Program your sets like this for faster gains

Summary

In this insightful video, Menno Henselmans discusses the pitfalls of following rigid set-and-rep schemes in strength training. He explains the concept of autoregulation and introduces Autoregulatory Volume Training (AVT). This method tailors training based on individual capabilities and preferences, offering a more personalized approach. By setting your rep ranges relative to your one-rep max and adjusting according to performance, AVT allows for consistent progress tailored to genetic predispositions. Henselmans emphasizes using the first set as a benchmark for progress and allowing flexibility in subsequent sets to accommodate fatigue levels, offering a practical and effective strategy for strength gains and improved workout satisfaction.

Highlights

• Autoregulation adapts to your genetic strengths and workout preferences for optimized results 🌿.
• Percentage-based lifting offers stronger improvement pathways compared to fixed reps 🔧.
• Benchmarking with the first set allows for clear progress tracking without fatigue interference ⏱️.
• Volume sets are about balance—prioritizing both technique and manageable fatigue levels 🎯.
• This training approach frees up mental energy, focusing more on form and personal comfort 🧠.

Key Takeaways

• Autoregulation allows you to tailor your workouts to your unique capabilities, ensuring more personalized gains 💪.
• Using percentage of your 1 RM rather than fixed reps leads to better strength improvements 📈.
• First set as a benchmark provides a consistent measure of progress, removing confounding factors like fatigue 🌟.
• Volume sets foster flexibility, focusing more on technique and personal recovery needs 🧘.
• This method simplifies tracking and enhances workout satisfaction by reducing the mental burden of strict adherence 📚.

Overview

Unlock the power of autoregulation in your training routine with insights from Menno Henselmans. Say goodbye to one-size-fits-all training plans and embrace an approach that adapts to your body's unique capabilities. Discover the concept of Autoregulatory Volume Training (AVT), which leverages your one-rep max to set flexible rep targets that align with your genetic strengths, offering a personalized path to muscle gains.

The magic of AVT lies in its flexibility and focus on true progress. By setting the first set as a benchmark, you keep your progress on track without the skewing effect of fatigue or irregular rest intervals. Following this with volume sets allows you to concentrate on technique and recovery, creating a harmonious balance between exertion and skill development.

Make your workouts more enjoyable and less taxing on your mental faculties. AVT reduces the need for meticulous logging and timer watching, allowing you to pay attention to what really matters: lifting well with good technique and progressing at your own pace. It's an evidence-based, practical method that seasoned lifters naturally gravitate towards and a fantastic tool for both building strength and improving overall workout experience.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Common Set Programming Mistakes The chapter introduces common mistakes in set programming, particularly the reliance on fixed set and repetition schemes like 3 sets of 10 or 5 sets of 5. It highlights that such standardized approaches fail to account for individual differences in work capacity and fatigue. The author shares a personal experience of struggling with the 5x5 program due to poor work capacity, emphasizing that while some individuals, particularly women, may have higher work capacity and can handle more sets, this is not universal. This chapter aims to shed light on the need for personalized approaches in programming sets.
• 00:30 - 01:30: Understanding Autoregulation in Training The chapter discusses the concept of autoregulation in training, which has gained popularity in evidence-based fitness due to its effectiveness. Studies indicate that autoregulated training leads to quicker strength development compared to fixed programs. Autoregulation is presented as a method that automatically adjusts certain processes in training, making it a flexible system for programming workouts.
• 01:30 - 03:00: Autoregulatory Volume Training (AVT) Method The chapter introduces the concept of Autoregulatory Volume Training (AVT), differentiating it from the broader and often diluted use of the term 'autoregulatory'. It emphasizes AVT as a specific method aimed at effectively implementing autoregulation in training, avoiding a detailed theoretical debate and instead focusing on practical application. The method is briefly mentioned but not detailed in this segment.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Limitations and Genetic Considerations This chapter discusses the concept of autoregulatory volume training, which involves adjusting training intensity and the number of repetitions by using a certain percentage of a person's 1 Repetition Maximum (1 RM). The approach allows individuals to perform as many reps as possible or to stop just before failure, such as leaving a couple of reps in reserve. The rationale for using a percentage of 1 RM is supported by a 2019 systematic review, which found that training programs employing this method tend to yield better strength gains compared to other methods.
• 05:00 - 07:00: Application of Autoregulation in Training Sets The chapter discusses a study on the application of autoregulation in training sets, highlighting a limitation in the review due to not controlling for proximity to failure and total volume.
• 07:00 - 10:00: Benchmark Sets and Volume Sets The chapter discusses the relationship between training intensity, muscle activation, and strength gains. It explains that higher training intensity with lower repetitions tends to result in greater strength gains due to increased muscular activation per set.
• 10:00 - 13:00: Summary and Practical Application of AVT This chapter focuses on the practical application of AVT in training, discussing how individuals can optimize their performance and gains by aligning their training repetitions with their genetic predisposition. The discussion emphasizes that people who are genetically inclined towards endurance or sprinting have natural strengths and limitations that influence their training outcomes in strength and endurance activities. Thus, those who excel in high-rep exercises should focus on those, while those who perform better with low-rep exercises should focus accordingly. This alignment optimizes results and caters to individuals' physiological and psychological preferences, promoting better engagement and outcomes.
• 13:00 - 15:00: Final Thoughts and Call to Action This chapter focuses on the concept of optimizing weight training by adjusting the training intensity and repetitions based on individual genetic predispositions. The author discusses the importance of modifying the number of reps according to one's genetic capability using a percentage of the one-repetition maximum (1 RM) as an autoregulation method. By doing so, each person can achieve more effective training results whether they are naturally better at performing higher or lower repetitions.

