Elvia, always speak your mind about anything I post. I appreciate your feed back. YES God knows the volume is off the map. I asked about it and he's a man of few words. "Your hitting these parts once a week. With the way your eating lets run the food into a place it wants to be. Nothing about bodybuilding is easy. If it is that's an area your not pushing hard enough."
That being said it's fucking killin me. No lying friend, this is making me question myself and my abilities.
I have had pneumonia for the last two weeks. I'm finally starting to see the end of the tunnel here . This weekend I'll be back on the full program again. I have a training partner Jay. He's a Blk guy 10 years younger than me and genetically gifted. He's a great spotter and just has an instinct for seeing when I'm about to fail. He's stronger than me at everything so he keeps me chasing the carrot. I'm hoping once I jump back on I'll have something for him then.....
I am pleased to read you are feeling better and should be back to normal soon. It's great you have someone like that to train with. I always train alone but I make good use of machines and safeties.
I am all for pushing past your limits. Although taking all factors into consideration I do think 8 sets to failure on squats is simply too much. Maybe not in the future but for you right now I 100% think it is. I doubt you being sick is any coincidence and your immune system is probably very weak from the training and the recent health issues.
Again I am all for going crazy in the gym but also in a smart way. That could mean 2 all out sets of squats with 2 all out sets of leg press and leg curls etc. That would be 10 working sets for legs (your 5 movements) which is a good amount. I even think 2 for this and 1 for that and 2 for this etc so about 8 working sets would be even better. Just my opinion but I think he could be smarter with his programming. Plus I would never usually comment on what a coach has instructed. I always tell people listen to your coach and don't second guess him as you hired him for a reason. So follow the program and see where it takes you but for you right now that leg day is very wrong imo. It's just going to dig such a deep hole you won't be able to get out of it.
X amounts of sets doesn't have to mean the same every week. An example if you felt like utter crap lowering the number would make sense. Does he just want you to do 8 sets no matter what? So you are just starting to feel better after being very ill so next leg day it's 8 sets of squats again? For me I would think 2 would be a good start and you progress over time. If you don't want to progress via weight increments you could increase volume so do 3 then 4 and maybe you get to 8 over time. But to start at 8 and just to say bodybuilding is not easy is not being sensible with what he has in front of him.
Honestly I am a machine in the gym and I have trained hard for 3 hours many times but the idea of doing 8 sets to squats to failure to me is just silly and unneccesary unless it was literally just that and maybe 1 ham movement and 1 calf movement on top. Even so it's still unneccesary in a weekly program.
Now everyone's idea of failure is different and that is a massive factor but I have a feeling you really push it hard. If you are putting 100% into all of those sets that is brutal. He tells you that you only train legs once but it's not just about your legs recovering. It's mainly about your cns recovering over the 5 training days per week.
I wouldn't be questioning yourself or your ability in the gym. This to me is really obvious. There is a reason you pretty much see no one in the gym, on ig or you-tube doing 8 working sets of squats with many other exercises to complete failure. Plus aren't you nearly 60? Even if you were 26 the same applies.
I always post about how the body adapts and it's capable of much more than most people think. How many athletes train for hours on end. Many on the forums act like if you train hard for over an hour you are overtraining etc. But for your situation I think what he has told you to do is crazy. Sorry for the long winded post I just have strong views on this as I want you to do well and I can only see this going against you in the long run.