If you're looking to get sassy and massy, grab a copy of my book, it'll show you how to ACTUALLY maximize your progress in the gym. It's 200+ pages with no filler, all useful info. Includes: -Detailed Programming Advice on How To Write Your Own Training Plan -HUNDREDS of Exercises (With pictures+descriptions+how to program them) -How to Bitch Slap your Plateaus -Injury Risk Reduction Advice -Cardio to Drop Fat+Increase Work Capacity ( *RELEVANT* !) -Optimal Equipment -Multiple Full Templates and MUCH MORE! Check it out, it's not even hundreds of dollars like SOME in the fitness industry charge... www.verityfit.com/product-page/sweat
I've read your book and it's been insanely valuable to my knowledge base. It does contain a part of cardio, but why don't you make a video on programming running with lifting, as you were a pretty good runner yourself for many years? Someone say training for the military and a specific time like say sub 20 - 5K. Personally, I'm following a 5/3/1 4 day split, with 2-3 days of easy running to build my base into running for now.
@@vinaymehta1482 glad you like the book! I've done a few videos on running. They didn't seem to be all that popular. I haven't personally ever really done hybrid training, either. For me it's mostly just one or the other. If I do decide to work them in together I might do a video on it.
Exciting as shit to see alpha commenting on a video that Geoffrey mentions team 3d alpha and wants to revisits something he previously disagreed with. Humble, transparent, willing to learn and spread honest knowledge 🙏🏽. Cream of the crop fitness influencers no doubt ✊🏽💪🏽
This was a major piece of the puzzle as I began to move out of those initial beginner gains, to intermediate and beyond. Then later in Powerlifting I discovered the whole accumulation/realisation thing which only emphasised this further. Great topic man. Very important stuff. Not for normie scum.
100%. I think there's really something to be said for being in good general shape. I know some big minds in the industry have theorized that not being in good enough cardiovascular shape can limit growth, which makes sense. If heart rate is going up to 140+ every time a trainee gets up for a walk or something like that, it's easy to see why the body wouldn't want to grow any more muscle. It's literally counterproductive for survival.
To add to this: for anyone who ignores cardio/general endurance training via sports or something else, imagine it as hypertrophy for the heart and lungs. It's what keeps me in check when I get lazy. It's not just some chore to keep away heart disease, it's part of your journey to grow stronger.
Yep agree! Work capacity is crucial to do more work in the same amount or less time. Being able to do super sets and giant sets to get more quality work is important. Sets of 8-15 for squats and other lower body movements help a lot too!
Nice video! Supersetting most exercises helped tremendously with my work capacity. It forced me to move even when I was feeling gassed out. A giant set of leg extensions, bicep curls, upright rows, and leg raises is gonna build your work capacity while saving time. Brian Alshrue is where I learned that kind of training. NH also taught the same thing.
Been waiting for this! Recently I’ve started implementing supersets in my program, the first few weeks I always felt like throwing up mid way through. But now I’ve noticed that I can get so much more work done in a shorter period of time. Work capacity is a real thing y’all!
@GeneralKinetics89 you're missing the point, supersets allow you to work your heart and blood pressure and raise your work capacity, Which will greatly increase muscle mass over time. You're moving the hypertrophy to your organs so that your heart can sustain higher loads in the future. Who cares if you have sub optimal curls for a few weeks? You've slowed down growth in one location to speed up growth in another. The body is not a series of isolated parts, it's a singular machine with all pieces working in tandem.
@GeneralKinetics89 I’m working opposite muscle groups in the superset, for example I do a set of hamstring curls followed by leg extensions both in the 10-15 rep range. The only limiting factor is my cardio, which is improving the more I do this type of training.
@GeneralKinetics89 oh I’m tracking everything and making sure I progressively overload, I’m only seeing improvement. Sure I don’t superset big compound lifts, only isolations, but I still progress in reps and in weight
Yooo gvs like actually I've been journaling your more important tips and I've fucking exploded with progress. The gains gods have blessed me with a messiah
Hi Geoff. Great video. The more videos I see from your channel, the more I'm convinced that we are very similar type of lifters (Not the elite strong type in terms of numbers, but with high tolerance to 'high' volume training due to superb work capacity) Not coming from a track&field background like yourself, but I played soccer competitevely over 10 years growing up (lots of running at different speed for long periods). As a personal trainer I see many noobs collapsing with very little bodyweight work if this goes on for longer than 5 min. What all these cases tend to have in common is that the trainees didn't practive any sports growing up and thus their starting work capacity is atrocious. Just anecdotal, but perhaps relevant. Keep it up, man. Greetings from Spain
Quite possible. I don't grow easily, that's for sure. Have to brute force it. And gain strength even less easily. It's why people balk at the volumes and RPE I do, but it has to be done if I want to grow as I'm just not that sensitive to training. Having a base of sports (10 years for me as well, as a distance runner) is very, very useful.
@@GVS Same here. Lots of training. Lots of eating and CONSISTENCY. Yeah, I didn't know it at the time, but now in hindsight and seeing multiple cases, I'd say former 'athletes' have a massive leg-up for any physical activity that involves cardio, coordination and body awareness in space. As Greg Nuckols once put it: '(work capacity) is the cornerstone of long-term progress in the gym'.
@@GVS it really is. My friend, whose a pretty big guy to be fair, is a rugby player and on his first time, he benched 220 easy and deadlifted 375. Its probably gonna take me 3-4 more months to get those numbers( I started training barbell lifts in January)
Before I got into lifting, I was all about cycling, with most of my "training" being hill repeats and sprints on a fixed gear. I joined a gym to get stronger/faster on the bike and was pretty surprised how much better my baseline work capacity was than a lot of lifters around the same level as I was. I think it's a waaaay overlooked aspect of staying healthy and fit, so this video is perfect
I remember one time after being away from the gym for a while and being sedentary, I came back and did a barbell bench 3x8. I got 8 then on the second set I got 6 which was to failure, with a long grinding last rep. And on the third set I got pinned under the bar on the first rep. I just couldn't get it off and someone had to come help me, which was pretty embarrassing because it was not heavy (only 85kg). Needless to say I was so surprised that I couldn't even do 1 rep and how I couldn't even recover after like 2 minutes of rest. At that time I think I was sitting, and studying 10hrs a day for exams and sleeping really bad with no exercise at all.
