Phasic Training for Hypertrophy

How to Make More Mass-Building Gains and Continued Progress Over Months and Years

     In this essay, I want to go into detail over a subject that I’ve touched upon in other articles and essays over the years.  By using the methods that I will propose, you will make more muscle gains and continuous gains for weeks, months, and years to come.  This is one of the ways to ensure that you progress continuously with little in the way of ruts or plateaus.

     We are often shortsighted, not just as bodybuilders but as humans.  Although it is important to focus on the present moment and the current workout that you are doing, you need to have a long-term vision regarding your training that will ensure that you make continued progress.  Many lifters start on a basic, muscle-building program and make good gains.  Maybe a lifter starts his training journey with a full-body routine or, at the least, a limited split routine that focuses on the basic, compound lifts.  This is a good idea.  And the lifter makes progress.  Then, once those gains come to halt, or just stall somewhat, the lifter switches over to a more advanced program.  Perhaps they go to a split routine that uses more volume—more exercises, more sets, and whatnot—and, once again, they make gains.  But then that program stops working.  They switch things up more or go “back to the basics” or try some various training routines.  But nothing really seems to work.  The lifter makes some gains, but nothing like he made those first months or maybe even up to that first year of training.  Is there a better way to ensure continued progress and long-term gains?  Yes, I think there is.

     What follows is one way that you might approach your long-term training.  There are others; I have quite a few strategies scattered throughout this blog and my many articles for different websites or magazines.  But this is a good template for how to design a long-term strategy for continuous progress.

     Part of the problem with modern training is that it revolves around just one "lens" in which muscle gains are produced.  It’s such a common lens with which many see training that almost every single article, book, or website to a tee uses it to view progress in training and to design a workout or a program.  It’s the idea that, in order to produce muscle growth, you must train hard—what exactly “hard” is will depend upon the trainer or the writer; it could be high-volume, high “intensity” or a combination of both—and then give that muscle enough time to rest and “recover” before training that lift or muscle again.  In between sessions, in order to optimize this process, you must also ensure that your diet is “good”—again, good is different for different trainers or writers; you need protein and then some combination, or lack thereof, of carbohydrates and fat—and you should use whatever other means are necessary to ensure growth.  You need plenty of sleep and should limit the activities you do outside of the lifting itself.  None of that is wrong.  Not at all.  It is, in fact, correct.  I often write about just those components as being necessary for muscle growth and/or strength gains.  (We will focus here mainly on hypertrophy just to keep the subject concise.)  However, it is only part of the reason why you grow muscle—it is NOT the entire picture.  (It’s also only one model of training.  There are East European and Russian systems of training, for example, that produce a tremendous amount of growth despite not waiting until a muscle is recovered before training it again.)

     As I have written before, we often think in “either/or” terms.  This is just the way we are hardwired.  It’s not just training.  It's pretty much the way we view everything.  Politics, religion, philosophies, you name it.  But the key to seeing the whole is “both/and” thinking.  I have written about this elsewhere, but I will repeat the anecdote again since it’s important for what we are discussing.  One time, at the Orthodox Church I was then attending, we had a visiting priest.  After the Divine Liturgy, he and I were discussing some subjects, and I asked him—I’m not entirely sure why but I did—what he thought made for a “heresy” as opposed to just muddled, wrong, but not necessarily heretical thinking.  His response: A heresy is anytime that you take a partial truth and make it the absolute truth.  In other words, heresies come from “either/or” and “this/not that” thinking.  A true religion is “both/and”—it’s this, that, and something else.

     Don’t worry.  I’m not going to get into religion and philosophy—at least, not here; I have other essays if that’s what you’re interested in—but “both/and” training is what the bodybuilder needs in order to make continued progress.  So, in addition to the model of train hard, rest, recover, and grow—which is necessary, let’s make that perfectly clear—you also need another component.  The other component is the need for a lifter to build up his work capacity.  He needs to slowly be able to handle higher and higher workloads in training.  As he does this—and this is one of the reasons that I’m fond of high-frequency training, at least for part of the year—he will develop his work capacity so that he can handle more (and more) work.  As Scott Abel once wrote, the key for the bodybuilder seeking hypertrophy and an aesthetic body is not being capable of outlifting other bodybuilders but being capable of out-training them.  Increasing your work capacity by using a phase that focuses principally on that will better allow you to out-train other lifters when you do train with a “common” bodybuilding program.

