Back Training Tips for Hypertrophy
by Dr. Mike Israetel, Cofounder and Chief Sport
Scientist | Jan 09, 2017
BACK
TRAPS
CHEST
DELTS
QUADS
MinV
8
MEV
10
MAV
14-22
12-20
12-20
16-22
12-18
FREQ
2-4/wk
2-6/wk
1-3/wk
2-6/wk
1-3/wk
INT
6, 20 reps
10-12 reps
5-8 reps
10-12 reps
4-6 reps
Here are some helpful tips
8
10
for your back training.
Please note that these are
6
8
averages based on my
6
8
experience working with
lots of clients and my own
training. The recommendations here should be food for thought or places to start, not dogmatic scriptures to
follow to the letter.
If you haven’t seen it yet, please check out the Training Volume Landmarks for Muscle Growth article. It
discusses the theoretical and practical bases on which the upcoming recommendations are made. And if you
love this info but want a bit of help in building your own workouts from the expert scientists at RP, check out
the super popular Male Physique or Female Physique Templates.
MV: Because the back is a large and multi-muscled bodypart perhaps around 8 sets per week are needed to
keep back gains from slipping away. That should probably be split pretty evenly between vertical and horizontal
pulling movements.
MEV: Most intermediate-advanced lifters need at least 10 sets of direct back work per week to make gains, and
for some, it’s even more than that.
MAV: Most people respond best to between 14 and 22 weekly sets on average.
MRV: Most people seem to encounter serious recovery problems above 25 sets per week. But some people can
train a bit in excess of that amount and still be ok. Especially when individuals are both well trained and still
relatively light, they can often handle pretty high volumes.
Exercises:
Because “the back” isn’t a muscle or even several muscles but rather a large assortment of adjacent muscles, it’s
best to think of back training by splitting it up into the exercises that require horizontal pulling and those that
require vertical pulling.
Horizontal Pulling:
Barbell Bent Over Row
Underhand EZ Bar Row
Row to Chest
1-Arm Dumbbell Row
Chest Supported Row
Row Machine
2-Arm Dumbbell Row
Cable Row
Vertical Pulling:
Overhand Pullup
Parallel Pullup
Underhand Pullup
Wide Grip Pullup
Assisted Overhand Pullup
Assisted Parallel Pullup
Assisted Underhand Pullup
Normal Grip Pulldown
Parallel Pulldown
Underhand Pulldown
Wide-Grip Pulldown
Narrow Grip Pulldown
Frequency:
2-4 times per week.
Because the back muscles are numerous and spread over a wide area, and because the moves that train them
employ many of them at once, the back can take one hell of a beating in a single session or be trained with
smaller, more frequent sessions. As you get stronger, you’ll notice that overloading the back generates so much
fatigue that overload frequency might have to fall with time. My own back has (thankfully) gotten so big that I
can only really train it super hard once a week, and the other session needs to be a lighter, less voluminous
session so that I can recover.
Intensity (Loading):
Because the back is a complex series of muscles, many of them of different architecture, back training should be
done through a variety of intensity and thus rep ranges. Reps as low as 6 for pullups and as high as 20 for
pulldowns or machine rows are not uncommon in back training, and of course everything in between.
Variation:
What makes back a bit different from most other muscle groups is that it needs BOTH vertical and horizontal
stimulus within each microcycle. This means that if you train back twice a week (to keep the example simple),
you should focus most of your exercises on one of those days in the horizontal plane, and on the other day in the
vertical plane. What you can also do is include some of the alternate focus exercises in each session, but do
them at the end of the session and for less weight and/or volume. This way, both vertical and horizontal
components are hit each session, but each is prioritized one time and gets to recover a bit extra the next. Here’s
an example:
Monday:
Thursday:
Barbell Bent Rows 6 sets of 10
Pullups Weighted 6 sets of 6
Pulldowns 3 sets of 15
Machine Rows 3 sets of 10
Range of Motion:
Not only is it important to do full range of motion for full development on back moves, it’s also important to
prevent cheating with momentum. Of all the bent rows ever done to date on this earth, perhaps only about 5% of
them were done with actually good technique. The rest were done with some degree of swinging, and often that
degree is quite absurdly high. Remember, the only thing you get from swinging is the involvement of your legs,
and unless you’re training legs and back with one exercise (the deadlift), there’s no room for moving your torso
up and down to help you lift. Also, the last LOVE peak contractions, so bring that pulldown bar all the way
down to your chest with each rep. YES, you’ll have to lose some weight off the stack, but if you’re there to
impress yourself with your strength, do it in the power rack, not on a pansy machine like the lat pulldown. And
you’ll also see lots of people doing pullups with only the mid-range… they never go down to a dead hang or
come up all the way to at least get their chins over the bar. While this can be quite rewarding for the ego,
sparing it the insult of struggling with reps in the pullup you never thought you’d have to again… it’s not
maximally productive and should be avoided.
