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then focus on hypertrophy work. Too many people focus on hypertrophy work from the get go when they cant lift enough weight to stimulate anything. I see this mistake over and over again and its coming from the guys that look the same year in and year out.

If people spent the first few years of training focusing on increasing their squat, bench and deadlift we would see a lot more gyms with a lot more impressive looking people walking around.

Although there are exceptions to every rule, you wont see many guys that can bench 300+ Squat/Deadlift 400+ that the average person would consider small. Big weight=Big muscle

How do we do this?

Focus on heavy weight 85% or more of your current 1RM for 3-5 sets of 1-5 reps on the big compound movements. Then pick an assistance exercise of the same primary muscle group for 2-3 sets of 6-10 reps, taken to the point of just shy of failure. Move on to your secondary muscles for the day and do a few sets of 6-8 reps again going jsut shy of failure.

a great basic strength based routine would look something like this:
Monday
Squat or box squat 2 x 5
Glute/Ham Raises or pullthroughs 3 x 10
Bent Row or Chest Supported row 4 x 6
Barbell or Dumbbell Curl 3 x 8
Calf Raises 3 x 15

Wednesday
Bench Press or low board press 3 x 5, or 3 x 3
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press 4 x 8
Military or Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3 x 8
Skull Crushers 3 x 10
Ab work 3 x 10

Friday
Deadlift or rack deadlift 2 x 5
Leg press 2 x 10
Chin or lat pull-down 4 x 6
Barbell or Dumbbell Curl 3 x 8
Calf Raises 3 x 15

Monday
Incline bench press or Incline Dumbbell Press 3 x 5, or 3 x 3
Dumbbell Bench Press 4 x 8
Military or Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3 x 8
Tricep pushdowns 3 x 10
Ab work 3 x 10 Monday

Wednesday
Squat or box squat 2 x 5
Glute/Ham Raises or pullthroughs 3 x 10
Bent Row or Chest Supported row 4 x 6
Barbell or Dumbbell Curl 3 x 8
Calf Raises 3 x 15

Friday
Bench Press or low board press 3 x 5, or 3 x 3
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press 4 x 8
Military or Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3 x 8
Skull Crushers 3 x 10
Ab work 3 x 10

Sets are NOT taken to failure, at least 1 rep short, or to the point RIGHT before form starts to break down. If you do not recover well, reduce 1 set from each of the lifts.

Rotate the lifts to something else every 4-8 weeks or whenever a lift stalls.

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Creator: mikekeck
Category: Strength Training
Posted: 2/7/2008

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	“ You don't have to be strong to facilitate hypertrophy, it's all about overloading the muscle, training at the right intensity, and the right volume. ”
	- littleerik13 on 3/13/2008

	“ Ryan 76, you just re iterated the whole point of my tip. The entie tip was about lifting heavy weights for low reps, before even thinking about a hypertrophy specific phase. Its often why powerlifters who decide to do BB shows, are usually thicjer and more heavily muscled than their counterparts that just lift for the pump and size ”
	- mikekeck on 2/13/2008

	“ Nice theory, probobly works if your goal is to look like you...but guys that want to get big should stick to lifting heavy with low to medium reps. Also you should be tricking your muscles by changing up the exercises performed varying the reps. Guys want mass first then definition... Thats how its done. Oh ya, eat like no tomorrow and ensure to get enough rest between workouts...makes sence right... ”
	- Ryan76 on 2/13/2008

	“ Good explanation, thanks. ”
	- ryan on 2/7/2008

	“ you can usually use soreness to gauge recovery, but not always, so its not the best indicator in my humble opinion. You'll know you arent recovering well if you are not consistently adding weight to the bar. Factors to consider then are nutrition, sleep and stress. if someone is truly a hardgainer type that has to fight and claw for every ounce of msucle gained and every 5lbs added to the bar then the may want to try a 2 day a week version. These types of guys amke up about 15-20% of the training populous. Lots of people think they are hardgainers when they are not. They are using bad genetics to justify their lack of progress due to poor execution of nutriton, stress managment and sleep habits. thats a bit more than you asked for, but I hope that helped. thanks for looking in! ”
	- mikekeck on 2/7/2008

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