Manual labour also helps expand work capacity.(it's a mix between strongman and cardio lol) When I was younger I was always working that type of jobs. Carrying furniture or construction materials up the flight of stairs sometimes 15 floors up will sure as he'll get you winded. I noticed that I always recovered and benefited more from higher rep work on the deadlift and squat compared to my friends. So if somebody is studying at college or is young and unemployed they should definitely look to do some sort of manual work. It won't kill their gains. Contrary it will make them better in the gym. Especially since recovery is so easy before you hit 25.
One interesting snippet from this video: you mentioned that with pullups it's well known that one loses capacity pretty quickly. I've noticed that. For decades I've figured it was something peculiar to me. I do mostly chin ups for various reasons but it d oesn't matter if I'm doing "lighter", higher rep body weight sets, or whether I go "heavy" and hang weights from my belt - I can pump out significantly more reps on my first set, after which my rep count steeply declines. Nice to hear it's maybe not just me.😉
My absolute favourite way to increase work capacity is high rep unilateral supersets. Unilateral press L and R then no rest Unilateral row L and R. In the 15-30 rep range. This maximises my heart rate and make sure stays in zone 3-4 range for a while and also increases capillarization due to high reps. I find this way more fun and sustainable than running or sports because for me my connective tissue is the limiting factor when it comes to cardio.
Great content , you are getting better every year ! (Thanks to that G-shred drama I found these gems.) Thanks to your arm day videos , my arms finally started to grow faster (half inch in 3 months! But with additional 3-3.5 kilos) , first time I used to do NH style sneaking two more arm focused compounds in , but they were taxing for me so it was just once a week (first two months UL-R-UL-Arms-R-repeat), now I just triset/giantset isolations (arms + abs / shoulders/ wrist rolling) twice a week and well , my work capacity is getting better , small benefit of trisets/giantsets , recovery is not a problem , it doesn't affect compound progression , progression on curls and extensions is no problem. Thanks for your content , you are extremely helpful!
When I train at my home gym, my rep progression tends to either stay about the same or it actually goes _up_ during the mid-sets and close to the starting performance by the end (I do 6 sets per exercise, if possible). Thing is, I often give myself a long time between sets (sometimes >15min), depending on my exercise rotation and if a YT video particularly captures my attention before continuing my workout, which can last 2-4.5 hours, plus several more hours of rest in between the actual working out. One could say I sometimes work out during the entire day. Of course, this only happens if I have all the time in the world - a luxury I can sometimes enjoy, but not always. Otherwise, when I do train focusing on one exercise (typically at the gym), the drops in performance are usually there, but they aren't too large. Much closer to the 'good' or at worst 'ok' part of the 1:00 chart than the bad parts. It could always be better, though. I'm curious how training for a marathon will impact all of this in the long term.
I think even stuff like smoking a lot or vaping a lot can affect this, I found that when I quit that stuff my work capacity increased after about 2 months of quitting. I was by no means a "smoker" but it definitely helps your cardio and getting through the grueling lower body stuff.
I’m an overweight/borderline obese male who gasps for breath during sets and require 3 minutes or more for rest between sets. This would make the workout time around 2.5 hours. My biggest problem is that I don’t have much time in the morning as I have to travel a lot to go to work and by the time I come home, it’s very late in the night. So this video is golden for me to reduce rest times and actually increase muscle mass with better work capacity. Learned a lot of comprehensive and pure quality info that I didn’t get anywhere else. Thank you Geoff
This is exactly how ive Been monitoring progress, i just went from 90x10/9/8/8 on bench to 100kg as a working weight and did 8/7/6/4 with nothing in The tank
Great vid as always! I think I'd also add antagonist supersets in there, especially for isolations. Keeping the rhythm of your workout flowing when it comes to isolations is great. A big wake-up call for me was being completely winded after doing amrap bodyweight pushups supersetted with bicep curls. There's little to no muscular overlap if arranged properly, so if your performance suffers then it's likely cus your work capacity just sucks imo
Another option to improve work capacity I have personally found provides pretty fast results are complexes. I don’t know if it’s simply because they allow you to stack on a lot of total work without being too overwhelming, or if it has something to do with like the radiation effect. Either way, consistently done complexes I have to say have gotten me to some crazy levels of conditioning and overall improved work capacity. And it’s a great feeling when your WC is up because you don’t feel held back from anything your do. Loved the video man! Great topic! Keep it up
Dope vid. I've noticed that I perform poorly in higher rep ranges (10+ reps) compared to low ones. That's no excuse to have a low work capacity though. I agree that consecutive sets with a 10RM are a good way to see one's workload tolerance.
About a year after the end of my track career (mildly out of shape), I willed myself over the course of about 12 weeks into a workout of 32 200s, 30-33secs, every 2 minutes on the minute and it was the best cardio I've EVER had. When I accomplished that, squats 6x12-15 at 70% and never being gassed, work capacity was insane. Nowadays it's a big struggle after 4x9 with slightly less than the same weight. Still trying to reconcile expectations for training and programming having once been an athlete with 3 hours to kill after class and now being a normie with less dedicated time.
Sometimes I take up to five minutes, especially before my final set of an exercise. I like to put everything into that final set. I don’t know if it’s good or not but I like the satisfaction of a very good final set to failure.
That's fine. No need to force the recovery, I still recommend prioritizing quality. I'll still rest 4-5 minutes in between heavy moderate rep compound lower body lifts. My performance won't tank on 2-3 min but 4-5 is still better.
For me, 1-2 minutes max is what I take between sets, with a short 5m cardio work out (i workout at home so this cardio session consists of grooving to a few songs) before the last few sets. As long as you're not taking 5 minute breaks on every set of curls, you're probably in the clear haha
Interesting video. I just add age is important. In in my mid 20's, I had amazing work capacity and strength. Now approaching 60...I have the attitude but not the muscles. I had a max bench of 375 at 27-28 and now 185 is my max. Also, my weight dropped from 196 to 160. Sucks being old and weak.
