Effective Training for Strength and Hypertrophy
Introduction
A few friends have asked me how I train. I thought I should therefore write about it. If I were to start all over again, I would start with a very simple training programme. Complexity for its own sake is unnecessary. Training complexity should serve the needs of the lifter, which it can do later on. This is a memoir of my training from the last 18 months.
Training is different from exercise. Exercise is any movement that makes you sweaty and short of breath. Training is exercise with a purpose. It aims to produce a change in bodily function or appearance. Doing bicep curls to get bigger biceps is training. Playing beach volley with your now humongous biceps is exercise.
Specificity is a vital principle of training. It means that the training stimulus should logically lead to the desired outcome. This is why marathon runners run, and powerlifters train the bench press. This essay focuses on training specific to strength and muscle hypertrophy. Strength is the ability to produce force. Muscle hypertrophy is the word for when muscle cells get bigger. Powerlifters and strength trainees care primarily about strength. Bodybuilders care primarily about muscle hypertrophy.
Strength and hypertrophy are cousins. Distinct enough that one is not mistaken for the other, but related enough that interbreeding would not be encouraged. The purpose of striated muscle is to produce force. It receives commands from the central nervous system to manipulate the position of bones and joints. This allows the individual to do something useful, like walk or pick up a hammer.
The force producing unit of striated muscle is called a sarcomere. It produces force by contracting. A sarcomere is tiny. It cannot even be seen with a light microscope. Multiple sarcomeres contract in synchrony. The muscle then contracts as a whole and pulls on a tendon. This produces torque at a joint. Hence, force production depends to some degree on the number of sarcomeres available. Bigger muscles have (among other things) more sarcomeres. Muscle hypertrophy and strength are thus related.
Advanced bodybuilders and advanced powerlifters train rather differently. Both powerlifters and bodybuilders are likely to be seen training with compound barbell movements. However, bodybuilders are more likely to use isolation exercises and machines than powerlifters. The powerlifters tend to do relatively few sets with relatively heavy weights. The heavy weight means powerlifters also do very few reps. Bodybuilders on the other hand, tend to use moderate weights but perform more reps across more sets.
Strength training can help a novice pack on a respectable amount of muscle. However, strength training and bodybuilding diverge in their methods the more advanced the trainees become. Therefore, an advanced bodybuilder would seem less likely to benefit from strength training.
Starting Strength Novice Linear Progression
The Starting Strength Novice Linear Progression (SSNLP) is a strength training programme. It was the first strength training programme I trained with consistently over several months. I took my squat from 60 kg x 5 reps to 125 kg x 5 reps. I gained a decent amount of muscle, but I couldn't tell you exactly how much. Even tracking my bodyweight with a reliable scale would probably not have made much of a difference. A scale can only measure body mass rather than direct muscle growth. The same holds true for fat loss. I am hence reticent to make specific claims about the amount of muscle I put on with different programmes.
I like SSNLP for two reasons. First, it is simple. The programme begins with just two different workouts. In workout A, you squat for 3 sets of 5, bench press for 3 sets of 5, and deadlift for 1 set of 5. In workout B, you squat again for 3 sets of 5, overhead press for 3 sets of 5, and deadlift again for 1 set of five. It does get a tad more complicated later. It is explained in an excellent article, which I have linked at the bottom of this post.
The second reason I like the SSNLP is how quickly you progress with it. SSNLP is designed to take advantage of the novice effect. The novice effect explains why new trainees can see large gains very quickly. The trainee adds 1-2.5 kg to each lift every workout. This does not continue forever, as strength gains are asymptotic. That is, the closer you get to your genetic limit, the slower your gains become.
The program does come with some challenges. First, the program is very hard despite its simplicity. It requires trainees to continue to push themselves to their limits. Second, the program requires its trainees to eat a lot of food. I personally ate around 5,000 kcal per day while doing the programme. I also ate over 160 grammes of protein per day. This is because training only provides the stimulus for muscle growth. Food provides the substrates which turn into actual muscle tissue.
