Looking for advice on my hypertrophy workout.

D

Danger_Dave

0
Hi everyone,

My name is Dave, I'm a shotput thrower in highschool. I am almost 16 years old. 5'10" 170 pounds. After lifting kind of mindlessly for a couple years and sticking to standard 3 sets of 12 and 10 8 6 for exercises, I started reading up on lifting and learned somethings that could help me.

Anyway, I've begun a workout for hypertrophy, or muscle mass in preparation to train for strength and power for shotput.

I'll post my workout below, if anyone is an experienced lifter and can help me improve it, please let me know. What I really need are some good back excersizes as I am very lacking in that area. I think I only have 1?

Set x rep

All excersizes are 1 minute break inbetween each set.

Day 1
Chest Press 5 x 8
Shoulder Press 5 x 8
Chest fly on cable machine 5 x 10
Lateral raise 5 x 10
Tricep pulldown on cable machine 5 x 8

Day 2
Box Squat 5 x 8
Calf Raise 5 x 15 45 second break
Leg press machine 5 x 8
Calf press machine 5 x 15 45 second break
Hamstring curl 5 x 12

Day 3
Incline Hammer Curl 5 x 8
Shrugs 5 x 20
Across chest hammer curl 5 x 8
Bent over rows 5 x 10

Day 4
Chest Press 5 x 8
Closed Grip Incline Chest Press 5 x 8
Tricep press (face smasher?) 5 x 8
Chest fly on cable machine 5 x 10

Day 5
Same thing except with parallel squat instead of box squat

Day 6
Lat pulldown 5 x 10
Upright Row 5 x 10
Dumbbell curl 5 x 8
Shrugs 5 x 20
Reverse Curls 5 x 8

Day7
Break Day


So far, this workout is doing very well for me.
I just started trying to gain muscle again after losing 30 pounds since december through diet and cardio. I've already been able to increase the weights I use and I can see some size difference.

So, what do you think? and what other back excersizes can I do.
 
Last edited:
Try this!

Hey Dave,

Focus on compound, multiplanar, weight bearing exercises that are closed chained. Remember, hypertrophy does not always mean stronger or more powerful. There are two types of hypertrophy, sarcoplasmic and myofibrilar. You want to focus on the latter. Your current regiment will induce sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.

Hope it helps!
Erik ()
 
Ok first of all, your not a beginneer but I still recommend you do a Full Body Workout. With a basic outline of these excercises:

dead lifts
squats
bench press
bent over rows
chin/pull ups
milatary press

If you did that 3x a week being in the set rep range of 8-12 you will see great gains.

also 5x10 and 5x8 is too much. Its really 3x10, and 4x8. If you do 3x10 the RIGHT weight, you wont want to do the last 2 sets.
 
soccergod said:
also 5x10 and 5x8 is too much. Its really 3x10, and 4x8. If you do 3x10 the RIGHT weight, you wont want to do the last 2 sets.
Click to expand...

hmm, this last part did catch my attention, what does everyone else tihnk aobt this? 3x10? or 4x8?

For instance, for 5 sets of 10 I can do chest press at 45 pounds with 1 minute break inbetween. Should I change the rest time if I only do 3 sets? or 4 sets? and how much should I increase the weight by?

the 5x8 and 5x10 seems to be working alright so far, in the biceps at least. Would I see better gains in size (I want size for the summer, I'll go for power afterwards) by changing to 3x10? or 4x8?
 
starsprograms said:
Hey Dave,

Focus on compound, multiplanar, weight bearing exercises that are closed chained. Remember, hypertrophy does not always mean stronger or more powerful. There are two types of hypertrophy, sarcoplasmic and myofibrilar. You want to focus on the latter. Your current regiment will induce sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.

Hope it helps!
Erik ()
Click to expand...

How would I induce myofibrilar hypertrophy? I've heard the terms and am not new to wieght lifting, but I'm not familiar with the concepts of sarcoplasmic and myofibrilar hypertrophy.

