Necessity of hypertrophy cycles for long-term strength goals

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hello,

To be brief, I don’t enjoy doing hypertrophy-focused training cycles, but I will do them if they’re essentially a requisite to meet my long-term goals. My goals are to maximize strength in the bench, squat, deadlift, and press while staying at or below my currently-lean body fat %.

Which approach do you think is likely to result in meeting that goal with less headaches?

1.) Strength I → Strength II → Strength III → Who knows?
2.) Strength I → Hypertrophy/Powerbuilding I → Strength II → Hypertrophy/Powerbuilding II → etc.
3.) Something else.

Thanks so much, I really appreciate you guys taking the time to answer our questions for free.

2

I don’t think I can predict this without knowing anything about how your training response has been so far and any current data about you.

That said, all of our strength programs have a significant amount of volume that should also increase hypertrophy outcomes. I do think that taking short breaks from pure strength work can be useful in the long-term pursuit of 1RM strength increases, but most of your training should be strength focused. I’d lean towards #1, but if you got great results from Strength I, I would probably just repeat it.

-Jordan

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