Hey All! Feel free to check out the Alpha Progression App: alphaprogression.com/HouseofHypertrophy Timestamps + further notes: 0:00 Intro 0:41 Part I: The New Research 1:53 Results + Underappreciated Info 6:05 Part II: Different Paths Same Gains? 7:56: Part III: Increasing Sets or Frequency? 11:05 Part IV: What About Strength Gains? 12:17 Part V: Summary At 11:24, we mentioned there are two technical considerations. What was I talking about? With the study on untrained people, remember one leg progressed by increasing load, while the other leg progressed by increasing reps. The problem with this something called the "cross-education effect" (also known as the contralateral effect), whereby strength adaptations get transferred to opposite limbs. For example, if you only trained your right leg with an exercise, your left leg would actually still see some strength gains. Note, this problem does not exist with muscle growth. That is, there is virtually no transfer in muscle growth between limbs (i.e. training the right leg results in virtually zero growth in the left leg). Here is a great paper illustrating this: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37423835/ Some people may be surprised at this since they think temporary anabolic hormonal increases (testosterone or growth hormone) from training one limb should end up growing the other limb, but as discussed previously at the House of Hypertrophy ( kzfaq.info/get/bejne/prR_lZqb1MnPg5s.html ), as well as this paper ( pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29172848/ ), temporary elevations in anabolic hormones play virtually no role in muscle growth. Anyhow, due to this confounder surrounding strength, this study does not allow us to know if true strength gains are different between progressing by load or reps. With the study on trained people, it was smith machine squat gains that was assessed. The potential problem with this is that subjects did not train with this exercise (rather a barbell back squat was used). Considering this, the use of the smith machine to test strength may have been too "non-specific". Yet, this study might still be evidence when we test more "general" strength, progressing by reps still delivers excellent gains. But it remains possible (and probably likely) that if barbell squat strength gains were tested, a difference between groups may have been seen.

I think "training harder than last time" is just a metaphorical way of describing PROGRESSIVE resistance. If taken too literally, however, it could easily lead to injuries.

Aim for 8-12 reps, and once you can do 12, overload the weight. Until then, add more reps. Proven formula

I'm a fan of the double progression method. It involves starting an exercise at the lower end of the rep range. The next day that you perform that exercise in your workout routine, you increase the reps by one for all sets. This progression continues each time you perform the exercise until you reach the maximum reps for all sets in the given range. After reaching this point, you increase the weight and begin again with the minimum rep count. Example: Let's say that I'm doing 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps for an exercise. Day 1: 3 x 6 Day 2: 3 x 7 Day 3: 3 x 8 Then you add weight and restart from day one. Keep up the excellent work! Your videos are top-notch, and even Jeff Nippard has commented on a few. He better watch out before you steal his audience, haha.

Babe wake up house of hypertrophy posted a new video

Eyyy, within 10 minutes of publish again - support from South Africa!!! 🙋🏼‍♂️

Overload is really just about increasing stimulus to counteract the effects of muscular adaptation, i.e. reduction in hypertrophy and strength signaling. Anything that increases the intensity of stimulus is a viable candidate for overload, to the extent that it does increase stimulus. You can even stack different intensity modalities, which is a great approach.

The fact that you put links not only to the sources for the video but also the music is really appreciated. Subbed.

Loving the synthwave music!

Basically doesn’t matter what you do really just stay between 6-35 reps, and increase weight when needed to maintain difficulty.

TUT is one good way of increasing burdening what muscle experiences, and for progressing forward. Progress doesn't always have to be either reps or load or volume.

Sometimes is easier adding 2.5 kg than doing another rep. And sometimes not, so it is the knowledge and experience that tells you that.

thanks for making these kind of videos it has really help me alot to understand about fitness in general

Needed this motivation, bout to go for a new pr with dumbbell bench press, wish me luck fellas

Great video, thanks ! “Train as hard as usual” : a perfect summary of progressive overload. I don’t count my reps for most exercises and I don’t even know how much I lift, since I don’t even lift, because I train with resistance bands. Yet I make constant progress, because I focus on effort and train as hard as I can. Indeed, progressive overload is not the way to get bigger, just the consequence of getting stronger.

