Summertime hypertrophy training

[Zach Trowbridge]

Haven't posted in a while but am getting back into bodybuilding-type training for a bit and taking a break from powerlifting until the fall or winter.  Cut down significantly on bodyfat and have added 10-12lbs of muscle in the last few months:





Training twice a day right now and it looks like this:

Day 1: Chest/Back
Day 2: Legs
Day 3: off
Day 4: Arms
Day 5: off
Day 6: repeat day 1

Morning sessions are hypertrophy (4-8 reps) and afternoons are strength endurance (12-20 reps).  Here's this morning's session:

Chest/Back
A1. Incline DB Press - 35x5, 45x5 (warmups), 70x6,6,5,4,4
A2. Weighted Chinup - 2xBWx4 (warmups), 12x6,6,6,5,5
B1. Fat Grip Key Press - 50x8,8,8,8
B2. Face-Down Incline DB Row - 45x8,8,8,8

[wild willie]

Looking extremely lean.....Great Christmas tree!

Keep it up!

[_bruce_]

Looking great.

[Zach Trowbridge]

Been slow to update, this week I'm off of two-a-days so I've been doing some silly shit to keep me amused/challenged.

Today - arms

A1. Fat Grip Close-Grip Bench Press - 135x12,11,8,7
A2. Close-Grip Chinup - BWx11, 8,7,6
B1. Tricep ladder - 57 reps total
C1. Fat Grip Countdown Curl - 55 reps total w/ 45lbs

Done in less than 30 minutes.

[Zach Trowbridge]

Taking an extra day off before picking up 2-a-days again as I'm trying to fight off whatever sinus/allergy/cold thing I have going on.  I've been mainlining vitamin c, zinc and electrolytes like they're going out of style.

[Zach Trowbridge]

Chest and back today:

Morning session
A1. Incline DB press - 71.25x5,4,4,4,4
A2. Weighted chinup - 15x5,4,4,4,3
B1. Fat Grip Key Press - 55x10, 57.5x8,8,7
B2. Incline 2-arm DB row - 50x10,10,9,8

Afternoon session
A1. Fat Grip Neutral Grip DB Press - 4x45x15
A2. Band pullup - 2x monster mini x15, 2x light x15
B1. Incline DB flye - 3x25x20
B2. Ring face pull - 3x20

Still trying to kick whatever has been ailing me.

[Zach Trowbridge]

So not good at keeping an online log anymore:

3/19 - Legs
Morning session
A1. Cyclist back squat - 135x6, 140x6, 145x6, 150x6
A2. Glute/ham raise - 15x8,8,8,7
B1. Poliquin Step-Up - 10x10, 15x10, 20x10
B2. Walking DB Lunge - 30x10, 45x10, 45x10
B3. Safety Squat Bar Good Morning - 100x10,10,10

Evening session
A. Heel-elevated barbell squat - 50 reps with 135 in 7 minutes and 16 seconds
B. Lying leg curl - 1 set of 10 reps in each foot position - dorsiflexed/toes in, dorsiflexed/toes neutral, dorsiflexed/toes out, plantarflexed/toes in, plantarflexed/toes neutral, plantarflexed/toes out.  No rest, 60 reps total.
C. Cybex leg press - 2 minute rounds then resting for 3 minutes, one set each with 1 plate per side, 2 plates, and 3 plates.  40 or more reps per set

[Zach Trowbridge]

New split for a little while - I've been having a hard time getting 2 workouts a day in when the first one has to be at 3:30am, so this should accommodate me until we can hire more staff to open up my schedule a bit.

Monday/Thursday - Upper Body
A1. Incline BB Press - 4x8
A2. Close-Grip Chinup - 4x8-10
B1. Rack Pull from knees - 4x8
B2. Parallel bar dip - 4x8-10
C1. High pull - 3x8
C2. Trap 3 raise - 3x12
D1. Hanging leg raise - 3x15-25
D2. Front plank - 3x45-60sec

Tuesday/Friday - Lower
A1. Heel-elevated BB squat - 4x8
A2. Lying leg curl or glute/ham raise, toes in - 4x8
B1. Close-stance leg press - 3x20 or backward sled drag - 3x40yards
B2. Walking DB lunge - 3x10
B3. Leg press calf raise or donkey calf raise - 3x15-20

I'll do this for a few weeks and then rotate based on my schedule again.

