DiscoverHypertrophy Past and Present004 Training splits and exercise selection - 3 sets of 1 exercise or 1 set of 3 exercises?
004 Training splits and exercise selection - 3 sets of 1 exercise or 1 set of 3 exercises?

004 Training splits and exercise selection - 3 sets of 1 exercise or 1 set of 3 exercises?

Update: 2025-06-15
Share

Description

In this episode of Hypertrophy: Past and Present, Jake Doleschal and Chris Beardsley break down Steve Reeves’ favourite full-body routines from the early 1950s. They explore how Reeves trained each muscle with three different exercises, and why this multi-exercise, single-set approach might still be one of the most efficient ways to train if programmed correctly. The episode dives into the physiology behind exercise variation, the concept of neuromechanical matching, and how advanced lifters can apply full-body A/B splits to maximise hypertrophy.

Key topics:

  • The difference between single sets per muscle vs. per exercise
  • Why muscle hypertrophy and atrophy are muscle fibre-specific (not muscle-specific)
  • How neuromechanical matching determines which fibres get trained in each exercise
  • How to program more efficiently to achieve more growth with less work
Comments 
In Channel
00:00
00:00
x

0.5x

0.8x

1.0x

1.25x

1.5x

2.0x

3.0x

Sleep Timer

Off

End of Episode

5 Minutes

10 Minutes

15 Minutes

30 Minutes

45 Minutes

60 Minutes

120 Minutes

004 Training splits and exercise selection - 3 sets of 1 exercise or 1 set of 3 exercises?

004 Training splits and exercise selection - 3 sets of 1 exercise or 1 set of 3 exercises?

Chris Beardsley and Jake Doleschal