Some thoughts on this discussion. As to failure with low rep vs high rep sets.. if you lift as fast as you can on high rep sets you’ll pretty much get type II recruitment from the start, won’t you?
As for frequency, I think to find the optimum frequency you have to find a way to stimulate MPS as frequently and strongly as possible without accumulating fatigue. If protein synthesis after training in trained individuals last about 30 hours, then the ideal set up would be to train every 30 hours. But can you train hard enough to stimulate protein synthesis that often without accumulating fatigue? To answer that we need to know how much it takes to maximally stimulate MPS in trained individuals. Do you need to do very high volume? I know if I cut down volume (do about 2 sets each exercise) I can train FBW 5 times a week without burning out. That’s anecdotal, though and everyone is different.
The present study compared a conventional-frequency resistance training regimen with a novel high-frequency “stacking” protocol designed to generate a summation of transient exercise-induced signalling responses in order to identify the discrete cellular and molecular responses that take place following repetitive overload. The hypothesis was that when high-frequency resistance training sessions were performed with short (i.e. 3 h) recovery periods, the transient response of key signalling pathways initiating hypertrophy may be extended and additive compared to when the same work was undertaken with longer (i.e. 48 h) recovery.
http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/uploads/approved/adt-VIT20070131.123552/public/02whole.pdf
If you read from chapter two.
I read this a long time ago, so I can’t remember the details, just that it was interesting. It is in rats, though.. so it can’t be directly applied to humans.
I’m gonna read it again and post back with some thoughts on it.
It’s not protein synthesis, only signaling, so we can’t be sure how the MPS looked.
However, it seems that the signaling does not stack with multiple sessions. But 3 hours apart is very frequent.. I don’t know how high of a frequency that would be parallel to in humans. Maybe the frequency was too high, or maybe you have to wait until training response has gone down before you’re able to start a new spike in protein synthesis. Also quite interesting that s6k was phosphorylated independently of mTOR and AKT.
there is a meta analysis on training frequency that finds 3 times a week for beginners and 2 times a week for trained to be the best.
http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2003&issue=03000&article=00012&type=abstract
Apparently, there’s a dose response up to 3 days a week for beginners and 2 days a week for trained. Which is kind of weird. Does that mean that if you were to split the 2 day a week exercises into 3 days a week, the one in the middle would not contribute to stimulating protein synthesis.. that’s odd. Is there a refractory period after a training session in which another session won’t stimulate protein synthesis? I know such a period exists for protein synthesis response to amino acids.
I think the problem is that not all the studies included actually compared frequencies. So that 2 days a week is best for trained could simply be because a lot of studies use 2 days a week and it hasn’t actually been compared to a higher frequency program equated for intensity and volume. I have tried to find such studies in the past, but I have failed.
It would be interesting to see a study which compared two groups, one training every 24 hours and one every 48 hours and measured protein synthesis after each session to see how it developed.
would also be interesting to see a study in which training volume and intensity was equated between different frequencies. For example, all groups were to squat with 10 sets in a week. One group does 2 sessions with 5 sets each, another does 5 with 2 sets each. Then follow up and see who got stronger and bigger.
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