# Any good intermediate hypertrophy programs?



## Derange At 170 (Nov 26, 2013)

I'm looking at HST, but the Fridays have me doing 2 sets of 5 reps. I'm trying to avoid that since I overtrained and drained myself on a 5x5 program.

I'm.. strong enough I guess. I'm not genetically gifted for strength and I didn't pack on as much size as I wanted (still quite a lot, though). So I wanna do 2 x 10 weeks of hypertrophy training to gain some mass before I cut down. Preferably without deadlifts because that's what I overtrained on. I've lost about 50 lbs on my deadlift in 3 weeks. I'm just too exhausted and it's the only exercise I did consecutively since starting my bulk in September. So taking some time off it may be a good idea. Definitely for the next 10 weeks.

So yeah, help please?


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## angularvelocity (Jun 15, 2009)

You sound like me. I have tremendous strength but I am relatively slender and have a difficult time putting on weight, let alone keeping it on. To give you an estimate of my problem - I used to weigh 161lbs and I would bench and rep 245lb, squat and rep 315. I will tell you this, from a research perspective and personal experience, you must diet properly in order to put weight on. In October last year (after years of not putting on weight that I should've), I began to ridiculously consume carbs in order to build more muscle, stimulate IGF which in turn will stimulate mTOR. Down carbs like crazy. Eat fiber too to help with glucose spikes. Research has shown that creating a muscle protein requires 1,200 atp, and most of that will come from glycogen (carbohydrates).

Within one and a half months, I went up to 180lbs just by eating a lot of carbs, drinking a lot of water, and continuing to lift heavy. Also, not sure if you do endurance training, but if you do, do your running before you lift. and weight 30 minutes after that before you start to lift weights, and drink a protein shake in between running and lifting, and definitely have a protein shake after you workout. The better protein shakes will have lots of carbs and low sugar. 

You also won't need to workout to the point of overtraining. Just diet and lift hard, but not too hard.


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## Derange At 170 (Nov 26, 2013)

My diet is fine, I track macros and calories and gain 0.5 to 1 lb per week as planned since September. I've gained a little over 20 lbs of weight since I started and I've grown quite a bit -- enough for people to randomly compliment me. I just neared my genetic potential for strength (which isn't that high for me). I just want to focus more on mass for my remaining bulk before cutting down and avoiding the low-rep work of HST. So I'm looking for a high rep program rather than a low-rep one.


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## Snakecharmer (Oct 26, 2010)

I just got my bodyfat checked last week for the first time since October. I gained over 7 lbs of muscle and lost 21 lbs of fat. 

I'm a female, age 43, 5'2. I did it by consistently doing 4 sets of 8-12 reps (tried for 12 on every set) with the heaviest weight I could manage and get all (or most of) my reps in.

I did an upper/lower body split.

Oh, and make sure you are getting in enough protein, of course. I also did carb cycling and it worked great for me - in fact, just did two weeks of a rapid fat loss plan (which left me with bad cravings) and lost a few lbs. Going back to carb cycling tomorrow.


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## Scruffy (Aug 17, 2009)

Just do the exercises you're doing, cut the weight of each exercise by about 20% and lift 3x12, rest a little bit less between sets.

A rough guide here.
4-6 reps for Strength
6-8 for Hypertrophy and Strength 
8-12 for Hypertrophy
13+ for muscular endurance


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## anon1234 (May 15, 2013)

Make sure you are resting enough/ sleeping enough/ eating properly/ staying hydrated. Make sure you give yourself 48-72 hours before working out the same muscle group. Although I would give yourself a longer break since it sounds like your body needs it. When you workout, your muscles are broken down/ you go through a lot of the glycogen stored in your sarcoplasm. Your muscles rebuild (i.e. hypertrophy occurs) when you are resting enough and eating right.


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## anon1234 (May 15, 2013)

If you are interested, I wrote an basic guide to strength training on my blog. 

Do you even lift, bro?: An Introduction to Strength Training | The Red Bikini Project


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