00:02all right what's up everybody Paul
00:04Carter here I got my backwards hat on I
00:07got my breakfast eating up so if you you
00:09hear my oatmeal ding I am going to eat
00:11my breakfast probably while I'm doing
00:13this video if you don't like that if
00:15you're one of those people has that
00:16condition where hearing other people
00:18chew food makees you you have a seizure
00:20meltdown go ahead and exit out now the
00:23topic for today is the never ending
00:27topic centered around volume and one of
00:30the most annoying phrases that I get to
00:33hear from people that are volume pundits
00:37are is volume is keing now I'm going to
00:42take you guys through the actual
00:43physiology to try to help you understand
00:46why that statement is so completely
00:48wrong so let's start at the time when
00:51you first start training when you first
00:53start training you have what's called a
00:55motor unit recruitment deficit which
00:57means you can only activate fibers
01:02mil so you can only activate
01:06fibers up so far on the high threshold
01:09motor unit recruitment uh pool that's
01:13part of Hitman size principle
01:15so there there'll be a mix of type one
01:18and you'll get some type two fibers in
01:21there of course because it's not we
01:22don't know the exact ratio between fiber
01:26types as you go up the motor unit
01:30but when you start training you do have
01:32a deficit of course because you can't
01:34get all the way up and recruit the
01:35largest fibers that you could and will
01:38eventually activate if you train long
01:40enough so when you start training you're
01:43really getting you're mechanically
01:45loading fibers that have never
01:46experienced mechanical tension um so
01:49you're climbing high up on the high
01:50threshold motor unit pool to activate
01:52those fibers and so they grow pretty
01:55rapidly because of the fact that that is
01:57a brand new novel stimulus right the
02:00other thing is your recovery ability is
02:02going to be at your all-time high during
02:04that time because of the fact that most
02:06of those fibers are going to be type one
02:09and type one fibers have they're more
02:12oxidative so they have more
02:13mitochondrial density so they're able to
02:15have better protective mechanisms right
02:17away against muscle damage than type two
02:20fibers which are more glycolytic and
02:23damaged okay so with that out of the way
02:26what I help you understand is is that as
02:29we are able to reduce that motor unit
02:31recruitment deficit and we're able to
02:34climb up that high threshold motor unit
02:36pool and we're able to actually activate
02:38the largest fibers that we have in our
02:40body as I said those fibers will grow to
02:45larger degrees but they're the most
02:47easily damaged and then the second part
02:49is as fatigue is occurred from each set
02:52that we perform within the workout as
02:55fatigue happens there's a reduction in
02:57motor unit recruitment so if you think
03:00about you know going up the the high
03:02threshold motor how do I do this high
03:03threshold motor your pool starting here
03:05as we do the set we get all the way up
03:06to here and we get the largest fiber
03:08types that we have access to and then
03:11the sub subsequent sets after that see
03:13I'm using subsequent corre correctly
03:15this morning I had enough coffee so as
03:18we go up in those subsequent sets we
03:20can't get quite as high up on the high
03:23threshold motor unit scale so we're not
03:27continuously recruit the largest fibers
03:29over and over and over and over again
03:32this is why when you look at the volume
03:34studies where there's adequate rest
03:37because what adequate rest we reduce
03:40some of the fatigue interference
03:42mechanisms um we allow cardiorespiratory
03:44demands kind of come back uh to normal
03:47we allow metabolites to sub subside more
03:50and when we do that we're able to reduce
03:53the fatigue interference effects which
03:54is why we consistently see that we can
03:56kind of max out our gains with longer
03:59rest period periods and it takes fewer
04:00sets to do that whereas if we take
04:02shorter rest periods it takes about
04:04twice as many sets to get the same
04:06amount of gross stimulus as we do with
04:09longer rest periods so all of that
04:11physiologically fits in perfectly so the
04:14reason why volume can't and never was
04:17King is because of the fact that as I
04:20just noted as you get rid of that motor