A word of warning is in order. Strength training is a worthy pursuit. However, strength training needs to be done safely to be sustainable over years and decades. All lifts can be performed incorrectly. Any lift performed incorrectly can hurt you. Some lifts could even kill you. Learn to perform the lifts safely. You should even consider hiring a competent coach.
4 Day Texas Method
Training can be organised in different ways over a week. This is referred to as a split. The simplest split is full body training, where the entire body is trained every session. The upper body - lower body split is the next level of complexity. Here, training is split into distinct upper body and lower body training days. The most complex split is asynchronous training. In this split, training days do not respect the boundaries of related muscle groups. Instead, seemingly unrelated body parts are trained together, like back, biceps, and calves. Some muscle groups can be trained more frequently. For example, with lower body training, calves can often be trained more frequently than quads. Asynchronouos training therefore solves a specific problem.
The 4 Day Texas Method (4DTM) is a type of upper body - lower body split. This is not a novice training programme. It doesn't allow progression as quickly as the SSNLP. It is designed for intermediate strength trainees. Since my SSNLP gains had started to slow down, I felt it appropriate to transition into the 4DTM. Whether I was truly intermediate when starting the split is up for debate. However, it helped me take my squat from 125 kg x 5 reps to 140 kg x 3 reps. I also took my overhead press from 50 kg x 5 reps to 67.5 kg x 1 rep.
When are you no longer a novice in strength training? The transition from novice to intermediate training should occur when a well executed novice training programme no longer produces reliable increases in strength. In the SSNLP, this occurs when 1-2.5 kg load additions are no longer possible, training session after training session. It is unclear to me where this line should be drawn in bodybuilding. Either way, the transition from a novice to an intermediate is not an overnight shift. Instead, one slowly morphs into a trainee who would benefit from marginally more complex training.
'More complex training' does not imply a drastic increase in complexity. The 4DTM can easily be grasped by someone who has 'completed' the SSNLP. The SSNLP uses sessional periodization, where the bar gets heavier every session. The 4DTM uses weekly periodisation. Each consecutive week represents identical training with a new increase in load.
The 4DTM divides each training session into a heavy lift, a volume lift, and an accessory lift. The lower body heavy lift is either a squat or a deadlift. The upper body heavy lift is either a bench press or an overhead press. Now, reproducing the entire 4DTM would be rather arduous. I would therefore redirect the keen reader to the book: Practical Programming for Strength Training, 3rd Edition. A link is found at the bottom of this post.
Upper Body - Lower Body Bodybuilding Split
This was the first bodybuilding programme I adhered to. I designed it myself based on advice collated from Mike Israetel. It was more complex than the 4DTM. This applied to load, volume, exercise selection, and periodization. Periodization means the organisation of training over time. This is done to improve gains in the long run.
I organised my training into distinct mesocycles. The first 6-7 weeks were spent training harder week after week. This was the accumulation phase. The last week was spent deloading. Deloading meant that I trained significantly easier than usual to bring down fatigue. Each mesocycle lasted 7-8 weeks in total.
The goal of training is to produce a physiological and morphological adaptation. This means making the body function differently and look different. This requires each training session to provide a stimulus. A stimulus convinces the body that it needs to adapt. Fatigue is an unfortunate side effect. Fatigue refers to unproductive damage to the biological system. This impedes performance and increases risk of injury.
Stimulus and fatigue go hand-in-hand. Each training session likely produces some amount of both. Since my training got progressively harder during the accumulation phase, both stimulus and fatigue kept increasing in magnitude. Eventually, I could no longer recover in time for the next session. Progress became impossible to make. Fatigue became high enough that a deload was necessary.
Let's talk about volume landmarks. Volume is the amount of training that is done. To keep it simple, I count volume in number of 'hard sets' per muscle group. Warm-up sets therefore don't count towards training volume. Now, I use different reps and loads across different exercises. My reps also decline across sets. 'Number of hard sets' therefore equates different exercises and sets for the same muscle group. Other methods of calculating volume are excessively complicated.
