Brad Schoenfeld is a world-renowned researcher in muscle growth. Every year he joins Steve Hall, coach, bodybuilder and owner of the platform Revive Stronger. In a podcast, the two discuss interesting topics in the field of bodybuilding. We will highlight a few for you, the full podcast can be found below.
HOW MUCH VOLUME FOR MUSCLE MAINTENANCE DURING A CALORIE DEFICIT? (16:30)
The common philosophy is that you should reduce your training volume during a cutting phase because you have less energy. However, a recent review from me shows that you can better maintain your training volume. This has no negative effects and may have advantages. If you train for muscle growth at a maintenance level, you can suffice with less volume, but that is different with a calorie deficit.
It should be noted that the literature on this subject is still limited. More research is therefore needed to draw firm conclusions.
FULL ROM OF PARTIAL ROM? (22:11)
In general, training with a full range of motion is superior to partial ROM (partials) for muscle growth. However, you should not view it in black and white: optimal training does not always mean one or the other. For example, partials can help you train past a sticking point (you can train harder). In addition, there is some research that suggests that some muscle groups benefit more from partials than others.
Full ROM is a great starting point, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do partials at all.
IS VARIETY IMPORTANT FOR MUSCLE GROWTH? (31:16)
Variation in the sense of a diversity of exercises is important, yes (not in the sense of ‘shocking’ muscles). A muscle has different attachments and can be stimulated over multiple movement patterns. For a complete physique, it is therefore important that you do several exercises per muscle group. Of course, with the basic exercises, such as the squat and the bench press, you come a long way.
DO YOU HAVE TO TRAIN IN HIGH REP RANGES TO COMPLETE MUSCLE FAILURE? (44:30)
There is no scientific evidence that you should train to complete muscle failure. However, as in lower rep ranges, you must make sufficient effort. That means training close to muscle failure and not keeping four or five reps in the tank.
HOW IMPORTANT IS THE ORDER OF EXERCISES? (45:26)
This is also a subject that has not yet been extensively researched. The general consensus is that you start with exercises for muscle groups that are lagging. After all, if you train for 75 minutes, for example, you will have less energy for exercises towards the end of the training.
The same goes for training volume: you do more sets for lagging muscle groups and less for your strong muscle groups.
IN WHAT WAYS CAN YOU MANIPULATE TRAINING VOLUME? (47:35)
I sometimes speak of volume budget. That’s the total amount of volume you can handle, according to your recovery capacity. That budget does not have to be spread evenly over all muscle groups; it is nonsense to do the same volume for every muscle group. As mentioned, you do more volume for lagging muscle groups. Don’t have any lagging muscle groups? Then choose a maximum of two muscle groups for which you do a specialization phase. In a next phase you choose two other muscle groups and so on.
The type of exercise also plays a role. You can do more volume with isolation exercises, such as the lateral raise, than with compound exercises, such as the squat.
ARE SPECIALIZATION PHASES REALLY NECESSARY? (50:54)
Maybe not for beginners. But as you become more experienced, specializing becomes more important. This on the one hand because of your higher volume requirement, on the other hand because muscle development is rarely completely symmetrical: over time there appear to be stronger and weaker muscle groups.
WHAT IS JUNK VOLUME? (51:51)
That is training volume that yields nothing. It is often difficult to determine whether you are doing junk volume for a particular muscle group. To this end, it is important to be well aware of your body and the progress you are making. Tools that can help you with this are the mirror, progress photos and measuring muscle circumference.