Q&A: What Is Too Little Exercise Volume?

Question: Hey Drew. Thanks for all the blogs and all the replies to comments. Between yourself and Doug McGuff (and a few others) I have amassed an enormous amount of knowledge on resistance training and diet. So many thanks for that. Also can’t wait for your Elements of Form at the end of the month. I have a question, how do I know if I’m doing too little. I personally don’t think I am because after my sub eight-minute once a week workouts I can’t fathom another exercise. I do a three-way split after having read one of Doug’s blog entries. So it is as follows:

Week 1- leg press, machine shoulder press, shoulder raise and pull down
Week 2- pull ups (unassisted), calf raises (on the leg press) dips (unassisted), grip (Ivanko hand gripper)
Week 3- deadlifts, machine chest fly, seated chest press

And then I start again at week one and continue for a few months. I am progressing on all exercises, whether it’s another rep, more weight, or a slightly longer set. There is definite muscle growth because nothing really fits me anymore. Pants are impossible because the waist to quad/ glute ratio doesn’t work well. So I definitely know I’m progressing.

My question is, am I doing too little? I feel I can’t do more because of the intensity I train at. But I was curious from a professionals point of view. Thanks a lot Drew.

Answer: If you are making steady progress during your workouts and towards your goals you’re probably not doing too little. Depending on your recovery ability you may be able to train more frequently and make slightly better progress and these workouts could be condensed into two which would allow you to perform each of the exercises more frequently even if you continued training only once per week, but ultimately it comes down to whether you’re happy with your results.

You’ve got most of the major muscle groups covered, but I would suggest the addition of a horizontal pulling movement (deadlifting does work a lot of the same muscles, but not with the same intensity of effort – your upper back doesn’t reach momentary muscle failure during deadlifts) and timed static contraction neck extension and flexion. As a practical minimum I recommend a bodybuilding routine contain at least one of the following. A beginner who isn’t training intensely may include all of these in the same workout, and advanced trainees may need to split them in half or thirds (to allow for the addition of simple exercises targeting muscle groups that need work), but however you organize them your routine should include these six compound movements:

1. Squatting (e.g. squat variations, leg press, lunge)
2. Trunk (Hip & Back) Extension (e.g. deadlift variations, hip extension, trunk extension)
3. Horizontal Push (e.g. bench press, chest press, parallel bar dip)
4. Horizontal Pull (e.g. bent-over row, compound row, “Australian” pull-up)
5. Vertical Push (e.g. standing press, shoulder press)
6. Vertical Pull (e.g. chin-up, pull-up, pulldown)

…and these four simple movements:

1. Ankle Plantar Flexion (e.g. heel raise, calf raise)
2. Neck Extension
3. Neck Flexion
4. Trunk Flexion (e.g. weighted crunches, abdominal machine)

The first six movements effectively address all the bigger muscle groups but not the calves or neck and beginners often don’t perform any of the other exercises intensely enough to effectively work the abs (they are involved in almost every exercise, but being involved is not the same as being efficiently loaded and worked with maximum intensity of effort).

I do not include direct forearm or grip work here because most beginners get enough from the pulling exercises, especially if their trunk extension movement is a deadlift. I would, however, begin adding direct forearm and grip work (alternating between wrist flexion and extension and gripping) once we started to split their workouts up so individual workout volume would not be excessive.

Divided into two workouts, including forearm work, this would only require six exercises per workout, and only three of those would be compound movements so the systemic demand shouldn’t be so high as to prevent you from maintaining a high intensity of effort throughout. Using the exercises you mentioned, I would reorganize them as follows:

Workout A:

1. Leg Press
2. Compound Row
3. Shoulder Press
4. Abdominal
5. Gripping (Right) or Thick Bar Wrist Ext
6. Gripping (Left) or Thick Bar Wrist Curl

Workout B:

1. Deadlift
2. Dip or Chest Press
3. Pull-up or Pulldown (I recommend Chin-up over Pull-up)
4. Heel Raise
5. Neck Extension or Neck Lateral Flexion (Right)
6. Neck Flexion or Neck Lateral Flexion (Left)

If you wanted a little more variety you could alternate between exercises like dips and chest press. This would have you performing each of the basic movements more frequently without needing to work out more frequently and without increasing exercise volume much. The three compound exercises in the first half of each of these will make huge systemic demands when performed properly and with little rest in between, but the three simple exercises in the second half involve much less muscle mass, require much less energy to perform with the same level of intensity, and will not increase the recovery demands of the workouts significantly.

My reasons for recommending a thick bar for wrist extensions and curls are covered in How To Build Bigger Arms. I recommend Fat Gripz for these if you workout at a gym and they don’t have a thick bar. If you work out at home and don’t have a thick bar for less than half the cost you can buy a two-foot length of two-inch diameter schedule 40 PVC pipe and a five foot chain and carabiner (pictured above) to make one.

If you still find this too much and want to split it into three workouts, I recommend the following which includes only two compound exercises in each workout and adds a simple exercise to round them out:

Workout A:

1. Leg Press
2. Pull-up or Pulldown (I recommend Chin-up over Pull-up)
3. Lateral Raise
4. Gripping (Right) or Wrist Ext
5. Gripping (Left) or Wrist Curl

Workout B:

1. Deadlift
2. Dip or Chest Press
3. Pullover
4. Neck Extension or Neck Lateral Flexion (Right)
5. Neck Flexion or Neck Lateral Flexion (Left)

Workout C:

1. Shoulder Press
2. Compound Row
3. Chest Fly
4. Heel Raise
5. Abdominal

If you decide to give these a try, please comment after you’ve gone through a few of each and let me know how it works for you. For more on exercise selection and routine design see High Intensity Workouts.