Go online and start looking at different programs, you’ll notice some have you benching 2x a week, some once, some 4 times, others may have you squatting 2, deadlifting 1 etc… Things would be easier if there was some sort of written rule that just said “squatting twice a week is best” but it doesn’t work like that.

Everyone is different and there is more than one way to skin a cat…

Today we’re going to explore why certain programs can look so different yet both be effective and also talk about how the 3 major variables work with each other while also working against each other in certain situations.

Defining our variables:

Starting by putting out definitions in my own words. Some of you may know this already and can skip, others may like my simplified versions.

Frequency – How often you do a certain movement. For example, squatting 2x a week is your frequency

Volume – How many total reps you do throughout the entire workout. A squat day of 5 sets of 10 reps has a total volume of 50 reps

Intensity – Can be viewed two different ways. Way one is how close to failure a given set is, way two is how close to your 1RM a working weight is. For example, a set of 4 at 90% is very high intensity as it is likely your rep max for that weight, plus very close to your one rep max

How do these variable work together?

This is where things get interesting, you need to balance these 3 variables to have effective gym sessions. Without doing so you can have very polarizing results, such as performing to little work to gain a stimulus, or on the flip side, doing too much work that you are unable to recover from. Both ends of the spectrum are bad, being in the middle and having balance is good.

When you’re laying out your program you need to think about how to keep everything in balance, these three variables are levers that need to be pulled within the correct balance, the good news is that this isn’t some intricate art form that only a select few can master. The rules of thumb are pretty simple and can be laid out like this:

• Not all variables can be high, nor can all be low
• Intensity needs to change at some point during the program and preferably volume too
• Frequency is the only variable that can remain the same
• Volume and intensity have the largest effect on each other, you simply can’t do 5×10 at 95% of your max…

With all this being said, lets look at some different examples of how these mix.

High Frequency / High Intensity / Low Volume

Program Examples: Bulgarian Method, Simple Jack’d

The Bulgarian Method is probably the most well known so I’ll use this for my talking points. In this program you work up to a daily max per day (sometimes 2x a day) then pretty much go home… Sounds simple enough and really it is, the only difficulty is in auto-regulating your training days and finding that “I have X in me today”.

You may initially look at this and say “working up to a max everyday is nuts” or so is 6 reps of 85% of a training max like in Simple Jack’d, but the reality is that the high frequency and high intensity is controlled by very low volume. Even including warm ups you accumulate a very low number of lifts daily. In newer versions of Simple Jack’d the 6 reps can be done in as few as 4 days a week with one added volume day. If I told you that your total work load was going to be 24 reps at 85% and 40 at 70% for a whole week, you wouldn’t fret about spreading this among 2 days, so the high frequency shouldn’t scare you.

High Intensity, High Volume, Low Frequency:

Examples: Juggernaut Method, Some Wendler Variations

Look at Juggernaut, you are starting with something like 5 sets of 10 with a set to failure at the end. Pushing yourself to failure makes this higher intensity, the higher rep number makes it higher volume per training session, but you’re squatting, benching and deadlifting once a week.

In other words, one hard day, then rest. This program also tapers to higher weights (higher relative intensity) prior to finishing.

I tread lightly with the Wendler Variations, there is just so many of them…

Low Volume, Low Intensity, High Frequency:

Examples: Easy Strength

Easy strength is tough to use because there isn’t a set percentage of intensity for your working days, but if you read Dan John’s actual articles on it you see suggestions of intensity like 45% for days where you’re doing 2×5…

In this program you aren’t maxing out, you aren’t even struggling, nor are you hitting more than 10-12 reps on a compound lift per session, but it some how works…

Medium Frequency, Medium Intensity, Medium Volume:

Examples: Jack’d and Tan, Westside Conjugate (maybe)

I’m a conjugate lifter so I’m using that. We have a frequency as 2x a week for lower and upper body, one day that is low volume with a very high intensity (ME Day) and one day that is higher volume with a low intensity (DE Day) and both days have some volume added in via variations as assistance work. Louie Simmon’s Westside program finds a good balance of work in the main lifts, almost using the DE as a restoration day to push hard on the next ME day.

What can I learn from these examples?

Notice a few things:

• As I stated in the beginning, none of these programs are all high, nor are they all low in the 3 main categories
• The only one program I can think of that is high intensity, volume and frequency is Smolov which is only expected to be ran a short duration
• All of these programs have thousands of people that have used them successfully
• None of them used fixed intensity through the whole program. Even the “work up to a 1rm” in the Bulgarian method should change as you get stronger

It seems that the reality is that the balance of frequency, intensity and volume of a program are the most important relative to how well it works. I like to break this down further in explanation like this…

Your body can handle a certain amount of work per week, how you decide to break it up is best suited to your personality than it is by what anyone on the internet tells you.

Me…

Looking at a program like Juggernaut, if I told you instead of squatting 5×10 once a week you were now going to squat the same weight 3×10 on Monday with your last set to failure and 2×10 on Friday without taking a set to failure, would it seem that daunting? No, not at all. You just need to find that optimal workload and break it up in a way that suits you.

How can I use this to write a program?

First, I’d find your optimal volume per week. There are a few ways to do this, most taking trial and error, so instead of doing this lets just cheat…

“Holy crap, he just told us to cheat…”

To cheat go online and take a look at all of the popular programs, Jack’d and Tan, the Nuckols programs etc… and you’ll notice they all seem to program about the same amount of volume at a certain intensity. There are also different spreadsheets by different coaches etc.. that suggest X reps at X intensity, use these.

Once you find this, I’d just ask yourself “how often do I prefer to workout and how much time do I really have?”. If you have time every morning, but its only 45 minutes, I’d suggest a high frequency, high intensity but low volume workout because you can show up, hit your two heavy triples and leave before your 45 minutes is up. If you are like me and you have time on the weekends, but less on the weekdays, I run a conjugate program and put my longest day when I have the most time.

Your personality also has a lot to do with this, if you have a project do you like to do a little bit every day or do you like to hammer it out, rest, then go to the next one? I’ve always felt that the art of designing a workout to your personality is a very over looked one, possibly a topic for another blog post…

Conclusion:

There is no such thing as an optimal frequency, intensity etc… Everyone’s body is different, you can train yourself to handle more work if need be, smaller people recover different, I can go on and on…

The reality is that there are principles that can guide you, but its just that, a guide. None of this isn’t set in stone. With all that said, when you’re looking for a program to run, just make sure these the three principles of Volume, Intensity and Frequency work in balance.