I am on week 3 of Hypertrophy 1. I came from the free beginner prescription (repeated week 4 until i stopped making progress on upper body lifts) and got the green light from Jordan F. in here to begin Hyper 1.
These were my stats three weeks ago:
Age 27
Height 5’6"
Weight 130 lbs / 59 kg
e1RMs: Squat 240, deadlift 290, bench 165, OHP 110
For now, my OHP squat and bench has pretty much stayed the same since week one - I haven’t added more weight to the bar (only slightly on the bench), but the volume is obviously going up, so in that sense I am lifting more. Sumo and the dumbbell bench variants are all pretty new to me, so they have been going up as I’m getting better at them.
Just wondering if this is normal, and if I should generally expect to get stronger on my lifts on the Hyper 1 program? Should I worry/take a closer look at my diet, since I’m not adding weight to the bar?
I’ve been eating at maintenance pretty much and my weight has stayed the same since I began. Earlier in my life (about 1 or 2 years ago before I had a long break from lifting) I was able to make gains at this stage eating maintenance calories. But like I said, maybe I’m not meant to make strength gains on this program. That wasn’t why I started it anyway, so it’s all good, I just want to make sure I’m not too far off
A bonus question if you don’t mind: I’m training mainly for aesthetics but slowly increasing my 1rms would be icing on the cake, so what place does dedicated strength straining have in my journey? Would you recommend me to cycle Hypertrophy with a strength template (I would be up for it if it could help me with mass gains down the line) and why? Or would you have me do Powerbuilding next? Or just keep doing Hyper programming?
Thanks a bunch for the great resources. I’m loving it
I think if you want to increase your 1RM strength, you’re going to need some exposure to that type of training and garner specific adaptations to improve there. I think Powerbuilding would be a nice change of pace after this template.
Alright, but like I said, 1rm gains would be icing on the cake and not a goal in itself. But I’ve seen how Eric Helms recommend people to do heavy compound lifts in lower rep ranges even when training for hypertrophy, so that’s where my question comes from: What place does strength training have in my journey for bigger muscles? You say Powerbuilding would be a nice change of pace, but if my main goal is aesthetics, would you really recommend me to run it over a dedicated hypertrophy prorgam, and if yes, what would be your reason behind it?