How to create your own hypertrophy training program

1. Introduction.

In my experience, a lot of people go to the gym for weeks or months working out with a lot of motivation, only to realize later that they did not achieve the results they were hoping for. When I get to speak with such an individual (which I commonly do at the gym during work), I find that they fail to get results due to one important key aspect of hypertrophy training: not following a training program. Yes, it sounds obvious, but a lot of people are simply not doing just that. They simply go to the gym, move the weights around, and sort of expect that it must work because, you know... I'm doing strength training, right?

A very common situation for me to spot someone not following a training program is when someone enters the gym and I throw out the simple, popular question: "What are you going to train?" and they'll respond by saying something like: "I don't know man, maybe back and biceps, or legs... I kind of want to work out my chest and shoulders, but I think I'm going to hit back and biceps right now." In my experience, this also happens with people who go to the gym together with a friend or a group of friends. They'll enter the club and I can just hear the conversation about which muscle to hit. One will ask: "What are we going to hit today, bros?" and for the next 5 minutes, they will be arguing about what to work out. One wants to hit legs badly, and the others don't because, you know... legs aren't chest. And working out legs is heavy and annoying. Working out with a group can be motivating, but from what I've seen so far, the groups don't last long, or they end up doing different exercises and workouts eventually.

2. The issue of not following a training program.

If you experience one of the above-mentioned situations, you might now be wondering how not following a training program can be detrimental to your gains in the long term. To understand how this can stagnate your muscle growth, we must first look at how muscles grow to understand what causes this leakage in progress.

When we're doing strength training, we are applying mechanical tension on the muscles involved in the movement. When this happens, an enzyme called "mTOR" activates anabolic signal pathways, triggering myofibrillar protein synthesis. After that, the body starts the process of muscle growth called "hypertrophy." It realizes that the current size of the stimulated muscle is not strong enough to produce the required force to withstand this mechanical tension effectively. Therefore, it must grow so that it can handle the tension better next time.

Growing in size causes two things:

1. The muscle becomes stronger. The larger the muscle fibers, the more force they can produce because the contractile tissue is now larger.

2. The muscle becomes more resilient. Because the muscle fibers are now bigger, they can withstand more mechanical tension. To understand this, think of your muscles as ropes. If a rope is very thin, it is easier to snap it by pulling it apart than if the rope were very thick. This is exactly what happens when muscle fibers grow; they become more resilient to the mechanical tension applied to them.

Now that you understand how muscle growth works, it is time to face the reason why not following a training program can stagnate your journey. For optimal muscle growth, it is important to train each muscle at least twice a week. Stimulating it just once per week often does not provide enough total stimulus to maximize growth. There is one special case where you can get away with training a muscle once per week: if you are a total beginner. However, once you reach a novice or intermediate level, it becomes way too hard to keep progressing that way. For most individuals, training each muscle at least twice a week is the gold standard.

3. Creating your own training program.

Creating your own training program is all about making sure you hit every muscle at least twice per week with the right amount of stimulus. The goal is to structure the program in a way that you can always follow it. Here are the steps:

1. Deciding how many times per week you're going to workout.

Take a good look at your weekly schedule and be honest about how many times per week you can train. In my experience, a lot of people unnecessarily overdo this. I've met too many people saying they will work out at least six times per week, hoping to maximize gains, while in reality, their lifestyle only allows for two or three sessions. Eventually, they can't keep up and get discouraged. It is important to understand that hitting all muscles at least twice per week and getting stronger is the most important aspect. Whether you use a push/pull/legs split or a full-body routine, ensure the frequency fits your current lifestyle realistically.

2. Decide the training frequency per muscle per week.

Decide how often you want to train each muscle. You might want to prioritize certain muscles more frequently than others. While training a muscle every session (high frequency) can be very effective for spreading out volume and keeping protein synthesis high, the most important thing is that the frequency allows you to recover.

3. Deciding what split to use.

The more frequently you train a muscle, the more "anabolic" you remain throughout the week. Therefore, a full-body split is often superior in physiological terms. A major benefit is time management: if you train your entire body every session, the sessions can be shorter because you do fewer sets per muscle per day. If your goal is 6 sets per muscle per week and you train 6 times a week, you only do one high-quality set per muscle per training. When people start logging every set strictly and focus on increasing the weight, they realize they don't need an excessive number of sets to see results.

4. Decide how many sets per muscle you perform per week.

For beginners, 4 to 6 sets per muscle per week is a decent starting point. When counting sets for the biceps and triceps, you can count the sets from compound exercises (like chest presses or rows) as "half sets" (0.5). This is because these exercises also target the arms, but not through their full range of motion or with maximum isolation. Counting them this way helps prevent overtraining and potential elbow injuries.

5. Choosing the exercises, intensity and progression model.

To ensure your program covers all muscles, select exercises that cover the full range of motion and all functions of that muscle. You can vary the intensity; for example, a heavy chest press at 80% of your 1RM and a machine fly at 70% of your 1RM. It is generally wise to use lower intensity (higher reps) on isolation exercises to protect the joints.

Progression model refers to how you increase mechanical tension over time. The most advised method is Linear Progression: maintaining a certain rep range and increasing the weight as soon as you can perform those reps with perfect technique. Other models, like Block Periodization, involve switching rep ranges between sessions, which can be useful when linear progress becomes difficult.

6. Distribute the exercises across the program split.

Now, distribute your exercises across your training days. When it comes to the order of exercises, it is important to distinguish between the session and the week.
Within a single training session, the order does matter. Exercises performed at the beginning of a session, when you are fresh, typically yield better results. Therefore, place the exercises for the muscles you want to prioritize or the heaviest compound lifts at the start of your workout.
However, when distributing exercises across the week, you have more flexibility. For example, if you train chest twice a week, it doesn't strictly matter if you do your Bench Press on Monday and your Chest Fly on Thursday, or vice versa. As long as you perform each exercise with high quality and manage your recovery, the total weekly stimulus remains effective.
Regarding recovery: while sleep is crucial, try to maintain a consistent sleep-wake rhythm. Your body recovers best when your biorhythm is stable. Don't try to "compensate" for early mornings by cramming more sets into certain days; focus on consistent quality across the week.

7. Zoom out and evaluate your training program with common sense.

This is the most important step. Ask yourself: is this realistic? If you planned 5 days but your work and family life only allow for 3, change it. It is always better to train twice a week with high quality and consistency than five times while feeling stressed and exhausted.

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