Special Metabolite Techniques:
So far as I know, metabolite techniques don’t really do much for the back. Outside of giant sets for machine
rows or pulldowns, most back training is pretty basic. You can try to superset back moves one after another
(such as pulldowns to rows), and that might work, but for me personally it doesn’t do a whole lot.
Periodization: Just like with most bodyparts, your first mesocycle should be moderate weights and reps. The
next mesocycle can be more of the same with perhaps slightly different rep ranges and exercises, OR it can be a
higher volume block that incorporates lighter weights (closer to the 60%1RM mark) and higher reps. After that
meso, a shorter (3-4 weeks) mesocycle of strength training (70-85%1RM) with lower volumes is likely a good
idea to resensitize your muscles for more growth, at which point you repeat the process.
Sample Programming:
Special Notes:
Deadlifting and stiff legged deadlifts
can help build a massive back.
Please see the training tips article on
glutes to get some insight on
deadlifts.
Chest Training Tips for Hypertrophy
by Dr. Mike Israetel, Co-founder and Chief Sport Scientist | Jan 30, 2017
Here are some helpful tips for your chest training. Please note that these are averages based on my experience
working with lots of clients and my own training. The recommendations here should be food for thought or
places to start, not dogmatic scriptures to follow to the letter.
If you haven’t seen it yet, please check out the Training Volume Landmarks for Muscle Growth article. It
discusses the theoretical and practical bases on which the upcoming recommendations are made. And if you
love this info but want a bit of help in building your own workouts from the expert scientists at RP, check out
the super popular Male Physique or Female Physique Templates.
MV:
In most cases, experienced lifters will need at least 8 sets of chest work per week to maintain their gains.
MEV:
Most intermediate-advanced lifters need at least 10 sets of direct chest work per week to make gains.
MAV:
Most people respond best to between 12 and 20 weekly sets on average. Very big, strong lifters often need
lower set numbers when they choose mostly barbell movements, since those are both so simulative and
disruptive.
MRV:
Most people seem to encounter serious recovery problems above 22 sets per week. But some people can train a
bit in excess of that amount and still be ok. When your compound pressing strength for reps starts to decline,
you’ll easily be able to tell that you’re over your MRV
Exercises:
There are three classes of exercise that constitute direct chest training. Horizontal pressing moves that train the
whole chest, incline pressing moves that train mostly the clavicular (upper chest) fibers and isolation moves that
train the chest without involving the triceps.
Horizontal Push:
Medium Grip Bench Press
Wide Grip Bench Press
Flat Dumbbell Bench Press
Close Grip Bench Press
Flat Machine Bench Press
Pushup
Close Grip Pushup
Frequency:
1.5-3 times per week.
Incline Push:
Chest Isolation:
Incline Medium Grip Bench Press
Incline Wide Grip Bench Press
Low Incline Dumbbell Press
Incline Dumbbell Press
Incline Close Grip Bench Press
Incline Machine Bench Press
Flat Dumbbell Flye
Incline Dumbbell Flye
Cable Flye
High Cable Flye
Machine Chest Flye
Cable Incline Flye
Pec Dec Flye
Because of the forces the chest has to contend with and the way it’s designed, and because it is anatomically
positioned to take a high degree of stretch under load, the chest takes quite a beating from overloading training
and needs its recovery time. It’s rare to see a program that implements more than 3 successful overloads in a
week’s time, and it’s actually quite common among very large and strong lifters only train chest very hard once
a week and then train it just a bit later in the week, perhaps after a triceps or overhead pressing workout on the
easier session.