185 is still better than 95% of men in their 20s and 60 isn't really old so you aren't really old or weak. But if you train with the right mindset you may be able to get up to 225
Are you not on TRT? A fellow in our +55 group ,who is 70 years old,does 385 x12 on the bench. I am 57 and squat 405x6 deadlift 405 x8......look and see if you want to decline naturally or be enhanced and live longer and better.Win,lose...its all up to you,the technology exists to make your life better.
Well I think you might be able to get up there again but either way you're still very strong for your age and a beast in your prime. About to turn 18, finally gonna hit 185 this week.
@@carlosmantilla4018 I am not on TRT and will do some research. My insurance is not the best and don't think it will be considered. Thanks for your information.
I'm not nearly as far as you in my lifting journey, but regarding failure and recovery, I've found that "prolonged recovery" is useful in that if you repeat the lift the next day at a slightly lower weight you're basically getting free intensity. After getting stuck on 230 for several months on bench I decided to start hammering it everyday utilizing a three day cycle. Day one you take your 3 rep max go to failure every set until you can't hit a single. Day two you use your 8rm and repeat. Day three 10rm on reverse grip or asymmetric. Rest a day then repeat. If you get the target reps in the top 3 sets add weight to the bar next session. Been doing this for two months now and hit 245 for a single just last night.
yeah, I always felt like a car, the engine is the same, the horsepower is there, i just ran out of gas. work capacity is your gas tank edit: (this is only for squats and sometimes deads and BSS and yeah i have a bad cardiovascular system)
This is why I like straight sets. Sure, it's simple. But to hit a weight and feel it mastered across 4 sets, yeah, confident I can level that up. Rather than some one-time AMRAP. Ditto the observation we all make with pullups. "If I start with one I'm the tank, I get more reps across all the sets..." Gosh, do I love (after) doing a cycle of metabolic work, how easy it is to recover during rest periods.
I recently started Candito’s 6 week powerlifting program, and let me tell you, I didn’t know what work capacity was until 2 days ago when I did 245 for max reps, followed by 8 sets of 250 for 3 reps with 1 min rest in between.
I noticed when I bulk I can do a lot more sets of pressing movements. Now when I’m cutting I’m much weaker and get swamped during pressing. Everything else feels great though.
Try KOTG’s warmup, what he calls ROKP. Push and pull a sled or tank about 200m. You increase HR, warmup the legs, glutes, and core, and build endurance. It’s also more fun and dynamic than just doing a cardio machine.
I feel I always have considerably lower work capacity after longer break from lifting, even if I have done cardio and am in fairly good shape endurance-wise. I might also have my one rep maxes fairly close to what they were, but I just lack the work capacity to put the numbers on in the working sets.
How do you say endurance fitness in English? Like you are in a good shape for running for example and you are in a good cardiovascular condition and have good oxygen uptake. Is it endurance fitness or just endurance, or stamina or condition. I know endurance running is called distance running but is it endurance sports the whole category?
Interesting, I always assumed I had at least OK capacity because I did only Cardio before I started lifting. Then you used my set/Rep dropoff as an example of good work capacity
Started doing pyramid training lately (15 12 10 8 ) already feeling the benefits was doing a 2 set protocol for a while (top set back off) but way prefer training like this lately feel healthier training this way for some reason
I use high rep barbell squats and high rep chins to improve my work capacity and muscular endurance. Both on separate days and each set just one rep short of failure. These two exercises also hammer the cardiovascular system pretty hard. Their benefits really translates well enough onto my other major lifts like deadlift, weighted dips, HSPU, and weighted chins. I don't do any cardio or GPP because I am already very lean, in my 40s, low on energy, and recovery.
I developed a huge endurance engine from triathlon racing. This translates well into weightlifting. While I am not very strong, the drop off is pretty low on short rest 30-60 seconds. My resting HR is still below 40 bpm and I recover very, very fast.
@@robn32 perfect. What's the point of huge lifts if we cannot walk up or down the stairs without huffing and puffing. Well, at least that is how I look at health and fitness. Health should always come before fitness unless competing in a specific sport and preferably for money.
I think it depends on how you do the exercise. When I do ez curls for example, I squeeze my glutes and brace core hard to stay minimize movement, that way I do get a little out of breath. Not on machine curls though. Same with rows etc.
I suppose I have a better work capacity than I thought then. I always train very close to failure and dont really experience rep dropoff unless I actually go to failure
i started alternating every push with a pull with a ~1min rest in between. Performance doesnt drop, workouts get shorter, and the only "downside" is more sweat. I also cant be arsed to do single joint movements that are not supersetted. It is just super boring to stand around not training ( squats and deadlifts excluded unless you are the natural hypertrophy guy)
Man that just happened to me after covid(no symptomps, vaxed etc, positive only). When I came back to the gym, my work capacity is completely gone. Power is ok, but capacity is failing me hard. Untill this video, I could not name it properly. Maybe my lung capacity decreased and now I cannot provide enough oxygen for muscles. This happend in the middle of the 8 week cut. Bye-bye summer physique, I am going to bulk it back now!
I feel that my capacity to do work depends on the number of reps I'm trying to go for also. When I'm hitting 8-10 reps or lower, most of my sets are around the same number of reps and i can recover. However whenever i hit sets of 15-20, i notice a sharp drop from set to set, esp on high rep compounds like pushups, dips, pull-ups of 12+ reps. For example if I push myself and do a set of 20 pushups, the next set I may get 15
planned to do 5*3 squats with 1min pause in between after an amrap set and had to stop after set 4 cause i could only do one rep, guess this vid is for me lol
It is I experienced this recently coming back from a leg injury noticed I started getting dizzy which didn’t happen before I upped the cardio hasn’t been a problem
Yes if someone has a leg or lower back injury they may wish to add in cardio. I've heard numerous stories of those who did ZERO cardio and were find just off of higher rep leg stuff, but once that was taken out...they noticed it.
