Male, 40, 250 pounds (120kg) lifting seriously for 10 months. 💪

According to Jeff Nippard, 10 or more sets per week per muscle group is optimal for hypertrophy. Problem is, however, fatigue is multidimensional—local/peripheral (muscle metabolites, calcium handling, connective tissue), central/systemic (CNS, immune, endocrine), axial (spine/hips), and psychological. To add insult to injury, a certain type of prescription medication I take masks fatigue and boosts mesolimbic neurotransmitters (dopamine, norepinephrine) further exacerbating the problem.

As a result, I struggle to do more than 10 working sets per day, even when I split my daily volume into a morning session and afternoon session with 3-5 minute rests between sets. If I do more than this, I begin to fall behind in my personal life. (apparently "executive function" is one of the first victims of collateral damage for training too hard)

I take ice baths regularly in 6C water. I pride myself on mental toughness so it's not simply a matter of being lazy or cowardice. I'm also totally fine with doing 10 working sets per day because I've made more progress than I ever thought possible and if 10 working sets per day is my limit, I'm fine with that. I'm not complaining, just asking out of curiosity in case others here have gone through this and figured out a solution to this mildly annoying problem.

TL;DR: Is "lowering the systemic cost per set" the only viable solution for a lackluster systemic fatigue ceiling? (i.e. incorporating more "greasing the groove" style training that utilizes a high percentage of 1RM coupled with low RPE and high RIR)

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[–] 2 points 20 hours ago (1 child)

First - everyone’s capacity is different; science discovers averages. There’s freaks who can do 20 sets and people who can do 5.

Over time you may be able to increase your tolerance slightly but recovery is ultimately a limited resource. Sleep, diet, and reduced stress outside of the gym are the only three things that I’m aware of that will help. When I had a job that basically was 2hrs a day, my diet was clocked in, and i was sleeping super regularly, I could do a lot more in the gym than I am now. I’m repeating a cycle from several years ago and I think my fatigue is more than just age.

The other area you can improve recovery and overall capacity with is performance enhancing drugs. That’s something I don’t really know too much about, but that’s the way I’ve heard it described - you heal faster, stronger.

Aside - last I read, ice baths are counterproductive to muscle growth because they reduce the inflamation that signals to growth. They’re useful for competitive scenarios where recovery is prime, but they don’t help with improvment. By all means keep doing it if you enjoy it. My strong preference is for a sauna!

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 16 hours ago

    The other area you can improve recovery and overall capacity with is performance enhancing drugs. That’s something I don’t really know too much about, but that’s the way I’ve heard it described - you heal faster, stronger.

    You're right and I'm so glad that thought hadn't even crossed my mind! Before this year, I planned to hop on testosterone through one of those "pill mill clinics" that advertise on facebook that operate in a legally gray area. But now I realize that if I took performance enhancing drugs (i.e. "gear" or TRT) then I would regret it, maybe not immediately but 5 or 10 or 20 years from now.

    Aside - last I read, ice baths are counterproductive to muscle growth because they reduce the inflamation that signals to growth. They’re useful for competitive scenarios where recovery is prime, but they don’t help with improvment. By all means keep doing it if you enjoy it. My strong preference is for a sauna!

    Indeed they are. I do them once per month now and in the middle of my de-load week. But when I first started, I did them weekly to build them into my identity as justified by the famous book "Atomic Habits" since an identity-based motivation lasts forever and doesn't drain mental resources compared to white-knuckling it.

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