I’ve noticed something ; as far as I can tell (based on conversations I’ve had) for the most part I don’t feel soreness in the way most do.
However something just clicked for me as I showered up after my lift, I feel soreness when I’m growing in bodyweight.
I’ve been feeling soreness lately, and am at my lifetime heaviest being around 270lbs.
In high school I would feel sore whenever I was getting enough growth stimuli, and was about to grow soon.
Without soreness I seem to stay in the 230-240lb area, I’d get sore when getting to that number, but past this every time I grow I’ll feel soreness.
Staying in that 230-240lb range, high frequency, full body training I’d just be fresh day after day.
While you don’t need soreness to grow, my experiences have shown me that soreness is a good indicator that your body is ready to grow.
Soreness is your body telling you to eat more so as to grow.
The guys who grow most easily tend to feel more soreness than those who don’t. The fastest of the “easy gainers” is a guy who gets sore easily and consistently, while eating big alongside it.
The less it takes to get sore the faster growth is possible.
You see this at play on all levels.
Infrequent big powerlifts will hit the soreness growth trigger, as well as body part splits which are infrequent as it pertains to each individual muscle while more lightly weighted.
Now I like full body, it’s a psychological thing. Would a bodybuilding body part split or one day a week powerlifting program grow me bigger, faster?
Probably…if I was to actually do it.
High frequency is baked into my personality via daily PT. Therefore high frequency works for me. I don’t generally take “off days” well.
At this point I’m debating jumping back into barbells via one weekly heavy lift while pumping 4-5 days a week at planet fitness.
I do feel the call of the barbell, yet I can also see myself just maximizing planet fitness for years then blowing people’s minds when I touch a barbell again.
An athletic 300lbs is right there for me. My years ago having stated as a lifetime goal “275lbs with abs naturally” is within sight.
Even when doing high frequency full body, for growth you can make it like a mix of full body and bodypart split by doing something each for push, pull, and legs, but doing one bodypart each day like a bodybuilder, the other parts more minimally.
The above is how I was able to run squat every day while lifting with a buddy who always ran a bodypart split.
I’d squat while he did exercises I had no interest in, and for years if not training with him I’d completely neglect the concept of “arm day” (until finding a love for high reps on the machine curl at planet fitness).
I never felt arms meaningful enough to warrant their own day.
(I could improve mindset here by focusing on arms so intensely that they become able to warrant their own session.)
As far as specific growth sets ; my opinion is it has to be one end or the other, at the extremes of the rep spectrum.
You grow best on a set or two of ≤5 heavy reps or a challenging set or two of 50-100 reps weighted anywhere from moderately weighted to as heavy as possible given the rep range.
Challenging but not 50rm sets of 50 reps, one or two in the session, sometimes even goofily light are amazing growth & to your surprise strength stimulus.
Start incredibly light, and add weight as you go. The hardest part of a set of 50 is figuring out how to count so as to not psychologically stop yourself because of preconceived notions before you hit 50. Psychologically you have to get used to sets of 50+.
Once you’re used to them however, a 50rm will be far closer to your 1rm than most would believe.
Picture something you can take for 5-8 reps, a 5rm-8rm, given enough time and consistency this number is far more accurate an estimate of a potential 50rm than whatever silly low number you’re thinking AND that’s assuming your 5rm-8rm is already decently strong.
For a weaksauce dude his eventual 50rm will be higher than his current low rep to 8s numbers.
The set of 50 is effectively magical. Because it’s psychological almost no one explores it’s potential.
A buddy of mine knows of the sets of 50-100 and is the biggest strongest dude you’ll likely find.
I’m up there, and a few years after seeing my buddy use it, sets of 50 have given me my lifetime heaviest and based on feel…my lifetime strongest, and I’m still gaining.
I taught the set of 50+ to a buddy recently, and he felt something he’d never felt before, and learned that his physical limits are far higher than he’d thought.
Around new years I’d written about “what if – high rep sets only otherwise high volume/high sets on low rep things”, and I’ve been doing great from it.
It’s about time to stop typing and eat a second serving of dinner.
You’ve got to eat big to be big.
Editing done before finishing daily PT and eating a bowl of late night ice cream.
Persistence & Tenacity