other trainees and trainers who are equally adamant about the need for less
frequent training of individual exercises, and they report examples of folk
who stagnate or even lose strength when using the greater frequency. Both
groups cannot all be all right, but at the same time both groups cannot be
all wrong. Truth be told, both approaches work for some people, and both
groups have probably disregarded the trainees who did not do well on the
regimens that the reported success stories used.. I am adamant about the need for a range of interpretations within the
overall framework of abbreviated training. Many variables, at least in part,
can explain why one interpretation works well for some people, but not for
others. ese variables cannot be identified and quantified so that we can
say we are comparing like with like when considering different groups of
trainees. ese variables include training intensity, genetics and individual
recovery potential (even if nutrition and sleep are optimized), age, strength
level, length of routine, and exercise selection.. No one can know your individual situation as well as you, and no one can
train you as well as you can providing you know enough about training and
all the related components. You need to combine this information with an
understanding of your own unique situation, tailor it to suit you, experi-
ment to find what works best for you, and adjust your lifestyle in order to
enhance your recovery and thus improve your response to training.. Response to substantial strength increase varies. Some people get substan-
tial increases in size when they achieve substantial increases in strength,
while others get only modest increases in size from substantial increases
in strength. Some people do not want to get a lot bigger, and desire maxi-
mum strength at only a modest size. Others are far more size and appear-
ance focused, and see strength gains purely as a means for building bigger
muscles.. Infrequent training—i.e., hitting each exercise once a week, or less often—at
least for some people, builds a lot of strength but not much size. I have even
heard reports from some people who have reduced their training frequency
and volume to extreme levels—like a single work set per exercise every three
weeks, or even less frequently—and yet have still managed to increase their
strength, but with no increases in size whatsoever. For these trainees, just mov-
ing to a more common interpretation of abbreviated training whereby each
exercise is worked once a week, may yield the required size gains. But for