Hypertrophy Past and Present 023 Fatigue accumulation and what to do about it.
13 snips
Oct 27, 2025 Jake and Chris delve into a fascinating Silver-Era bodybuilding routine and discuss how fatigue accumulates over time. They explore three key post-workout fatigue mechanisms: excitation–contraction coupling failure, muscle damage, and central nervous system fatigue. The hosts explain why back-off sets can lead to soreness without significant benefits and the risks of exercise novelty on fatigue levels. Practical programming tips and strategies for managing fatigue debt are shared, which can help maximize gains while ensuring adequate recovery.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
How Cutting Volume Restarted Progress
- Gene Mozee described a routine John Farbotnik gave him that lowered volume and restored progress.
- The plan used pyramids (10,8,6) with back-off 15s and was done three times weekly, which worked better than Gene's previous higher-volume plan.
Skip Back-Off Sets To Reduce Damage
- Avoid routine back-off sets since they add soreness and damage with little extra stimulus.
- Remove the final high-rep back-off set to reduce accumulated fatigue and improve recovery between workouts.
Three Linked Fatigue Mechanisms And Timelines
- Post-workout fatigue comes from three linked mechanisms: excitation–contraction coupling failure, muscle damage, and supraspinal CNS fatigue.
- These mechanisms have different timelines and interact, so excitation–contraction lasts ~48h, damage can last up to weeks, and CNS fatigue lags damage.