04:22unit recruitment deficit we can't even
04:24get back up to mechanically load those
04:26largest fibers that are controlled by
04:28the top end of the high threshold old
04:30motor unit pool so if the sciency stuff
04:33you know if it's it's really really
04:35nerdtastic and you don't like it I
04:37understand that that's cool but I'm also
04:39just trying to help help you understand
04:42like why it is that volume can't be the
04:46king the king is mechanical tension you
04:48could do one set super far away from
04:51failure and you could do one set to
04:53failure and that one set two failure is
04:55going to have some stimulating
04:57repetitions in it that will help kind of
04:59as my Mr says turn on the muscle
05:01building mechanical Machinery or however
05:03he says that I'm not doing the Min
05:05impression two days in a row so if you
05:08have one set to failure you actually can
05:11grow from one set to failure if you
05:12repeat it often enough that's a
05:14completely different topic so but you
05:17can perform a multitude of sets that are
05:20really far away from failure and not get
05:22very much gross stimulus and we've seen
05:24that in a multitude of studies the Han
05:25study was one uh there was another
05:27velocity loss based study that showed
05:30that they did more sets trying to make
05:32up for not reaching the same degree of
05:34velocity loss and they still didn't get
05:36as much muscle growth meaning volume is
05:38not King mechanical tension is king So
05:41you need a sufficient amount of
05:42mechanical tension in order to kind of
05:45maximize the gross stimulus I'm not even
05:47eating at this point guys so how
05:51much that kind of establishes the fact
05:54the volume's not ke so now we're getting
06:01the the question I always ask what is
06:04the amount of volume so when we talk
06:06about volume let's do this again the
06:10matters is the volume where there's a
06:13high degree of motor unit Recruitment
06:15and there and there's a slowing of
06:16contraction velocity that's mechanical
06:19tension so the only volume that matters
06:21are steps that we're doing that are
06:23either very close to failure or to
06:25failure those are the only only ones
06:27that matter volume was King could just
06:29still a whole bunch of
06:30sets and you would grow and it doesn't
06:32work that way you got to have mechanical
06:34tension that gets converted via mechano
06:36transduction that gets converted into a
06:38biological process which causes us to
06:39have muscle growth by way of myop fial
06:45um um not sarir Genesis myi Genesis took
06:53so how much volume does it look like in
06:58the data that we need to maximize growth
07:02I get misquoted of this consistently so
07:04if you're using longer rest periods what
07:06it appears is that somewhere around six
07:09sets there's a plateau and that's for a
07:12muscle group and a training session for
07:14the week there was an umbrella review
07:17which means they basically did a review
07:19of all the MAA analysis and said they
07:22couldn't find anything collectively that
07:24look like more than 10 sets for a muscle
07:26group in a week um was needed so so they
07:30found that a weekly Plateau kind of
07:31occurred around 10 sets those kind of
07:34match right so if you're looking at
07:35around six sets for a muscle in a
07:37session or 10 total sets in a week
07:40that's close enough where you can get an
07:43likely to get to that where there's a
07:47point of diminishing returns because
07:48there's a nonlinear relationship of the
07:50dose response right volume to grow
07:52stimulus so if you're getting getting to
07:55a point where there is the diminishing
07:57returns for muscle group in in a session
08:00appears to be somewhere around six sets
08:03and again this always comes back to
08:04people misquoting me and they'll say why
08:06aren't you doing six sets for a muscle
08:08group in a session or why are you not
08:10programming six sets for a muscle group
08:13in a session nobody said that was the
08:15optimal amount what they said was that's
08:18kind of where the plateau appears to
08:20start and then somebody will twist those
08:22words and say well wouldn't you want to
08:23work all the way up to the plateau you
08:25could but if you go back to my original
08:27part there where I said The more
08:29Advanced you become the higher up on the
08:32motor unit pool that you can climb the
08:34larger fibers that you can activate