It seems like you might be using work capacity and aerobic fitness interchangeably. My understanding is that work capacity is more about the muscle's ability to do more reps, whereas being able to control your breathing/not get gassed comes from aerobic fitness. Of course they would complement each other.
Do you think that one could have too much work capacity? Considering what cross-fitters are capable of, you could find yourself doing far in excess of what is actually needed for hypertrophy. I would suspect that short re-sensitization phases might be a good tool for this?
I think I have high work capacity, from calisthenics i was used to training to real failure for higher reps. When I went into weightlifting I shamelessly went to failure even on sets with 4 reps for strength. I noticed that though (with enough rest) I could keep up these sets with the same reps everytime, my strength plateaued very quickly but my physique kept improving. So for strength work capacity seems not so much important if thats your goal
An invaluable suggestion if you don't like cardio much is take up a sport, even casually. Kick a football around, play tennis with yourself, go ice skating, buy roller blades, etc. These acts are way more fun than a running machine imo and give all the same benefits when you put in high effort. You also get the upside of learning a new skill too!
And for anyone who says "but it's suboptimal for hypertrophy!" Know that most professional bike riders have bigger legs than most of us will ever have. Or better yet, take a look at pics of Houdini. That man had incredible quads, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't because he was doing 8x4 at the gym every Wednesday.
Actually Dr Mike and I both get gassed out and rekt by curls. It doesn't even mean huffing and puffing, but resting 1 minute is a good way to cut reps to 1/3. Part of it is having jacked, strong biceps. When you incline curl 50s for over 10 reps, it kind of hits different.
I curl a similar amount (22kg for 8) and I don't "get gassed". I realize there will be some individual variation but if you are winded from an isolation that's usually not a great sign. You can, of course, rest longer. I'm not saying you must take short rest times. But if you are systemically "rekt" from curls...oh man...really not a great sign. Standing curls, maybe. But seated and strict? Oof.
@@GVS Yeah, usually. Usually people are weak at all curling exercises. I get more psychological stress, cortisol spiking strain, and a sense of physical depletion doing 85x8 tempo preacher curls than I did doing a tempo 300x7 atg squat. I can do a set of pullups for 8 reps and feel fine after 10 seconds. I can also rest 3 minutes, take 10 lbs off the bar, and still lose at least 1 rep and regress set after set. This rapid performance degradation that always existed has done nothing to stop me from having some absurdly developed biceps, and in fact I'm pretty sure the nature of my low fatigue resistance is part of why they grow so easily. I also get similarly gassed on leg curls as I do on stiff leg deadlifts.
@@ProphetFear interesting. I have noticed that some people get sore more easily in their "best" muscle groups so that kind of makes sense. Still, having good work capacity/fitness in a general sense I'd say is still a good thing.
@@GVS Yes and when you train at the lowest ends of RIR and hit sets of 0-2 RIR often, you will come to find that those best muscle groups taken to their limit, take you to the limit. Matter of fact, training the body with hard sets like that combined with exercises that generate muscle damage fast set to set - like the lean back that I do on my preacher curls to an additional peak stretch around lockout - will manifest in seeing stars and occasional gasps from the strain. It isn't even mostly cardiovascular, but the psychological/physical fatigue is so high that you might just fall in performance off just being so messed up. The difference between resting 2 minutes vs 1 minute is getting 8 reps, or 4. It doesn't even have to do anything how hard you're breathing.
If you're looking to get sassy and massy, grab a copy of my book, it'll show you how to ACTUALLY maximize your progress in the gym.
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-Detailed Programming Advice on How To Write Your Own Training Plan
-HUNDREDS of Exercises (With pictures+descriptions+how to program them)
-How to Bitch Slap your Plateaus
-Injury Risk Reduction Advice
-Cardio to Drop Fat+Increase Work Capacity ( *RELEVANT* !)
-Optimal Equipment
-Multiple Full Templates and MUCH MORE!
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I've read your book and it's been insanely valuable to my knowledge base.
It does contain a part of cardio, but why don't you make a video on programming running with lifting, as you were a pretty good runner yourself for many years?
Someone say training for the military and a specific time like say sub 20 - 5K.
Personally, I'm following a 5/3/1 4 day split, with 2-3 days of easy running to build my base into running for now.
@@vinaymehta1482 glad you like the book! I've done a few videos on running. They didn't seem to be all that popular. I haven't personally ever really done hybrid training, either. For me it's mostly just one or the other. If I do decide to work them in together I might do a video on it.
One of the best videos I've seen on work capacity, you covered a lot of serious points here!
Appreciate that dude!
Exciting as shit to see alpha commenting on a video that Geoffrey mentions team 3d alpha and wants to revisits something he previously disagreed with. Humble, transparent, willing to learn and spread honest knowledge 🙏🏽. Cream of the crop fitness influencers no doubt ✊🏽💪🏽
This was a major piece of the puzzle as I began to move out of those initial beginner gains, to intermediate and beyond. Then later in Powerlifting I discovered the whole accumulation/realisation thing which only emphasised this further.
Great topic man. Very important stuff.
Not for normie scum.
100%. I think there's really something to be said for being in good general shape. I know some big minds in the industry have theorized that not being in good enough cardiovascular shape can limit growth, which makes sense. If heart rate is going up to 140+ every time a trainee gets up for a walk or something like that, it's easy to see why the body wouldn't want to grow any more muscle. It's literally counterproductive for survival.
To add to this: for anyone who ignores cardio/general endurance training via sports or something else, imagine it as hypertrophy for the heart and lungs. It's what keeps me in check when I get lazy. It's not just some chore to keep away heart disease, it's part of your journey to grow stronger.
I like the format of this video, Mike Israetel-esque with the 'slide' of info, makes it easier to follow the video!
Will try to incorporate it more often. I tried to write reeeeeally neatly, that's actually the notes on my notes because the first time was illegible.
Yep agree! Work capacity is crucial to do more work in the same amount or less time. Being able to do super sets and giant sets to get more quality work is important. Sets of 8-15 for squats and other lower body movements help a lot too!
Nice video!
