How to keep building muscle after the newbie gains

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:36 Muscle confusion confusion
02:47 Program hopping
05:47 Types of plateau
09:23 Work capacity
11:27 Outro

Reference:

#plateau #muscleconfusion #programhopping #trainingprogram #progressiveoverload #strengthtraining #bodycomposition #mennohenselmans #personaltrainer #personaltrainers #personaltraining #personaltrainerlife #personaltraineronline

[Zcopo]

Addressing the confusion around muscle confusion confusion

[WolfusMandrago]

You are the first person I've heard explain "work capacity"! I've watched hundreds of fitness related content on Youtube and have never heard this topic covered. My skullcrusher sets have been really weird (3 sets, 25/11/11 reps) and your explanation was really helpful. I realized I have other signs of fatigue as well. Thank you!

[rodrigomachado]

Never heard of the Fatigue Index before. Going to keep an eye on that. My reps drop pretty fast.

[AdamScottMurad]

Great video, as always, Menno. It's crazy how common muscle confusion and program hopping are, even in 2024. I feel it's one of those things that people recite from their ''newbie'' phase as working. Because, as you mentioned, pretty much anything worked then. The Dunning-Kruger effect is full effect.

[DevonThornton]

The work capacity concept was super informative! I hate when my first set is great and then the following sets I cant push the same rep count, but this actually made me feel a lot better about that! I thought it meant I was doing something wrong or just not pushing hard enough, but it turns out it means I'm probably in the sweet spot!

[gerym]

What a great advice. Thank you for sharing

[LarsRyeJeppesen]

Changing exercises can be beneficial to your joint health.

[WarrenRedlich]

Great video Menno. I wonder if you want to do a video addressing gains in older people. At 58, I've made a lot of progress in the past 3 years. Sometimes I feel like i'm not gaining much, but if I look at where I was 3 months earlier i usually notice significant progress even if it's not obvious week to week.

[Will-svhl]

This is such great troubleshooting advice.

[csteve]

Thank goodness! I never believe that muscle confusion theory 💯

[adonis]

could you make a video on balancing weightlifting and kickboxing?

[VonX]

Damn I need to change my program next week time to deload.

[kijkedwin]

The example it all explains is our gripstrength.

[proteinioutlet]

Hi Menno, good video. But, you have to agree that progression also has its limits. No matter how we plan our training we will plato at a certain point, be it 10, 20 years. Because we can not progress infinitly. I would argue that if you have the best training program, nutrition, rest etc. the main thing that limits your progression be it mass or strenght are the natural levels of anabolic hormones in your body. And once you max that you will stop progressing whatever you do. The only way to progress from there is to introduce exogenous anabolic hormones.

[watchdog]

9:13 Yeah, it takes me weeks until i notice a strength gain. 👍

9:39 Uff, what is if the reps go up. Cause i do shrugs with 12-20lbs, First 2 Sets, my 2RIR is around 25, after that i can probably go to 120, i once counted up to 80 without substantial burn and simple quit short after at 100 or so because it was getting ridiculous.
Could that mean the 1st 2 sets were unintentional warmup sets and i could add weight in the 3rd, tho going over 20lbs is not really possible for my arms, cause I'm only 5, 6 @ 143lbs and my arms are constantly mistaken for noodles and being slurped up??? 🤔

[DragonballG.]

As usual, Menno with incredibly insightful, pragmatic, novel advice. Succinctly and articulately dropping knowledge bombs to answer the exact questions I have for which the answers aren’t readily available.

[egoascendere]

Changing exercises isnt only suboptimal it also occupies the lower moral ground or so ive heard

[dessertstorm]

if variety only was only slightly behind doing the same thing every week, then it might be worth it if there are other benefits.

[Skoona]

Is a high fatigue index/low work capacity a problem in a vacuum if you’re still making progress? For example, any time I do biceps curls I usually lose a lot of reps after my top set (e.g. 12/7/6 at 0-1 RIR on each set) but am still making some progress on the top set over time. I chalked this up to genetics, I.e. I think I just have pretty much all fast twitch fibers in my biceps, but is this something I should be looking further into?

[OutdoorlivingMe]

Thank you Menno for all your content. I have a question that is relevant for a lot of people I think. Lets assume your muscles of "interest" are Chest, Shoulders, Bicep. If you train only these muscles direct and all the other upper body muscles indirect. Could you grow these three muscles faster than if you would make a full upper body workout or a full body Routine. So if we assume you have a muscle building ability of 1kg/month,
by training only the previously mentioned muscle groups you would gain all of that mass in that three muscles. And if you would train the full body, the 1kg/month would distribute all over the body? I hope you understand what I mean. Thanks and best regards from Austria