Stripped Down Hypertrophy

Training Bodybuilding
1

I have just completed 10 weeks of Starr’s 5x5 with good results but am looking for a change. Stripped down hypertrophy is the routine that I got the best results from (2 years ago) and i feel like I respond best to high volume full body routines.

My main issue is that I am not happy with the development of my upper body in terms of strength and hypertrophy when compared to my lower body. I want to see if I can get away with doing 5 upper body exercises and only one for lower body (isolation too…gulp) My legs got worked plenty hard the past 10 weeks with squats and power cleans 3x a week.

Group 1

A1) Upper body horizontal push (incline bb bench)
A2) Quad-dominant lower body (not doing quad dominant) BB curl
B) Upper body horizontal pull (face pulls) only 30 seconds rest.

Group 2

A1) Upper body vertical push (Again not doing vertical push as my incline bench is a steep incline) Narrow bench press
A2) Upper body vertical pull (pull ups)
B) Hip-dominant lower body (dead lifts)

As you can see I am trying to put an emphasis on upper body muscles especially the biceps and triceps. I do realize that you have to work legs to grow (Testosterone boost) but I kind of want to give my legs a break and isolate my arms for the first time ever. (ya vain I know)

I was also wondering if it is best to ramp to to a weight that is near my 5 or 10 rep max respectively or use the same weight throughout?

Are their any modifications that I should make? Have I deviated too much from a solid program to the point were I should just choose another program?

Does anyone know of a high frequency full body workout that would be better suited to my goals? My plan is to bulk for another 6 weeks then start doing the cross fit wods to get in better overall shape.

Thanks for any advice i sorely need it.

2

I did SDH during summer 2007, but I couldn’t handle two leg exercises five times a week; I ended up doing 5x5 squat on a day, and 4x10 romanian deadlift on the other (and sometimes even took a “light” 5x5 squat day).

If you can train twice a day, do group 1 in the morning and group 2 in the afternoon, with the exercises prescribed in the original program, and just add some arm work at the end.

I’d keep squatting 5x5 at least once a week, anyway.

I think ramping weight to a max effort set would be too much of intensity, given the high frequency.

3

I would do a floor DB press for the horizontal exercise, or find another way to get a proper horizontal exercise in. Otherwise, I would do dips and incline press.