HFT Addendum

In regards to High Frequency Training Revealed there were a few important parts left out because I was hacked in the middle of the damn thing. Asked my webguy to sort out the rest while I dealt with that other shit. Which I did that night and the 3-4 days that followed. Naturally, the post didn't go up under the most optimal circumstances and there were things left out. I'm posting them here.

1. First and foremost, do I recommend this over the Patreon RPT routine? No, because this is the predecessor, and it contains some movements that I today consider questionable. That said, this version didn't go through that much testing and I figured some of you would like alternatives. This is that plus an opportunity for more testing. It would be interesting if some see better results with this compared to Patreon RPT, for example, and in that case I'd like to know.

2. The aforementioned means that as much as I'm tempted to go in and fix bits and pieces, I won't. Next thing you know, the routine would look very different and that would be pointless. It'll remain untouched and available to anyone here who would like to give it a spin. Those here who tried it back in the day got great results FYI. (e.g., Dan Ordoins)

3. I found an old Word document related to the routine. Its contents are pasted below. Enjoy. 

P.S, Keep in mind that this stuff is 10 years old and untouched by an editor. That said, there's nothing in it I find disagreeable today (except movement choices...and yes, you can skip abs. I did).

LG HFT Progression Guidelines

This is one version of the high frequency training template I have mentioned on my blog.

http://leangains.blogspot.com/2009/09/making-high-frequency-training-work.html

Based on your training experience, you may find the frequency ranging from every other day to 4-5x/week. This routine has worked tremendously well for my monthly clients where I get to tell them where to hold back and where to increase etc. 

Since I won’t be monitoring and managing your training on a bi-weekly basis, I have decided to write this little guide to make sure that you do not screw things up. 

In essence, I have identified two main areas where people are most likely to shortchange their progress on this routine. That’s right. Two simple rules that, if adhered to, will guarantee a very long and successful cycle with linear gains.

“Simple” means simple only in theory: adhering to these rules is more difficult in practice, due to the drive to achieve and perform on a constant basis. 

I will also cover plateau busters. 

1. Going too hard on light sessions (3 x 8) 

Some movements are trained every four days: heavy (4 x 4) or light (3 x 8). “Light” is light; the last set should NOT be anywhere close to failure. Think of this as volume work.

“Heavy” is heavy. Here you can take the last set a bit closer to failure but you should still keep one rep in the tank on the last set. 

Remember: You can’t train to failure 2x/week/8 day cycle in the same movement. To make the heavy/light system work, you must temper yourself. 

A good rule of thumb is to only move the 3 x 8 sets up by 2.5% once you have increased the 4 x 4 by 2.5%. Otherwise you might find that the 3 x 8 gets progressively harder and harder to the point where you’re basically doing them to failure.

Let me demonstrate by an example. We’ll assume your 12RM is 100 and your 7RM is 112.5.

Week 1, B1:

100 x 8 x 3

B2:

112,5 x 4 x 4 (increase B1 and B2 weights)

Week 2, B1:

102.5 x 8 x 3

B2:

115 x 4 x 3, 112.5 x 4 (do not increase any weights next week)

Week 3, B1:

102.5 x 8 x 3

B2:

115 x 4 x 4 (Ok, now you got full four sets with 115 – increase both sessions next week)

Week 4, B1:

105 x 8 x 3

B2: 

117.5 x 4 x 3, 115 x 4 (hold back next week)

The same rules for 3 x 8 and MAX-movements (i.e much of the assistance work). 

Get it? You basically let the heavy session dictate the increase for the light session.

3 x 8 = volume work, “feeder sessions” (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy)

4 x 4 = intensity work, performance sessions (myofibrullar hypertrophy and strength)

2. Not taking off-days on a whim

This is the second thing that may screw up your progress. Some days you might not feel like working out or you might have some lingering soreness from the last session. For example, your lats might be sore from the light work on A1 the day you’re supposed to do the heavy lat work. If that’s the case, simply say screw it and take an extra day off. 

Trust me, you have everything to gain by adding an extra rest day on whim and everything to lose by going to the gym if your motivation isn’t there.

“If your motivation isn’t there” might sound vague as hell, but listening to your body usually provides a good clue how your session will go. If you like working out, you should naturally be looking forward to going to the gym. If you DON’T have that drive on one day where your schedule dictates you should be training, simply stay home and train the next day. This ridiculously simple approach works – the problem is resisting that obsessive urge to go even if you don’t really feel up to it. 

Plateau Busters

1. Body weight – is it going up?

This is the first thing you check when your strength stalls. Is your body weight increasing according to the prognosis? The prognosis on your client sheet shows a certain expected weekly gain. Gauge this by weighing yourself every morning and monitoring your mean weight for each week (divide weight by numbers of weigh-ins). The prognosis shows a number between 0.1-0.3 kg and if you’re not meeting that number you need to fix that.

Step 1. Increase calorie intake on training days by 6%. This increase should come from 50:50 carbs and protein and most of it should be added to the meal(s) in the post-workout period.

Step 2. Increase calorie intake on rest days by 3%. This increase should come from 50:50 fat and protein and most of it should be added to the first meal.

Rinse and repeat the procedure until your either a) increasing strength and/or b) increasing body weight. The latter always comes hand in hand with the first, but the first does not necessarily come with the latter. As soon as weights are going up that’s all you should concern yourself with. 

