Workout of the Week: Month 10- Density Training

Hello Hybrid Fitness Community! Here we are, back for Month 10 of our Workout of the Week series. This month, we are going to be performing high volume (aka “dense”) sets and repetition schemes. Through this training block, we are hoping to focus on improving muscular endurance and hypertrophy, while working with lower weights that you could otherwise do.

With that being said, one of the main components to making this training effective and doable is scaling your weights properly. For most exercises, we recommend scaling back 25-35% off of what you would do for a normal set of 6-8 reps. For example, if you normally could comfortably challenge yourself with a set of 8 DB Chest Presses at 55 pounds, we recommend scaling that back to somewhere between 35-40. Most, if not all, of our exercises will be 5 sets of 12-15 reps, so scaling back the weight appropriately is necessary to completing the workouts as intended.

In general, some of these higher volume/lower weight sets can seem a little monotonous. So, we are going to be supersetting many of our exercises together. This will further increase the volume of work done, and lead to more intense workouts overall.

As previously stated our goal is to stimulate hypertrophy and muscular endurance. Generally speaking, most weightlifters will try to keep their rep ranges in the 6-12 rep range, which we have also tried to stick with for most of our workouts. However, there is some interesting research out there that supports a correlation between a higher rep range (20-30) and muscular hypertrophy. That study is linked below. While hardly anyone would recommend strictly lifting low weight/high reps all the time, it is something to consider as an alternative to your general routine. We try to keep our workouts exciting, different, and effective, and we believe density training is a great way to continue you that for this month.

References:

1. Burd, Nicoholas, West Daniel, et al. "Low-Load High Volume Resistance Exercise Stimulates Muscle Protein Synthesis More Than High-Load Low Volume Resistance Exercise in Young Men," PLOS One, August 9, 2010