The title of the video can be answered if you watch the last 15 seconds

Very few people actually train to real failure. Including myself. We think we do but real failure involves forced reps and some negatives thrown in. I used to train like that in the 80's with a partner. My body could handle it. I doubt it could now. You can't push yourself like that and not expect injuries. So at my age, lighter weight, higher reps to what I would call as much as I could do on that set. But it takes me a few sets of warming up my joints, ligaments an muscles to probably 75% max before I finish off with my 'working' set. The secret has always been simple. Train hard. Train regularly. Don't overtrain and avoid injuries. I keep it simple. Very little changes in my workouts apart from exercises will change because people use the same equipment as I want to use but the theory is the same. Good to mix it up now and again. Supersets, dropsets even stopping normal resistance training and doing something more fitness based which I've been doing since January. I'll start proper resistance training again in a few months but muscle comes back fairly quickly so no rush.

I do both… I just blew your mind 🤯

So just keep failing in the 6-12 rep range as I have been while pushing to failure, got it.

I really like dynamic double progression. This way I can choose if I want to progress in load or reps via autoregulation. If my joints feel a bit beat up I can choose to focus more on rep progression and if I feel that higher reps become excessively fatiguing I can choose to focus on load progression. The way I track progressive overload is through a workout log app that automatically calculates e1rm for every set based on weight x reps. That makes a set of 130kg x 5 squats comparable to a set of 120kg x 8 as both lead to almost the same e1rm. I also do reverse pyramid training as that allows me to cover different rep ranges between sets and lighter weight on subsequent sets is good for injury prevention as fatigue builds up from set to set. I can't remember when I hurt myself the last time and if I ever tweaked something, it's on the top set.

If your a teenager or in your 20 and 30 some people can do the Bulgarian workout, 3 weeks on 1 week off, do for three months, as following use your basic compound movements, First three weeks 3 sets of 15-20 reps, Next Three weeks do 4 sets of 8-10 reps, the 3 weeks do 5 sets of 5-8 reps! It's solid Now in-between those do a few sets of isolation exercises. just 3 sets of 8-10 reps will do, and you can do your abs any exercises 3 to 4 times a week, so do chest and shoulders one day the next day do Squats, calves, abs, the third day do Back and Biceps. Then start with day one after, the only day you should have off is Sunday a day of rest. The next Three months you'll do the same thing only thing is you start with 4 sets for the next 3 weeks, then 5 sets then 6 sets. Your next three months will be hard core sets 5x5 the compound movements, Don't forget in-between the 3 weeks the 1 week off do whatever activities outside Walking, Hiking, Bicycling, Soccer, Take a martial arts classes, Boxing, just switch it up when you want to or can stick with it. I taught martial arts after work for 3 hours then workout out before i went to bed for 4 hours every day for 15 years. Kept me in shape. Tip if you want your boxing or kick boxing skills to excel do three or more months of BJJ. You'll thank me later! :) Dynamic stretching first, static afterwards. Take your time and have fun. lots of water eat healthy, try to get as much sleep as you can.

Superior video! Been watching fitness vids for many years. This is outstanding!!!

Once more and I dont get tired of saying it, bro: BIGGEST respect for this guy's work. Nothing less than amazing. Thank you very much! And BTW: I notice by myself how my strenght increases like never before since I started adding more weight and prioritizing 6-8 reps! Regards from Brazil.

The problem with continually lifting in the 2-4 rep range is you will damage joints and fry your nervous system over time. the 5-7 rep range is better for long term strength programming for the drug-free lifter. Also the 5-7 range will give you more hypertrophy and its easier to add weight without stalling. The drug-free strength lifters that continually train in the very heavy zone usually use a submaximal weight with lots of sets (like 82% for 6 sets of 3 reps) to keep their strength gains slowly going up without frying joints and nervous system.

Answer is do both... Set a rep range to reach with a given weight... and I crease weight when you exceed expectations. Would be good to have rep ranges for (low/ medium) and (medium/high).

Whatever works for you.

Another extremely useful video , with practically applicable info , that goes to the core of what one needs to know about weight training , in order to get to the best results without having to waste time on all kinds of way off bro science. The best channel on you tube on the subject. No hyperbole.

Do you have any plans on analyzing studies on optimally increasing cardiovascular endurance? I know it would be getting outside of your wheelhouse a bit, but it would be very interesting.

So we all know of Time Under Tension - but - how about Total Weight Lifted/Shifted? Like, my body doesn't know if I am lifting logs, digging holes, carrying scaffold or what. It adapts to the task i need to do. And that task is "move X amount of weight".

