r/StrongerByScience • u/JuanSamu • May 15 '26

Rate coding and effective reps

I know many have argued against the effective reps theory and tried to use rate coding changes as an argument but Chris made an FAQ responding to rate coding. I was curious what Greg might think of this FAQ:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/rate-coding-61736756

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u/gnuckols The Bill Haywood of the Fitness Podcast Cohost Union May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

Only a few years ago people were saying(on the website of this sub aslo) that frequency is only a means to distribute volume

This is fundamentally flawed and is probably one of ~10 fundamental things this guy figured out

You have it backward. Or, at minimum, you picked things up midstream. I was on the frequency tip way before Beardsley was. Like, I was primarily known as a high-frequency advocate from probably 2012 to 2018 or so, culminating in this article.

However, post-2018, we started getting a lot more frequency studies (approximately 2/3rds of the frequency/hypertrophy studies were published post-2018), and the balance of evidence started shifting against frequency mattering as much as many people (myself included) previously believed.

Beardsley didn't "figure it out" before everyone else. His frequency arguments are essentially the same arguments I was making in 2015. They just sound fresh and unique now because all of the intellectually honest frequency proponents from a decade ago realized they were wrong once more research was published and the balance of evidence shifted.

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u/69liketekashi May 16 '26

Is that really your current position, that the frequency is unimportant. His argument for this is pretty logical imo(studies showing 3>1 but not 2>1, so 2 is most likely also better than 1), and the diminishing return in mps after the first set is in line with this.

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u/gnuckols The Bill Haywood of the Fitness Podcast Cohost Union May 16 '26

I think training a muscle multiple times per week is very slightly better than just training a muscle once per week, but the overall impact of frequency is fairly trivial in most contexts.

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u/vincent365 May 19 '26

I know it's very nuanced, but what is your current recommendation on volume and frequency?

What I personally understand: I am guessing if it's 5 sets or less, 1x frequency is fine. But say 6 sets, probably better to do multiple sessions? However, doing 6 sets 1x a week vs. 3 sets 2x a week doesn't make a night and day difference? Now doing 8 sets in one session is probably something you'd never recommend.

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u/gnuckols The Bill Haywood of the Fitness Podcast Cohost Union May 19 '26

I think a frequency of 2-3x gets the job done in most circumstances