AUG-18 #HyperWorkouts – 8w Gym Workout Plan

4x DAY Strength & Hypertrophy Training Block – 2x Strength Days and 2x Hypertrophy Days, split between Upper and Lower body focus. 6-7 Exercises per workout.

Here it is guys, the 8-Week #HyperWorkouts training programme I am following August through to end of September 2018. Phased-programming to follow throughout the year.

Read on for the AUG-18 Programme that contains 4x 60-90min workouts. There are 4x 1min YouTube guide videos and workout lists for each day. You’ll also read about the objectives of this training programme, who it is suited for, some useful resources, and for the gym geeks – the design principles and other training pointers.

The videos are live-footage of my actual current workouts – real weight and no demo sets. RAW!

In addition to the Training Videos, you’ll find:

• Training Block Objectives & Who it is suited for
• Useful Resources for further reading, depending on goal & current knowledge
• Mobile-friendly Downloadable Copies of Training Block & Training Sessions
• Option to Import Training Block directly into HeavySet Weight Training iOS App & try for free!
• And for the gym geeks, the Design Principles and other Training Pointers

OBJECTIVES OF THIS TRAINING BLOCK 

1. Returning back to the classic strength rep range to test new Strength Gains
2. Weekly Undulating Periodisation to allow for High Rep Hypertrophy Work (Muscle Growth)
3. Full-Body Workouts with daily bias to Upper/Lower to allow for Adequate Rest
4. A focus on Hip Strength & Variations to improve Squat & Deadlift performance
5. A little Less Glycolytic Work from JUN-18 due to being in a Cut

IMPORTANT: Can be used for Lowering, Increasing or Maintaining Bodyweight. The critical factor to which path you take on this programme will be your diet plan.

WHO IS THIS PROGRAMME FOR?

Anyone can pick up this programme and benefit. Whether it’s ladies wishing to lose weight and tone up, beginner guys who wants to develop a muscular physique, or for seasoned intermediate lifters who want to develop greater strength and more muscle mass. No age, capability or sex bias here – anyone can make progress with this well-rounded programme.

What’s Critical to Note is this…

You can’t out-train a bad diet, and any physique goal must be paired with a diet plan/approach that helps support either Muscle Growth OR Losing Fat (you have to choose, unfortunately).

So, a female will not get bulky and muscly on this plan, unless they are making a concerted effort to match the programme with a very specific calorie-suplus and protein-rich diet plan. Likewise, a male will not lose 20 pounds of weight by following this programme if he is consuming more calories daily than he is burning through exercise and daily activity.

A. If You Want To Get Bigger, Stronger (& Leaner)

Listen to this AdapNation Podcast – #7: Lean Muscle Growth – the 3 Key Pillars to Getting Started, and follow this Training Programme. You will see results.

If you want to double-click into Progressive Overload, then check out this Podcast – #34: What Is Progressive Overload & All The Ways To Do It.

B. If You Want To Lose Weight (& not necessarily put on muscle size)

Listen to this 2-Part AdapNation Podcast – 101 on Losing Fat for GOOD! Revisited, or read the associated 3-Part Article – Losing Body Fat For Good – Here’s All You Need To Know, and follow this Training Programme. You will see results you want. Strength training is that versatile.

C. If You Want Guidance On Eating To Thrive AND Look Good

Then you’ll want to read up about AdapNation’s IIFYM+ Thrive Eating Approach, as well as check out the 90+ (and growing) exciting meal ideas at AdapNation’s Food Diary. Lastly, check out this Article or Podcast, if you want some practical selection, prepping and cooking tips from Michelle.

This Is Not A Magic Training Programme, But…

There is no such thing. Nor is it a programme that will deliver results for all eternity. You will need to mix it up, to create new stimuli, hit different muscle fibres, and practice other functional patterns.

You will also benefit from undulating between Strength-biased training to higher-rep Hypertrophy workouts through the course of the year. The key is purposeful and measurable change, versus randomly mixing up your daily workouts.

That said, this is a great place to start for the uninitiated, and is a great alternative to your current training for the more experienced trainers. It will garner results as long as you respect the intent, your diet and proper rest and recovery (rest is critical to results – check this Article out).

You could, if you wish, just do this programme for the next year and continue to get results, assuming you are progressively overloading (see below). Alternatively, and more likely, you will cycle through the #HyperWorkouts every eight weeks, as part of an annual phased programme. For me, this approach helps keeping it fresh, gives me milestones to hit, helps me try new movements, and of course provides the plateau-breaking new stimuli.

THE TRAINING PROGRAMME

DAY 1, STRENGTH UPPER

DAY 2, STRENGTH LOWER

DAY 3, HYPERTROPHY UPPER

DAY 4, HYPERTROPHY LOWER

BONUS DAY: Day 5 & 6, CHEST HYPERTROPHY

Should you feel the need to add extra volume for your Chest, then throw this very short non-fatiguing workout in on Day 5 and 6.

