Volume

Borrowing something Paul Carter has written about a lot; to get bigger and stronger, there are three variables that can be tweaked (volume, frequency and intensity), and in order to recover properly, it's realistic to only push two of these really hard at the same time. Since I always train at a fairly high intensity, and I'm not going to be training 6 times a week any time soon, volume is the only variable I can realistically increase in the short term.

Very late last year, I made a conscious effort to increase my total training volume, and I did that with a couple of small changes.

For me, the easiest and least systemically stressful way to increase volume is by increasing my accessory work. But I hate programming accessory work; I hate deciding what sets and reps and weights I'm going to use for my DB rows, DB incline bench or leg press. So instead of prescribing certain sets, reps and weights, I just shoot for a total number of reps, in the 50-100 range (erring on the higher side), and I can hit that number of reps any way I want.

The beauty of just prescribing the total number of reps is that it's self-regulating. If I'm feeling beat up I may just want to hit 4-5 sets of 15-20 with a stupid light weight, or if I'm feeling really great I'll work up to some heavy sets of 8 (maybe a PR set, if it makes sense for the exercise) before backing off to a lighter weight to finish off the 100 reps, or if I'm just feeling lazy I'll use a moderate weight for as many sets of 6-12 reps as it takes to get to 100.

It hurts and it's boring, but it works.

This method also forces me to choose a couple of high bang-for-buck accessories, because if I program 6 different assistance movements, I'll probably burn out trying to hit 100 reps of each, although a fun variation is to split up the 100 reps into a few variations of a lift, e.g. DB flat bench, DB incline press and DB shoulder press.

A smaller change I made was to add in back-off sets to the main movements. Adding in one fairly light (60-70%) rep-out set or a rest-pause set was a small enough change to have a positive effect without taxing myself too much. It also results in a ridiculous pump, especially when deadlifting.

Eventually, however, it's going to get hard to add more volume to individual training days without turning them into 2+ hour marathons, so I'm going to have to bite the bullet, tweak that frequency variable and train more often. To plan for that, I'm stealing a idea from a T-Nation megathread on Westside Conjugate training: extra workouts.

The extra workouts don't have to be done in the gym, and can be done at home with minimal equipment. It's not hard to throw in 100 triceps pushdowns with a resistance band thrown over a door once a week. It can be done in 5 minutes. Over time I can slowly throw in pull ups, band pull-aparts and some light dumbbell shoulder work and it can all be done in 20 minutes. After that, I can slowly build up a second extra workout, and then a third, etc...