     Combining both of these training components together is the “both” but it also leaves room for the “and” with even more training systems, methods, and routines.  But for the sake of this particular essay, we will stick with the “both” for the time being.  Although I will discuss some “and” components briefly at the end.

     As I’ve written many times before, there are 3 training variables that need to be manipulated for progress.  The 3 variables are volume, frequency, and intensity—whether you are using “intensity” the way modern bodybuilders use it, as how close you come to momentary muscular failure, or the way strength athletes have always used it, as a % of your 1-rep maximum.  For lifters, the closer you train to your 1-rep max, the higher your intensity, no matter whether you are training “hard” or not.  All of the variables are needed throughout a bodybuilder’s year of training, but you can’t just train with high volume, high frequency, and high intensity.  At least, you can’t do that at first.  Some highly advanced lifters can but even then they have to cycle their workloads.  So, you must manipulate the 3 training variables.  Two of the variables can be high—or 1 high and the other moderate—and the other variable needs to be low.  The other option is if all 3 of the variables are moderate.

     Since modern lifters view a “good” program through the lens we have discussed—the train, rest, and grow model—I think this is the reason for the popularity of high-volume, high-intensity, and low-frequency programs.  It works.  And it often works really well.  It’s the go to method for modern bodybuilding and it does produce results.  Until it doesn’t.  Bodybuilders who use performance-enhancement drugs can continue with it for years on end and not need anything else.  With drugs, you don’t need to increase your work capacity for continued growth.

     Okay, so what is the answer for the natural bodybuilder?  To keep it simple, might I suggest a fairly easy approach for the natural lifter seeking hypertrophy—rotate between high-intensity, high-volume and low-frequency programs and high-frequency “everything moderate” programs.  You train with the common HV, HI, LF model for a training phase (or a couple) and then follow it up with a phase of lifting using HFT.  The 1st phase is great for muscle growth, but the only way that it will continually work is to build up your work capacity to handle heavier weights, higher volume, and more “intensity techniques.” The 2nd phase will build up that work capacity, allowing you to handle higher workloads and decrease your muscle soreness after your workouts in the 1st phase.  Now, let’s look at what you might do in both phases.

My son Garrett is a perfect example of what a natural bodybuilder can accomplish using a combination of HFT workouts and more "traditional" high-volume bodybuilding routines.

Phase One: The High-Volume, High-Intensity, Relatively Low-Frequency Phase

     Since you don’t want to decrease your work capacity, or just never improve it, I don’t recommend going the once-per-week route for frequency of training a muscle group.  I think it’s good to use a frequency that’s slightly higher.  That, by the way, is the problem with training a muscle group only once per week.  Even if it does produce muscle growth for you, you will never develop a work capacity that can handle frequent training. You will always be sore after a workout.  With that in mind, my suggestion is to train slightly more frequent.  This means that a training routine such as a 4-on, 1-off or a 2-on, 1-off, 1-on, 1-off schedule would work well.  It comes down to whether you want to use a 3 or 4-way split.  Here are some potential training schedules that would work well during this phase.

Schedule #1

Day one: chest, shoulders, and triceps

Day two: quads, hamstrings, and calves

Day three: off

Day four: back and biceps

Day five: off

Day six: repeat

Schedule #2

Day one: chest and back

Day two: quads, hamstrings, and calves

Day three: off

Day four: shoulders, biceps and triceps

Day five: off

Day six: repeat

Schedule #3

Day one: chest and quads

Day two: back, shoulders, triceps

Day three: off

Day four: biceps, hamstrings, calves

Day five: off

Day six: repeat

Schedule #4

Day one: chest and shoulders

Day two: biceps and triceps

Day three: quads, hamstrings, and calves

Day four: back

Day five: off

Day six: repeat

Schedule #5

Day one: chest and biceps

Day two: shoulders and triceps

Day three: quads and hamstrings

Day four: back and calves

Day five: off

Day six: repeat

Schedule #6

Day one: chest and back

Day two: quads and hamstrings

Day three: shoulders and traps

Day four: biceps, triceps, and calves

Day five: off

Day six: repeat

     After several training cycles—you can do this from the start if you already have a good work capacity—of alternating back-and-forth between the two phases, you can increase the frequency of training.  You can then go to a 3-on, 1-off on any of the 3-way schedules above and remove the off-day on day three.  On the 4-way splits, you can even train 8 days straight before taking a day off—that’s great for lifters who just can’t take an off-day.  I realize that a lot of casual gym-goers might find that strange—their problem is that they want to take off too many days—but there are those of us who are addicted to training.  Since you will be training with a much higher frequency in the 2nd phase, I wouldn’t train more frequently than twice per week for each muscle group in this phase, however.