Supersetting most exercises helped tremendously with my work capacity. It forced me to move even when I was feeling gassed out. A giant set of leg extensions, bicep curls, upright rows, and leg raises is gonna build your work capacity while saving time. Brian Alshrue is where I learned that kind of training. NH also taught the same thing.
AnYtHiNg OvEr FaHvE iS cArDiO
Been waiting for this!
Recently I’ve started implementing supersets in my program, the first few weeks I always felt like throwing up mid way through.
But now I’ve noticed that I can get so much more work done in a shorter period of time.
Work capacity is a real thing y’all!
For sure. For the majority of beginners, cardio won't "kill their gains" but in fact enhance it.
@GeneralKinetics89 I have no issues pushing a set of biceps after triceps extensions
@GeneralKinetics89 you're missing the point, supersets allow you to work your heart and blood pressure and raise your work capacity, Which will greatly increase muscle mass over time. You're moving the hypertrophy to your organs so that your heart can sustain higher loads in the future.
Who cares if you have sub optimal curls for a few weeks? You've slowed down growth in one location to speed up growth in another. The body is not a series of isolated parts, it's a singular machine with all pieces working in tandem.
@GeneralKinetics89 I’m working opposite muscle groups in the superset, for example I do a set of hamstring curls followed by leg extensions both in the 10-15 rep range. The only limiting factor is my cardio, which is improving the more I do this type of training.
@GeneralKinetics89 oh I’m tracking everything and making sure I progressively overload, I’m only seeing improvement.
Sure I don’t superset big compound lifts, only isolations, but I still progress in reps and in weight
Yooo gvs like actually I've been journaling your more important tips and I've fucking exploded with progress. The gains gods have blessed me with a messiah
Glad you're seeing results!
@@GVS I bought the book as well. Good shit m8
@@h.brickers1169 appreciate that!
Hi Geoff. Great video. The more videos I see from your channel, the more I'm convinced that we are very similar type of lifters (Not the elite strong type in terms of numbers, but with high tolerance to 'high' volume training due to superb work capacity) Not coming from a track&field background like yourself, but I played soccer competitevely over 10 years growing up (lots of running at different speed for long periods).
As a personal trainer I see many noobs collapsing with very little bodyweight work if this goes on for longer than 5 min. What all these cases tend to have in common is that the trainees didn't practive any sports growing up and thus their starting work capacity is atrocious. Just anecdotal, but perhaps relevant.
Keep it up, man. Greetings from Spain
Quite possible. I don't grow easily, that's for sure. Have to brute force it. And gain strength even less easily. It's why people balk at the volumes and RPE I do, but it has to be done if I want to grow as I'm just not that sensitive to training.
Having a base of sports (10 years for me as well, as a distance runner) is very, very useful.
@@GVS Same here. Lots of training. Lots of eating and CONSISTENCY. Yeah, I didn't know it at the time, but now in hindsight and seeing multiple cases, I'd say former 'athletes' have a massive leg-up for any physical activity that involves cardio, coordination and body awareness in space.
As Greg Nuckols once put it: '(work capacity) is the cornerstone of long-term progress in the gym'.
@@FacePullTiToX 100% if you were a non active teenager you're seriously starting from 0.
@@GVS it really is. My friend, whose a pretty big guy to be fair, is a rugby player and on his first time, he benched 220 easy and deadlifted 375. Its probably gonna take me 3-4 more months to get those numbers( I started training barbell lifts in January)
@@gaminikokawalage7124 keep it up!
Before I got into lifting, I was all about cycling, with most of my "training" being hill repeats and sprints on a fixed gear. I joined a gym to get stronger/faster on the bike and was pretty surprised how much better my baseline work capacity was than a lot of lifters around the same level as I was. I think it's a waaaay overlooked aspect of staying healthy and fit, so this video is perfect
Yeah i would run 240+ miles a month and when i went to the gym i could lift almost endlessly without getting out of breath
I remember one time after being away from the gym for a while and being sedentary, I came back and did a barbell bench 3x8.
I got 8 then on the second set I got 6 which was to failure, with a long grinding last rep. And on the third set I got pinned under the bar on the first rep. I just couldn't get it off and someone had to come help me, which was pretty embarrassing because it was not heavy (only 85kg). Needless to say I was so surprised that I couldn't even do 1 rep and how I couldn't even recover after like 2 minutes of rest. At that time I think I was sitting, and studying 10hrs a day for exams and sleeping really bad with no exercise at all.
Manual labour also helps expand work capacity.(it's a mix between strongman and cardio lol) When I was younger I was always working that type of jobs. Carrying furniture or construction materials up the flight of stairs sometimes 15 floors up will sure as he'll get you winded. I noticed that I always recovered and benefited more from higher rep work on the deadlift and squat compared to my friends. So if somebody is studying at college or is young and unemployed they should definitely look to do some sort of manual work. It won't kill their gains. Contrary it will make them better in the gym. Especially since recovery is so easy before you hit 25.
One interesting snippet from this video: you mentioned that with pullups it's well known that one loses capacity pretty quickly. I've noticed that. For decades I've figured it was something peculiar to me. I do mostly chin ups for various reasons but it d oesn't matter if I'm doing "lighter", higher rep body weight sets, or whether I go "heavy" and hang weights from my belt - I can pump out significantly more reps on my first set, after which my rep count steeply declines. Nice to hear it's maybe not just me.😉
Yeah, what’s the deal with pull ups? Why do they seem to be so stubborn compared to pushing exercises?
1:37 of all the languages, Geoff chose to speak facts 😌🙏
My absolute favourite way to increase work capacity is high rep unilateral supersets.
Unilateral press L and R then no rest
Unilateral row L and R.
In the 15-30 rep range. This maximises my heart rate and make sure stays in zone 3-4 range for a while and also increases capillarization due to high reps.
I find this way more fun and sustainable than running or sports because for me my connective tissue is the limiting factor when it comes to cardio.
Great content , you are getting better every year ! (Thanks to that G-shred drama I found these gems.)