The problem is the language. Training "harder" doesn't mean perceived difficulty; it just means that you're able to do more overall work. The level of perceived effort, doesn't need to change at all

Thanks so much! Adding reps is cheaper. It saves me from having to buy more weights for our community gym! 😆 Sending love from within a Daoist monastery. ☯

It makes sense to continually push reps each session and once you reach the ability to do a sufficient amount of reps each set (6-12 seems to be a good benchmark), then add weight. Another issue with just adding reps is that it will eventually make your workouts way too long. Time is not a luxury many of us can afford which is why eventually, increasing load needs to happen to progressively overload while still being able to meet your other obligations.

I liked the video before I even watched it because I know Ím going to like it 😊

Harder than last time, smh😂🤣😂 Love the channel, excellent work!🔥🔥🔥💯💯💯

INTENSITY is the key Mike Mentzer

Thanks I needed this

Before even watching: both over time bro.

Ah perfect! I was wondering this morning which is better. Crazy timing

Thank you again for the valuable information: From the study’s data to the practical application. However, like you mentioned some exercises maybe more suited for adding weight than others (isolation vs. compound). Considering the time saving aspect (like antagonistic super sets) „too“ high numbers of repetitions in a set might be unfeasible because of the cardiovascular system being the limiter instead of the target muscle.

Awesome video. Finally some light into a very controversial topic

This content is amazing!

As mentioned, lower rep ranges with bigger weights are considered strength training. Lesser weights with higher reps is hypertrophy training. Athletes usually train with the first method, while bodybuilding is done with the second. So depending on your goals, you can opt for one or the other. Of course you can switch between them after 2-3 months as well. There's no reason you cannot do both. Only thing I'd add is that going beyond 20 reps is what I'd consider more as cardio. If you want to build muscle, it's inefficient. Add weights, do less reps (6-20 range) and be done quicker.

Harder than last time does not necessarily mean adding weight/reps all the time. It also means advanced techniques like rest pause, pre exhaust , partials, forced reps etc. Making it feel harder. Nothing beats basic progressive training. 5-10 , 8-12, 3-6 for example. When you can do 10 reps up the weight and start at 5. It's cycling as well. You can be adding 20, 10, 5 or even 2.5 a week sometime, up to a point/plateau . Thats when adding a set or reps and advanced kicks in. Don' t be in a hurry and use good form. To get bigger you have to lift heavier and or increase volume but not 35 reps. So HTLT is the way.

I stopped counting reps a while ago. Instead, I just focus on going near failure, even if it means lower range of motion at the end, since I'm still doing a "rep" at a stretched position for the muscle. I increase the load whenever I notice I've increased the rep count enough that I get bored from the exercise before I get tired from doing it.

I understand your gist: That progressive overload is the cause vs the effect. I'd say: Both. Also, increasing sets is equivalent of increasing reps; it's just the number of reps that vary (increase enough to be considered one 'set'). Same goes for increasing frequency. It all depends on the time period for which you define/decide to measure the 'total work' performed...which is a bit arbitrary (although customary to use weekly or monthly time frames)... One underappreciated, IMO, way of achieving/assessing 'progressive overload' is via decreasing rest times. This is perhaps more useful/meaningful for both strength training (although it may also influence hypertrophy due to metabolic stress pathways), and for aerobic training - esp. VO2 max type training...

thank you for the summary!

Another factor not considered is heavier loads cause more strain on your tendons & joints - increasing risk of injury. I always feel more pain and took longer to recover after lifting weights I can only do 4-6 reps with.

Its some function of work and time under tension. I like lifting because its a math and physics problem and a phy ed one.

I like to evaluate this based on Work or Tonnage; the combination of Weight X Reps. By choosing the option that increases the total Work the least we can be more granular in our approaches to failure. Some movements (like compounds) lend to micro loading as an extra 5 lbs across 8 reps is only an extra 40 lbs of work, versus doing another rep which could be significantly higher even on novices. alternatively isolation movements in the higher rep range (for ease I'll use 20) adding 5 lbs to the set yields 100 extra lbs of work, while increasing by a rep will be less work even on highly trained folks.