IMPORT & Start Training Right Away!

If you don’t measure, you can’t manage. Plus, if you want to efficiently get started and blitz through these workouts, there is no better solution than to get this entire Training Block loaded up into HeavySet with just a couple clicks.

Here’s what you need to do:

STEP 1: Install HeavySet iOS App and accept terms (you can perform 2x workouts for free)

STEP 2: Press the button below to load data into HeavySet

STEP 3: Open up the HeavySet app, where it will recognise the routine to import. Click Import and Choose.
STEP 4: Train! Just click on the imported Folder, and select Day 1. Hope you’re in your gym gear already…

DESIGN PRINCIPLES & TRAINING POINTERS

For some people, they just want to know what to do and go do it. Others prefer to know why they are doing it. Then there are those who want to not just know why, but what other tricks can they implement. I’m the latter. 🙄 If you’re interested, read on. If not, just get on with the training!

1. The Primary Focus on any given day are the Compound Lifts (exercise 4 & 5) – This is where you will direct the majority of your mental and physical energy towards.For Strength days, 80% of your energy goes here. For Hypertrophy days, it’s about 60%.
2. A good Variation of Functional Movement – You’ll see variations like Defict Deadlift and High-Bar Back Squats in this training block. The idea is to practice these new movements which in turn will help recruit new muscle fibres and make you stronger on the conventional lifts. You also see Bench/Fly variations as well as single-legged work, again for the same reason.
3. Classic 4-6 Rep Strength Lifting to Build a Foundation of Strength – Strength increases muscle mass more than anything else. Period. Plus, it’s great to be strong for many reasons. Work with the 4-6 rep range. If you can’t get to 4 reps, lower the weight. If you can get to 6 or more for 2+ sets, add a little extra weight. Rinse and repeat.
4. High Rep Hypertrophy Work to Get The Volume In – Whilst strength rep ranges will get you stronger and as such bigger, 8-12 hypertrophy rep range work is is great for isolation exercises and can be performed more regularly. More volume = more growth.
5. Increasing Training Frequency for Chest – There has been a renaissance of scientific research of high-frequency training of late, and Greg Nuckols performed some neat meta analysis recently – Training Frequency for Muscle Growth: What the Data Say. In a nutshell, training 3-5x times a week on the same lift improves strength and hypertrophy gains. Greg walks through his reasoning behind this. Therefore, there are 2x extra optional light chest days, to increase Bench proficiency, strength and illicit some extra growth.
6. The Non-Essential Mobility & Pre-Activation/Power Drills are designed to be completed in 5-15mins Max – You don’t need to do them per se, as they are not core to you burning calories or taxing your body. They are there to prime your body for the functional movements of the day. I personally always do them, but if you feel good to crack on as soon as you walk through the gym, then go for it. You can also do these in between your sets, should you feel a bit tight or are missing mind-muscle connection.
7. Warming Up Recommendations – I would always do 5-10mins of walking or light cycling to get the blood flowing and raise my body temperature before getting started. In addition, I recommend completing a few escalating Warm Up sets ahead of your big Compound Lift for the day (no. 4 & 5). It’s a bad idea to get straight into the maximum weight without a few lighter practice sets.
8. Progressive Overload is the Most Important Thing – The name of the game is to progress in some fashion every week. This creates a stress response that results in muscle damage followed by repair and body adaptation. So, always aim to improve each lift from week-to-week. Whether it’s more weight (with good form), another set or a couple more reps. Ultimately, you’re looking for more volume from week-to-week (Volume = Weight x Sets x Reps). This Podcast walks you through Progressive Overload and all the ways to do it.
9. The Role of Cardio – For a deep dive into the pros and cons of cardio, I would recommend you list to this AdapNation Podcast – #4: Cardio Pro and Con Deep Dive. In summary, if you are not training to be an endurance athlete, and cardio is purely a means to burn calories for you, then for the most part you can switch cardio for resistance training. You will see there is a Finisher/Conditioning section per day – it includes just 5-10mins of moderate steady state cardio (or you can do HIIT cardio). The emphasis here is more about active recovery after weight training and getting some stress-relieving deep breaths in, versus the calorie burn.
10. Increase your NEAT for greater Calorie Burn & Weight Loss – instead of doing loads of cardio exercise, I would generally recommend you increase your NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis). Basically, your moving around during the day. Go for walks, stand up regularly from your desk, do housework, yoga, get your steps in etc. You have the chance to burn significantly more calories through NEAT than pounding the streets for 30-60mins.
11. Expect a 300-600 Calorie Burn, plus More! – On average, I burn about 500-600 calories per training session. Lighter folk or those with less muscle will burn less, naturally. Moreover, there then is the recovery energy needed to repair which is yet more calories burned. Even better still, the more lean mass on your frame, the higher your BMR is – as in, you burn more calories every day just by having more muscle. It’s a beautiful thing! I use an Apple Watch to estimate my calorie burn during exercise and during the day.

ENJOY! 💪🏻