Thanks to your arm day videos , my arms finally started to grow faster (half inch in 3 months! But with additional 3-3.5 kilos) , first time I used to do NH style sneaking two more arm focused compounds in , but they were taxing for me so it was just once a week (first two months UL-R-UL-Arms-R-repeat), now I just triset/giantset isolations (arms + abs / shoulders/ wrist rolling) twice a week and well , my work capacity is getting better , small benefit of trisets/giantsets , recovery is not a problem , it doesn't affect compound progression , progression on curls and extensions is no problem.
Thanks for your content , you are extremely helpful!
When I train at my home gym, my rep progression tends to either stay about the same or it actually goes _up_ during the mid-sets and close to the starting performance by the end (I do 6 sets per exercise, if possible). Thing is, I often give myself a long time between sets (sometimes >15min), depending on my exercise rotation and if a YT video particularly captures my attention before continuing my workout, which can last 2-4.5 hours, plus several more hours of rest in between the actual working out.
One could say I sometimes work out during the entire day. Of course, this only happens if I have all the time in the world - a luxury I can sometimes enjoy, but not always.
Otherwise, when I do train focusing on one exercise (typically at the gym), the drops in performance are usually there, but they aren't too large. Much closer to the 'good' or at worst 'ok' part of the 1:00 chart than the bad parts.
It could always be better, though. I'm curious how training for a marathon will impact all of this in the long term.
I just discovered your channel via a Quora post. It's the best thing that happened to me all day! 👍
I think even stuff like smoking a lot or vaping a lot can affect this, I found that when I quit that stuff my work capacity increased after about 2 months of quitting. I was by no means a "smoker" but it definitely helps your cardio and getting through the grueling lower body stuff.
I’m an overweight/borderline obese male who gasps for breath during sets and require 3 minutes or more for rest between sets. This would make the workout time around 2.5 hours. My biggest problem is that I don’t have much time in the morning as I have to travel a lot to go to work and by the time I come home, it’s very late in the night.
So this video is golden for me to reduce rest times and actually increase muscle mass with better work capacity. Learned a lot of comprehensive and pure quality info that I didn’t get anywhere else. Thank you Geoff
This is exactly how ive Been monitoring progress, i just went from 90x10/9/8/8 on bench to 100kg as a working weight and did 8/7/6/4 with nothing in The tank
Even after having good work capacity having good recovery capacity is important too
Great vid as always! I think I'd also add antagonist supersets in there, especially for isolations. Keeping the rhythm of your workout flowing when it comes to isolations is great. A big wake-up call for me was being completely winded after doing amrap bodyweight pushups supersetted with bicep curls. There's little to no muscular overlap if arranged properly, so if your performance suffers then it's likely cus your work capacity just sucks imo
Another option to improve work capacity I have personally found provides pretty fast results are complexes. I don’t know if it’s simply because they allow you to stack on a lot of total work without being too overwhelming, or if it has something to do with like the radiation effect. Either way, consistently done complexes I have to say have gotten me to some crazy levels of conditioning and overall improved work capacity. And it’s a great feeling when your WC is up because you don’t feel held back from anything your do. Loved the video man! Great topic! Keep it up
Yep I go into them in my book a bit. They're OK, I usually prefer other methods but they're definitely fun and can get the job done.
Dope vid. I've noticed that I perform poorly in higher rep ranges (10+ reps) compared to low ones. That's no excuse to have a low work capacity though. I agree that consecutive sets with a 10RM are a good way to see one's workload tolerance.
About a year after the end of my track career (mildly out of shape), I willed myself over the course of about 12 weeks into a workout of 32 200s, 30-33secs, every 2 minutes on the minute and it was the best cardio I've EVER had. When I accomplished that, squats 6x12-15 at 70% and never being gassed, work capacity was insane. Nowadays it's a big struggle after 4x9 with slightly less than the same weight. Still trying to reconcile expectations for training and programming having once been an athlete with 3 hours to kill after class and now being a normie with less dedicated time.
Reduce BF
Thank you for the great information, cleared up a few things for me and highlighted some new material.
Sometimes I take up to five minutes, especially before my final set of an exercise. I like to put everything into that final set. I don’t know if it’s good or not but I like the satisfaction of a very good final set to failure.
That's fine. No need to force the recovery, I still recommend prioritizing quality. I'll still rest 4-5 minutes in between heavy moderate rep compound lower body lifts. My performance won't tank on 2-3 min but 4-5 is still better.
For me, 1-2 minutes max is what I take between sets, with a short 5m cardio work out (i workout at home so this cardio session consists of grooving to a few songs) before the last few sets. As long as you're not taking 5 minute breaks on every set of curls, you're probably in the clear haha
Interesting video. I just add age is important. In in my mid 20's, I had amazing work capacity and strength. Now approaching 60...I have the attitude but not the muscles. I had a max bench of 375 at 27-28 and now 185 is my max. Also, my weight dropped from 196 to 160. Sucks being old and weak.
It's all mind set, I know plenty of 60+ year olds who easily bench 225
185 is still better than 95% of men in their 20s and 60 isn't really old so you aren't really old or weak. But if you train with the right mindset you may be able to get up to 225
Are you not on TRT? A fellow in our +55 group ,who is 70 years old,does 385 x12 on the bench. I am 57 and squat 405x6 deadlift 405 x8......look and see if you want to decline naturally or be enhanced and live longer and better.Win,lose...its all up to you,the technology exists to make your life better.
Well I think you might be able to get up there again but either way you're still very strong for your age and a beast in your prime. About to turn 18, finally gonna hit 185 this week.
@@carlosmantilla4018 I am not on TRT and will do some research. My insurance is not the best and don't think it will be considered. Thanks for your information.
I'm not nearly as far as you in my lifting journey, but regarding failure and recovery, I've found that "prolonged recovery" is useful in that if you repeat the lift the next day at a slightly lower weight you're basically getting free intensity. After getting stuck on 230 for several months on bench I decided to start hammering it everyday utilizing a three day cycle. Day one you take your 3 rep max go to failure every set until you can't hit a single. Day two you use your 8rm and repeat. Day three 10rm on reverse grip or asymmetric. Rest a day then repeat. If you get the target reps in the top 3 sets add weight to the bar next session. Been doing this for two months now and hit 245 for a single just last night.