This is a very interesting video 😮

Amazing content right here! Been in this circus for over 25 years and that video is on point! Regarding total number of sets: I am using Alpha Progression and it had me doing 35 daily sets in a 5 day training split resulting in 175 sets per week for the peak week. This definitely was an experience but I will never do that again 😅

my personal summary: Either adding reps or increasing load both lead to the same hypertrophy. Increasing load is proably better for strength, although the studies showed similar strength gains as well, but this could be due to cross-education effect or non-exercise-specific measurement of strength. As long as you stay within the 6-30 rep range and train close to failure, how you get there doesn't really matter.

Goated channel

I tried “training harder than last time” for 8 weeks with lat pulldowns. my lats exploded literally but my cns was fucked up and I couldnt hold the new built musculature.

Pure science analysis. Not BrO ScIENce or other BS. Amazing. 👌🏼👌🏼

I guess it´s easier to add sets when you also keep in mind RIR which is not 100% precise (as long as you stay between 0-3 you are good to go) + really depends how close to failure you take your sets Great video tho (Y)

Bodybuilder going super saiyan. This should be the norm in these kind of videos.

We all knew this but is good to have it back up with papers

Adding reps, OR weight, OR sets, or cutting time for same workload are all forms of progressive resistance

First increase reps, then add a little weight and do fewer reps. Change exercises around often.

I think increasing sets across training sessions helps counteract certain negative psychological adaptations that can trigger plateaus. I start to increase sets when I am having trouble progressively overloading in any other way. If I know I can neither increase the weight nor the reps and I'm already doing partials(generally when I overload weight) or drop sets(generally when I overload reps), I go screw it there's nothing else I can do we are adding a set or maybe another exercise altogether if I know for a fact there aren't any good working sets left in the tank for the exercises I want to do.

I feel like I get nothing from these videos. Like they just talks about the science but with no take away

Bro, in brazil we have a void space to this kind of information, and fitness market is in ascention in here. Maybe consider to subtlite this content for portuguese, you could gain a lot of fans in Brazil

For me, adding reps or load is a must between sessions while oscillating sets and RiR is important in periodization

5:42 last year I got my shoulder raises to 45lbs using Progressive but had to go for a work trip for two weeks and lost it all on return. I thought the more reps thing was old folk tales that didn’t work

Better than a Dr Mike video without any creepy or weird tangents 👏

Good stuff

Ohh couch greg gonna take this personally. Lol. But this is true. “Work as hard as usual” (taking into account you are training hard)

Coach Greg called out within 10sec! Although he has put caveats to that many times.

I use both I start with weight I can perform 6 reps and next week is 8 then 12 then I move to the jext weight.

So higher load vs more reps yield similar sets, and thus you can essentially choose your own adventure. However what about that fact in the context of your other body parts? Would increasing load also put more strain on your joints and bones? If that is the case then would increasing reps and sessions actually be better for your body overall?

Bro this is the best fitness channel on KZfaq

I think many schemes work just fine and it's good to switch it up as well. On compounds, I like to do some ramp up sets (a few reps each set, increasing weight) and then when I know my CNS is ready, do a heavy single (90 to 95 of 1RM). I then do my working sets for the day (set weight, all sets done to 1 RIR or so) and maybe throw in a lighter weight burn out set at the end if I want more volume. I usually do 3 to 8 for a working set, 3 or 4 sets. I follow a more power lifter style peaking program generally, since I enjoy bumping up my 1RM, but I've found it also gives me a good deal of hypertrophy as a bonus. On non-compounds, I pick a heavy-ish weight and just rep until near failure, with some partial or chat reps at the end as needed. Been doing the same for 30+ years and my numbers are still going up and my physique is bette than ever, so something is working! Love all of these videos. They always give something you can add or modify slightly in your program, or at least think about. I like a mix of science and Bro-science. :)

The only way for the study to be accurate is for each individual to try both programmes. Comparing 1 side of the body to the other will always give flawed results as the body isn't perfectly symmetrical. 1 side is always stronger than the other.

the 10% lighter on the last sets group were lying... every body with experience knows that light weights for failure are far more harder than heavy weights! thats one of the reasons why most gyms are packed with ego lifters. heavy looks good, looks hard, and they are confused with the bro equation: heavier=more muscles. lighter for failure is excruciating, hard, and less heroic.

I've been experimenting with dispensing with traditional warm up sets and using a high rep (20-30) set to failure as a hydrid working/warm up set. This is followed by a 12 to 15 rep set close to failure and finally a 6 to 10 rep set to actual failure. The premise behind this is that no sets are wasted, a variety or rep ranges are covered and a larger number of effective reps are done in whilst overall workout time is reduced.

bro, you deserve billions of subscribers...

