Blaze_108's Winter Hypertrophy Program

Training Beginners
1

Week 1:
Monday: Squat and bench, misc
20 rep squats
Flat Bench 6x2
curls, abs, etc.

Tuesday: shoulders and tris
Delt Building Superset:
3 cycles of:
12reps Side Lateral raise
12reps Front Lateral raise
12reps Military Press
3x6 skull crushers

Wed: back
(weeks 1-4,6-8)Deadlift:@85% 1x2 (5):3x3 (9-10):1x1@95%
Speed deadlift (60%): 8x3 (90 sec rest b/w sets)
3 circuits (rest 90sec between exercises, 2-3 minutes between circuits):
Stiff-leg deadlift: 8 reps (weeks 1-4) 5 reps (5-8)
T Bar row: 8 reps (weeks 1-4) 5 reps (5-8)
Weighted Pullups: 8 reps (weeks 1-4) 5 reps (5-8)
Arched back good morning: 8 reps (weeks 1-4) 5 reps (5-8)
Power Shrugs: 2x5 (weeks 6-9 only)

Thurs: beach body day
3x6 ez-bar curls
3x6 reverse curls
3x4 slow negative chins
3x6 Incline flies
6x2 Incline Bench

Friday: squats
20 rep squats
4x3 Hang Clean/Snatch (alternate weeks)

Critiques?
I took the Coan-Phillipi routine and then added a delt routine. All other exercises i spliced on there in days where the muscles wouldn’t be fatigued from the previous workout.

2

I’d move the hang clean/snatch from friday and put it on your beach body day, then put some of the easier beach body stuff after 20 reppers on friday.

I see you might be trying to rest up on for 20 reppers on friday, but I still think it would be better to get those hang cleans in a day before, rather than doing them right before or right after a hard squat session.

3

That’s just awful.

JUST DO A BODYBUILDING ROUTINE IF YOU WANT TO BODYBUILD

4

Today’s tip comes from Christian Thibaudeau:

Blaze, I know you want progress, but just sticking with a basic program and lifting consistently is all you need.

And eat more, you skinny bastard!

5

[quote]mr popular wrote:
That’s just awful.

JUST DO A BODYBUILDING ROUTINE IF YOU WANT TO BODYBUILD[/quote]

any recommendations for such a routine?

6

[quote]Brant_Drake wrote:
Blaze, I know you want progress, but just sticking with a basic program and lifting consistently is all you need.

And eat more, you skinny bastard![/quote]

(sigh). I know. I suppose it’s that fact that i feel like i need to bring everything up, instead of just focusing on one area at a time, that makes me want to cover everything.

Football is almost over. I swear, the only lifting 2x a week has been killing me. Hopefully not having that drain all my calories, plus the fact that i want to up my daily calorie intake by about 500-1000 cals a day, will make a big difference.

I average half to 3/4 of a gallon of milk a day. Once football is over that will be more like 1-1 1/4. I’m also ordering a 5lb tub of Grow! whey protein to take with my breakfast 1/4 gallon of choc. milk.

Aiming for 3000-4000 calories a day and 1g protein per lb of bodyweight for overall diet, lifting 4-5 times weekly, and getting plenty of rest.

Again, i need a good routine to do. I don’t like Starr’s 5x5, but other than that i have no real preference.

7

I noticed your original routine was based around the Coan-Philipi cycle. My advice if you are going to go through with that is keep all of your other lifts at maintenance level - don’t try for PRs.

From what I can tell, you want to get bigger. You have two paths to choose from according to the great Dave Tate (summarized) - you can train for size and gain strength as a side effect, or you can train for strength and gain size as a side effect, but you can’t do both. Again, just a summary but points well made.

You need to decide which path you want to take. After that, it will be easier to help you.

8

[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
I noticed your original routine was based around the Coan-Philipi cycle. My advice if you are going to go through with that is keep all of your other lifts at maintenance level - don’t try for PRs.

From what I can tell, you want to get bigger. You have two paths to choose from according to the great Dave Tate (summarized) - you can train for size and gain strength as a side effect, or you can train for strength and gain size as a side effect, but you can’t do both. Again, just a summary but points well made.