There are two volume landmarks you should know. The first is minimum effective volume. This is the least hard sets you need to do to get bigger muscles. For me this usually means 2-3 sets per muscle group per session. The second volume landmark is maximum recoverable volume. This is the most hard sets you can do in a session and still recover for the next session. This usually means 5-8 sets per muscle group per session.
Week 1 of the mesocycle starts at around minimum effective volume. The last week of the mesocycle finishes roughly at maximum recoverable volume. This is achieved by adding 0-2 sets per muscle group per week. I looked up rough volume landmarks for each muscle group. I then decided the length of the mesocycle. I then programmed a linear volume increase, week-by-week, from MEV to MRV. I then did the programme for two mesocycles before going on summer holiday.
Push - Pull - Legs Bodybuilding Split
I designed this programme based on the upper body - lower body bodybuilding split. My exercise selection was similar for both programmes. The main difference was how I organised my training across a week. A push-pull-legs split divides training into three types of workouts: 'Push' workouts train muscles mostly used in the bench press and overhead press. 'Pull' workouts train muscles mainly used in the barbell row and the pull-up. 'Leg' workouts train muscles mainly used in the barbell squat.
Exercise selection in bodybuilding is structured around muscle groups. This is fundamentally different from the way exercise selection is structured in strength training. This is because strength trainees want to perform well in specific movements, whereas bodybuilders want to look a certain way. At this point, a 'bro-science' level understanding of anatomy starts to come in handy. Most people probably pick this up along the way quite naturally.
I like to separate the body into the following muscle groups:
Pecs and anterior deltoids
Triceps
Lateral deltoids
Lats
Traps
Spinal erectors
Biceps
Quadriceps
Hamstrings
Calves
Abs
The previous list of muscle groups is made with bodybuilders in mind. The muscles are grouped by trainable functions rather than connective tissue compartments. In fact, the classification above is almost useless for an anatomist or an orthopaedic surgeon. Designing a training programme to look good on the beach is a very different goal than performing a total knee replacement. The necessary depth of anatomical knowledge is defined by what you intend to do with the knowledge.
What does it mean to group muscles according to 'trainable functions'? An anatomist would group anterior, lateral, and posterior deltoids into the same group. This is because they belong to the same fascial compartment. But why should lifters care about fascial compartments? Pecs and anterior deltoids are both trained by movements like the bench press, incline press, and pec deck. Lateral deltoids however, are more directly trained by doing lateral raises and variations thereof. We are more concerned with the movements necessary to train the muscles rather than strict anatomical delineations.
Pecs, anterior delts, lateral delts, and triceps are all trained in compound puhing movements. Traps, lats, and biceps are trained in compound pulling movements. Quads, hamstrings, and calves are trained in compound leg exercises. This is the basis for the push-pull-legs split. Abs are best trained by doing ab exercises. They are less obvious to fit into the push-pull-legs paradigm. The degree to which each muscle group is emphasised depends on the particular exercise.
But why separate muscles any further than 'push muscles'? Why would we think about lateral deltoiods as a separate entity for example? This is because different muscles are best trained by different types of exercises. Pecs and anterior delts are easily trained at the same time. All pressing exercises require both to be used for shoulder flexion and adduction. However, lateral deltoids do very little concentric work in pushing exercises. I therefore believe it is reasonable to classify them as a separate muscle group for the purposes of bodybuilding. Similar reasoning can be applied to the other muscle groups listed.
You may notice a flaw in my classification. Muscle activation in compound exercises does not always respect the boundaries I have drawn. For example, lats are used in the bench press. This is because the force vector produced by the latissimus dorsi in the bottom of a bench press with a high back arch can be modelled to include a positive component vector in the direction of concentric force production. The classification above is based on the most useful training stimulus for each muscle. Despite this caveat, lat pulldowns probably stimulate more growth in the lats than does the bench press.
Conclusion
This post is not particularly instructional. You couldn't necessarily use this as a basis for your training. However, I should try to answer my initial question: 'How would I train if I had to start all over again'? The short answer is that I would do the Starting Strength Novice Linear Progression. The long answer follows next.
