Why i stopped high frequency (and why i picked it back up)

My first experiment with high frequency training was back in late 2016. Within 2 weeks of starting, i hit my first 315 front squat and 500 deadlift; two lifts i had casually accepted were out of my reach.

So if it was so great, why did i stop? Couple of reasons.
1. Vanity
Up until my month long experiment with high frequency, i had been training for dragoncon. This meant a fuckton of oly lifts, squats, and upprr body volume about 4x a week. I looked pretty damn good going into dragoncon, and to see some of those hard earned muscular gains disappear (although translated to strength) was difficult mentally.

2. (The big one) going to the gym everyday after work meant my life felt like a chain between work and the gym
It didnt matter that my workouts were only 22min on average. When you take into account driving to the gym, changing, and waiting for required equipment, you are looking at a 1.5hr investment. I wasnt getting home until 9p most nights.

Anything social after work was out of the question. In short. My life for auir.

Why did i come back?
At some point, the idea of vanity dies. Dont get me wrong, 0 part of me has abandoned 17in arms, but my need to be strong is paramount at the moment.

Most of all, repeat after me: no one gives a shit about your physique. Your perception of how big or small or cut or fat you are is vastly different than the person next to you. Your current work in progress is someone elses goal.

The volume i do feels important instead of routine. Autoregulation is a great weight off my mind, and a solid solution for base nature of tweaking the hell out of a program (which was happening damn near every week regardless of whether things were going well or not).

Ive found that daily high rep work for shoulders and arms is both doable, recoverable, and effective. Ya, my daily volume is still small, but my weekly volume vastly outclasses what i ever acconplished with higher volume workouts.

Every day i walk away from training feeling like a tank instead of too tired to stand.

As for scheduling, this has worked better than i could have dreamed. When my workouts took an hour, i was up at 530 to caffinate and go. It straight up ruined my day at the opportunity cost of getting a workout in. Introducing shorter high frequency workouts means a bedtime of 1030 (sometimes 930 or 10) and a wake time of 630. I feel healthier because of this change, and havent really needed coffee post workout to sustain myself at work. Socially, im still able to go out during the week and be in bed without fucking this schedule up.

Im only about a month in, but this has been a great experience.