[_bruce_]

Great  determination.
How do your joints/spine handle the workload?

[Zach Trowbridge]

Great  determination.
How do your joints/spine handle the workload?

I'm off of twice-a-day training for a bit, but the biggest part is how you cycle it.  I was using a 3-day split, training everything once in a 5-day time period, so I would do two 5-day cycles of twice-a-day, then one 5-day cycle of once a day.  Controlling volume is also important - when I first started it my normal workouts were taking about 50 minutes to get through, so instead of jumping right to two 50-minute workouts, I worked up so my total volume was just a little higher - the morning workout was about 40 minutes, and the afternoon workout started at 15-20 minutes.  Then I just added a little volume each cycle until I hit a max of 45 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon.

[Zach Trowbridge]

I was calipered with a 12-site skinfold at 8.3% this week, and have been pushing fat loss for about 3 months, so I'm ready for a break from dieting and starting to focus on hypertrophy for the next 12-16 weeks.  Then I'll probably go into meet preparation for another 12 weeks and do a meet in the late fall/early winter.

Right now I'm experimenting with giant sets done for hypertrophy - some more stuff I've stolen from Charles Poliquin (who's currently working with Ben Pakulski and writes a great hypertrophy program).

The general template looks like this:

First exercise - 5010 tempo, 5 sets of 2, 10 seconds of rest
Second exercise - 4010 tempo, 5 sets of 4, 10 seconds of rest
Third exercise - 3010 tempo, 5 sets of 6, 10 seconds rest
Fourth exercise - 2010 tempo, 5 sets of 8, 2 minutes of rest, then start the round over again

Did chest/back yesterday and legs this morning:

4/13 - Chest/Back

A1. Incline BB Press - 5x155x2
A2. Ring dip - 25x4,4,4,3, 20x3
A3. Flat Supinating DB Press - 60x6,6,5, 55x6,5
A4. Flat flye - 5x30x8

B1. Wide-grip Pullup - 5x10x2
B2. Rack deadlift from just below knees - 5x335x4
B3. 1-arm DB row - 50x6, 55x6, 3x60x6 (started way too light here)
B4. DB Pullover - 50x8, 4x55x8

C1. Hanging leg raise - 2x10
C2. Barbell landmine - 2x25x10

4/14 - Legs

A1. Heel-elevated front squat - 5x185x2
A2. Heel-elevated back squat - 5x185x4
A3. DB reverse lunge - 5x45x6 (too light)
A4. Poliquin step-up - 5x25x8

B1. Deadlift standing on 4" block - 4x275x2
B2. Glute/ham raise - 4x15x4
B3. Back extension - 4x45x6
B4. Back-foot-elevated DB deadlift - 4x25x8

Ran out of time for the last set, had intended to get some calf work in too but that will have to wait.

[Zach Trowbridge]

Did the giant set leg workout again on Saturday, interesting to see how quickly the weights have come up on this:

A1. Heel-elevated front squat - 5x200x2
A2. Heel-elevated back squat - 4x200x4, 1x200x3
A3. DB reverse lunge - 5x60x6
A4. Poliquin step-up - 5x31.25x8

B1. Deadlift standing on 4" block - 5x290x2
B2. Glute/ham raise - 5x21.25x4
B3. Back extension - 5x51.25x6
B4. Back-foot-elevated DB deadlift - 5x31.25x8

I use a lot of 1.25lb magnetic Platemates in training the last few months.  The best thing I think I've done in a long time - way easier to go from 30 to 31.25 to 32.5 to 33.75 to 35 than it is to jump straight up from 30 to 35.