Intensity (Loading):
Individuals report quite a range of successful loading schemes for the chest, with some getting great use out of
super light and metabolite rep ranges and others going up to heavy sets of 5-8 reps per set. Though you should
train your chest through a variety of rep ranges in general, what I’ve seen work best is training in the 8-12 rep
range. Much heavier and the kinds of volumes needed to really stimulate growth are made unlikely by the joint
stress and injury risk of such loads, and much lighter weights seem to give cool pumps for a session or two but
in my experience don’t produce growth nearly as reliably as the middle of the road.
Variation:
The chest takes lots of damage and accumulates fatigue quickly. It’s also composed of two basic areas
(clavicular head and sternal head) that demand their own special attention. Lastly, isolation moves, while they
don’t form the core of chest work, seem to be very helpful ingredients for maximum chest development.
So when you’re designing any week of chest training, make sure it has some horizontal, some incline and some
isolation movements in it. Nearly every week of training should have at least a couple of sets of ALL of those
movements.
Range of Motion:
The chest is designed to be stretched under load, and it gets most of its damage and much of its growth stimulus
from such motions. So if you’re training your chest and not taking presses as low as they can go (to the chest for
barbells and to deeper than the chest by going outside of your shoulders for dumbbells), you’re missing out on
chest growth. In fact, by lifting heavier weights than needed when avoiding full ROM, you tax the shoulder and
elbow joints MORE and get hurt more often.
Special Metabolite Techniques:
The chest does well with drop sets and giant sets, but isolation pre-exhaust is what really does the trick. Pick a
chest isolation move and use your 20RM. Crank out a set several shy from failure and then immediately switch
to a compound press. Supersetting cable flyes to wide grip pushups or dumbbell flyes to dumbbell presses are
cool versions to try, but nothing will beat your creativity!
Periodization:
Just like with most bodyparts, your first mesocycle should be moderate weights and reps. The next mesocycle
can be more of the same with perhaps slightly different rep ranges and exercises, OR it can be a higher volume
block that incorporates lighter weights (closer to the 60%1RM mark), higher reps and metabolite training. After
that meso, a shorter (3-4 weeks) mesocycle of strength training (70-85%1RM) with lower volumes is likely a
good idea to resensitize your muscles for more growth, at which point you repeat the process.
When you’re designing your macrocycle, the best chest development seems to come from focusing alternately
on horizontal vs. incline work. So for example, you might have a mesocycle where most of the heavy work is
done with incline pressing (50% of the sets), and then the remainder is done via chest isolation (25%) and
horizontal work (25%). A meso or two of this, and your upper chest is now both pretty resistant to more growth
and likely has microtears that haven’t healed with deloading alone. At this point you can switch to 50% of your
work being horizontal and the remainder split between isolation and incline work, pushing the sternal pecs to
grow more while giving the clavicular pecs a break to heal and resensitize to future hard training. If your
priority is with either the upper or lower chest specifically, then train the angle you need hard for two mesos in a
row and take one meso of the angle you need less, then repeat.
Special Notes:
A cool way to
design your
chest workouts
is to use the
“isolation
sandwich.” We
know that
isolation moves
work great, but
they can’t
overload with
high forces
safely quite like
compounds.
This fact alone
would lead us
to place
isolations only
after compound
presses. But on
the other hand,
pre-exhausting
the chest with
isolations lets
the other
pushing
muscles really make chest the limiting factor and fry it to the bone. So what’s the best way to go? Isolation
before or after compounds? Both!
