Hypertrophy/Bodybuilding Routine

[Qxx]

Good man, very small...but good. I have you on IG btw haha, i've been keeping tabs on you!...so whats the deal with this new program?

Lulz, welcome back mate. New routine is basically back to the first one with some slight tweaks. And rest-pause isn't prescribed as the primary way of training, but still recommended.

So, you're back on the gaintrain?

[adamxbomb]

Haha what's your IG man?!

The program in the OP is basically a culmination of all the past threads

follow me! @adamhenderson1286

Lulz, welcome back mate. New routine is basically back to the first one with some slight tweaks. And rest-pause isn't prescribed as the primary way of training, but still recommended.

So, you're back on the gaintrain?

Thats great, I am probably going to continue doing rest pause then.

Yes Sir, i just got to Okinawa Japan for 6 months and I wanna get swole again with my favorite people!

[iamjoshkoopman]

seems legit.

[jmmainvi]

Adam's forum sig got me thinking about my lifts...

Last workout, I hit a 205 front squat for 8 and a 205 RDL for 12. I'm wondering what kind of ratio most of you are getting between those two. I can load up way more weight on the bar and pull it easily (my 3rm conventional deadlift is 400+) but the movement turns into more of a SLDL - the bar gets out in front of me a bit, and I either get extra knee bend or some lower back rounding, that makes me lose the hamstring stretch.

Am I working the muscle better by sticking around my front squat weight (I'll be doing 205 FS and 215 RDL tonight) with "strict" form? Is this all in my head and I should be pulling heavier? Or what I thought was most likely, am I just screwing up in my bar position because my upper back is engaged poorly (this is part of my problem on conventional DL as well, because my pull off the floor is weak.) and I should work on that as part of building my RDL up to a more respectable number?

[adamxbomb]

Adam's forum sig got me thinking about my lifts...

Last workout, I hit a 205 front squat for 8 and a 205 RDL for 12. I'm wondering what kind of ratio most of you are getting between those two. I can load up way more weight on the bar and pull it easily (my 3rm conventional deadlift is 400+) but the movement turns into more of a SLDL - the bar gets out in front of me a bit, and I either get extra knee bend or some lower back rounding, that makes me lose the hamstring stretch.

Am I working the muscle better by sticking around my front squat weight (I'll be doing 205 FS and 215 RDL tonight) with "strict" form? Is this all in my head and I should be pulling heavier? Or what I thought was most likely, am I just screwing up in my bar position because my upper back is engaged poorly (this is part of my problem on conventional DL as well, because my pull off the floor is weak.) and I should work on that as part of building my RDL up to a more respectable number?

Historically RDL are always going to be a considerable amount less weight than SLDL, and the same goes for FS vice BS. I prefer doing RDL's and FS's because its less weight and in the long run easier on your body while still performing the similar motion.

[jmmainvi]

Historically RDL are always going to be a considerable amount less weight than SLDL, and the same goes for FS vice BS. I prefer doing RDL's and FS's because its less weight and in the long run easier on your body while still performing the similar motion.

Not really what I was asking at all. I'm well aware that RDL should be less than conventional DL and SLDL, and the same for FS v. BS. But a FS of 225 and RDL of 285 seem ridiculously out of proportion to each other given my own experience, which is more what I was wondering about.

[adamxbomb]

Not really what I was asking at all. I'm well aware that RDL should be less than conventional DL and SLDL, and the same for FS v. BS. But a FS of 225 and RDL of 285 seem ridiculously out of proportion to each other given my own experience, which is more what I was wondering about.

You are right, i was doing 285 with terrible form. If I was doing it correctly I would have a similar ratio to you. I'm very new to RDLs brother.

[jmmainvi]

You are right, i was doing 285 with terrible form. If I was doing it correctly I would have a similar ratio to you. I'm very new to RDLs brother.

Thanks for clearing that up, just wanted to make sure I wasn't getting away with some kind of excuse to not go hevier/work harder on my RDLs.

[MrRuder]

I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. Rather, I'm trying to find a way for this program to work with my schedule. I find I can only go to the gym about 4-5 days a week and I really dislike a pure leg day. I'm trying to incorporate this program and try to solve these two situations. Please let me know what you guys think of this.

D1
Incline DB
Leg Press
Flyes (flat db or machine)
Leg Ext
Rope Pressdown
DB Laterals
Calves

D2
Trap Bar DL
Pullup/Chin
Leg Curl
Seated Row
DB Preacher Curl
Abs

-30 reps each
-rest/pause
-trying to go minimum of 4 and max of 5 days per week.