I recommend swimming for cardio. Best excercise save for lifting ofc ofc
Great video! Thank you Geoff!
Underrated channel
I always thought this was just another form of progressive overload. I didn’t realize this is a whole other subcategory lol appreciate you 🙏🏽
Have added in easy running and am cutting body fat down to teens.
Hopefully, this will help my work capacity and just be in shape.
Pull ups and ohp give huge drop off in reps if you go to failure
+1
Pullups, I've found that to be true. OHP, not at all. I've done 4x8 all at 0-1 RIR, as crazy as that sounds. So maybe it's a bit individual.
I definitely agree for OHP personally, its the muscle group that fatigues the quickest when working at 0-1 RIR
00:00 Sky? I do not know if I am correct.
yeah, I always felt like a car, the engine is the same, the horsepower is there, i just ran out of gas.
work capacity is your gas tank
edit: (this is only for squats and sometimes deads and BSS and yeah i have a bad cardiovascular system)
Yep good analogy!
Really thinking this channel should be nicknamed More Brains More Gains.
Looking forward to the Nucleus Overload video. I just watched your older one a few weeks ago. Curious to see your current opinion.
The year is 2021 the natties are taking over and it’s ok to use the smith machine. What a time we live in
Thanks!
This is why I like straight sets. Sure, it's simple. But to hit a weight and feel it mastered across 4 sets, yeah, confident I can level that up. Rather than some one-time AMRAP.
Ditto the observation we all make with pullups. "If I start with one I'm the tank, I get more reps across all the sets..."
Gosh, do I love (after) doing a cycle of metabolic work, how easy it is to recover during rest periods.
You can simply build up work capacity by continuous progressive training , it comes naturally with time.
For some, yes. But there might be better, faster and more efficient ways to get it as well.
Crossfit background so I normally do super sets X3, look like circuits almost. Has greatly increased my strength, recovery and Its just more fun.
Great video man!
I would like to add protagonist/antagonist supersets for the upper body as a form of increasing work capacity/GPP as well
I recently started Candito’s 6 week powerlifting program, and let me tell you, I didn’t know what work capacity was until 2 days ago when I did 245 for max reps, followed by 8 sets of 250 for 3 reps with 1 min rest in between.
I noticed when I bulk I can do a lot more sets of pressing movements. Now when I’m cutting I’m much weaker and get swamped during pressing. Everything else feels great though.
Very common. Pushing and pressing movements get hit the hardest for almost everyone when cutting.
weirdly enough i'm progressing on pushing movements during my current cut.
Dude, you're going to hit 100k by the end of the summer
Doubtful! Might happen by the end of the year, though.
Try KOTG’s warmup, what he calls ROKP. Push and pull a sled or tank about 200m. You increase HR, warmup the legs, glutes, and core, and build endurance. It’s also more fun and dynamic than just doing a cardio machine.
Awesome video bro
I feel I always have considerably lower work capacity after longer break from lifting, even if I have done cardio and am in fairly good shape endurance-wise. I might also have my one rep maxes fairly close to what they were, but I just lack the work capacity to put the numbers on in the working sets.
How do you say endurance fitness in English? Like you are in a good shape for running for example and you are in a good cardiovascular condition and have good oxygen uptake. Is it endurance fitness or just endurance, or stamina or condition. I know endurance running is called distance running but is it endurance sports the whole category?
Interesting, I always assumed I had at least OK capacity because I did only Cardio before I started lifting. Then you used my set/Rep dropoff as an example of good work capacity
Very good video!
Started doing pyramid training lately (15 12 10 8 ) already feeling the benefits was doing a 2 set protocol for a while (top set back off) but way prefer training like this lately feel healthier training this way for some reason
I use high rep barbell squats and high rep chins to improve my work capacity and muscular endurance. Both on separate days and each set just one rep short of failure. These two exercises also hammer the cardiovascular system pretty hard. Their benefits really translates well enough onto my other major lifts like deadlift, weighted dips, HSPU, and weighted chins.
I don't do any cardio or GPP because I am already very lean, in my 40s, low on energy, and recovery.
I’m similar age, the difference in energy levels the past few years is a shock.
@@scottw3780 Yes. These are the realities we have to embrace with the age.
That's why crossfit is king of work capasity.
I developed a huge endurance engine from triathlon racing. This translates well into weightlifting. While I am not very strong, the drop off is pretty low on short rest 30-60 seconds. My resting HR is still below 40 bpm and I recover very, very fast.
Impressive! My resting HR is about 45-50. Used to be ~30-32 when I was a runner. Whenever I go to the doctor they think it's a problem haha
@@GVS ha same here. 20 years of racing will do that. Now I do cardio(run) so I can have more wine. #balance
@@GVSseeing my resting HR was 70-75 at 20yo has made me incorporate cardio on a daily basis.
@@robn32 perfect. What's the point of huge lifts if we cannot walk up or down the stairs without huffing and puffing. Well, at least that is how I look at health and fitness. Health should always come before fitness unless competing in a specific sport and preferably for money.
@@FitAfter50 for sure, health should always come first.
I love it when Geoff wears his deep v-neck shirts for push day mmmmmmmmmm
Good stuff 👍🏼
I think it depends on how you do the exercise. When I do ez curls for example, I squeeze my glutes and brace core hard to stay minimize movement, that way I do get a little out of breath. Not on machine curls though. Same with rows etc.
First baby let’s get this!
I suppose I have a better work capacity than I thought then. I always train very close to failure and dont really experience rep dropoff unless I actually go to failure
#ReleaseTheFeetPics
It definitely is holding me back
i started alternating every push with a pull with a ~1min rest in between. Performance doesnt drop, workouts get shorter, and the only "downside" is more sweat. I also cant be arsed to do single joint movements that are not supersetted. It is just super boring to stand around not training ( squats and deadlifts excluded unless you are the natural hypertrophy guy)
The issue is alot of people ignore cardio and hate it
Depends if your 0RIR is the moment you hit form failure or when you hit muscular failure. And personal work capacity obv
I have this same problem
First set : 12 reps
Second set : 4
Third set : yeah screw this i will decrease the weight by 50%
Love this video, one of the reasons I’m doing the super squats program (saw your video from awhile back). Great content.