     As far as the workouts go, use between 10 and 15 sets (on average) per muscle group.  Perhaps less if you’re training with exceptionally heavy weights or you know that you respond better to less total volume.  I wouldn’t use any less than 8 sets per muscle group, however.  On the flip side of that, you can use as many as 20 sets for a muscle group if you know, again, that you are a lifter that responds better to more and not less.

     You have a wide range of workouts that can be utilized here.  That’s the point.  You can do 10 sets of 10 reps, 10 sets of 5 reps, 8 sets of 8 reps, or anything similar if you were to train just one exercise per muscle group.  I would try to reach the point where you can handle even more volume than that, though around 100 reps per muscle group is a good “set point” for total volume per muscle.  So, you might try something such as my recent Pump and Grow Big workout that uses 6 sets of 6 reps and 8 sets of 8 reps on each muscle group.  You can also use any “traditional” bodybuilding routine.  Train with 3 to 4 exercises per muscle group for 3 to 4 sets each, and use reps anywhere from 3 to 15, depending on the lift or the goals that you are trying to achieve.  If you want a “powerbuilder” physique, then do 1 to 2 exercises for 5 sets of 5 reps and another 1 to 2 lifts on the muscle for 3 to 4 sets of 8-12 reps.

     You can also look through all of the workout ideas in my series on the training of the golden era legends.  All of those workouts—just make sure that you can handle the volume—would slot in well here on any of these training splits.

     If you want even more ideas, then look through the blog.  I have plenty of workout routines that would work well for these training schedules.  The point here is that you want to use the methods that have always been proven to be result-producing workouts for bodybuilders.  You just don’t want to only do these workouts.  Which brings us around to the 2nd phase of training.

Phase 2: High-Frequency, High-Volume, Relatively Low-Intensity

     For this training phase, just like the first one, you have some options.  Here, you want to train a lift or muscle group 3 days per week or close to that frequency.  This means that you can follow a 3-days-a-week, full-body program.  That schedule is good if you can only make it to the gym 3 days per week but you also have plenty of time to train at each session.  You can also train 5 to 6 days per week on a 2-way split routine.  This schedule is good if you don’t have a problem going to the gym each day but you have a more limited time to train while you’re there.

     Here are some potential training schedules for this phase.

Schedule #1

Train 3 days per week on a full-body workout, such as Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, or Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  Whatever 3 non-consecutive days work for you.

Schedule #2

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: upper body

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: lower body

Schedule #3

M,W,F: chest, back, legs

T,TH,S: shoulders and arms

Schedule #4

M,W,F: legs and back

T,TH,S: chest, shoulders, and arms

Schedule #5

M,W,F: chest, shoulders, triceps, quads

T,TH,S: back, biceps, hamstrings, calves

     Those are all 6 day schedules.  If that’s too much, and it might be when you first start on this phase, then train 5 days per week.  Follow any of the splits above, but train this way: Train on a 3-on, 1-off, 2-on, 1-off schedule, so you might train Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, with Thursday and Sunday off.  For the first week of training, do the first workout on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, and the 2nd session on Tuesday and Friday.  In the 2nd week, swap the workouts so that in the 1st week one of the sessions gets 3 days of training and the other session gets 2.  Then, in the 2nd week, it’s reversed.

     For the workouts, again, you have a number of options, just as with the first training phase.  This is the period of time where you use the Zatsiorsky mantra to “train as heavy as possible as often as possible while remaining as fresh as possible.”

     I would only do 1 lift for each muscle group.  At least, to start with.  If you can handle the workload as your work capacity increases, you can increase it to 2 lifts.  You can train with progressively heavier 5s, doing a 5x5 workout at each session.  You can do progressively heavier 5s followed by triples.  Or you can do progressively heavier 5s followed by triples and singles.  Don’t take any of the sets to your max with this approach.  You want to just work up to a heavy weight but never take anything to failure—stop a couple reps shy of failure for the most part.  Let the frequency of the workouts and the volume build up your work capacity.  You will also build plenty of muscle and strength in this phase without really trying too hard.