Program your sets like this for faster gains Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Many people program their sets along the lines of 3 sets of 10 with 12 rep max, or 5 sets of 5 with 80% of their 1 rep max. That is a mistake because people differ in how difficult it is to achieve these things. I remember when I started the 5x5 programs I could not do all 5 sets of 5 reps because I just have very bad work capacity. I suffer a lot of fatigue in every individual set, whereas other people not so much. Women in particular tend to have much higher work capacity, and they might be able to do 7 or even 8 sets of 5 at 80% of their
• 00:30 - 01:00 1 rep max. A better way to program your sets is to use autoregulation. Autoregulation has become a cool buzzword in evidence based fitness, and partly for good reason. Multiple studies have shown that autoregulated training programs result in faster strength development than programs that are not autoregulated, that have, for example, fixed weights times repetitions like 3 sets of 10 at 12 rep max. But what does autoregulation actually mean? True autoregulation is a form of programing that automatically regulates a certain process. You can think of autoregulation as a rule set or a system
• 01:00 - 01:30 rather than a fixed prescription. The term autoregulation has become very diluted, though, and some people use it for any type of process with any subjective decision making. Originally, though, the term cybernetic periodization was used for this and autoregulation strictly means a process that actually autoregulates itself. Now, I'm not going to go into a debate on semantics and theory, rather I just want to give you my favorite way to implement autoregulation that I think is highly effective. This method is called Autoregulatory Volume Training, or AVT
• 01:30 - 02:00 for short. The first part of autoregulatory volume training is that we autoregulate the training intensity and how many reps you do by setting a percentage of your 1 RM and then doing as many reps as possible, or going as close to failure as you want, you can leave 2 reps in reserve, or whatever you want. Why do we use a percentage of your 1 RM? Because a 2019 systematic review found that training programs that use a percentage of 1 RM instead of a repetition maximum way to set the training intensity and how many reps you're going to do that on average do better strength gains.
• 02:00 - 02:30 Now, a notable limitation of this review is that they did not control for proximity to failure and total volume. So I would take these findings with a grain of salt, but there is some other research showing that people respond better to loading ranges that they are genetically more gifted at. One study, for example, found that people with the ACE-2 genotype, which is better suited for endurance training and higher repetitions, actually gained more strength at 12 to 15 RM loads than with 8 to 12 RM loads.
• 02:30 - 03:00 Normally, people gain more strength when they go heavier. The higher the training intensity, the lower the reps, the greater the strength gains because you have higher levels of muscular activation per set and strength gains generally follow levels of muscle activity. So we can make a tentative hypothesis that people that are, for example, super fast twitch in their muscle fibers, they have very fast twitch muscle fibers, mostly type-II fibers that have low capillary muscle density, and other genetic factors that make them very suited for lower repetition ranges, they might also perform better
• 03:00 - 03:30 and make better gains with lower rep targets than people that do very high repetitions. And it's certainly my experience and that of most coaches in research, that's people that are genetically very suited for endurance training, they just don't do as well in strength training and people that are genetically suited for sprinting and very explosive sports, they will never become the best marathon runner. People also like to do things that they are genetically good at. So if you're very good at higher reps then I think it makes some sense to do higher repetitions and if you're very good at lower repetitions, like you're relatively stronger at lower reps, then at higher repetitions,
