Periodization required for hypertrophy?

Training Q&A [Moderated]
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Hi there,
After running a lot of your strength (strengthlifting and low fatigue) and powerbuilding 1-3 templates with great success (thank you!), I’ve wanted to solely focus on the bodybuilding template. I was just wondering, so long as I change movements from block to block, would there be any drawbacks to running bodybuilding indefinitely? I’m speaking in terms of running the template many times over if all I care about is hypertrophy (no alternating at all with other templates). I know asking you to predict how I would respond to a template doesn’t really work like that, but I wanted to let you know that I’ve run this program with great success in the past, but in-between strength blocks and now would like to run it long term.

If it means anything, I also own the hypertrophy templates. I prefer the bodybuilding template because I get through the sessions much faster (starting nursing school) due to a concentrated “upper, back, deadlift, squat” setup in the template and don’t need to warmup before the next movement. I can get through the bodybuilding template days in less than an hour whereas the hypertrophy template days takes about 90 min due to being full body and due to getting much stronger (however thank you guys so much again!).

Based on what I’ve tried to learn online, there are some things that I “think” would make running the bodybuilding template over and over (switching movements every block of course) totally fine:

  1. hypertrophy is a more “forgiving” adpation compared to strength in terms of a lot of methods and programs can get an individual there
  2. a lot of jacked people don’t periodization their training (although this could be qoute and qoute suboptimal). Purely anecdontal, but a lot of people I see lift in a similair way the bodybuilding template is set up year-round and they still get bigger.

My gut feeling is that the answer is: “It’s ok so long as you see favorable outcomes after every block” But I’d greatly appreciate the Barbell Medicine gang’s insight and expertise, since I don’t know if there would be diminishing returns with this template, even if I switch movements!

Thank you for everything!

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I think that maximizing long-term muscle growth probable does benefit from periodization. While I don’t think running the BB template indefinitely would be “optimal”, I bet you could do it for a better part of a year with no detriment. I’d repeat the last week of each BB block until it stops working or you get bored, then move onto the next block. I’d also mix in a low volume strength block every so often (e.g. after the 3rd BB block) and call it good.

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Got it, that makes a bunch of sense! I’ll be sure to mix in a lower volume strength block now and then! Thank you as always!