Start with a heavy compound movement for a couple of sets (usually barbells). Then move onto a chest
isolation movement once you’ve done your heavy barbell work. After that, use machines or dumbbells to train
the pre-exhausted chest and get those benefits as well! Here’s a sample split:
Barbell Bench Press 4 sets of 8 reps
Dumbbell Incline Press 3 sets of 12 reps
Dumbbell Flyes 4 sets of 10 reps
Trap Training Tips for Hypertrophy
by Dr. Mike Israetel, Co-founder and Chief Sport Scientist | Apr 17, 2017
Here are some helpful tips for your trap training. Please note that these are averages based on my experience
working with lots of clients and my own training. The recommendations here should be food for thought or
places to start, not dogmatic scriptures to follow to the letter.
If you haven’t seen it yet, please check out the Training Volume Landmarks for Muscle Growth article. It
discusses the theoretical and practical bases on which the upcoming recommendations are made. And if you
love this info but want a bit of help in building your own workouts from the expert scientists at RP, check out
the super popular Male Physique or Female Physique Templates.
MV:
As long as you’re doing the compound pulling and perhaps heavy deads, you don’t need direct trap work to
keep your traps the same size. Even most advanced lifters shouldn’t see any losses in trap size if completely
eliminating direct trap work, so long as they keep hammering their other compound pulling and shoulder work.
If you’re just doing maintenance work cause you’re crunched for time and you’re doing shrugs… you could be
using your time better!
MEV:
Most intermediates can make great trap gains with NO direct trap work, as deadlifting, rowing, and side/rear
delt training is going to be very simulative of the traps.
MAV:
Most people respond best to between 12 and 20 weekly sets on average.
MRV:
The traps have a very high fatigue threshold (which is no surprise because they kind of hold your shoulder
girdle up all the time!). However, excessive trap training will cost you, and in some unusual places, like the
distal biceps tendons. That’s right, if you do enough shrugging, you are likely to aggravate your biceps tendons
before even your traps are overworked, it’s not very common but it’s a legitimate concern. Much over 26 sets of
traps is not highly recommended for that reason alone. You can try it, but be careful.
Exercises:
Barbell Shrug
Barbell Bent Over Shrug
Dumbbell Shrug
Dumbbell Bent Over Shrug
Frequency:
2-6 times per week.
Just like the biceps, the traps are so poorly leveraged to be exposed mechanical damage and are comparatively
so small that they can recover from limited volumes in a VERY short time; often as little as a day. They also
have a TINY ROM, which means the amount of mechanical work they do (and thus fatigue they accumulate)
per any set of moderate reps is going to be quite small. Of course, the emphasis is on limited volumes, so you
can’t expect to do 10 sets of shrugs and be recovered to repeat that a day later. However, if you do only 3 direct
trap sets per day, you can easily recover by the next day if you’re adjusted to that kind of workload. And if you
do that every day for 6 days, that’s 18 sets a week and well within most individuals’ MRVs. So IF you do
choose the high-frequency approach to trap training, make sure your weekly volume is still within MRV and
you should recover fine.
Intensity (Loading):
Because the traps get their heavy work from their assistance to heavy rows and deadlifts, shrugs, in my view,
are best performed for lighter weights and higher reps. I’ll do shrugs anywhere between 10 and 20 reps.
Variation:
Because the traps are so fatigue resistant, I haven’t found much need for extreme variation. You can often
repeat exercises back to back with no ill effects, perhaps varying the rep ranges and going heavy-light to
prevent too much risk of getting hurt (usually manifested in trap training by pulling a neck muscle).
Range of Motion:
Trap training is NOT best done by loading up 405 on the bar and doing the funky pigeon dance where you bring
your chin down to meet your chest instead of bringing your shoulders up. I like to fully relax my shoulders
between each rep and stop for a 1-second peak contraction at the top of each rep as well.
Special Metabolite Techniques:
I’ve used giant sets for traps, but not much else. However, everything but occlusion can work well, and a
superset of shrugs (first) followed by lateral raises or upright rows can really destroy your traps.
Periodization:
Just like with most bodyparts, your first mesocycle should be moderate weights and reps. The next mesocycle
can be more of the same with perhaps slightly different rep ranges and exercises, OR it can be a higher volume
block that incorporates lighter weights (closer to the 60%1RM mark) and higher reps, as well as metabolite
work. After that meso, a shorter (3-4 weeks) mesocycle of strength training (70-85%1RM) with lower volumes
is likely a good idea to resensitize your muscles for more growth, at which point you repeat the process.
