Favorite Training Programs, Lets Hear Them!

Training
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Ideally speaking of hypertrophy style, but powerlifters/strongmen - feel free to post up, just clarify goals please and thank you.

What worked best?
Which did you like the most?

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Focusing on a 5x5 program with heavy squat, bench, dead was great when younger to build a base of muscle mass. Now that Iā€™m middle age I prefer fine tuning and hypertrophy work. Outside of that, one of my favorite all around programs was Jim Stoppinniā€™s Shortcut to Size.

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Fortitude Training is the best hypertrophy program Iā€™ve ever run. But for me right now, Iā€™m getting awesome results from Mountain Dog training, which is actually super similar just lower frequency. Iā€™ve never been as jacked in my life as I am right now and Iā€™m currently running his Odin Force program.

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This one for arms

This one for pressing strength

The ā€œPullā€ Days from this one were awesome

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Most jacked and fun:

Most athletic in nature:

Most eye-opening:

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Iā€™ve run Chad Waterburyā€™s 3 day per week total body program several times and really liked it:

I also really enjoyed Joe DeFrancoā€™s Rebuilt 2.0. That program focuses more on relative strength that hypertrophy Iā€™d say but it is perfect for lifters with high mileage on their joints. I felt the best I have in a while from a joint perspective when I was running it.

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Iā€™ve never had a program click with my personality more than CTā€™s Layer System.

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Ok, so who wants to run the regressions and write a meta analysis for what all these have in common? Then we can publish ā€œThe Answerā€!

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Sheiko = big lifts and much funā€¦ if I donā€™t die

GZCL = big lifts and much funā€¦ if I donā€™t die

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I am not doing GZCL, but have read about it and incorporated some of it in my own training structure. The idea of having different tiers of exercises in a workout has really helped me manage fatigue and get more volume in. I like the different rest times for each tier too. I was resting too long on all my lifts before using a timer, but especially on some of the lower tier lifts like curls. I get a lot done in a short period of time after the tier 1 lifts. I like that.

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You say that a bit in jest, but now Iā€™m curious.

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They all include different types of ā€œwork.ā€

low reps and high reps. Heavy lifting and Light lifting, or Strength work and Pump work. Or multiple training stimuli. However you want to think about it.

All the cool programs have more than 1 way to get gains.

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For hypertrophy, Iā€™ll second CTā€™s Layer System and I donā€™t think thereā€™s been a close second. For variety, there are a few slightly different versions of the system you can find here on the forums.

**Edit, now that I think about it, the Surge/M3 program was also, for me, a very productive hypertrophy program.

For fun, conditioning, and being more functional: Metcon for Muscle.

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For Sports i loved 531 as it got me stronger and you had so many variables you could play with to get your hypertrophy or sports specific stuff in.

For getting big, i have loved original DC training, also anything by the legend that is John Meadows and more recently i have been getting great results from Jordan Peters upper/lower programme.

I want to try Fortitude training at some point but iā€™m not changing plans while iā€™m making progress.

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I ran a couple of these. My chest has never been more sore from all that benching!

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That was my big gripe. I hate benching

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Madcow 5x5 with assistance work is my all time favorite looking back. It hit the sweet spot for me for both strength and hypertrophy gains.

For a strength focus I like Westsideā€™s conjugate method.

For hypertrophy P.H.U.L. (Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower) comes to mind but this was probably 10 years ago. It does incorporate low and heavy in the mix (which I prefer) but is definitely slanted for hypertrophy.

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I was preaching this shit 4 years ago when I was still on here, but:

Brian Alsruhe Darkhorse. For all around conditioning, size, strength, and grit, this holds the number one spot out of any program Iā€™ve ever ran. Strongest, leanest, and biggest I had ever been. Iā€™ll also probably never run it again. Truly a nightmare.

Jacked&Tan2.0 is what Iā€™m currently running and is the most overall fun Iā€™ve had lifting in years. Also showing awesome noticeable progress in just a few weeks.

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I donā€™t see Codyā€™s stuff talked about much on this website (he seems much more popular on Reddit - same with the SBS programs) but GZCLP was the first program I used when I started lifting a couple years ago, and what Iā€™m currently doing take a lot of inspiration from what heā€™s written. Iā€™ve honestly considered hiring the dude as a coach a couple times, but thatā€™s probably not a financially responsible thing to do yet lol.

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I love Brian and his training plans are a thing of beauty but they just arenā€™t that practical for a busy gym. All those giant sets and alternate movements are hard to manage.

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