You need to decide which path you want to take. After that, it will be easier to help you.[/quote]

Ugh. again, i just wish i could go for PRs in everything at once, but it seems that’s not going to happen. At the moment, i’m leaning towards training for size and gaining strength as a side effect. There’s an obvious correlation there, I’d rather be a little bigger than i am strong, but there’s no way to be big without your body being able to handle heavy weight.

I’ve looked at WSFSB 3, but that seems to be more training for strength. I don’t know much for hypertrophy routines, and it seems i need a bit of help.

9

[quote]Blaze_108 wrote:
any recommendations for such a routine?[/quote]

You just need to start figuring out which exercises and how much/many you need to do to get your muscles growing, not to mention eating more.

Here’s a really basic bodybuilding setup that works for a lot of people:

Day 1 - thighs/calves
Day 2 - chest/triceps
Day 3 - rest
Day 4 - back/biceps
Day 5 - shoulders
Day 6 - rest
Day 7 - rest or repeat

Keep it simple. The traditional stuff works.

10

And to be honest…

I would suggest you STOP making such a clear distinction between “strength” and “hypertrophy” training in your mind, as that is going to do nothing but confuse you.

Strength is not a “side effect” of “hypertrophy training”… strength is the DRIVING FORCE of hypertrophy.

You make a muscle larger by forcing it to become stronger, in an environment of excess nutrients.

If lets say you are squatting 225lbs for 8 reps now, and 6 months from now you’re squatting 285lbs for 8 reps, and you’ve gained 20lbs of bodyweight along the way, your thighs are going to be noticably larger.

THAT is hypertrophy training. The only real difference is that (1) you are concentrating on making the target muscle group stronger instead of greasing the neuromuscular groove to try and get up a 1RM lift, and (2) you are gaining weight.

In other words… to gain muscle mass, you are trying to increase your 6-10RM instead of your 1RM, and you’re eating enough protein and calories to support the growth. The focus still remains firmly on increasing the poundage you are lifting as often as possible.

11

[quote]mr popular wrote:
You just need to start figuring out which exercises and how much/many you need to do to get your muscles growing, not to mention eating more.

Here’s a really basic bodybuilding setup that works for a lot of people:

Day 1 - thighs/calves
Day 2 - chest/triceps
Day 3 - rest
Day 4 - back/biceps
Day 5 - shoulders
Day 6 - rest
Day 7 - rest or repeat

Keep it simple. The traditional stuff works.[/quote]

Thanks. If nothing else more filled out comes, i could definitely use this as a basic template.

12

[quote]mr popular wrote:
And to be honest…

Strength is not a “side effect” of “hypertrophy training”… strength is the DRIVING FORCE of hypertrophy.

In other words… to gain muscle mass, you are trying to increase your 6-10RM instead of your 1RM, and you’re eating enough protein and calories to support the growth. The focus still remains firmly on increasing the poundage you are lifting as often as possible.[/quote]

I know, i wrote in an earlier post in this thread i knew there was a direct correlation, though i did call strength a side effect. I know you can’t increase one without the other. I’d just rather train in a rep range more focused on hypertrophy than doing all doubles or singles in a more powerlifting, raise your one rep max, sort of scheme.

Thanks for the input, i really do appreciate it when people take time to try and help me.

13

You can agree or disagree, I really don’t care. I will listen to someone like Dave Tate over any forum member.

http://www.T-Nation.com/article/most_recent/tnation_strength_and_size_roundtable_part_1

[quote]
T-Nation: Most T-Nation members aren’t competitive lifters or bodybuilders, but are chasing the goals of strength and hypertrophy simultaneously. What are the biggest mistakes that people make in trying to get big and strong at the same time?

Dave Tate: Before I get into this, I feel it’s important to expose the fact that I’ll have a biased opinion. We all have training biases based on what we have done, read, and seen. Most people know where I stand and where I come from, but for those who don’t, here’s a quick summary.

I’ve spent my life in the sport of powerlifting. I competed for over 25 years and have always trained in small private gyms that catered to those who were extremely serious about how they trained, be it powerlifting, bodybuilding, or any other sport. We all trained with total focus on whatever we were training for.

In short, I don’t get the whole “workout” thing. Training I understand. “Working out” I don’t. This is where I’m coming from and always have, so I’m not going to water it down for the purpose of this roundtable.

What do I mean by all this? I mean that I don’t see any reason to train for strength and hypertrophy simultaneously. To be honest, I think it’s stupid.

