means you're not going heavy enough and / or not going till failure

 

[pooterlaws]

@devotedbaker54 Understood but it’s hard determining my ceiling here, two other peeps on this sub have told me to do 12 sets a day for let’s say ie, chest and tri

 

[devotedbaker54]

@pooterlaws 12 does come in the 10-20 range so it tracks
The main takeaway is quality over quantity. Increasing intensity (heavy for lower reps) will help you determine how much you can take. Your ceiling is simply the systemic stamina you have

If you can full effort and intensity do that 15th or 18th set, you can. But most people, if they're giving the required intensity, will tire out by this point. If you're just mindlessly heaving the weights up and down or just going through the motions not paying attention to the exercise, then it is no good. That is why people are suggesting to reduce volume.

If you can maintain perfect form and technique and still feel like you have more to give, then increase the weight.

Get the idea? The range stays the same. Your form and technique stays the same. But the weight you lift keeps increasing. That is progressive overload