CAPillaries = CAPacity
🧢
🚫🧢acity = 🚫💪
For my fellow gen z lmao
I have entire blocks of training dedicated to work capacity
1:38 lost my shit here HAHAHAHAH
Man that just happened to me after covid(no symptomps, vaxed etc, positive only). When I came back to the gym, my work capacity is completely gone. Power is ok, but capacity is failing me hard. Untill this video, I could not name it properly. Maybe my lung capacity decreased and now I cannot provide enough oxygen for muscles.
This happend in the middle of the 8 week cut. Bye-bye summer physique, I am going to bulk it back now!
I need to increase my WC.... 15 sets of arms and I have to rest for like 10 minutes. I'm losing fat
I feel that my capacity to do work depends on the number of reps I'm trying to go for also. When I'm hitting 8-10 reps or lower, most of my sets are around the same number of reps and i can recover. However whenever i hit sets of 15-20, i notice a sharp drop from set to set, esp on high rep compounds like pushups, dips, pull-ups of 12+ reps. For example if I push myself and do a set of 20 pushups, the next set I may get 15
Pretty sure running 60 miles a week for nearly a year gave me some good work capacity
Geoff
Just wanted to pump up the algorithm
Hello geoff!!
Hi!
planned to do 5*3 squats with 1min pause in between after an amrap set and had to stop after set 4 cause i could only do one rep, guess this vid is for me lol
I only need 2 mins and 55 secs to recover from biceps curls #elite 😜
Squats, Deads, RDLS for sets of 8-12 gang wya 😎
It is I experienced this recently coming back from a leg injury noticed I started getting dizzy which didn’t happen before I upped the cardio hasn’t been a problem
Yes if someone has a leg or lower back injury they may wish to add in cardio. I've heard numerous stories of those who did ZERO cardio and were find just off of higher rep leg stuff, but once that was taken out...they noticed it.
When i do sit ups it looks like this 18/5/5/5. Eben with 2Minutes breaks
It seems like you might be using work capacity and aerobic fitness interchangeably. My understanding is that work capacity is more about the muscle's ability to do more reps, whereas being able to control your breathing/not get gassed comes from aerobic fitness. Of course they would complement each other.
I'm not using them interchangeably, but they overlap a good amount and one can often be used as a proxy for the other.
you're the only dude I've seen using legdrive on a larson press
#releasetheglutes
Do you think that one could have too much work capacity? Considering what cross-fitters are capable of, you could find yourself doing far in excess of what is actually needed for hypertrophy. I would suspect that short re-sensitization phases might be a good tool for this?
I think I have high work capacity, from calisthenics i was used to training to real failure for higher reps. When I went into weightlifting I shamelessly went to failure even on sets with 4 reps for strength. I noticed that though (with enough rest) I could keep up these sets with the same reps everytime, my strength plateaued very quickly but my physique kept improving. So for strength work capacity seems not so much important if thats your goal
An invaluable suggestion if you don't like cardio much is take up a sport, even casually. Kick a football around, play tennis with yourself, go ice skating, buy roller blades, etc. These acts are way more fun than a running machine imo and give all the same benefits when you put in high effort. You also get the upside of learning a new skill too!
And for anyone who says "but it's suboptimal for hypertrophy!" Know that most professional bike riders have bigger legs than most of us will ever have. Or better yet, take a look at pics of Houdini. That man had incredible quads, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't because he was doing 8x4 at the gym every Wednesday.
Indeed people are too obsessed with "optimal hypertrophy" they forgot about their health itself
Pull ups and OHP have a huge drop off for me, maybe because of the ROM?
Amazingly giga
No its Work! Kids! Wife!! Etc Holding me back. Seriously
Actually Dr Mike and I both get gassed out and rekt by curls. It doesn't even mean huffing and puffing, but resting 1 minute is a good way to cut reps to 1/3. Part of it is having jacked, strong biceps. When you incline curl 50s for over 10 reps, it kind of hits different.
I curl a similar amount (22kg for 8) and I don't "get gassed". I realize there will be some individual variation but if you are winded from an isolation that's usually not a great sign. You can, of course, rest longer. I'm not saying you must take short rest times. But if you are systemically "rekt" from curls...oh man...really not a great sign. Standing curls, maybe. But seated and strict? Oof.
@@GVS Yeah, usually. Usually people are weak at all curling exercises. I get more psychological stress, cortisol spiking strain, and a sense of physical depletion doing 85x8 tempo preacher curls than I did doing a tempo 300x7 atg squat. I can do a set of pullups for 8 reps and feel fine after 10 seconds. I can also rest 3 minutes, take 10 lbs off the bar, and still lose at least 1 rep and regress set after set. This rapid performance degradation that always existed has done nothing to stop me from having some absurdly developed biceps, and in fact I'm pretty sure the nature of my low fatigue resistance is part of why they grow so easily. I also get similarly gassed on leg curls as I do on stiff leg deadlifts.
@@ProphetFear interesting. I have noticed that some people get sore more easily in their "best" muscle groups so that kind of makes sense. Still, having good work capacity/fitness in a general sense I'd say is still a good thing.
@@GVS Yes and when you train at the lowest ends of RIR and hit sets of 0-2 RIR often, you will come to find that those best muscle groups taken to their limit, take you to the limit. Matter of fact, training the body with hard sets like that combined with exercises that generate muscle damage fast set to set - like the lean back that I do on my preacher curls to an additional peak stretch around lockout - will manifest in seeing stars and occasional gasps from the strain. It isn't even mostly cardiovascular, but the psychological/physical fatigue is so high that you might just fall in performance off just being so messed up. The difference between resting 2 minutes vs 1 minute is getting 8 reps, or 4. It doesn't even have to do anything how hard you're breathing.
Ah the reverse grip smith machine flat bench! :)
How are you progressing on that?
Great, only 3-4 sessions in though so it's expected to have quick progression.
Capillaries are at the.... Heart???? ;)
Giant sets