Stefan Ianev Trainer & Educator

26/10/2026

Apparently, we've finally discovered the GOAT training split. 🐐

Full body every other day.

At least, that's what some parts of the internet are now adamantly claiming. And those voices seem to be getting louder.

And look, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. It's a perfectly legitimate and potentially very effective way to train.

But there's a big difference between saying a training method works well and claiming it's scientifically proven to be superior to everything else.

Training split and frequency are just two variables. Weekly volume, exercise selection, effort, recovery, individual needs and even enjoyment all influence how effective a program will be.

And appealing to how bodybuilders trained 70 years ago doesn't settle the argument either.

Some of those guys were training for 2–3 hours at a time, while many of their routines devoted disproportionately little work to the lower body.

Personally, full-body every other day is one of the least appealing ways for me to train. I also find it one of the most draining.

Yes, you get a day off after every session. But for me, hitting essentially my entire body in one workout creates enough fatigue that I often feel pretty wiped out the following day.

Again, that's my individual response to it, not a scientific argument against it. Someone else may tolerate that style of training extremely well.

The point isn't that full-body training is inferior.

It's that there are multiple effective ways to train, each with its own advantages and trade-offs.

Once we stop trying to crown one of them the GOAT, we can have a much more useful conversation about which approach makes the most sense for the individual.

24/10/2026

At least someone likes taking photos with me 😅

22/10/2026

Something that often doesn’t get mentioned much when people talk about managing fatigue is the psychological aspect.

For example, low-volume training where you’re consistently pushing sets very hard creates a very different psychological demand to higher-volume training where you’re keeping more reps in reserve.

And depending on the individual, you may tolerate one better, or for longer, than the other.

But what I’ve found is that eventually either approach can start to wear you down.

And this is potentially one reason why varying your training over time may be more sustainable than simply doing the same thing over and over.

One way you could do this is simply by shifting between periods of lower-volume training where you’re pushing sets closer to failure, and periods of higher-volume training where you’re keeping more reps in reserve.

Or you could experiment with something like Adaptive Set Progression, which I’ve broken down in some of my more recent posts.

20/10/2026

I’ve been training for close to 25 years now, and over that time I’ve tried low volume, high volume and pretty much everything in between.

And here’s the reality.

Everything works. But nothing works forever.

Every style of training comes with positives and negatives.

And the longer you spend training in any one particular way, the more you tend to adapt to the positives while gradually accumulating more of the negatives.

With lower-volume, high-effort training, I love the shorter sessions and the focus on performance.

But eventually, constantly having to beat the logbook can start to feel mentally draining.

Higher-volume training wears you down differently.

There’s less pressure attached to each individual set, but eventually the sheer amount of work can become tedious.

For a long time, I’ve managed this by cycling between different styles of training.

More recently, though, I’ve been experimenting with a more adaptive way of moving between effort and volume.

It’s something I call Adaptive Set Progression (ASP).

Rather than arbitrarily switching between high effort and high volume, I allow effort to progressively increase as my performance improves.

As RIR closes and those sets become increasingly demanding, I redistribute the workload across more sets.

This opens the RIR back up and gives me room to progress again.

Then I repeat the process.

Eventually, volume itself reaches a point where it becomes limiting.

That’s when I can pull everything back, reset and start building again.

I’ve been using this approach in my own training and with clients for a while now, and so far it’s been working extremely well.

I’ve broken down Adaptive Set Progression in more detail in some of my previous reels if you want to see how I apply it in practice.

And if you’re interested in how I apply this kind of thinking to individualise my clients’ training, you can learn more about my coaching through the link in my bio.

13/10/2026

The fact that you can build muscle across a wide range of reps doesn’t mean every rep range makes sense for every exercise.

I’m probably not going to start doing sets of 5 on leg extensions just because lower reps can build muscle.

And I’m definitely not doing sets of 30 on squats just because higher reps can too 😂

Different exercises lend themselves better to different rep ranges depending on things like stability, loading potential, joint stress and how fatiguing the movement becomes.

For me, that usually means heavier, lower reps on compound movements that are well suited to heavier loading...

And progressively higher reps as I move towards more isolated exercises.

There’s no need to force every exercise into the same rep range.

One of the advantages of being able to build muscle across such a broad range of reps is that you can choose the range that actually suits the exercise.

12/10/2026

I used to think fatigue management meant progressively increasing the workload, periodically taking a deload, then building back up again.

But I’ve realised I haven’t actually taken a traditional deload in quite a while.

Instead, I’ve mostly been managing fatigue by changing the type of stress I’m exposing myself to.

If heavier loading starts beating me up, I can reduce the load and work in higher rep ranges.

If constantly pushing sets close to failure starts becoming draining, I can leave more reps in reserve and potentially distribute the work across more sets.

If higher-rep training starts creating too much local fatigue, I can move back towards heavier loading and lower reps.

And if I’m feeling more systemically run down, I can shift towards exercises that create less whole-body demand.

None of that means deloads are unnecessary. There are still times when pulling everything back makes sense.

I just don’t think fatigue management always has to mean doing less.

Sometimes changing what the training is costing you is enough to keep progressing.

10/10/2026

08/10/2026

Training every day. Eating 1,200–1,400 calories. Still not losing weight?

Before you cut calories further or add more cardio, there are a few things worth looking at.

1️⃣ Training quality vs quantity

More sessions don't necessarily mean better results. If you're constantly fatigued, struggling to progress and not recovering adequately, adding more training may only compound the problem.

2️⃣ Consistency of calorie intake

Eating 1,200 calories Monday to Thursday doesn't necessarily mean you're averaging 1,200 calories across the week.

Your overall energy balance matters more than a few individual days.

3️⃣ Activity outside the gym

Training every day doesn't automatically mean you're highly active.

When fatigue builds, spontaneous movement often decreases. You might be burning calories in the gym while unconsciously moving less throughout the rest of the day.

4️⃣ Underlying health factors

If you've genuinely addressed the above and are still struggling, it's worth considering whether medications, thyroid dysfunction or other health factors may be contributing.

A discussion with your doctor and appropriate investigations may be worthwhile.

The takeaway?

Fat loss still requires an energy deficit. But creating and sustaining that deficit isn't always as simple as eating less and exercising more.

Sometimes the answer isn't more effort.

It's understanding what's actually limiting your progress.

05/10/2026

Gabrielle was training six days a week, sometimes doing both weights and cardio, while eating around 1,200 calories a day.

And her weight wasn't moving.

Today, at 41 and after six children, she's in the best shape she's ever been.

Her story is a good example of something I talk about often... more isn't always better.

Sometimes the answer isn't to train harder or eat less.

It's to understand what's actually limiting your progress and adjust the approach accordingly.

We recently sat down and talked through her entire journey.

You can check out the full interview on my YouTube channel.

And if you're putting in the work but feel like your current approach isn't giving you the return it should...

You can learn more about working with me through the link in my bio.

30/09/2026

Getting stronger doesn’t necessarily mean every tissue involved in producing and transmitting force is adapting at the same rate.

And sometimes that mismatch only becomes obvious once something starts getting irritated.

This is one of the reasons I don’t think the answer to continued progress is always more stimulus.

Sometimes it makes more sense to temporarily change the training demand and give the structures supporting force production an opportunity to catch up.

That doesn’t necessarily mean training light either.

Depending on what’s becoming limiting, it might mean reducing load, reducing volume, or simply changing how that stress is being accumulated.

I went into this in much more detail in my last post.