• 03:30 - 04:00 if you increase the weight, then you don't lose so many reps, then I think it makes sense to train a bit more in those rep ranges. And by setting your training intensity as a percentage of your 1 RM you autoregulate this process. So if you're genetically very good at high repetitions and I give you 80% of your 1 RM, you might be able to do 12 repetitions, which in this case means that I would give you a rep target of 12. If, however, you are genetically very good at lower repetitions, but not so good at higher repetitions, maybe you can only get 5 repetitions with 80% of your 1 RM. In that case your rep target here becomes 5.
• 04:00 - 04:30 A nice thing about this method is that it also autoregulates for personal preference. Some people really hate doing high repetitions, especially for exercises like squats or front squats, whereas other people don't. And if you give these people that really hate high reps, say 70% of 1 RM with their squats, they might only go up to 8 or 10 repetitions and then just call it quits. In that case, you probably also don't want to go higher in repetitions because they're just going to be super poorly motivated, it's going to turn into cardio for them, perhaps, and that indirectly will probably also hurt their gains compared to training with a rep range that they are more comfortable with.
• 04:30 - 05:00 Now the evidence behind this method being truly superior, physiologically speaking, is not very strong, but in practice I think it's one of those things where it might have positive effects and it's very unlikely to have any negative effects. If, however, you don't want to use percentages of 1 RM, but you just want to set that rep target directly, though, that's perfectly fine. That can also certainly work. After you have found your rep targets for an exercise we get to the second part of autoregulatory volume training and that's the Benchmark set followed by the Volume sets. So for autoregulatory volume training you always have two parts:
• 05:00 - 05:30 You have the benchmark set and you have the volume sets. So if you have, say, 4 sets that you're going to do, then set number 1 is your benchmark set, set number 1 is always the benchmark, and then the remaining sets, 2, 3, 4, they are your volume sets. Why do you do this? Because the first set is the most reliable to track your progression. The first set is going to determine whether you progressed or not and it's going to determine things like whether you do a reactive deload, whether you want to do a plateau breaker, and in general it's going to inform you whether you are progressing or not. It's important to use the first set if you are not strictly monitoring your rest intervals,
• 05:30 - 06:00 and I think you shouldn't be monitoring your rest intervals because most people really hate it and it's not necessary. You could also autoregulate your rest intervals. That's a topic for another video, but I like to autoregulate pretty much everything that I can because people generally really prefer it and it also, again, makes sure that people that don't need as much rest don't rest as long, whereas people that need more rest typically automatically rest a bit longer. The problem is if you don't measure your rest intervals, you don't do them with a timer, with your phone or whatever, then you don't know if you're doing, say, 5 sets of 5, if you're actually getting stronger or if you're just resting longer.
• 06:00 - 06:30 And if you read the forums on 5x5 forums sometimes you'll see people saying that the workouts now take an hour. What do I do? Well, in that case, you probably haven't really progressed, or you have at least massively inflated your own progress, essentially faked your own progress because maybe you didn't get stronger, it's just that you're now doing 5 true 5 rep maxes instead of 80% of your 1 RM. So you're just resting longer rather than actually getting stronger. And that's why measuring the first set as your benchmark sets is very useful. In the first set you are not yet fatigued so there's no confounding effect of the other sets.
• 06:30 - 07:00 What you do in the later sets, I call those the volume sets, you focus a little bit more on technique and a little bit less on maximum performance. You should definitely train hard and in all sets focus on your technique, but mentally you know there's always a bit of a trade off. In the remaining sets, if you focus more on technique, for one that's good for the maintenance of technique, because if you're always focusing on maximum repetition, so you have to hit a certain rep target, most people find that their technique starts slipping and the other benefit of not setting rep targets for your volume sets is that this is where true autoregulation comes in. If your first set was really brutal and took a lot out of you,