If you train your traps for high frequencies, you might want to take the low volume block as an opportunity to
reduce trap frequency (maybe to as low as 2 exercises per week) as well and really give your shoulders, biceps,
and their connective tissues a chance to fully heal for the next macrocycle of gains.
Sample Programming:
Special Notes:
Not sure if you wanna try this,
but if your traps are not a weak
point, you might not even both
training them until you’ve had
5 or even 10 years of training.
Bringing your traps up is
SUPER easy in most cases if
the rest of you is already
jacked, so consider not even
worrying about them for a long
time… they grow anyway!
Rear/Side Delt Tips for Hypertrophy
by Dr. Mike Israetel, Co-founder and Chief Sport Scientist | Apr 03, 2017
Here are some helpful tips for your rear and side delt training. Please note that these are averages based on my
experience working with lots of clients and my own training. The recommendations here should be food for
thought or places to start, not dogmatic scriptures to follow to the letter.
If you haven’t seen it yet, please check out the Training Volume Landmarks for Muscle Growth article. It
discusses the theoretical and practical bases on which the upcoming recommendations are made. And if you
love this info but want a bit of help in building your own workouts from the expert scientists at RP, check out
the super popular Male Physique or Female Physique Templates.
I’ve grouped rear and side delts together because they are both involved in so many of the same exercises and
also have many of the same training recommendations.
MV:
The rear delts can actually be sustained with no direct work so long as pulling work for the back is still done.
But the side delts need at least about 6 sets per week of direct work to keep their size in most intermediate or
advanced lifters.
MEV:
Most intermediate-advanced lifters need at least 8 sets of direct rear and side delt work per week to make gains.
To be more specific, that’s at least 6 sets of each if doing VERY isolation exercises that don’t cross-target
between rear and side delts and only 8 sets total if the exercise hits both adequately.
MAV:
Most people respond best to between 16 and 22 weekly sets on average.
MRV:
Most people seem to encounter recovery problems above 26 sets per week. In reality, there will be a minority
(but a substantial one) that can train with much higher volumes than this and still recover.
Exercises:
We’ve split the exercises by side and rear delt focus between the two, but please note that there is a LOT of
overlap. For example, barbell face pulls tax the side delts considerably, and thumbs down lateral raises target
the rear delts considerably.
Rear Delts:
Side Delts:
Barbell Facepull
Dumbbell Facepull
Cable Facepull
Dumbbell Rear Lateral Raise
Barbell Upright Row
Dumbbell Upright Row
Cable Upright Row
Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise
Thumbs Down Lateral Raise
Frequency:
2-6 times per week.
Just like the biceps, the rear and side delts are so poorly leveraged to be exposed mechanical damage, produce
so little force, and are comparatively so small that they can recover from limited volumes in a VERY short time;
often as little as a day. Of course, the emphasis here is on limited volumes, so you can’t expect to do 8 sets of
side laterals and be recovered to repeat that a day later. However, if you do only 3 side or rear delt sets per day,
you can easily recover by the next day if you’re adjusted to that kind of workload. And if you do that every day
for 6 days, that’s 18 sets a week and well within most individuals’ MRVs. So IF you do choose the highfrequency approach to rear and side delts, make sure your weekly volume is still within MRV and you should
recover fine.
Intensity (Loading):
Both likely because of fiber type and because of safety issues, I’ve found nothing to work worse or be such a
poor use of time as heavy shoulder (side and rear delt) training. 8 reps is the lowest I’ll ever go or advise anyone
to go, and to be honest, I think most of the action is at 10-12 reps and all the way up to 20 or more per set. And
much lighter metabolite work is a godsend for shoulders.
Variation:
Especially to accommodate the higher frequencies of side and rear delt training, there are three different kinds
of within-the-microcycle variation that it pays to address:
Exercise Variation:
Using the same exercises back to back to back might cause some localized wear and tear and lead to nagging
injuries (with shoulder pain a VERY common issue from overuse). A cool way around this problem is to use 24 different exercises for delts within one microcycle (and mesocycle for that matter). By interspersing different
exercises, you both get a more complete development of the muscle and reduce excessive localized fatigue
accumulation.