Could you give me a short explanation as to what they are?
 
about the reps, 5x10 is ALOT of volume.
If you can do it then your not doing it correctly, i.e,
I was squating and the first set wasnt hard to accmplish except for the last one.
took a 1 min 30 sec ish break
went up about 10 lbs did it again, and i could finish.
then break
then 10lbs more
the last reps were imposible and i push my self through it and finish.

So im saying that it SHOULD be hard not easy. If you did 5x10 you woud be dead. but you would do lower weight. just to much volume.
 
soccergod said:
Ok first of all, your not a beginneer but I still recommend you do a Full Body Workout. With a basic outline of these excercises:

dead lifts
squats
bench press
bent over rows
chin/pull ups
milatary press

If you did that 3x a week being in the set rep range of 8-12 you will see great gains.

also 5x10 and 5x8 is too much. Its really 3x10, and 4x8. If you do 3x10 the RIGHT weight, you wont want to do the last 2 sets.
Click to expand...

I agree with this, ditch the machines! full body is really good for hypertrophy as you get alot of days with elevatet protein synthesis because of the frequency of training.

About rest periods, 2 minnutes or a bit above is usually described as "full rest" this means that ATP get totally replenished and you will be able to perform good on each set, if you lower the time to below 2 minnutes your performance will suffer, though, when going for hypertrophy this is not nessicarily a bad thing. for strenght, 2 mins or above is the typical recommendation, but for HYP, make it lower than 2 mins, you want incomplete rest periods, maybe 1 min or 1m30sec, something like that.

I once heard something about hyp was gained by manipulating the energy pathways, supporting the theory of incomplete rest periods. But its a long time ago, and could be inaccurate, anyone know anything about this?
 
soccergod said:
about the reps, 5x10 is ALOT of volume.
If you can do it then your not doing it correctly, i.e,
I was squating and the first set wasnt hard to accmplish except for the last one.
took a 1 min 30 sec ish break
went up about 10 lbs did it again, and i could finish.
then break
then 10lbs more
the last reps were imposible and i push my self through it and finish.

So im saying that it SHOULD be hard not easy. If you did 5x10 you woud be dead. but you would do lower weight. just to much volume.
Click to expand...

That doesn't make sense if I can do it then I'm not doing it correctly, my form is still the same through the last set, I just don't use as much weight as if I was doing less sets. But, anyway.

Yeah, I did that 3x10 thing where I add weight each time. I always thought that was for strength not hypertrophy. I think I might try 4x8, should I be increasing weight with that too?
 
If you've been lifting for a little bit (it sounds like you have been) and are eating right (this crucial when trying to put on lean mass), I'd try mixing it up with a few advanced techniques. I remember when I hit my first plateaus. I was a freshman in college. Luckily I new some football players and they were willing to help me out. The program I got on was based on forced reps. You will need a spotter for this. I'll use bench press as an example. Pick a weight where you do eight reps to failure. Do the first set. On the second set, keep the same weight and have your spotter help you. You should be able to get six on your own and get help on the last two. Do a third set in the same fashion, but you'll probably only get 4-5 on your own. Do one more set as a burnout with lighter weight but do some forced reps at the end. I thought I knew what muscle soreness was, but I didn't until I hoped on this program. That soreness will create the hypertrophy you are looking for. I have a website (which is currently all ads) but I hope to blog about this stuff once I increase my page ranking
 
just keep weight constant? Why would you increase the weight towards your last set? 4x8 would be 4 working sets, warmup should be prior to that.
The last set is the hardest, so the sets before that will be easier, then i dont see how it makes sence to use less weight on the easier sets.

JTRN, its cool putting inn some advanced techniques, but you have to know how to manage your fatigue in order to do that. I wouldnt do that method as my first advanced technique, id rather do something thats not so fatiguing.

just my 5 cents.
 