[JoseAlonso]

Deloading means away from the gym? You guys stay away for a week after 3 straight weeks in?

[erwinliao54]

This routine is designed for hypertrophy/bodybuilding (physique development) purposes, it is not designed with sports/functional performance in mind. I have done my best to make it an effective, practical and flexible routine so as to be suitable for almost anyone. This routine is a culmination of all my previous routines and includes all of my updated recommendations, as such I will no longer be supporting/recommending my previous superseded/obsolete routines.

In my experience/opinion training each muscle group twice per week (or every 3-4 days on average) works well for just about everyone, assuming all other variables are appropriate of course. I believe that a 3 day split provides an ideal balance between volume per session and frequency of sessions.

In an effort to keep the routine flexible I prefer to not assign workouts to specific days of the week, rather I recommend that you simply rotate through D1, D2 and D3 workouts regardless of what day of the week it happens to be, if you performed a D2 workout the last time you were in the gym you should perform a D3 workout the next time you're in the gym. Rest days are taken whenever you feel as though you need one, just pick up from where you left off.

D1 - Chest, front delts, triceps
D2 - Upper back, rear delts, biceps
D3 - Thighs, lower back

* Side delts, calves and abs can be trained daily, these muscle groups respond exceptionally well to high frequency training.

I believe that training at a moderate intensity (75% etc) with moderate reps is the most efficient way to promote hypertrophy, your primary goal should be to increase your moderate rep strength.

I believe that training to/near failure (with failure being defined as performing as many full reps as possible, you should never actually fail to complete a rep) is important for promoting neural strength adaptions.

I believe that aiming for a total rep target rather than counting the number of sets you perform is the best way to manage total tonnage (volume), instead of aiming to complete a particular number of sets per exercise you should instead aim to complete a particular number of total reps per exercise and perform as many sets as it takes until you reach your total rep target.

In the past I have recommended rest-pause training and i still stand by this recommendation although I want to make it clear that straight sets are a perfectly acceptable option as well, at the end of the day it doesn't really mater how long you choose to rest between sets, short rest periods between sets will result in a greater number of sets being required to reach your total rep target, long rest periods between sets will result in a fewer number of sets being required to reach your total rep target, go with personal preference.

I recommend using an 8-15RM for most exercises, you should use your first set of each exercise as your measure of progress and add more weight once you can complete 12 reps in your first set for large exercises and 15 reps in your first set for small exercises. For calves and abs I recommend 15-30 reps.

It's practically impossible to recommend exercises suitable for everyone so I'll simply list my personal selections and you can substitute where necessary:

D1 - Wide grip bench press (elbows flared, bar lowered to upper pecs, feet on bench, no back arching), incline bench press (low incline, moderate grip width, no back arching), flyes/crossovers, rope pressdowns

D2 - Wide grip pull-ups (or pulldowns), seated rows, reverse flyes/crossovers, preacher curls

D3 - Romanian deadlifts, front squats, leg curls, leg extensions

* Side delts, calves, abs - Side lateral raises, standing calf raises, seated calf raises, ab rollouts.

In regards to volume (number of total/target reps per exercise) recommendations I firmly believe that more is better (within reason), I recommend performing as much volume as you have time for and can tolerate without exhausting yourself. 30-50 total reps per exercise (double or triple that for calves and abs) is a good starting point although don't be afraid of going even higher if you have the time and work capacity.

Due to the high training volume recommended in this routine it's essential that deloading periods are incorporated, I recommend 4 week blocks/cycles wherein you train (load) for 3 weeks followed by 1 week of complete rest (deload) from the gym. Deloading is mandatory and will make or break the entire routine, I can't stress enough how important/essential deloading is.

In regards to nutrition my general advice is:

- Most of your protein intake should come from meat, eggs and dairy products
- Most of your carbohydrate intake should come from starch (rice, pasta, potatoes, bread etc)
- Don't attempt a low carb diet during this routine, you'll hit a wall very quickly, aim for 200 grams per day as a bare minimum
- Most of your fat intake should come from animal sources, you need ample amounts of saturated fat, cholesterol and arachidonic acid in your diet

Disclaimer: Please be mindful of where your food comes from and try to keep animal welfare in mind, I'm an animal lover and as such I do my best to avoid unnecessary animal cruelty, even simple things like buying free range eggs instead of cage eggs will make a difference. I would urge you all to research the meat/dairy/egg industries in your respective countries/states and come to your own conclusions as to what animal products you are/aren't willing to eat, I have a moral responsibility to bring this to your attention.

yo kalei your name reminds me of a name off superman movie kalei anyway man day 1 and day 2 is arms and upper body and chest and day 3 is legs but theres 7 days in a week do you do 3 days train then 4 days rest every week?