If BOTH rear and side delts are your priorities, another great exercise variation technique is to alternate side
delt moves with rear delt moves, which is a more extreme version of same-bodypart exercise variation.
Loading Variation:
Along with exercise variation, loading variation can improve fatigue management and thus results. For
example, if you train delts twice in a row with two different movements, the first workout with a movement
might be with sets of 10, but the next workout might be for sets of 20. This lets you still hammer the movement
twice and still provide an overload both times, but it actually reduces the peak forces experienced on the second
workout and minimizes the chances of injury. If you do it the other way around, some micro tears you caused in
the first (lighter) workout might now be presented with the kinds of higher forces in the second workout that
could cause injury.
Volume and Relative Intensity Variation:
If you train rear and side delts very often, you might not be able to bring your a-game overload every single one
of those times, especially if some of the movements you use (barbell upright rows) are pretty challenging and
best done a bit fresher than other moves (dumbbell rear lateral raises) that can be trained when you’re not at
your strongest. So, you might want to hammer in the big moves a ton and go easy on the less disruptive moves
by lowering their total volume. This allows you to still benefit from very frequent training but keeps your
cumulative fatigue in check so that you can be freshest for the exercises on which you need to be most prepared.
In just the same way as reducing the volume, you can also (or instead) reduce the relative intensity of certain
workouts to make sure you heal up for the more important work the next day. So instead of going 1/fail on your
rear laterals like you do on your barbell upright rows that week, you can keep the rear laterals 3/fail and really
heal up for barbell upright rows.
Here’s a sample of what using exercise, loading, and volume/relative intensity variation can look like in a 6 day
rear/side delt split:
Monday: 4 sets of 10 barbell upright rows 1/failure
Monday: 4 sets of 12 barbell face pulls 1/failure
Tuesday: 4 sets of 16 barbell upright rows 1/failure
Tuesday: 4 sets of 20 barbell face pulls 1/failure
Wednesday: 2 sets of 10 cable face pulls 3/failure
Wednesday: 2 sets of 10 cable face pulls 3/failure
Range of Motion:
We’ve already preached ROM here enough, so I’ll spare you the sermon. However, it’s worth noting that there
can be TOO much ROM on shoulder moves, especially laterals and upright rows. How high should you pull the
weights? Well, as high as you can with NO PAIN. If it hurts, don’t pull as high or play with your grip to find a
way to pull your highest without sacrificing your joint safety.
Special Metabolite Techniques:
Oh man, so the usual suspects of giant sets, drop sets, and supersets can be used on the side and rear delts, but
the real fun is with the supersets. The easiest superset is to take an isolation move (a side or rear lateral raise)
and superset it with a compound move (an upright row or face pull of some kind).
Periodization:
Just like with most bodyparts, your first mesocycle should be moderate weights and reps. The next mesocycle
can be more of the same with perhaps slightly different rep ranges and exercises, OR it can be a higher volume
block that incorporates lighter weights (closer to the 60%1RM mark) and higher reps, as well as metabolite
work. After that meso, a shorter (3-4 weeks) mesocycle of strength training (70-85%1RM) with lower volumes
is likely a good idea to resensitize your muscles for more growth, at which point you repeat the process.
If you train
your rear and
side delts for
high
frequencies,
you might
want to take
the low
volume block
as an
opportunity
to reduce delt
frequency
(maybe to as
low as 2
exercises per
week) as
well and
really give
your
shoulders
and their
connective
tissues a
chance to
fully heal for
the next
macrocycle
of gains.
Sample Programming:
Special Notes:
It’s easy to get carried away with big weights and let your technique degrade in rear and side delt training.
When you’re actually using good technique, the weights can often seem incredibly light and kind of
embarrassing at face value. But you’ve gotta do what it takes to grow, not to impress yourself or others with
how your weights look. A very related concern is on the speed of progression through the weights. For example,
if I said that it would take you a year from squatting 3 plates regularly to squatting 4 plates for the same reps,
you’d probably say that’s one hell of a speed of progress. But if I saw you using the 30’s for upright rows and
told you it would be at least a year before you could handle the 40s comparably, you might get super
discouraged because for Christ’s sake that’s only 10lbs! Yes, but remember that relative loading is what
matters… cause to your side delts, 10lbs is like 100lbs to your quads and glutes combined!