Let me explain, if you train for max strength, then size (much easier to say than “hypertrophy”) will be a side effect. In turn if you train for max size, then strength will be a side effect. If you train for both at the same time then you’ll have the results of two side effects instead of one full effect.

In other words, if you try to do both, you’ll see strength results, but they won’t be as great as if you trained for strength alone. The same holds true if you trained solely for size.

I can hear it now: “But Dave, I don’t want to be a competitive powerlifter or bodybuilder, didn’t you hear the question?”

Yeah, I heard it, and this brings up problem #2. If you are in the vast majority of those who would ask the above question then I challenge you try and do a meet or show next year, and then get back to me on how you do. This is a lot like the girl who says, “I don’t want to look like those bulky women you see in the magazines, so I don’t lift weights.”

I hate to be the one to tell you the sad reality of these sports, but it takes years of consistent training for that one goal to be competitive. You’re not going to look or perform like a competitive bodybuilder or powerlifter with just a few training cycles, unless of course you’re a freak.

So my advice is to pick either strength or size as a goal, stop “working out,” and start training.[/quote]

14

Ugh. So I know for sure, regardless of my opinion of if one (size or strength) goes up equally to the other or if one grows and the other grows to a lesser extent, that i want to train for hypertrophy. Is there any good, fully structured hypertrophy workout anyone can recommend?

Mr. Popular i recommend the rough outline, but if there’s something with rep schemes and specified lifts, i’d rather follow that.

15

If you just need somewhere to begin…

Day 1:
Squats 3xwarmup, 2x8,8
Leg Press 1xwarmup, 2x10,10
Lying leg curl 1xwarmup, 3x8
Standing, or leg-press calf raises 3x10

Day 2:
Bench Press 3xwarmup, 2x8,8
Incline DB bench 1xwarmup, 2x10,10
Fly or pec deck 3x10-15
Dips 1xwarmup, 2x8,8
Pushdowns 3x10-15

Day 4:
Deadlift 3xwarmup, 2x5,5
Pullups 3x8
Barbell row 1xwarmup, 3x8,8,6
Barbell curl 1xwarmup, 2x8,8
DB Curl 3x10

Day 5:
Military Press 2xwarmup, 2x8,8
Seated DB Press 1xwarmup, 3x10
DB lateral raise 3x10-15
Barbell shrugs 3x8

… you could do this for a few months and make your personal tweaks as needed until you’ve got yourself into your own routine

Just remembr that the equation for bigger muscles is

progressively heavier weights repped to failure x incremental gains in bodyweight x lots of protein

keep it simple!

16

I think i’m going to use your basic outline and plug in several different exercises, varying per week.

Day 1 - thighs/calves/hamstrings
3x6 of two of the following:
Calf raises
ATG squats
Front Squats
GHR
BB Lunge
DB step-ups

Day 2 - chest/triceps
3x6 of two of the following
BB or DB flat bench
BB or DB Incline bench
Skull crushers
Flies
Tsuki DB Press

Day 3 - Lower back
3x2 of either:
Deadlift
Snatch grip deadlift
Rack pulls
2x5
Good Mornings

Day 4 - upper back/biceps
3x6 of 2 of these:
Weighted Pullups
T-bar rows
Lat pulldowns with emphasis on scapular retraction
DB Low rows

3x8 of all
BB curls
BB reverse curls
Hammer curls

Day 5 - shoulders
3x6 of BB military
3x6 of side and bent over lateral raises

3x10 Shrugs in front and in back

Day 6 - rest
Day 7 - rest or repeat

17

Train 5-6 days a week training 2 bodyparts a day.

Start each bodypart with some heavy lifting and finish with things that will get in a massive pump.

Then finish the worokout with some weighted stretches.

Make sure the exercises your doing heavy go up and that the exercises for pump don’t go down and still give you a pump and you be gd.

oh…and eat s hit laod as well…that usually helps.

18

[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
You can agree or disagree, I really don’t care. I will listen to someone like Dave Tate over any forum member.

http://www.T-Nation.com/article/most_recent/tnation_strength_and_size_roundtable_part_1

T-Nation: Most T-Nation members aren’t competitive lifters or bodybuilders, but are chasing the goals of strength and hypertrophy simultaneously. What are the biggest mistakes that people make in trying to get big and strong at the same time?