[benh2]

Typically it's six days per week. Cycle through D1, D2 and D3 twice each per week.

[Malversation]

Deloading means away from the gym? You guys stay away for a week after 3 straight weeks in?

Essentially yes. Ideally you go to the gym 6 days a week and take one off. An example'd be:
D1, D2, D3, rest, D1, D2, D3
(repeat x3)

and then you take a full week off from the gym when the cycle is finished. It works quite well from my 3 months on the program.

[A1roller]

Ok, a few questions about this program:

I'm doing rest pause and resting about 30 seconds between sets and finding that after a few sets I cannot push out any more than 2-3 reps at most, is this normal? A typical exercise may have the following reps - 15, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2. Do people really do this until they reach 50+ total reps? I don't feel like I'm getting much out of the two rep sets but whenever I go for a third rep I almost always fail it.

Are you better off doing a large selection of exercises for a lower amount of reps, or a lower selection of exercises for a high amount of reps? I'm currently alternating A and B workouts (see below) everyday (struggling with the frequency so going to add a leg day as in the OP) for 35 reps each exercise, but not sure whether I should maybe cut down on the amount of exercises and go for 50-100 reps each exercise.

A:
DB Incline Bench
Dips
Cable Flys
Tricep Extensions
Spider curls
Pinwheel curls
Lateral Raises

B:
Wide neutral grip pull ups
T bar row
Wide grip lat pulldowns
Underhand grip barbell row
Rear delt fly

A more stripped down version might look like the following for 100 reps each exercise -

A:
Incline Bench Press
Cable Flys
Tricep Extension
Spider Curl
Lateral raise

B:
Wide neutral grip pull ups
T bar row
Rear delt fly

C:
Squat
Leg curl

[UnknownPreacher]

follow me! @adamhenderson1286



Thats great, I am probably going to continue doing rest pause then.

Yes Sir, i just got to Okinawa Japan for 6 months and I wanna get swole again with my favorite people!

Hey I want to get in on this. I have a few people on IG from this forum but most stopped lifting/posting stuff. While we definitely don't have the same goals, I would still like to keep tabs on certain people haha and see how they're doing etc etc. Anyway my username is @s.marko if anyone wants to add me

[erwinliao54]

Typically it's six days per week. Cycle through D1, D2 and D3 twice each per week.

ok thanks for helping me

[erwinliao54]

Essentially yes. Ideally you go to the gym 6 days a week and take one off. An example'd be:
D1, D2, D3, rest, D1, D2, D3
(repeat x3)

and then you take a full week off from the gym when the cycle is finished. It works quite well from my 3 months on the program.

very goood sounds good

[jmmainvi]

Ok, a few questions about this program:

I'm doing rest pause and resting about 30 seconds between sets and finding that after a few sets I cannot push out any more than 2-3 reps at most, is this normal? A typical exercise may have the following reps - 15, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2. Do people really do this until they reach 50+ total reps? I don't feel like I'm getting much out of the two rep sets but whenever I go for a third rep I almost always fail it.

Are you better off doing a large selection of exercises for a lower amount of reps, or a lower selection of exercises for a high amount of reps? I'm currently alternating A and B workouts (see below) everyday (struggling with the frequency so going to add a leg day as in the OP) for 35 reps each exercise, but not sure whether I should maybe cut down on the amount of exercises and go for 50-100 reps each exercise.

A:
DB Incline Bench
Dips
Cable Flys
Tricep Extensions
Spider curls
Pinwheel curls
Lateral Raises

B:
Wide neutral grip pull ups
T bar row
Wide grip lat pulldowns
Underhand grip barbell row
Rear delt fly

A more stripped down version might look like the following for 100 reps each exercise -

A:
Incline Bench Press
Cable Flys
Tricep Extension
Spider Curl
Lateral raise

B:
Wide neutral grip pull ups
T bar row
Rear delt fly

C:
Squat
Leg curl

Part of the problem is probably your exercise selection, but you really should still be getting 3-5 reps; try resting a little longer if you have to. Also, if you're new to the program you don't really need 50+ reps, 35 reps like you're doing will be just fine. You can increase after you've been on the program for a few cycles. If you're hitting 15 reps on the first set, you should probably be increasing the weight you're using.

Personally I would go back to the exercises listed in the OP, it looks strictly better to me than either of the splits you posted.