Front Delt Training Tips for Hypertrophy
by Dr. Mike Israetel, Co-founder and Chief Sport Scientist | Feb 06, 2017
Here are some helpful tips for your front delt training. Please note that these are averages based on my
experience working with lots of clients and my own training. The recommendations here should be food for
thought or places to start, not dogmatic scriptures to follow to the letter.
If you haven’t seen it yet, please check out the Training Volume Landmarks for Muscle Growth article. It
discusses the theoretical and practical bases on which the upcoming recommendations are made. And if you
love this info but want a bit of help in building your own workouts from the expert scientists at RP, check out
the super popular Male Physique or Female Physique Templates.
MV:
The maintenance volume for front delt work is legitimately no direct work in almost all cases where compound
pressing is still done for the chest. If you need to get to the gym in a rush and only have time for a maintenance
session, compound pushing is MUCH more worth your time than direct front delt work.
MEV:
Most intermediates can make great front delt gains with NO direct front delt work, as both horizontal and
incline pushing, as well as overhead pressing and triceps work is going to be very simulative of the front delts.
Even most advanced lifters shouldn’t see any losses in front delt size if they completely eliminating direct front
delt work or even all overhead work, so long as they keep hammering their other compound pushing work.
MAV:
Most people respond best to between 6 and 8 weekly sets of direct front delt work, which INCLUDES overhead
pressing, on average.
MRV:
The front delts actually take quite a bit of damage from push training and have a very limited fatigue threshold
when isolated in conjunction with chest training. Much past 12 sets of overhead pressing or front delt raises
starts to really become a recovery issue in the context of other chest training.
Exercises:
Standing Barbell Shoulder Press
Seated Barbell Shoulder Press
Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press
High Incline Dumbbell Press
Shoulder Press Machine
Standing Dumbbell Shoulder Press
You’ll notice that front raises are not included in our exercise list. This is because we (at RP) honestly think that
for almost all individuals, just getting in your overhead work will maximize your front delt development. If
you’re the exception and need more direct work, please feel free to do front raises.
Frequency:
1-2 times per week.
Woah, that’s low. It’s that low for a reason… any more direct front delt work would start to interfere with chest
work. And because chest work is also such great front delt work, you usually won’t have to train front delts by
themselves more than twice in the same week.
Intensity (Loading):
Front delts usually like things pretty heavy. Presses for more than 12 reps per set seem more like exercises in
pain tolerance than front delt stimulators. I’d recommend doing sets of between 6 and 10 reps for presses of
various kinds.
Variation:
Because you might only be training front delts once or twice a week, you only need one or two exercises per
meso, and that should be variation enough. If you do train twice, feel free to alter the rep ranges between
training sessions a bit.
Range of Motion:
Getting a DEEP stretch at the bottom of presses (especially with dumbbells) is a great way to really tax the front
delts. If you press a barbell or dumbbell, at least go all the way down to touch your shoulders/clavicles. Yes,
you can do more weight if you don’t, but then you’re working harder and risking more injury for less benefit.
Special Metabolite Techniques:
I’ve used giant sets for front delts, but not much else. However, everything but occlusion can work well, and a
superset of front raises (first) followed by shoulder presses of any kind can really destroy your front delts.
Again, heavy work is what seems to build the biggest front delts, not metabolite work.
Periodization:
Just like with most bodyparts, your first mesocycle should be moderate weights and reps. The next mesocycle
can be more of the same with perhaps slightly different rep ranges and exercises, OR it can be a higher volume
block that incorporates lighter weights (closer to the 70%1RM mark) and higher reps, as well as metabolite
work. After that meso, a shorter (3-4 weeks) mesocycle of strength training (80-85%1RM) with lower volumes
is likely a good idea to resensitize your muscles for more growth, at which point you repeat the process. And
only do that metabolite work if it seems to work for you. It doesn’t really do much for me, so please experiment
for yourself.