08:36which are the mo damag the most easily
08:38and also take the longer to recover even
08:40though they have the greatest potential
08:41for growth means that you may not need
08:45six sets or that six sets could be
08:47detrimental to you it all depends on
08:49your training status so you have to
08:51remember sometimes that the studies are
08:53collective right so when we look at
08:55these and say it's nine studies and they
08:56all fa in the same thing but it's a
08:59collective this so sometimes there's
09:00trained and sometimes there's untrained
09:02and I think sometimes people do not
09:03understand the difference we need
09:05studies on untrained people and we need
09:07studies on trained people and then we
09:09can kind of look at the magnitude of
09:11specific adaptations that are occurring
09:13from certain kinds of training so we
09:14need untrain and train studies we don't
09:17need studies on dudes on gear we don't
09:20and I've heard that from people on
09:21YouTube I've heard it online whatever
09:23like we don't even have training studies
09:24on people on gear that HS a whole
09:27different level of complexity that we
09:29know nothing about and that we don't
09:30even need we want to understand the
09:32physiology we don't need to understand
09:34androgens unless somebody wants to go
09:35out and start studying that but it's not
09:37going to tell us anything that we need
09:38to know about training we do understand
09:42100% you can take steroids and just sit
09:44at home and grow so most likely from
09:46what it appears to me is you get a
09:48stimulus from training and a stimulus
09:50from the steroids and there you go
09:51there's your total stimulus like your
09:53total growth effect there could be more
09:55to it but the truth is I really don't
09:57care because I've been off for a long
10:00so back to the is volume King as you get
10:05more trained volume unequivocally cannot
10:09be king because of the mechanisms that
10:11we just talked about you're going to be
10:13able to recruit larger high threshold
10:15motor units which control the largest of
10:16your fibers you're going to be able to
10:18get to which are the most easily damaged
10:20and they're going to be the first ones
10:22that are going to be reduced for you to
10:23recruit once fatigue does set in so
10:26doing enormous amounts of volume as you
10:29can get more trained is completely
10:31counterproductive to the goal of
10:32continuing to grow what becomes more
10:34Paramount as you continue to grow is to
10:37learn and develop the ability to
10:39basically get to higher degrees of motor
10:42unit Improvement or to get maybe
10:44potentially some Regional hypertrophy in
10:46certain areas that you haven't been
10:48training for example this is one that
10:50came up in a discussion I had the other
10:51day let's say you've never really
10:53trained loaded hip flexion really this
10:56part here so the proximal part of the
10:59fim grows better because that's what it
11:01does it crosses at the Joint at the hip
11:03crosses the hip it's going to grow
11:06proximal due to that hip flexion so if
11:08you're like hey I've never done that I
11:10want to get some of that wck fil growth
11:11in there in that proximal portion let's
11:14say you're a really Advanced body
11:15builder and that's kind of an area
11:16you're lacking in you could do some hip
11:18loaded hip flexion rather than just
11:20continuing with leg extensions so what
11:22you need to do is as you become more
11:25well trained and I'm talking about well
11:26Tred people I think beginners and
11:28intermediates can can in fact do a lot
11:30of basic stuff and progressively
11:32overload those for a very long period of
11:34time and max out a lot of gains but as
11:36you become more trained now you're
11:39literally getting down to a very
11:40granular level of I'm going to get some
11:43hypertrophy here in this region and here
11:45in this region here in this region and
11:47then it becomes a lot more of a focusing
11:51on how do I actually get some activation
11:53out of fibers I have not been using so I
11:57hope that explains the reasoning why
11:59volume cannot be keen and that at a
12:02certain point it's not about adding more
12:04volume it's about increasing motor unit
12:06recruitment or potentially getting some
12:08Regional hypertrophy in places that you
12:10just have not been trained that's my
12:13YouTube for the day hope you guys
12:14enjoyed it have a blessed day