[A1roller]

Part of the problem is probably your exercise selection, but you really should still be getting 3-5 reps; try resting a little longer if you have to. Also, if you're new to the program you don't really need 50+ reps, 35 reps like you're doing will be just fine. You can increase after you've been on the program for a few cycles. If you're hitting 15 reps on the first set, you should probably be increasing the weight you're using.

Personally I would go back to the exercises listed in the OP, it looks strictly better to me than either of the splits you posted.

Thanks for the feedback. I might do as you say and go back to just the original OP workout.

I think part of the problem which is causing me to only get a low number of reps in my later sets is maybe because I'm used to longer rest periods of 2-3 minutes. I thought that 30 seconds would be adequate, and it was to begin with, but as I've gotten closer and closer to my maxes with the training the first sets have become more taxing and subsequent reps harder. I'm not sure it even counts as rest pause if the rest time goes over 30 seconds? I'm sure I read something to that effect somewhere.

I think a big hesitation I have had with running the program in the OP is the fact that it advocates what is essentially a guillotine press, and I'm a little worried about injuring myself with it, especially if I'm using very heavy weight and no spotter.

[jmmainvi]

Thanks for the feedback. I might do as you say and go back to just the original OP workout.

I think part of the problem which is causing me to only get a low number of reps in my later sets is maybe because I'm used to longer rest periods of 2-3 minutes. I thought that 30 seconds would be adequate, and it was to begin with, but as I've gotten closer and closer to my maxes with the training the first sets have become more taxing and subsequent reps harder. I'm not sure it even counts as rest pause if the rest time goes over 30 seconds? I'm sure I read something to that effect somewhere.

I think a big hesitation I have had with running the program in the OP is the fact that it advocates what is essentially a guillotine press, and I'm a little worried about injuring myself with it, especially if I'm using very heavy weight and no spotter.

Just do a barbell bench how you're comfortable; despite all of the discussion and recommendations from this thread I still cant bench like that without shoulder problems, so when I bench it looks much more like a powerlifter's bench press. if you don't have a spotter, use a power rack and set the safeties, etc.

Rest time over 30 seconds is fine, the point is minimum rest time that you can still get the desired number of reps. For me, that ends up being 30-45 seconds on most of my compounds (bench, RDL, chinups, etc.) and it actually edges towards a minute on front squats, but it's under 30 seconds on my isolations. Just how things work when it comes to large muscle groups and multi-joint movements.

[ttuTRAP]

Not really what I was asking at all. I'm well aware that RDL should be less than conventional DL and SLDL, and the same for FS v. BS. But a FS of 225 and RDL of 285 seem ridiculously out of proportion to each other given my own experience, which is more what I was wondering about.

yeah my best fs was 285 but I can sldl 315 for 12 or so

[JoseAlonso]

Are you guys performing cardio on this program? If so, how often for how much?

[Pungiish]

Since I've been on this routine.. I'm getting sore the next day after workout, daamn. Something's working haha. You can do cardio whenever you want, but the program suggests you can do it on the rest days if you want.

[KenoXZbrah]

Since I've been on this routine.. I'm getting sore the next day after workout, daamn. Something's working haha. You can do cardio whenever you want, but the program suggests you can do it on the rest days if you want.

Being sore does not equal growth.

[Pungiish]

Being sore does not equal growth.

Well thanks for demotivating me i thought that soreness meant i was tearing my muscle good.

[Alyion]

Well thanks for demotivating me i thought that soreness meant i was tearing my muscle good.

Well it does, but tearing the muscle doesn't always mean it will adapt and get stronger/bigger - but as long as you stick to the principles in this routine it will.

[Pungiish]

Ok, but will they grow even if i eat at maintenance? A lot of people suggested that

[Alyion]

Ok, but will they grow even if i eat at maintenance? A lot of people suggested that

It's impossible to say without additional info - what you are talking about is a recomp and the rate of recomp is down to genetics/training history/diet etc. A really fat or really skinny weak guy can recomp faster than someone who is already pretty big and strong etc. I don't know your height, but if its over 5'5 then 132lb is pretty light, coupled with your age it would probably be better to eat at a slight excess, as progress will be slowed eating at maintenance - but it's up to you at the end of the day.

[adamxbomb]

I'm on my second D2 of this 6 day rotation....i know these DOMS WAY to well....best/worst feeling of my life....cant....walk.....fuarkkkk.....

[atgbrahsrs]

anyone of you do planks ? and opinion on it as a solid ab exercise ?