Junk Volume and the Grey Cup

 Happy Grey Cup!

“Junk Volume” does not refer to the amount of beer, chips, pizza and wings you consume while at a Grey Cup party.  

“Junk volume” refers to any training that adds fatigue without adding meaningful muscle-building stimulus.  This is a common phenomenon that I’ve seen time and time again.

Junk volume can be you doing extra reps in your workout where you feel productive but in reality, your muscles have already received the growth signal they need..  These reps past failure eat into recovery and joining health.

The most common case of Junk Volume is not working hard enough.  This is when you don’t use enough weight, or intensity to see hypertrophy gains.  Basically you are just “painting the ceiling” - getting sore with no muscle gains.

The worst case of Junk Volume would be over-training.  Overtraining can occur when you work out without allowing enough recovery time between sessions. After a certain point, too much exercise can be harmful to your health and hinder your results.  Those that over-train have the problem that they don’t realize it.  Recovery falls behind adaptation, performance drops, fatigue increases, you stop building muscle and start digging a recovery hole.

Doing junk volume doesn’t mean you’re being stupid or lazy – it just means you need to be more efficient.

To avoid Junk Volume, understand that the goal is NOT to do as much as you can handle. 

The goal is to do as little as necessary that gives you MAXIMUM RESULTS. That’s smart training, and it’s how you avoid turning productive work outs into junk.