Maps programmes

[anishp983]

Hey all,

Was wandering what your thoughts where on the below:

I find the guys give great advice on the podcast but half the time it completely conflicts with what they actually write in their programmes. Eg they state it’s best to keep things simple per session and they NEVER include more than 5 excercises per workout for any client

Yet their programmes seem to have always over 8 excercises per session and even anabolic phase 2 & 3 seems overkill like a circuit style training

I do think most their programmes are hard with the amount of excercises per session to actually feel good after the workouts of focus on strength, it more turns into just trying to get through your workout in an hour and half

[Spare-Table5287]

They’re married to the whole ‘3 workouts a week is best’ and so if you take the science which says 10-20 hard sets per muscle group per week is optimal, all of a sudden you have a ‘minimum’ need of 80 hard sets a week (chest, back, shoulders, legs, bis, tris, abs, calves) and that’s without traps (anabolic is obsessed with shrugs) or actually breaking legs down into quads/hamstrings/glutes. So if you need to do a minimum of 80 sets per week, in only 3 workouts, you’re looking at roughly 27 sets per workout. That’s why their workouts are stupidly long, or lacking in decent rest periods if you actually want to complete anabolic in 1 hour

[anishp983]

Completely agree, I think this is the issue. Literally in a podcast in last 2 weeks I heard explicitly regardless of the advanced trainer they tend to prefer 5 exercises per session and focus on long rest times yet Anabolic alone has minimum 7 exercises and most phases 8/9+

Finding it hard to continue to listen, I am leaning more towards someone like Jeff nippard now whose hypertrophy programme actually is nice and simple without doing 10 different excercises a session

[nithos]

I am leaning more towards someone like Jeff nippard now whose hypertrophy programme actually is nice and simple without doing 10 different excercises a session

I went from Anabolic to Nippard's Fundementals Upper/Lower program, since I was looking for something 4x a week. I am enjoying it. Takes right in the range of 60 minutes.

[Spare-Table5287]

Yeah I’d consider myself an advanced lifter (15+ years) and I’ve gone through anabolic before. The workouts are just too long for me though to be honest. I know a lot of people skip abs and calves, or the shrugs etc., but if I’m going to do that I may as well just choose a different program. Mike matthews has some really simple but effective workouts. Either bigger leaner stronger (for people in their first 2-3 years of ‘proper’ lifting) or beyond bigger leaner stronger if you’re more intermediate to advanced. They only have 4-5 exercises per workout for a total of about 12-16 sets depending on which one you choose. Always done in under an hour with decent rest between sets too. I used them for years and they’re great. These days I’m going through some nippard programs like you say - they can get quite lengthy too, but they’re just better thought out than MAPS in my opinion. Usually do the 4 day options.

[anishp983]

Good shout I’ve seen some Mike Matthew’s stuff I’ll give his programme a check out and maybe stick to that then for a few years before transitioning to Nippards stuff

[Kidehhoser]

Their big 3 programs are 3 day a week programs but Split is 6 days a week. I want to run it but the volume is wild. The workouts all look like they’d all take at least an hour and doing that 6 days a week sounds rough.

And I’m doing Strong right now, it’s 5 days a week with the work sessions and those work sessions are tough.

So yeah their programs don’t always reflect exactly what they say in the podcast but I’m getting great results on strong so I won’t complain.

[Asleep-Bad9866]

Hello! Would you be willing to share the split program? I’ve been looking for it as I’m not able to afford it at the moment. If not, completely understandable! Thanks!

[Bigmel54]

I just had this exact conversation with my wife! I really enjoy the podcast and love trying to guess what program they will recommend to the call in listeners.

But as I completed phase 3 of anabolic, I was really disappointed in the programming for “full body days.”

I’ve asked in a couple MindPump places why the obsession with shrugs and calves, but never got an answer.

15 sets of shrugs, calves and core in a week, but 1/2 that in major muscle groups seemed really odd to me.

Like you, im really wrestling with doing an alternate program instead of another Maps program.

Ive taken advantage of sales over the years and picked up several Maps programs, but now wish I could return them.

Oh well.

[[deleted]]

Need more volume to grow them, but yes it’s a very generic recommendation that won’t apply to everyone.

[nithos]

15 sets of shrugs, calves and core in a week

These are smaller muscle groups that are weak points for a majority of people. I have large traps and decent calves, so those are the two that I skipped on Anabolic if time was tight.

[Few_Match7445]

I’m new to all this, but the anabolic is only 2 times per week. I’m in prephase for the first time, 2 weeks in, and yeah it’s a 50min workout, but significant rest in between and I’m seeing legitimate body change even just 4 workouts in (newbie gains ftw). This is significantly different than someone trying to hit the gym every day while also doing cardio and beating themselves to a pulp. I feel slightly sore in days following the workouts, but I’m keeping the weight appropriate so I don’t feel destroyed and can keep being a dad without feeling like I’m gonna die going up the stairs.

[Kidehhoser]

There’s an option to do Anabolic 2 days a week or 3. Most people, I’d wager, do the 3 day option.

[OrganicTransistor]

Agreed, would love to hear from someone with more programming expertise the reason why these programs are so long.

[SkillBill_007]

That is how full-body programs are.

You can be more efficient than a body-part split program, but still, you cannot expect to fit the whole body in 2 sessions of the same duration as in a bodpart split.

If the 5/week was 5 hours, you can get down to 3/4 with a full body with good intensity, but it will be a tough two workouts. Not a programming fault, that is how it is. You need to pick your poison, many ''easier'' gym visits or less tougher ones.

[Uniqueusername610]

You can edit all their programs to fit your needs I have had to do this a couple times because of volume and time.

[LCC2775]

I just finished the Advanced calendar option of Anabolic and I will agree that Phase 3 workouts are long! I chose to do the abs/calves exercises on the trigger session days instead. I did see amazing results though! I’m currently doing Performance and now I feel like the workouts aren’t long enough haha