JTRN said:
If you've been lifting for a little bit (it sounds like you have been) and are eating right (this crucial when trying to put on lean mass), I'd try mixing it up with a few advanced techniques. I remember when I hit my first plateaus. I was a freshman in college. Luckily I new some football players and they were willing to help me out. The program I got on was based on forced reps. You will need a spotter for this. I'll use bench press as an example. Pick a weight where you do eight reps to failure. Do the first set. On the second set, keep the same weight and have your spotter help you. You should be able to get six on your own and get help on the last two. Do a third set in the same fashion, but you'll probably only get 4-5 on your own. Do one more set as a burnout with lighter weight but do some forced reps at the end. I thought I knew what muscle soreness was, but I didn't until I hoped on this program. That soreness will create the hypertrophy you are looking for. I have a website (which is currently all ads) but I hope to blog about this stuff once I increase my page ranking
Click to expand...

Hmm, I've heard about this too. But, I only just started my routine abot 2 or 3 weeks ago and It's giving me good results. I figure I'll stick with it for a while then move to yours. as for my routine do you recomend a downgrade to 4 reps?
 
Karky said:
just keep weight constant? Why would you increase the weight towards your last set? 4x8 would be 4 working sets, warmup should be prior to that.
The last set is the hardest, so the sets before that will be easier, then i dont see how it makes sence to use less weight on the easier sets.

JTRN, its cool putting inn some advanced techniques, but you have to know how to manage your fatigue in order to do that. I wouldnt do that method as my first advanced technique, id rather do something thats not so fatiguing.

just my 5 cents.
Click to expand...

ok thanks. Do you have any back excersizes I can add in?
 
Karky said:
just keep weight constant? Why would you increase the weight towards your last set? 4x8 would be 4 working sets, warmup should be prior to that.
The last set is the hardest, so the sets before that will be easier, then i dont see how it makes sence to use less weight on the easier sets.

JTRN, its cool putting inn some advanced techniques, but you have to know how to manage your fatigue in order to do that. I wouldnt do that method as my first advanced technique, id rather do something thats not so fatiguing.

just my 5 cents.
Click to expand...

Good point. If you do that type of workout, its more for a one day per body part workout--not two. What's the diet like? Are you getting enough protein? You should strive for at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight
 
JTRN said:
Good point. If you do that type of workout, its more for a one day per body part workout--not two. What's the diet like? Are you getting enough protein? You should strive for at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight
Click to expand...

Hmm diet
I eat abot 5 times in small increments.
cereal in the morning along with a multivitamin and milk. an egg too.
At lunch I eat some form of green vegetable with some beef (I get about 30 g of protein here)
Afterwards I eat a little more of the same thing and some fruit so another 30g of protein.
Towards Dinner I get a few more carbs with some potatoes or rice along with more vegetables (peas and corn normally) and some fish.
Same thing in abot the same portion after another couple hours or so. hmm, I tihnk if I counted I'd only get about 140 g of protein.

Is that a problem?
 
yeah, pullups will do way more for you than lat pulldowns ever will. So if you can do them, do them, if you cant, work yourself up to being able to do them.
 
JTRN said:
Do pullups and forget the lat pulldowns. Trust me on this one, it will make a huge difference. Start with wide-grip but experiment with different grips.
Click to expand...

uhh, I can't do nearly as many pullups as I can do lat pulldowns. Like, considerably less. Should I use one of those machines that uses weight to counter some of your body weight just so I can finish up the sets?


my diet is on page 1 btw
 
how many can you do? its usually best to just do lower reps for pullups and strive to increase the reps.

Pullups > Assistend pullups machine > Pulldowns
 
How many calories is that diet? Doesnt sound like enough calories IMO to promote hypertrophy.

The only split you will want to do is upper/lower or push/pull. Otherwise keep it at a fullbody. Hypertrophy is best achieved with rep ranges around 8-12 at 75-80% of 1RM. Strength is 1-5 at 90%+ of 1RM.

Based on your split routine I would suggest you switch to the above. If you are doing 5x10 for 3+ exercises, then more weight is needed. With heavier weight comes less reps (ie, 3x10 or 4x8).

Bent over rows are essential to building a strong back. Where is the deadlifting?
 
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