Program Design Query

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi!

Thanks for being a fantastic resource! The work you all do has quite literally changed my life.

After some years moving through the barbell medicine catalog of templates and content, I’ve decided to take a shot at writing my own program. My plan is to spend around 6 months in a moderate surplus while prioritising hypertrophy.

My program is structured pretty much the same as Hypertrophy 2, but I’m interested in incorporating some of the lower fatigue load prescriptions from LFS and PB3. What I’ve ended up with is something of a blend of the top set back down, and x reps @RPE styles.

My priority moments for the day are 8@6, 8@7, 8@8. Then I’ll keep the load the same and perform sets of 4, increasing the number of sets of 4 each week until I deload.

Does that sound like a reasonable way to proceed?

Thanks!

2

JGood,

Thanks for the kind words. When prioritizing hypertrophy, I think RPE 6-8 is a great range for compound movements, particularly free weight variants. That said, I do not think adding sets weekly is a great strategy in this context. I like using added sets when working up to the volume load that I think is going to work and letting that steep for 4-6 weeks, as that’s a reasonable time course for hypertrophy to come online. If the volume is going up and generating more training stress, you may not get to a point where hypertrophy actually occurs.

For a turnkey hypertrophy focused template with a lower fatigue approach on the compound lifts, check out the bodybuilding II template.