Hypertrophy Program Questions

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hey Guys, a few more questions for you…

  1. I recently moved to NYC and started a pretty demanding job. I am finding that while I can definitely get the workouts in each week, I’ve found that on some weeks, it is much easier to make it to the gym every two days rather than every other day. So I might have two weeks that go: Sunday, Tuesday, Friday, Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday… etc. Getting the cardio in is much easier because I can just do that in my apartment building and don’t have to trek to the gym.

It’s not ideal, but is there anything you would do differently given this restriction? It seems to be working so far…

  1. I initially lost ~30lbs from my heaviest around May of last year, got down to 210. After moving to NYC and starting the Hypertrophy template, I’ve put about 10lbs back on. Admittedly I haven’t been in a caloric deficit with all the great food up here, but I also haven’t been pigging out really either. My waistline hasn’t changed much at all, but my chest, arms, legs, and back are all MUCH bigger. Also, I went from not taking Peri-RX consistently to taking it consistently every day, 2x a day.

Regarding waistline - I am sitting at about 37" right now, but I also have somewhat visible abs and carry more fat around the low back/hips. I’m trying to determine if i still need to cut back down until waist line is closer to 34-35" or not. I’m 6’4, 220lbs right now.

Should I sit tight at 220lbs, or keep cutting until I am down to 205-210?

Last question -

Since starting the hypertrophy program, both my deadlift and squat are just 10lbs away from my lifetime PR levels that previously hit at a BW of 240 last year.
My bench and press however, have lagged fairly significantly (especially the press). Is this likely just due to the impact of a lower overall bodyweight?

2

Chewbacca,

Congrats on the move. Answers below:

  1. That’s fine, just split then volume up as needed to get it in on those days.

  2. I don’t think you need to lose weight unless you personally want to reduce body fat. That said, I think if you want to maintain weight and train…that’d be fine :slight_smile:

  3. I don’t think it’s due to overall BW, as then we’d expect the tow lifts to be going back up with then 10lb weight gain. On the other hand, you’re doing a hypertrophy template that isn’t really designed to improve 1RM performance and there’s not a lot of pressing work either. I expect these are the real reasons for decline in upper body performance.

3

How do you handle the myoreps when there are multiple lifts? Starting in Week 5 it says Incline Bench and then Squat. Do you just take these separately?

4

You do. These would NOT be super-sets.

5

Thanks, Leah.