Intensity, Volume, Frequency: Tools for successful training

If you’ve read my previous blogs, you will have learned a little about training, periodisation, and different forms of hypertrophy, but how do we implement all of these different variables into our training? These simple tools will allow us to continuously progress.

Here’s where intensity, frequency and volume come in. These three training variables are the main elements that we can modify in order to continue progressing, even though progression may slow over time, it should stay consistent, as long as these variables are being utilised optimally.

So, what are intensity, volume and frequency?

Intensity is not what some may think, it is not screaming and shouting and grunting and puking from training, though intensity does exist in this sense, when we are talking about intensity as a training variable, we are instead talking about weight being used in training. Optimally, we would like to continuously increase intensity (i.e. weight) week after week forever, but if that were so, I would have a 500kg squat by now, and unfortunately, that’s not the case. When you are completely new to training, it is often possible to add 5-10kg per week every week on the big 3 (Squat, Bench and Deadlift), as well as some other big compound movements (Barbell rows or leg press for example). Inevitably however, this capacity to increase weight moved week by week will slow down. We should be able to add 2.5kg every week on the main movements, a lot of guys that I know won’t add 1.25kg per side to the bar as they think it’s pointless or doesn’t look cool, but this is the key to success, slowly adding weight over time. We may at some point plateau (not be able to increase weight on a particular movement) and in that case we can start to increase volume or frequency.

Volume is quite simply your sets and reps. I typically put more of an emphasis on reps rather than sets, as in increasing reps first and then adding sets if plateauing on reps. This could be as follows: 3x4 (3 sets of 4), the next week 3x5, and if this second week of 5 is of a high difficulty (0 reps in reserve) then I could add a set for the following week (4x5). This is obviously just an example, but when trying to gain strength or size adding more volume is of the utmost importance. However as you add more volume, you also accumulate more fatigue, in fact volume is more fatiguing than intensity. So if you were to add, for example, 2.5kg to a set of 5 reps on deadlifts, you would accumulate less fatigue than by adding another set with the same weight as the previous week. Finding out your MV (maintenance volume), MEV (minimum effective volume), MRV (maximum recoverable volume) and MAV (maximum adaptive volume) is very useful in order to discover how much volume works best for you as an individual. The start of your training block you could train at your MEV, and then gradually increase towards your MAV towards the end of your block in order to maximise your gains made through training.

Frequency is how many times you train a certain movement pattern or muscle group in a given time period (typically a week). For example, when starting out in training you could do as little as one upper body and one lower body session a week and see improvements in strength and body composition, but as you improve you will find that you can deal with more and more frequency. It could be that you increase to a squat, a bench, and a deadlift session. So on, and so forth, until you are doing potentially 2 to 3 back, leg, chest, shoulders, arms, etc, sessions per week. Frequency is EVEN MORE fatiguing than volume, so bear that in mind when adding another training session using the same movement pattern or muscle. Most muscles fully recover between 48-72 hours after training, so it is often very useful to add another session in your week, so that you are always growing, always improving. For example, if you train Squats on Monday, by Thursday your legs will have recovered, if you don’t train legs again until the following Monday, you’re missing out on a lot of gains to be made as they will have recovered by Thursday and won’t be stimulated for another 4 days. When adding frequency to your week I suggest that you keep the same overall volume but split over two days, you can increase sets at a later point but first figure out if you can manage the increased frequency. So if you were doing 5 sets of bench in one session, split that session into 2 sessions and do 3 sets on one day and 2 on the other.

So to conclude, these variables should be utilised in order to always progress somewhere within your training. If you can add weight, add weight, if you can’t do that, add reps, if not reps, then sets, when hitting a plateau we can add more frequency, we can split our volume over multiple days, then we can add more volume, and so on, forever. This is how you get strong. Keep using these methods and cycling different volume, frequency and intensity, and you will be able to achieve more than you ever thought possible.