 Our next caller is Garrett from Nebraska. Hey Garrett, how can we help you? Hey guys, so my question is, so my wife and I currently work out together in the mornings and we've kind of, we're running split right now and we've ran aesthetic in the past, but what we've kind of come up with a problem is once we start hitting some of those higher rep schemes, we kind of start seeing plateaus. And so I've kind of been wondering once we start seeing and hitting some of those plateaus, should we just kind of take a break and come back to it, like where we left off in the program or should we kind of switch up programs entirely? Or where should we go from there, I guess, to kind of stay on track with the programs? Okay, so that's a really good question, but I need to ask you a few more questions before I can answer that. So how do you feel physically in that third phase of maps split, because maybe for the listeners who don't know right, map split is our kind of bodybuilder split maps program in phase three incorporates higher reps, there's super sets in there. The intensity is pretty high. So for you Garrett, how are you guys feeling in the third phase, at phase physically? Usually pretty good, probably three to four days out of the week after that, we both kind of get a little bit gassed and you just see the frustration between us both when we're not kind of hitting some of the weights that we've hit in the past weeks. Okay, are you noticing any changes in energy and sleep? Any extra soreness? Not necessarily soreness, but sometimes it is waking up and it almost seems to be dreading what comes from the workouts almost. Okay, so here's a deal. So map split is one of our more advanced workout programs and the third phase is a lot of volume. And what it sounds to me like, and by the way, I have to modify split in the third phase for myself, it's just a lot. It's a lot of reps, it's their super sets, the volume is so high, it's six days a week and what you're experiencing is burnout and one of the characteristics of burnout is loss of motivation, it's hard to wake up, it's hard to get through the workout, you start to dread doing the next one. So there's a couple of things you could do here. Now you can do what you suggested, which would be to kind of ignore that phase and move into another one, but I think there's a lot of value in the higher reps and the super sets for a lot of people. I think what you need to do is reduce the volume. In fact, I would cut the volume in half, go through the third phase and then see how you feel because what you're describing sounds like classic overtraining. You know what happens to me in this situation too, is the psychological piece is tough. Like if you've been going through phase one and phase two, I mean those are more strength-based, right? So you're feeling really strong, especially if you're following the program to a T, week over week, you feel like you're getting stronger, you're stronger, then all of a sudden you hit phase three and the opposite happens because all of a sudden you're super setting, the volume goes up significantly, you have higher reps, now all of a sudden I see all my weights go down. I'm benching less, I'm squatting less, everything's less, less, less, less. And it used to just, it would mind-fuck me all the time where I'm like, I wanna get out of this because I feel weaker right now going through this, but like Sal's alluding to, I think the higher rep, there's a lot of value of training that way. I just have to constantly be kind of coaching and talking to myself like, it's okay, Adam, that you're doing the 50s now, it's okay that you're deadlifting half the way here because the desired outcome isn't, can I continue to progress my weights in this phase? It's that my body needs this because I've been training in more of a strength phase, I'm gonna benefit from it as far as changing body composition. So I wanna stick through it, can't wait to get back to that phase one where I'm lifting strong again, but I know that's something that I've always gotta talk to myself when I hit these phases. Yeah, it is a bit of a record skip. It's totally a shock and change to the previous phases. So yeah, to Adam's point, that's something that, you've gotta account for that too, like your strength may feel different because it's a completely different adaptation we're trying to acquire with this. And so definitely think about reducing volume, but also think about it's a different mindset completely going into that phase. I try and think pump, right? So when I get into that, those third phases of almost all of our programs, right? Most all the programs, hypertrophy, the pump is where we're kind of going in that third phase, that I stopped thinking about how much weight I'm moving and I'm thinking about, oh man, how much of my pumping that muscle up, as it feels like my skin's super tight and I can really feel that muscle working. I'm thinking form, connection, pump, and I'm trying not to focus on, oh my God, I'm so much weaker right now or I feel like I'm much weaker than what I was just two, three weeks ago. Yeah, but ultimately, our programs are written for the masses and ideally what someone would do is follow the program and then start to modify it by listening to their body. There's no program I could write for the masses that's gonna be perfect for every individual. It's just impossible. And I know this as a trainer. And based off what you're telling me, it just sounds like it's too much and that's super common with map split. So here's my suggestion, cut the volume in half. Try half the volume and then see how you start to feel. You may just notice that your body starts to progress again. Now, when you tell them to cut half the volume, are you, because there's a lot of ways you can cut half the volume, are saying reduce the weight significantly? Are you saying reduce the sets or the amount of exercises? Where would you tell him to go? I would cut the sets in half, yeah. So if an exercise is four sets. Or maybe just drop one set of everything off. So look at your total sets, cut everything in half and start there. Because if you start to feel fatigued, if you start to lose the pump, it still happens to me when I push too hard, is I don't even get the pump anymore and I just find like it's like I'm doing cardio. Then I'll cut the volume. In fact, I just recently did this. I just recently cut my volume way down and now my body's responding excellent again. So give that a shot and then see what happens. And if that works out great, wonderful. If it still doesn't work out great, then I would look at maybe reducing the intensity a little bit. And if that doesn't work out great, then you can definitely do what you suggested. But I always caution people when they want to avoid those higher rep sets because they have value. They really do. A few weeks of that in a phase, even for just pure strength athletes has a lot of value. Okay, awesome. Yes, that would definitely give that a try. All right, thanks. Thank you, Garrett. Thank you guys so much. Yeah, that's one that it's hard to be certain like what he's going through. But I know that, and I think, Sal, you bring up a good point. Like you definitely could be overtraining. But if this is a repeat thing that happens, he said it happened in aesthetic. It happened in split. When you get somebody who loves strength training and lifting in that low rep range, it's what you hate doing the opposite. Yes. Yeah, that's me. Both you fuckers are guilty of this. I know, I admit it. It's funny that you didn't go that direction because to me, that's what I see most of the time is that you fall in love with away training. You fall in love with the strength gains and you're just not gonna see strength gains in a hypertrophy phase. You're gonna go the opposite direction. It's inevitable that's gonna happen. And the psychological piece is one of the toughest things for people to keep pushing through those phases because they're like, man. And a lot of times it's exactly what you need. Exactly, that's my point. It's like, just like you guys, I know that if you hired me, the first phase I'm putting you in is high reps because I know what you gravitate towards in training so I know what would benefit you the most. No, that's totally true, but we have to consider this. Like the high reps, that's a lot more volume. No, you're right. The split is very high volume. Yeah, I could do five sets of three reps with the squat. But he said it happened to him in aesthetic also and aesthetic is not a thing. Phase three is also high rep, high volume. It is, it is, but not nearly as much as split. It's because split's a six day a week program where aesthetic is only a three day a week program. So maybe it's got, it has a lot of volume in those three foundational days, but then your focus days are really light. So, I mean, what it screams to me is that every time you get to that 15 rep range, super setting, lower rest periods, you just, you don't like it. Yeah, and you're kind of gassed and it's discouraging because you see yourself, you think you're getting weaker. You don't know that you're not getting weaker. All you see is like, oh, last week or last week when we were in phase two, I was benching 225, now I have to put 150 on there. Well, I mean, all of it points to getting your muscles to grow, all of it points to improving your physique. In fact, a study just came out that showed that people who train with the strength phase and an hypertrophy phase, so a low rep and a medium rep or moderate rep phase did better than people who just stuck to the moderate reps the whole time and everything else was controlled. So changing into these different rep ranges, it's a different mindset, it's a different feel, but they all provide tremendous value. So it's important to go through all of them. Yep.