6.9 Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Should I always try to improve my strength on every lift every week?
No. The trend over a mesocycle should be upward, but week‑to‑week variation is normal. Don’t force progression on a flat day. Bodybuilding is not about hitting a PR every session; it’s about consistently applying effort and letting the body adapt over time, which includes plateaus and occasional regressions. Chasing a PR every week is a recipe for burnout and form breakdown, which can lead to injury and potentially move tension away from the target muscle.

Q: How do I know if a muscle needs emphasis?
It’s not just about lagging; it’s about what you want to look like. If you want wider shoulders, you can emphasise side delts even if they aren’t “lagging.” The mesocycle is simply a tool to direct focus. Over a year, you address different goals sequentially. With time, you will have a clear sense of what you want to improve next. Usually, this is why people hire coaches—to have an expert eye identify the next priority and design a mesocycle around it. But you can learn to do it yourself with practice.

Q: Can I train a muscle only once per week and still grow?
Yes, but 2× is more efficient. If your schedule only allows once, do that—it’s far better than nothing.

Q: Should I train each muscle/joint action? Not necessarily. If you have time constraint, pick exercises that cover multiple joint actions at once (e.g., a hack squat covers hip and knee extension, a lat pulldown covers shoulder extension and elbow flexion). If you have more time, you can add an extra exercise to cover the missing joint action (e.g., a leg curl for knee flexion, a face pull for shoulder horizontal abduction). But if you have to choose between doing one exercise per muscle or skipping it entirely, do the one exercise. It’s better to train a muscle incompletely than not at all. In many women programs, I purposefully skip calves, forearms and in many cases chest as well, because the time is better spent on the muscles that matter more to the client’s goals.

Q: Should I do cardio? Cardio is not a great tool to burn calories (for that, diet is king), but it’s a great tool to improve cardiovascular health, work capacity and recovery. If you enjoy it, do it. If you don’t, don’t. It’s not essential for hypertrophy, but it can be a nice complement. If you want to do it, I recommend low‑intensity steady state (LISS) cardio. Give yourself a goal, like 10k steps per day, and try to hit it consistently. If you want to do high‑intensity interval training (HIIT), that’s fine too, but it’s more taxing on recovery, so I recommend doing it on a separate day from your lifting sessions.

Q: Why do I never feel sore? Am I doing something wrong? Soreness is not a reliable indicator of a good workout or muscle growth. Some people are just less prone to soreness than others, and that’s perfectly normal. Being accustomed to training also reduces soreness over time. If you are consistently applying effort, progressing in some way, and seeing results, then you are doing it right, regardless of how sore you feel. On the flip side, being constantly sore is not a good sign either—it can indicate overtraining or insufficient recovery.

Q: What if I miss a session?
Don’t cram it back in. Just continue the plan. One missed session in a 12‑week block is noise.

Q: How many exercises per muscle is too many?
More than 3–4 exercises per muscle in a mesocycle fragments volume and makes progression tracking difficult. Stick to 2–3, executed hard. Rotate next block.

Q: Should I use the same rep range for all exercises?
Technically, yes, you could. My personal recommendation is to keep a small range (e.g., 4-8) for compounds and a slightly higher range (e.g., 6-10) for isolation work, as explained in Section 5.3.2. Ultimately, the best rep range is the one you can push hard consistently. If you find that 6–10 allows you to hit RIR 1–2 more reliably across exercises, stick with it.

Q: Should I use the same exercises every time I train a muscle, or should I vary them?
If you train a muscle twice a week, you can either repeat the same exercises (the repeated‑workout approach) or use different ones (the “1+1 split”). Repeating the same workout is simpler and makes it easier to track progression. However, a 1+1 split can be useful if you want to emphasize specific muscle heads that one exercise misses (e.g., leg extensions for the rectus femoris if you already squat) or to vary the joint stress across the week. Both are valid; for general hypertrophy, repeating the same high‑quality movements is usually more efficient.

Q: Does fractional volume mean I can skip direct arm work entirely?
If you press and pull heavily, you likely need less direct arm work, but not zero. A small dose like 4 sets per week is enough in most cases to keep arms growing alongside the rest of the body.

Q: Do I need to do SBD (squat, bench, deadlift) to build a good physique? No. They are effective, but not essential. I would even go as far as to say that for most people, they are not the best choice for building a great physique. A free bar squat can easily be replaced by a leg press, a hack squat or a pendulum squat: all of which are more quad‑dominant and easier to learn. Deadlifts can be replaced by RDLs or SLDL, depending if you want more glute or hamstring emphasis. Bench press can be replaced by a dumbbell press, which allows for a more natural range of motion and better pectoral activation. The key is to choose exercises that allow you to apply progressive overload effectively while targeting the muscles you want to develop. With that said, if you enjoy SBD and they fit your goals, there’s no reason to avoid them. They can be great tools in the right context.

Q: Is hypertrophy training for men different than for women? Not really. The principles are the same. However, goals may differ: women may prioritize leg and glute development more than upper body. It’s also worth noting that women generally have a higher proportion of type I muscle fibers, making them more resistant to higher volume training and possibly slightly more responsive to higher rep ranges.