Power and Hypertrophy Routine

It needs to be stressed that increasing your strength along with the size of the muscle is what muscle hypertrophy/progressive resistance is based on. Getting stronger and increasing your power and the contractibility of your muscles comes from using heavy weights with good form.

It also needs to be stressed that the power and hypertrophy routine listed below is NOT for beginners or intermediate bodybuilders that have been training less than a year. Training this routine without having the solid foundation of strength and doing correct form will put too much strain on the CNS (central nervous system).

The routine 6-day split routine listed below is split with two power training days followed by four hypertrophy training days so that you get the required rest and recuperation plus the required rep range for strength power and building muscle size.

On hypertrophy days 4 to 6 you will be doing full-range of motion (ROM) and try to squeeze the muscle getting as much tension in the muscle as possible. On power days the objective is lift heavy using good form, overloading the muscle at the start of the week followed later in the week focusing on the squeeze in the muscle when doing reps, so that you get the best from both worlds.

As mentioned above your power days are training days 1 and 2, where you will be training sets of 5 reps. It is recommended that you select a power movement from the list below, which you will focus on for only 6 weeks. It is important that on your power-days 1 and 2, you will not be training to failure on the auxiliary exercises listed in the routine below; you should always stop 1-2 reps short of failure.

You will be doing 5 sets of 5 reps on ONE movement selected from each of the different body-parts trained on your power days.

Chest: Barbell Presses, Incline or Flat D/B press
Back: Barbell T-bar rowing, Bent-Over Rowing, Weighted Pull-ups or Rack Chins
Shoulders: D/B Military Press / Barbell Military Press
Quads: Squats, Hack Squats, Front Squats or Deep Deadlifts
Hamstrings: Glute/Ham Raises, Stiff-Legged Deadlifts or Good Mornings

Day 1: Upper Body Power-Day
Auxiliary Chest Exercise: D/B Flyes or Machine Flyes 3 X 8-10 reps
Auxiliary Back exercise: Single-Arm D/B Rows, Incline-Braced D/B Rows, Lat pull-downs or Machine Rows 3 X 8-10 reps
Bicep Auxiliary Exercise: D/B curls or EZ-Bar Curls 2 X 6-8 reps
Triceps Auxiliary Exercise: cable push-downs or Skull-crushers 2 X 6-8 reps

Day 2: Lower Body Power-Day
Leg Extensions 2 X 8-10 reps
Single-leg curls or normal Leg Curls 2 X 8-10 reps
Donkey calf raises or standing calf raises 3 X 6-8 reps
Seated Calf Raises 2 X 6-8 reps

Day 3: Rest

Day 4: Chest/Back Hypertrophy-Day
The same movement you trained on Day 1 Chest Power Exercise 3 X 10 reps
Chest Auxiliary Exercise: D/B Flat or Incline Press, Incline/Flat or Decline Hammer Strength Press 3 X 8-12 reps
Chest Auxiliary Exercise: Incline or flat D/B Flyes, Cable Flyes and Cable Crossovers 3 X 12-15 reps
The same movement you trained on Day 1 Back Power Exercise 3 X 10 reps
Back Auxiliary Exercise: T-bar rowing, Bent-Over Rowing with barbell, Close-Grip Cable Rowing, or D/B Rowing 3 X 8-12 reps
Back Auxiliary Exercise: Weighted Pull-Ups, Rack Chins, Close-grip pulldowns 3 X 8-12 reps

Day 5: Shoulders/Arms Hypertrophy-Day
The same movement you trained on Day 1 Shoulder Power Exercise 2 X 10 reps
Shoulder Auxiliary Exercise: Cable lateral raises or D/B Lateral Raises, Bent-over DB raises or Rear Cable Raises 3 X 8-12 reps
Bicep Auxiliary Exercise: D/B standing curls or EZ bar Standing Curls 3 X 6-10 reps
Bicep Auxiliary Exercise: Preacher curls, Cable Curls or D/B Concentration Curls 2 X 10-15 reps
Triceps Auxiliary Exercise: Overhead Cable Rope Ext or Skull-crushers 3 X 6-10 reps
Triceps Auxiliary Exercise: Reverse Grip Cable press-downs or Triceps push-downs 2 X 10-15 reps

Day 6: Legs Hypertrophy-Day
The same movement you did on Day 1 Quad Power Exercise 3 X 10 reps
The same movement you did on day1 Ham Power Exercise 3 X 10 reps
Quads Auxiliary Exercise: Leg Extensions 2 X 8-10 reps
Hamstrings Auxiliary Exercise: Leg Curls 2 X 8-10 reps
Standing calf-raises or Donkey calf-raises 3 X 8-12 reps
Seated Calf Raises 2 X 6-15 reps

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