After a New Hypertrophy Program

Hi, iv just finished bill stars 5x5 and seen great results and accomplished my goals of getting all my maxes up but after this program id really like to do a pure hypertrophy program, any suggestions? oh aslo iv done Chad Waterbury’s TBT twice so id like something new.

Cheers guys!

Max-OT?

Look it up, it’s a 5 day routine with the kind of weights you are already using.

Frequency of bodyparts is WAY different than you are used to with the 5x5 so it may be fun for you.

HSS-100 by Thibs. Great stuff.

What do you think you mean by “pure hypertrophy”?

ok i should of been waay more specific in my first post, im after a 3 or 4 day program aimed at hypertrophy and not strength gains, i dont care if my strength isnt goin to increase on this program

Do you honestly believe you can gain muscle without getting stronger?

[quote]mr popular wrote:
Do you honestly believe you can gain muscle without getting stronger?[/quote]

No, what i mean is that i want the focus of the program to be on muscle gain rather than strength increases. of course strength will increase with muscle gain

has anyone heard of or used the “power-rep range-shock” routine? i’ve been doing it for a while and have gotten positive results.

[quote]1morerep wrote:
has anyone heard of or used the “power-rep range-shock” routine? i’ve been doing it for a while and have gotten positive results.[/quote]

nah never heard of it, i take it its using 6-8 reps for each exercise…? you got a link?

well it’s a method where you do all power movements one week…4-6 reps, next week is rep range - around 9-12 and the next is shock week - all high intensity work like supersets, tri sets, drop sets. you do this 3 week cycle 3 times for a total of 9 weeks then take a full week off to recover and start again. i really like it. it’s got variety for both body and mind. here’s a link to an article and thread explaining it a bit more:

ironmagazineforums.com/training/31408-power-rep-range-shock-basics.html

What I was trying to get at was that most people go wrong when they think their focus is on “hypertrophy” (whatever that means) because they start worrying about all these numbers, percentages, and ridiculous training philosophies.

It is a red flag when someone says “I don’t care if my strength isn’t goin to increase on this program”

Reason being, if your goal is muscle gains, the focus of your training needs to be gains in strength. (although, these should probably be pushed into a moderate rep range rather than triples, doubles, and singles which is what you may have been referring to).

The ideal split for gaining muscle is going to be the one that organizes the exercises that work best for your body in terms of targetting the intended muscle groups and rapidly gaining strength, over the course of several days without causing too much overlapping stimulation, with the highest frequency you can handle without overtraining.

So the question is, do you know what exercises are right for your body?

[quote]1morerep wrote:
well it’s a method where you do all power movements one week…4-6 reps, next week is rep range - around 9-12 and the next is shock week - all high intensity work like supersets, tri sets, drop sets. you do this 3 week cycle 3 times for a total of 9 weeks then take a full week off to recover and start again. i really like it. it’s got variety for both body and mind. here’s a link to an article and thread explaining it a bit more:

ironmagazineforums.com/training/31408-power-rep-range-shock-basics.html

[/quote]

Sounds similar to the suggestion i was going to make: HST - Hypertrophy Specific Training. Name says it all really…

Ive never heard of anyone using it & not making gains: http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=461097

[quote]1morerep wrote:
well it’s a method where you do all power movements one week…4-6 reps, next week is rep range - around 9-12 and the next is shock week - all high intensity work like supersets, tri sets, drop sets. you do this 3 week cycle 3 times for a total of 9 weeks then take a full week off to recover and start again. i really like it. it’s got variety for both body and mind. here’s a link to an article and thread explaining it a bit more:

ironmagazineforums.com/training/31408-power-rep-range-shock-basics.html

[/quote]

I do something similar where I do all my heavy work the first part of the week in the low rep ranges, Then the second part of the week everything is in the 20-15 rep range. I’ve been doing it for a few months now and seen good progress. I’ve done similar periodization programs, but I’m a little too impatient to wait 3 or 4 weeks to see if I’ve made progress.

[quote]mr popular wrote:
What I was trying to get at was that most people go wrong when they think their focus is on “hypertrophy” (whatever that means) because they start worrying about all these numbers, percentages, and ridiculous training philosophies.

It is a red flag when someone says “I don’t care if my strength isn’t goin to increase on this program”

Reason being, if your goal is muscle gains, the focus of your training needs to be gains in strength. (although, these should probably be pushed into a moderate rep range rather than triples, doubles, and singles which is what you may have been referring to).

The ideal split for gaining muscle is going to be the one that organizes the exercises that work best for your body in terms of targetting the intended muscle groups and rapidly gaining strength, over the course of several days without causing too much overlapping stimulation, with the highest frequency you can handle without overtraining.

So the question is, do you know what exercises are right for your body?[/quote]

what he means is that he’s looking for a program that focuses on aesthetics rather than strength.
you grow when you get stronger, you get stronger when you grow, we got it. he asked for a hypertrophy program, not a run on lecture.

[quote]ZeusNathan wrote:
what he means is that he’s looking for a program that focuses on aesthetics rather than strength.
you grow when you get stronger, you get stronger when you grow, we got it. he asked for a hypertrophy program, not a run on lecture.
[/quote]

ZN, here’s the results of a powerlifting, STRENGTH first routine, followed by a sensible dieting phase. He did NOT train for looks or hypertrophy or any other goal but powerlifting strength.

You have a problem with his “aesthetics”? See any flaws?

You claim to “get it” but do you really?

a random picture with such a claim and no source is hard to believe. but besides the fact, i agree that its nearly impossible to see substantial growth without increasing the load. however, there is a difference between a hypertrophy program and a powerlifting program. you can incorporate both, or one or the other. they can both yield strength and size. the OP’s concern is not that of hitting a PR on the power clean, but probably looking like that guy.

“No, what i mean is that i want the focus of the program to be on muscle gain rather than strength increases. of course strength will increase with muscle gain”

and vice versa. he already knows the correlation and the importance of the two. read his post. he’s already been working on bill’s 5 x 5 so its safe to say that he’s on the right track.

[quote]ZeusNathan wrote:
a random picture with such a claim and no source is hard to believe. [/quote]

It’s ok, you can believe it. It may just change the way you train for serious hypertrophy (but probably not).

I bet most of the readers of this forum recognize this pic, it’s been discussed several times and is representative of what it takes to look this way vs. someone who wants tons of muscle without putting in the time and effort it takes to achieve it.

Check out this thread. http://www.T-Nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=699538 and save it in the back of your mind so you can actually give someone helpful advice when they ask for it.

[quote]ZeusNathan wrote:
…however, there is a difference between a hypertrophy program and a powerlifting program. you can incorporate both, or one or the other. they can both yield strength and size. the OP’s concern is not that of hitting a PR on the power clean, but probably looking like that guy.

[/quote]

  1. You DO realize that the power clean isn’t one of the 3 powerlifts, right?

  2. How are you experiencing a disconnect between his physique (OP’s concern with “looking like that guy”) and the fact that it was built by powerlifting ie: VERY heavy weight training focused on hitting PR’s?

  3. No one said that you have to BE a powerlifter. I was just trying to get across the best way to get bigger and more dense is to train with VERY HEAVY weight.

The second I hear someone asking how to train for hypertrophy (and see someone try to answer it the way it was asked), a red light comes on. My first inclination is to assume they don’t “get it”.

ZeusNathan:

Let me put it to you this way.

If we can agree that strength training is the foundation of any program…

How would you take a typical, moderate strength training program with the basic exercises… and add to it so that it is now “hypertrophy oriented”?

What exactly do you think this means?

Please explain it to us all.