     You can also do straight sets for these workouts.  This would be a good phase for doing some “density workouts” as I described in my last essay Uncommon Associations.  For each lift, select a weight that you would use for 3 sets of 10 reps and do 10 sets of 3 reps with that weight.  For more information on this method, read that article.

     Again, look over this blog.  I have plenty of HFT workouts that would work well here on this schedule.  Whatever workout you select, try to limit your total reps for each muscle group to 50 repetitions maximum, and that might be pushing it.  5x5 equals 25 reps and 10x3 equals 30.  That’s more ideal for this frequency of training.  Most of the workout ideas in my recent High-Set Low Rep Workout Variations for Size and Strength and its follow-up would also work well during this phase.

     Stick with each training phase for at least 6 weeks.  8 to 12 would be more ideal.  After you have completed 2 training cycles using each phase, when you return to the “traditional” bodybuilding workout phase, you might be surprised at just how good your work capacity is and how much total work you can handle at each session.  If you have training partners that join you for a Phase One workout, you’ll probably be smoking them in the gym, especially after a few training cycles of both phases.

Okay, What About the “and”?

     If these two phases are the “both” then what about the “and”?  After all, the answer to the “either/or” and the “this/not that” heresy isn’t “both” but, rather, “both/and”.  This doesn’t have to be that complicated, either.  You just need to, periodically, follow a training cycle of something quite different.  It could be an 8-week cycle of a Westside Barbell-style program.  Or an 8-week cycle of some bodyweight-only training.  Heck, maybe a cycle of plyometrics and dynamic-effort training without anything heavy at all to challenge your muscles in a completely different manner.

     Here’s an example of how you might put this together over a few years of training.  This is some long-term thinking, so be aware that this is just an example of what you might do.  But it gives you a fairly good idea of what a plan might look like.

3-Year Training Plan

January-February: Phase One

March-April: Phase Two

May-June: Phase One 

July-August: Phase Two

September-October: Westside training

November-December: Phase One

January-February: Phase Two

March-April: Phase One

May-June: ultra-high-rep bodyweight training

July-August: Phase Two

September-October: Phase One

November-December: Phase Two

January-February: HIT-style program ala Ken Leistner

March-April: Phase One

May-June: Phase Two

July-August: Phase One

September-October: Phase Two

November-December: “easy strength” HFT workout routine

     Keep in mind, once again, that this is just an example.  If you did 12-week cycles of each phase, you would have even fewer “and” training cycles, and if you did some 6-week cycles, you might potentially have more.  I kept this in 2-month blocks just for the sake of clarity, but don’t feel beholden to it.  You might also do something such as 12-week blocks of Phase One training and only 8-week blocks of Phase Two training.  Or vice versa.

     Also, please keep in mind that you might be doing entirely different workout plans for each phase, so the variety might be almost endless if you’re one of those lifters who thrives on change.

Final Thoughts

     With the “both/and” principle in mind, understand that this is just one way that you might approach your workouts.  The primary point, to keep it really simple, is to alternate hypertrophy phases of high-volume, high-intensity workouts with phases of high-frequency training.  Both/and thinking means that you can also use workouts that are entirely different from what I’ve recommended so far.  A strength and power athlete might alternate between a phase of Bill Starr-style heavy-light-medium workouts and a 2nd phase of “easy strength” workouts such as my 30-Rep Program.  Occasionally, he would then–for an “and” phase—throw in 8 weeks of bodybuilding training to improve hypertrophy.

     If you’re struggling to gain muscle on a standard hypertrophy program, start using some HFT cycles.  Not only will you build more muscle and be about to out-train other bodybuilders in the gym, but you’ll also develop an athletic body that can be applied to whatever endeavor you wish.  The rest of the bodybuilding herd might be stuck in “either/or” thinking but you know better.

     I wrote this essay in a flurry after the idea came to my mind.  I started and finished it in about an hour, so later on I might wish that I had added some other material.  If I think of any additional ideas that I wish I had included, I’ll add them in the “comments” section below.  In the meantime, if you have your own comments or you have any questions, leave them there as well.  You can also email me any questions if you prefer private correspondence.

     If you enjoy reading my blog and want to support my work, please consider purchasing one of My Books.  All of them are packed full of workouts and training programs for building mass, power, or a combination of both.  Click on the link for information on all of my books currently available.