2. Increase load on volume work

Change the 3 x 8 work to 4 x 6 (8-9RM). In practical terms this comes out to an increase of 7.5-10% in load. Make the increase over two sessions, like this:

3 x 8

3 x 7

4 x 6

3. Remove volume work completely

If your 4 x 4-sets or MAX sets are not increasing after switching volume work to 4 x 6, remove volume work completely for two cycles. Only do RP, MAX and 4 x 4. If you find that this takes you past the plateau, add in volume work again – but add an extra rest day between A and B sessions (If your cycle goes A1-rest-B1-rest etc, do A1-rest-B1-rest-rest-A2-rest-B2-rest-rest). 

Deloading

Note: The following information is taken from another set of guidelines for a different progression scheme. However, the deload concept of extra rest days in between sessions applies to the HFT-routine as well. 

Instead of every other day workouts, I suggest taking three days of rest after A1 and A2-sessions and two days of rest after B1 and B2-sessions. This means you’d stretch your regular 8-day cycle to 14 days. 

· At some point you might find that motivation wanes. Or that you are troubled by aches. Or just feel a bit run down in general. Perhaps you long for some relief from the mental pressure of training with 100% effort, constantly striving to beat the weights of your last session and set new PRs. When this happens, you will “deload”, albeit in a different way than what usually is suggested.

Assuming you just ended your week, i.e. if you follow the Mon (A)-Wed (B)-Fri (C), and feel that a deload is needed, spread the next ABC-cycle over two weeks instead of one week. Do this by adding an extra 3-4 rest days wherever you see fit. I’ll show you by an example below.

Week 25 (normal week)

Mon: workout A

Wednesday: B

Friday: C

Week 26 (deload week)

Thursday: workout A

Sunday: B

Week 27 (deload week)

Wednesday: C

Week 28 (back to normal week setup)

· You maintain your training as it is. You do not lower weights, you simply take off where you left, increasing only the rest days in between sessions. This always does good things to your motivation – and more often than not, your progress and your strength. Take these deload weeks whenever you feel you need them. Yes, listen to your body and embrace spontaneous deload weeks. This mindset will drive progress and benefit you greatly in the long run. You’ll see that you are naturally driven to train when everything is as it should be. You’ll have an itch to be at the gym, to beat your last top sets and make progress. If the itch is not there, wait until it returns. It will.

· On all deload rest days, follow the Rest Day A diet template

· In some cases (rare, usually applies to more advanced trainers), you might even experience an unexplainable and unreasonable loss of strength. You might find that your first top set in the workout feels a lot heavier than it should, based off what you did last time around. 

For example, if you did 6 reps of 400 lbs in your top set for deads in your last session, and find that the first 1-2 reps of 405 lbs feels a lot heavier than they should (this is something you’ll know with experience…usually it is already felt in the warm-up) , terminate the set immediately and go home. 

It’s very important that you stop and don’t continue repping when this happens. Yes, this is frustrating and you will be pissed. Maybe pissed for the remainder of your day if you’re like me. You might even resist and make up some dumb excuse for staying at the gym. Don’t do that. You risk screwing up your progress in a major way. Rest and return three days later for the same workout. You’ll see that it’ll go much better. It always does. 

Ensuring progress: diet and weight gain

On the left side, at the bottom of your client sheet, is a section called Preliminary Prognosis. This is an estimate of what you should be gaining on a weekly basis. Obviously it’s not 100% correct but the number noted is a good guideline to strive for in order to ensure steady progress and quality weight gain with minimum/no fat gain. 

The exact number in the prognosis depends on many factors, such as your training status and gender, but generally speaking it’s somewhere between 0.1-0.3 kg per week.

1. If you are gaining strength but gaining body weight at a slower rate than what the prognosis predicts, there’s no need to change anything in your diet.

2. If your strength is stalling, or progress is very slow, I can say with 99% certainty that it’s because your body weight is not moving up at the predicted rate. 

Time to increase calorie intake. Below are some general guidelines for increasing calories when weight/strength gains stall.

Training days: increase calorie intake by 150 kcal (~20 g carbs, 10-15 g protein, trace fats). Add 25-50 kcal to the pre-workout meal and the rest (100-125 kcal) to the post-workout meal(s). If you are training fasted, add everything to the post-workout meal(s).

Rest days: increase calorie intake by 100 kcal (~half protein, half fats, trace carbs). Ideally, add most of this to the first meal. 

Tracking body weight 

1. Weigh yourself first thing in the morning (after emptying your bladder/bowels if needed), as often as you can. Note your body weight.

2. At the end of the week, take your average body weight for that week. If you weighed yourself every day, add the numbers together and divide by 7.

3. This number is used to track body weight and deciding when and if to increase calorie intake. However, it’s often useless for the first two weeks as you’ll no doubt gain more body weight than what the prognosis predicts. This is due to your muscle glycogen stores filling up, it’s not actual weight gain. The average body weight in week 2 is your “stabilized” weight and the number you’ll base decisions of. 

4. In week 3, if you find that your body weight is increasing more than the prognosis, by comparing the average weight in week 3 vs the average in week 2, you might also find that you need to slow it down a bit. If that’s the case, slice off enough calories to put you closer to the number noted in the prognosis. 

For example, 0.1 kg or 0.2 lbs is equal to a surplus of 700 kcal. If you’re gaining 0.4 kg, while the prognosis has you at 0.3 kg, reduce calorie intake by 700 kcal. I would suggest…

Training days: remove 100 kcal of carbs primarily (~25 g carbs). Remove this amount from any meal, or combination of meals, except your pre-workout meal.

Rest days: remove 100 kcal of carbs and fat, or one macronutrient exclusively (i.e. cutting carbs OR fat by 100 kcal) or any combination of them (i.e. cutting 50 kcal of carbs AND 50 kcal of fat). Remove this amount from any meal or combination of meals.