It is not strictly necessary to understand anatomy, physiology, or sports science concepts to successfully execute a training programme. However, additional knowledge is useful in two regards: (a) It allows the trainee to diagnose problems more accurately. (b) It allows the trainee to scrutinise the training advice they receive. I think I can do both.
Understanding the underlying concepts is not strictly necessary to choose a good training programme either. It is enough to see which programme gets results. The SSNLP is therefore a good programme to start with. Their website features several impressive case studies. I have no reason to doubt their credibility. Admittedly, the case studies may suffer from reporting bias, and do not amount to an intention-to-treat analysis. Those considerations aside, the SSNLP is the training programme I would do if I had to start all over again.
I would then graduate to a different programme based on the following: (a) My goals. (b) Time available for training. (c) The kind of training I enjoy. If I wanted to get stronger, I would do the 4 Day Texas Method. If I didn't care about strength and just wanted bigger muscles, I might gravitate more towards my proprietary bodybuilding programmes. However, I am not fully confident to make this recommendation.
One of the tragedies of life is our inability to reliably compute counterfactual scenarios. I certainly gained muscle doing my bodybuilding splits, since I had to buy new shirts and trousers. And no, I did not get fat. However, would I have achieved the same if I had stuck with the 4 Day Texas Method? Possibly, but I don't know for sure.
Time available for training is also important. The 4DTM is the most time-friendly of the body part splits. The workouts usually lasted an hour. The bodybuilding workouts sometimes lasted more than two hours in the last week of the mesocycle. I even had to train twice on some days. Between the two bodybuilding splits, if workout length were a concern, I would pick the push-pull-legs split. But if you have a life, you might prefer the 4DTM.
I find it very motivating to tinker with my training. I keep watching videos and reading books about training. This might be the reason why I've stuck with my bodybuilding splits. The 4DTM seems refined enough as it is. I don't think I could improve it. However, my bodybuilding splits are artisanal. They are mine. They contain imperfections. I can adjust things here and there to make things better, and unfortunately sometimes worse. It makes me feel like a craftsman.
However, not everyone is like me. Not everyone enjoys figuring out whether lat pulldowns or assisted pullups give a better stimulus to fatigue ratio. Not everyone gets fired up about about the dance between the latissimus dorsi and the trapezius. And that's OK. I hope you've gained some clarity on the initial question.
We should not lose sight of the important things in training and life. The best training programme is often the one you can stick to for the longest. Also, there's more to life than training. Life is more fun with bigger muscles. However, I still have problems that bigger muscles couldn't solve. But in search of those solutions, I like having a hobby that gives me the feeling of artisanal tinkering and progress.
Recommended Reading
If you would like to learn more, then pick something from the reading list. The list is also the bibliography of this post. My ideas aren't original. I got them from people smarter than me.
Articles
The Starting Strength Programme: https://startingstrength.com/get-started/programs
Books
The links below are affiliate links. They net me a small commission.
Starting Strength Basic Barbell Training, 3rd Edition: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Starting-Strength-Mark-Rippetoe-ebook/dp/B006XJR5ZA/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1697367982&sr=8-1&_encoding=UTF8&tag=aaroblog0b-21&linkCode=ur2&linkId=6a8deb4c20174d40fb24335460d9e5c2&camp=1634&creative=6738
Practical Programming for Strength Training, 3rd Edition: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Practical-Programming-Strength-Training-Rippetoe-ebook/dp/B00IU8YETW/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1697368165&sr=8-1&_encoding=UTF8&tag=aaroblog0b-21&linkCode=ur2&linkId=4901a8738aff860b049f77d393af4c96&camp=1634&creative=6738
Scientific Principles of Hypertrophy Training: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scientific-Principles-Hypertrophy-Renaissance-Periodization-ebook/dp/B08WKNGSLW/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1697368223&sr=8-2&_encoding=UTF8&tag=aaroblog0b-21&linkCode=ur2&linkId=02aad2f41fb8d9385ceb159119400a56&camp=1634&creative=6738