Dave Tate: Before I get into this, I feel it’s important to expose the fact that I’ll have a biased opinion. We all have training biases based on what we have done, read, and seen. Most people know where I stand and where I come from, but for those who don’t, here’s a quick summary.

I’ve spent my life in the sport of powerlifting. I competed for over 25 years and have always trained in small private gyms that catered to those who were extremely serious about how they trained, be it powerlifting, bodybuilding, or any other sport. We all trained with total focus on whatever we were training for.

In short, I don’t get the whole “workout” thing. Training I understand. “Working out” I don’t. This is where I’m coming from and always have, so I’m not going to water it down for the purpose of this roundtable.

What do I mean by all this? I mean that I don’t see any reason to train for strength and hypertrophy simultaneously. To be honest, I think it’s stupid.

Let me explain, if you train for max strength, then size (much easier to say than “hypertrophy”) will be a side effect. In turn if you train for max size, then strength will be a side effect. If you train for both at the same time then you’ll have the results of two side effects instead of one full effect.

In other words, if you try to do both, you’ll see strength results, but they won’t be as great as if you trained for strength alone. The same holds true if you trained solely for size.

I can hear it now: “But Dave, I don’t want to be a competitive powerlifter or bodybuilder, didn’t you hear the question?”

Yeah, I heard it, and this brings up problem #2. If you are in the vast majority of those who would ask the above question then I challenge you try and do a meet or show next year, and then get back to me on how you do. This is a lot like the girl who says, “I don’t want to look like those bulky women you see in the magazines, so I don’t lift weights.”

I hate to be the one to tell you the sad reality of these sports, but it takes years of consistent training for that one goal to be competitive. You’re not going to look or perform like a competitive bodybuilder or powerlifter with just a few training cycles, unless of course you’re a freak.

So my advice is to pick either strength or size as a goal, stop “working out,” and start training.[/quote]

The problem is that here Tate refers to MAX STRENGTH.

For this it involves alot of singles and 1-2RM Max Efforts etc and a higher freuqency for techinque.

If your training using a “high volume” approach and blasting a muscle near once a week, where your focusing on the muscle working and not just getting the bar up…strength is directly correlated with size.

but ONLY so long as your eating enough.

19

[quote]Clown Face wrote:
Train 5-6 days a week training 2 bodyparts a day.

Start each bodypart with some heavy lifting and finish with things that will get in a massive pump.

Then finish the worokout with some weighted stretches.

Make sure the exercises your doing heavy go up and that the exercises for pump don’t go down and still give you a pump and you be gd.

oh…and eat s hit laod as well…that usually helps.[/quote]

lol… yeah.
I’m aiming for 3500+ calories a day once i get into the swing of my routine.

20

Obviously we encourage you to do whatever you think is best for your body, but I’ll point out some things that stuck out to me…

[quote]Blaze_108 wrote:
I think i’m going to use your basic outline and plug in several different exercises, varying per week.
[/quote]

Why vary the exercises every week? That sounds like a recipe for very little progress.

It’s up to you but DB step-ups and glute ham raises personally don’t represent heavy mass building exercises to me. And if you’re bodybuilding, you don’t get extra points for squatting “ass to grass” unless it’s actually helping you build bigger thighs than squatting normally.

Although I have no idea what a Tsuki DB Press is, the 5 exercises you have laid out here are fine although I wouldn’t do 3x6 for all of them. Smaller exercises usually require higher repititions for strength and safety purposes.

Again I discourage changing exercises weekly and instead if you just did all 5 of these in your workout every week that’d be a much better approach.

Dedicating an entire day to your lower back doesn’t make much sense to me and I’ve never seen anyone do this. Is it a weak area for you or something?
Besides the fact that doing any kind of deadlift or rack pull, and maybe even good mornings too, aren’t just going to work your lower back.

As I said above, this and day 3 should really be fused together unless you have some reason why your lower back needs special attention. But a back workout of a deadlift, pullup/pulldown, and row would be fine, although again… I wouldn’t do 3x6 for everything

[quote]3x8 of all
BB curls
BB reverse curls
Hammer curls
[/quote]

Preference for forearms?

I can almost promise you that going heavy enough for 3x6 on a lateral raise is not a good idea. You can do your shrugs to the front and back if you want… its not going to hurt anything, its just one of those whatever kind of things.

I feel like the emphasis on SIMPLE isn’t really sinking in to you. Why are you opposed to just training the way a normal person does?