My favorite work out style at this time in my life is to do fast high frequency workouts. The longer I work out, the more I see the value of short workouts that are performed frequently. Some of the top Olympic lifters in the world work out on a very frequent basis. There are also power lifters who work out on a frequent basis, but high frequency is not as popular among powerlifters as it is with Olympic lifters. High frequency training seems to be the most uncommon among bodybuilders at this time in history as the norm seems to lean more towards low frequency training for each muscle group. A lot of bodybuilders do train often, but they only train one body part per day. However, there was a time in the past when the norm was to work each muscle group three times per week, and some trained each muscle group more often with excellent results.
Injurious Practices
I believe fast high frequency workouts will work for the majority of people who engage in weight training or resistance training. However, I freely admit that high frequency training can back fire big time If it is not done properly. Most people cannot use high volume workouts for every muscle group on a high frequency basis. Likewise, the constant use of heavy squats, deadlifts, and bench presses can back fire if it is done too many consecutive weeks or months on a high frequency basis. I have found this out the hard way. Heavy high frequency training with squats, deadlifts, and bench presses have the potential to lead to overuse injuries or joints and muscle groups that are chronically aggravated.
How To Avoid Injurious Practices
The problem of overtraining and/or injury can be avoided by modifying the volume, intensity, and exercise selection. In others words, don’t train heavy every day if you want to avoid injury. Likewise, don’t do a lot of sets for each muscle group, as one to three sets per muscle group is enough if you do it every day. When it comes to exercise selection, switch exercises from day to day, and don’t assume that exercises that require the use of light weights are worthless. For example, you may be able to get a good leg work out by doing goblet squats with 50 to 75 pounds, even though you can do back squats with over 250 pounds. In the same way, you may be able to stimulate strength and size in your hamstrings, glutes and lower back by doing Romanian deadlifts with 125 to 150 pounds, even though you can deadlift 300 pounds. Dumbbell bench presses with 50 to 75 pound dumbbells can hit your pecs as hard as doing barbell bench presses with 175 to 200 pounds.
Workouts That Take 10 to 15 Minutes
You can do fast high frequency workouts that only take ten to fifteen minutes per day by doing three exercises per workout consisting of one to three work-sets of eight to fifteen reps for each exercise. I suggest switching between two different workouts as follows:
Workout 1 on Mondays and Wednesdays
Choose either Goblet squats, belt squats, or sissy squats.
Do a horizontal press such as dumbbell press
Do a horizontal pull such as seated pulley rows
Workout 2 on Tuesdays and Thursdays
Do Romanian deadlifts (i.e. deadlifts with fairly straight legs)
Do an overhead press such as dumbbell overhead presses
Do a Vertical pull such as lat pull-downs.
The Heavy Day Option
If you want to work out heavy on basic powerlifting exercises once per week, do a third workout on Fridays consisting of:
Barbell back squats,
Deadlifts,
Bench presses
If you don’t want to do a heavy workout with basic powerlifting exercises once per week, choose either workout 1, or workout 2, and do it on Fridays.
Fast Workouts
In order to do a fast workout that you complete in a minimum amount of time, do one set of each exercise and move quickly from one exercise to another. If you want to do two or three sets of each exercise, do another circuit or two of each exercise with little to no rest between sets.
Intensity of Effort
When working your whole body five days per week, I do not advise pushing your sets to the point where you can’t squeeze out another rep no matter how hard you try. The intensity should be limited to your ability to repeat reps using a steady even rep pace for every rep of each set, or for all but the last rep of each set. If your rep speed starts to slow down on your last rep of a set due to fatigue, that’s ok, but avoid doing multiple slow, strenuous, grinder reps at the end of your sets when training on a high frequency basis.
Minimal Warm up
You may be able to do workouts 1 and 2 without any warm up sets, especially if you are using weights that are light enough to do over ten reps per exercise. Minimizing the warm up process will allow you to complete the workout faster. In addition, when you avoid the added stress of warm up sets, you will be able to recover easier. However, anytime you choose to do heavy sets for squats, deadlifts, and bench presses, always do a couple warm up sets for each exercise. I suggest watching the following video to understand how to do two quick warm up sets and a heavy work set in a minute and forty seconds.
Fast high frequency workouts are an excellent option for getting the most benefit out of brief workouts When you do the workouts right, you get the right results. When you do the workouts wrong, you get the wrong results. If you follow the guidelines in this article, you will be able to get good results, and you will be able to do so with workouts that last fifteen minutes or less. Consider fast high frequency workouts if that is your preference or you have a schedule that demands brief workouts. May God bless you with the best of training.