• 07:00 - 07:30 then you're going to do fewer repetitions in the later sets. And that's fine. That other regulates your level of fatigue. Whereas, if your first set was very easy, say we got you a rep target of 8, you got 8 repetitions and you feel like: “I could maybe even have done 9 this particular workout.”, then your automatically going to do more repetitions in the later sets because you are less fatigued. So the volume sets, by not having fixed rep targets, they autoregulate the level of fatigue after your benchmark set and this method, thereby, essentially gives you the best of both worlds in the sense of having very reliable progression measurement and being able to implement
• 07:30 - 08:00 progressive overload in a very consistent, reliable fashion in the benchmark set, set number 1 and then using the volume sets to autoregulate your level of fatigue and get a high level of volume in and still also pay good attention to your technique so that you don't start slipping in that regard to just lift heavier weights. So to recap, this is how autoregulatory volume training works. Step 1: You auto regulate your rep targets for every exercise in your program by setting a percentage of 1 RM.
• 08:00 - 08:30 So if your 1 RM was a 100 kilos and you said, say 80% of 1 RM - that's the intensity that you want to lift at, and however many reps you can get at that weight - that becomes your rep target. And that autoregulates the number of reps that you're going to do based on what you are genetically strong at, higher versus lower rep ranges. So let's say it's 80 kilos, that's 80% of your 1 RM and you can do 9 repetitions with that? Okay, then you rep target becomes 9 for that exercise. You do this for every exercise in your program and that gives you your rep targets. You're going to consistently try to hit
• 08:30 - 09:00 these rep targets with progressively more weight - - progressive overload. Step 2: You measure your progress based on only the first set of every exercise. This is your benchmark set. This is when you are not yet fatigued, there is no confounding effect of your rest intervals, therefore, you use this set as your benchmark, your measure of whether you are progressing or not. That's 9 repetitions in your first set with a given weight, that is your North Star, that is where you want to go and you want to get that rep target with progressively more weight. If that is what you are achieving, then you are progressing well on the program.
• 09:00 - 09:30 You probably don't need to change anything. If you are not progressing then you need to update something in the program. This gives you a very clear rule to see whether you are progressing or not and whether you have to update your program. Step 3: You autoregulate the number of reps you do in remaining sets by not setting clear rep targets for these sets and also by not having clear rest intervals. Rather, you do your next set when you feel ready to perform maximally again. This is how your autoregulate your rest interval. And then you do as many reps as you can, or however hard you want to train
• 09:30 - 10:00 with good exercise technique and let the reps fall where they may. If your first shot was very easy, you will do more reps. If your first shot was very difficult, you do fewer reps. This autoregulates the level of fatigue across sessions, thereby allowing you to normally progress steadily over time. And it's just a nice, practical way to train because you don't have to log as much, you don't have to monitor your rest intervals, and mentally it also frees up some mental energy to focus more on technique rather than being pushed every single set to focus on an absolute maximum number of repetitions. This is really not necessary if size is your main goal. If strength
• 10:00 - 10:30 is your main goal you probably do want to focus on maximum performance, but in that case your technique should be aligned so that maximum performance and good technique go hand in hand. If you're new to ultra regulation this method may sound complicated with a lot of theory but it's really a very easy, practical way to train. In fact, many advanced lifters intuitively gravitate towards training like this. But if you're not training like this yet, give autoregulatory volume training a try and let me know how it goes in the comments. If you like this type of evidence based fitness content, I'd be honored if you like and subscribe. You might be interested in the online Henselmans PT Certification course.
• 10:30 - 11:00 You'll learn absolutely everything you need to know to get results like these. The link is in the description.