Overload - Progressive overload beyond what the body normally encounters:
- In order to see strength (and muscle building) results, you must continually add more weight to the bar, for a given exercise.
Mode - The type of exercise:
- Compound exercises - Multi-joint movements, which require using multiple muscles groups. These are generally favored for beginners (no matter the end-goal) and for strength training in general.
- Isolation exercises - Single-joint movements, which require using just one muscle group. These should only be done only in moderation by newer trainees; they are most effective when used by advanced bodybuilders.
Duration - Generally in resistance training a session should last no longer than one hour excluding warm up and cool down
Frequency - The number of training sessions per muscle group/exercise per week. Below are some common examples of various training frequencies:
- Three full body training sessions a week. This is generally the best approach for beginners to intermediates seeking to improve. Advanced trainees can also see decent gains on this type of weight lifting program
- Two split training sessions per muscle group(s) per week (e.g. Upper body/lower body routine). However, this may mean that you are training 4 days per week (e.g. 2 upper body workouts, 2 lower body workouts. This is best type of weight lifting program for intermediate to advanced lifters, although many intermediates may still be able to get comparable results from 3x/week full body routine.
- One "split body part" training session per muscle group per week (e.g. typical "bodybuilding routine" - mon-chest/tris, tues-back/bis, wed-legs, thu-shoulders, friday-calves, forearms, neck). This routine only works very well for advanced lifters who are looking to gain muscle mass, and/or those with truly superior genetics (i.e. "mesomorphs"). However, for some non-beginner hardgainers, a body-part split like the Max-OT routine might be a good bet, since it allows you to work intensely (heavy) using some major compound lifts, but it provides sufficient recovery because it is a low frequency weight lifting program.
- One to two full body sessions per week if your goal is to maintain (your experience level doesn't matter, here). Note that some true hardgainers may perform optimally on a two day/week full body weight lifting program due to their relatively poor recovery abilities.
Intensity - Amount of resistance encountered. Although the different categories always overlap since they are on a spectrum ("strength-endurance spectrum"), they can be broken down into the following categories for practical purposes:
- Moderate Intensity = Hypertropy - 8-15 reps 65-80% 1RM (fast, but controlled reps)
- Moderate-High Intensity = Strength - 4-8reps 80-90% 1RM (reps done as fast as possible)
- High Intensity = Power - 1-3 reps >90% 1RM (reps done as fast as possible)
- Low Intensity = Endurance - >12-15+ reps <70%1RM (slower/paced, controlled reps)
Volume = Repetitions x number of sets x the amount of weight per muscle group/exercise per workout.
- Low volume and high intensity weight training programs are effective programs for beginners (e.g. Starting Strength, HIT).
- In order to progress, trainees must eventually increase volume. To an extent, it is possible to have high volume, high intensity routines by increasing the number of sets and leaving reps/intensity the same. However, volume increases more easily by decreasing intensity, leaving sets the same, and increasing reps (although this type of weight lifting program is generally geared toward hypertrophy; not strength).
