Hypertrophy - Restricted By Two Days A Week

Training
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Coach Thibaudeau,

This is another question I have wanted to ask you - having investigated it myself through trial and error over some years. it’s also most likely of interest by many trainees who are occupied by other duties in life. Namely: What is the best approach for hypertrophy training - only two days/workouts a week - in general?

I know this is a contradiction, but I have personally experienced some success through full body HIT routines, as well as tweaked versions of Fortitude Training and the current Powerlifting 5x3-5 day combined with a full body HIT day. Understanding the value of periodization. That being said, I have yet to encounter ideas on what is the most appropriate approach in general. Most coaches/programs seem to rely on a best case scenario over several days a week (why wouldn’t they?).

I’m not expecting a lengthy response on your behalf, as it may be too much to ask - just a nod in the direction you would find most appropriate in your experience.

Hopefully, this will turn out to be a good topic for discussion, as I welcome any additions from forum members having tried similar routines or met similar restrictions.

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Why would there be one? Everyone’s situation is different and even your own life will var. The fast is that “optimal” doesn’t really exist, at least not in terms of a single exact approach being absolutely nailing the PERFECT workout that will stay perfect.

The most you can do is having something that can be, and stay good to very good. And there is actually a range of effective approaches that will fit that category.

And when it comes to hypertrophy, the fact that as long as your sets reach a point where your reps become very hard (slowing down even if you try to push hard). it will work. You can get hypertrophy from 6, 8, 10, 15, 20, 30 and more reps. You can get it with slow eccentrics, normal reps, stato-dynamic reps, loaded stretching, etc.

One thing that I believe in, and that seems to be supported by science, is that using two different approaches is more effective than a single one. And I’d go as far as to say that the more different both methods are (while still being in the effective zone) the more effective it wil be.

For example, when I work with athletes, I use my omni-contraction training system in which the athletes train 3 days a week: day 1 is eccentric emphasis, day 2 is stato-dynamic or isometric emphasis and day 3 is “normal” lifting. That’s three days, not two, but you get the idea.

The most important thing when only training twice a week (or once) is the volume to frequency management.

I’ll say that that higher the frequency is, the lower should the daily volume be. And vice versa. Therefore, when lifting twice per week the daily volume will need to be higher than if you lift 3, 4 or 5 times a week.

But it can become complex to determine the idea daily volume. That is likely the crux of the problem.

Research indicates a weekly volume per muscle of 10 to 20 work sets. So if you are training twice a week, using a whole-body approach, this would come down to 5 to 10 sets per muscle/session. One caveat that makes volume calculation difficult is the fact that many exercises involve more than one muscle group to various levels.

For example, you may classify the bench press as a “chest” exercise. But it also significantly hit the triceps and anterior deltoids. Enough, IMHO, to count a set of bench press as one set for chest, one set for triceps and one set for deltoids.

But some exercises might not be as clear cut… take an horizontal row (seated row or barbell row), they are primarily an upper back exercise with some biceps and brachialis involvement. But not enough for one set of row to count as one set for biceps. But it still counts for something… maybe it takes two sets of rows to count as one set for biceps.

However, the same is not true for vertical pulling (chin-ups, lat pulldowns) which have a higher biceps activation than horizontal rowing (especially if done with a supinated grip). In which case, a set of supinated chin-up or supinated lat pulldown would count as one set for back and once set for biceps.

See how it can quickly become complex.

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Paul Carter wrote a nice looking 2-day a week program in this thread I came across when doing my own research. Maybe not fully “hypertrophy” but it’s a nice base to build around/helps with ideas on how to structure the share of muscle groups.

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Interesting. Looks almost exactly like my tweaked version of Fortitude Training. Adding cluster sets and loaded stretches.

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Thanks indeed! Such a great abstract! Food for thought!

It seems compound excercises is part of the solution + added volume + variation between the two workouts. Understood.

In order to complicate things further: Does the volume calculus change, if you apply LONGER sets (more TUT) in your opinion? Another aspect is if it changes whether you go for failure in a set or not? I would suppose it depends, but your opinion is yet again very much interesting to hear.

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It can. But not due to the TUT itself.

Longer-lasting sets tend to send more afferent signals to the nervous system. Those afferent signals are sent to the CNS by the muscles, tendons and fascia to tell the brain about what’s going on.

