I feel like most people don’t understand hypertrophy, period.
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I’d comfortably fit myself in that category.
I mean, I’m pretty certain that lifting weights in a certain way gets me bigger and stronger, but there’s a long, long, long road from that to “understanding” and even further to “mastery”.
The confusion seems to be largely around the fact that it’s a methodology or set of principles, not a set program. As far as I’ve seen anyway.
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You hit the nail on the head…thats what trips people up.
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People overthink it starting out.
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I think you should try out what you’ve planned and see how it works. If it’s awesome and you make progress for 4-5 weeks, run with it. If you start feeling run down or you’re not making gains 2-3 weeks in you can tone it down. Or do whatever it takes to work out the kinks.
At some point in the future I think you really should run a heavy day/moderated at/light day setup, just to try it out. When you break the weights up like that its really easy to feel what Strength Training (low reps and straining) and Hypertrophy Training (high reps and burning) feel like and how they’re different.
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What’s interesting is, it’s a bro split when you break it down.
Chest day, leg day, shoulder day, back day.
But, like any good bro split, there’s carryover between the days.
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So Wendlers a bodybuilder you say? Only bodybuilders do bro splits, it’s why they aren’t very strong.
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Yeah, but that only applies to the base program.
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The next time someone pops up that genuinely asks about it, rather than referring back to previous forum discussions, I’ll copy-paste this:
- Try 3x/wk full-body for at least 4-6 weeks
- Try a 4-5 day BB template (Clay Hyght) for at least 4-6 weeks
- Try a 4 day training week where each day is dedicated to a main lift (press, squat, bench, deadlift) for at least 4-6 weeks
Post back again if you want to discuss further after having done so.
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If you’re new to this, don’t bother trying to make your own program.
You can try it if you’d like. It’s not like it’s gonna kill you. But depending on your experience level, 5/3/1 BBB might be your best bet for strength and hypertrophy.
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Seconded
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Doggcrapp has A & B sessions, with 3 different sets of lifts for each one? That’s pretty neat.
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Doggcrapp was a fun way to lift. I like all the methods with “dog” in the name
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I feel the article misses a significantly important part. Just how intense DC is meant to be.
Doggcrapp: This is how I show someone the intensity they should be putting into every exercise and it really opens some eyes up quickly in the people I train. Either next quad workout or next time you dont feel like doing your normal leg workout, be true to yourself and take the number of plates you load up on the leg press for a hardcore 10 reps deep —cut it exactly in half and do one set of 50 reps deep. So if your bragging to everyone that you can do 12 plates on each side for 10 then guess what your going to be doing - 6 a side for 50. And you know what-- everyone reading this can do the 50 reps, it just comes down to who has the most balls or not. You cannot lock your knees the whole set and you cannot rest your hands on your knees either. I try to get 25 first and then pause at the top (with knees slightly bent) and take 5 deep breaths and then get 10 more (5 deep breaths) and 5 more.(im at 40 now)…then the last 10 reps is pure tortuous hell…i usually do 3 reps (take 3 breaths)3 more reps, 3 more breaths, then 2 reps (3 deep breaths) and finally the last 2 reps=50 reps. Your legs will be absolutely destroyed and you better start stretching or walking the next day is going to be an adventure. My best ever was about 3 years ago I got 7 plates a side for 50 and i go deep (knees to armpits deep). The people that I have seen who cannot make it to 50 are people who dont have the mental fortitude to take pain and get pissed off or someone who starts to cramp. But youll learn alot from that one set, you will learn the intensity it takes to approach every set on every other bodypart and exercise you do.
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I learned this lesson recently. That you can and should work harder than you think.
I’ve never been a shirker. But I had plenty left.
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That is legit one of the main reasons I tell so many new kids to go do Deep Water. Figure out your limits right away and THEN start training.
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I do think there’s value in the programs that prescribe percentages for volume work - you don’t get to take it easy
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I’ve written before that, when muscular gain is the goal, those are the ideal programs to pick. When you look at week 6 and see you have to squat what was once your 6rm for 10 reps (as an example), your training and eating will transform because you have that looming over your head. You NEED to train hard and recover well if you’re going to make that happen: otherwise, you get buried. It’s the same reason I’m big on encouraging people to compete in something: when you have a deadline and a demand to meet, things change compared to just doing it on your own.
Conversely, when fat loss is the goal, like to go for PR sets and auto-regulation. When you have a good day, go and try to set a rep PR. When you have a bad day, push as hard as you can for THAT day. It doesn’t crush the ego compared to failing to meet percentages, and still allows for hard training and muscular sparing (possibly even growth).
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