You're gonna be the next Dr. Mike Nippard

would never thought I would hear a pluggnb beat Ona workout vid 😭 shi fye tho

I do a combo approach. I start at 8 reps and keep increasing reps until I can do 13 then increase load where I am trying to be able to do 8. As long as I can do 6 reps on the test to max I keep it until I do that for 13 n go again. I normally in 1 or 2 reps in reserve range and test my max about once every 2 months so I remember what true failure feels like.

Biggest guy I know in town does 5x20 on everything he does, not super heavy and constant time under tension, i.e. partial reps, never locking out.

I found a set weight and set rep's to start but I up the rep's first then the weight

What about shortening rest time?

Keep up the great work(out)! 💪🏻 Greetings from Italy 🇮🇹 Edit: oooh, the Greg Doucette reference at 0:08 🥰

Damn. This is a good channel

While seemingly the same, it's not. Higher repetitions with lighter weight will have different neurological adaptations compared to increasing weight over time. That's why, when training, it's important to equally incorporate higher rep exercises and ones with higher weight. With more reps, a muscle becomes more adapted to endure longer periods of strain, while weight increases overall strength. To get the best of both worlds, it's important to have a strategy which covers the two scenarios, in addition to isometric exercises.

How do you make these animations

Have you ever considered writing a review about muscle hypertrophy?

Just train with good form and try to get to fail or as close too. Don’t make anything too difficult and scientific. As long as you train hard I believe nutrition is more important. Most don’t eat enough

best thing you can do is always put your max wight you can to the point you feel only the muscle then after you have gone a little bit up on wight best thing to do is put lower weight and go for more reps trust me the gains will be insane this way i found out about this 5 months ago and my muscles are insanely big rn and shredded also eat well really well always

I feel like you are using "load" interchangeably with weight which may not be proper. Load is m*a*x (mass, acceleration, distance). the weight relates to the mass and rate of motion relates to the acceleration, x relates to the range of motion and number of reps total.

Dude i swear that since i discovered this channel, im seeing every video, such great quality! I have a question (for anyone who feels qualified to answer/share experiences) that may be kinda dumb, but it bothers me a bit. I always see people talking about 3 sets of 8, and it seems crazy to me cause i cant do a second hard set of any exercise without failing at least 2 reps earlier. For example, a bench press for me usually goes: 1st set - 10 reps 2nd set - 8 reps 3rd set - 5 reps Could it be that im training with a RIR too low? I aim to leave 2 reps in reserve but in reality i think i go to almost failure (couldn't complete another rep if i tried). Should i stop my sets 1 reap earlier or something?

general basics that we already knew for the most part sadly. use a mix of increasing loads or sets until you can usually hit somewhere between 8-15 reps. if you can do that regulary its time to change it up. this graph seemed like that it used the same exercise constantly and that is another variable they had. sometimes you need to just change up to a different workout that targets the same muscle area u trying to target so that way it keeps your body "on its toes".

I think you can increase the weight amount until there’s a point where you can’t anymore, depending on the muscle group. After which, increase the reps. For the most part, the gains in the triceps are gonna stop long before the gains in the glutes.

Can you make a video on weighted calisthenics (push ups/pull ups) ?

I was stagnant on my deadlift, could lift 100kg for 3 sets of 5 reps equating to 1500kg volume for a while and couldn't increase my volume no matter what, then I decided that I was getting too tired and should try another approach, reduced the weight to 90kg (10% lighter) and that enabled me to lift 90kg for 3 sets of 7 reps equating to 1890kg volume, a total of 26% volume increase.

Wouldnt going high reps also increase your cardio ? What is stopping us from doing 30 reps on every movement and getting both good cardio and hyperthropy ?

I think as long as those first sets are as difficult as the last new sets, it's fine to add the new sets to your routine. But if you first few sets are easy to do and their sole purpose is to tire you out to have more difficult sets at the end, that means you are wasting you time with junk volume. 5 hard sets vs 3 easy sets + 2 hard sets. Which one is going to give you better results? The answer is obvious to me.

Where are you hailing from? Cannot place your accent XD Great video as always!

Yeah due to lack of equip, I'm kinda dependent on adding reps, thus my WO last up to 4h 😅