Negative afferent signals like discomfort, pain, feeling of effort or having a hard time completing a rep causes inhibition in the motor cortex which decreases the strength of the excitatory drive from the motor cortex to the muscles.

That’s a protective mechanism.

A weaker excitatory drive means that it will be harder to recruit the fast-twitch fibers, which have the most growth potential.

Central fatigue builds up from set to set (especially if rest is short). And once it reaches a certain level, it makes the rest of the workout ineffective (even if you go to failure or work hard). Obviously, a method that causes more central fatigue per set is more likely to lead to that inhibited state faster.

In other words, the longer sets (not because of the duration itself) causes more central fatigue and diminish your capacity to do sets effectively.

That’s why, when it comes to hypertrophy, even though you can get the same amount of growth from sets of 6 to 30 reps (provided that you reach the same level of effort/proximity to failure on all sets). normally recommend 6-10 reps for hypertrophy: to avoid excessive central fatigue.

The one exception that I personally use is loaded stretching, but I do these at the end of a workout. So even if there is a rapid central fatigue accumulation, there is no more work to do and the inhibition will not be an issue.

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Could you tell us more about how you implement loaded stretching into your hypertrophy oriented workouts?

I’m emphasizing hypertrophy because it is connected to the thread and relevant to my own question. I know exercise selection and the execution of loaded stretches will vary depending on the goal (it will be performed different for performance or strength).

Do you pick one loaded stretch for every major muscle group that was trained within a workout or do you tend to perform loaded stretches only for muscle groups (major or minor) that you believe need extra growth?

Also, when you say end of a workout do you literally mean the end of the workout? Or are you implementing these stretches more like Meadows used to? For those who don’t know, John used to do loaded stretches at the end of the last set of a trained muscle.

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I’ve done it tons of different ways. Don’t forget that I’ve been using loaded stretching for over 20 years (there is chapter about it in my book Theory and Application of Modern Strength and Power Methods, written like 18 years ago).

I’ve done it like Meadows with bodybuilders and it works… it’s doable because it’s only one set at the end of a muscle group, not enough to cause central fatigue accumulation.

But in my own training I currently use them differently as it is almost all of the assistance work I do.

My own training is basically:

Main lift for strength (here I rotate three methods, eccentric overloads with weight releasers, doing the eccentric with 100lbs more than the concentric; partial overloads and regular reps)

I have only two exercises that I do dynamically, besides the main movement: seated rows and reverse hyper (sometimes triceps pressdown).

The rest of the assistance work is either loaded stretching (60-90 sec) or isometrics (30-60 sec).

For loaded stretching I typically include in the week (not all in the same session):

  • DB press
  • Maltese stretch (for biceps and front delts)
  • Split squats
  • Glutes loaded stretch
  • Jefferson curl (stiff-leg deadlift loaded stretch)

I normally do 3-4 sets of 60-90 seconds with 2 minutes of rest

I also do yielding isometrics (holding a weight) on some exercises:

  • Preacher curl (forearm parallel to floor)
  • Reverse hyper (at the top)
  • Front delt raises supinated grip

These are done for 3-4 sets of 30-60 sec.

I often do my assistance exercices as a circuit of 3-4 exercises, but with rest between sets.

For example:

A1. Seated row 6 reps
Rest 2 min
A2. Preacher curl isometric 60 seconds
Rest 2 min
A3. Maltese biceps/front delts loaded stretch 80 seconds
Rest 2 min and back to A1.

Or…

A1. Split squat loaded stretch right leg 60 sec
2 min rest
A2. Split squat loaded stretch left leg 60 sec
2 min
A3. Reverse hyper isometric at top 30 sec.
2 min rest and back to A1

Etc.

BTW, finished writing an article about loaded stretching, should be up next week or in two weeks.

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Thanks for the comprehensive reply, looking forward to the article!

Are you using the double progression model on the loaded stretches?

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kinda… I do progress in time from 60 to 90 sec (in 10 sec increments) and when I reach 90 sec, I increase the weight and go back down to 60 sec

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I like it, I’m going to try this approach myself for a couple weeks and see what happens.

Thanks CT.

One more thing: how much weight increase can you expect realistically when you go back down from 90 to 60 sec? I know it’s not an exact number but an estimation of expected strength gains is useful to measure progress and making sure you’re doing things right.

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