Sample Programming:
Special Notes:
When choosing my chest training, I’ll always do some incline and horizontal work. But once every couple of
mesocycles, I replace my incline work with overhead work to give my chest a break. Another thing you can try
is putting your overhead work on a day in which you hit triceps hard, so that maybe your chest gets a bit of a hit
while your front delts and triceps get the overload, and vice-versa on the chest-dominant days of the training
week.
Quad Training Tips for Hypertrophy
by Dr. Mike Israetel, Co-founder and Chief Sport Scientist | Mar 15, 2017
Here are some helpful tips for your quad training. Please note that these are averages based on my experience
working with lots of clients and my own training. The recommendations here should be food for thought or
places to start, not dogmatic scriptures to follow to the letter.
If you haven’t seen it yet, please check out the Training Volume Landmarks for Muscle Growth article. It
discusses the theoretical and practical bases on which the upcoming recommendations are made. And if you
love this info but want a bit of help in building your own workouts from the expert scientists at RP, check out
the super popular Male Physique or Female Physique Templates.
MV:
About 6 sets a week seems to be the minimum for quads, but that’s for deep squats. If you start doing leg
presses or leg extensions to conserve gains, your minimum set numbers will need to be higher.
MEV:
The minimum effective volume for most individuals seems to be about 8 working sets a week. Much less than
that is unlikely to grow anyone but the most untrained. For many individuals, even higher MEVs can be the
reality, especially if they are slower twitch and come from a background of field sports or endurance training.
MAV:
Most people respond best to between 12 and 18 weekly sets on average.
MRV:
Most people seem to encounter serious recovery problems above 20 sets per week. Because the quads are so
large and training them with best effects often requires the use of very homeostatically disruptive exercises like
the squat, stronger and bigger lifters with more experience often have MRVs of lower than 20 sets. On the other
hand, individuals that have plenty of training experience but are on the smaller side and aren’t lifting super
heavy weights can have MRVs that exceed 20 sets on occasion.
Exercises:
High Bar Squat
Close Stance Feet Forward Squats
Machine Feet Forward Squat
Leg Press
Hack Squat
Front Squat
Front Squat (Alernate Grip)
Frequency:
1.5-3 times per week.
The quads are so big and so strong that they can generate a huge amount of both local and systemic fatigue
when subjected to overload training. You can train your biceps hard every other day and feel just fine, but you
don’t just walk away (literally) from an overloading quad workout. Some individuals who recover quickly
(smaller lifters, usually) can train quads hard (for overload) as often as 3x per week, but they tend to be the
exception rather than the rule. Most individuals can tolerate and greatly benefit from 2x a week quad training,
but some of the biggest, strongest, and more advanced lifters can’t even do that. In case you were wondering
why there’s a 1.5 up there for a frequency recommendation, that’s to denote how some of the biggest lifters can
approach their quad training. One big overloading session early in the week, and then a session later in the week
that just barely provides an overload (something like a MED equivalent of a single session). For example, for
such lifters, they might do a total of 10 sets of squats and leg presses on Monday, and on Friday they might just
do 5 sets of lighter sumo squats. This latter session prevents muscle loss and boosts muscle growth in the quads
by just a bit, without adding any fatigue and allowing the lifter to heal on time for the next Monday overload.
Intensity (Loading):
Quads tend to grow from a diversity of loading (and thus repetition) ranges. Sets as low as 6 reps work great for
more explosive, fast-twitch dominant individuals, but they are the exception rather than the rule. For most
lifters, sets of 8-15 reps are nearly ideal for quads, and sets of as many as 20 reps can be done on machines
because each rep doesn’t take as long to complete and the back is not a limiting factor. Quads generally respond
very well to metabolite training, and that’s covered an upcoming section in this article.
Variation:
Because the quads are a large and complex muscle, they likely benefit from at least 2 exercises per microcycle,
and perhaps as many as 3. So if you train quads hard twice a week, one day you might do squats and the other
day you might do leg presses and lunges. While quads do need quite a bit of variation even within a microcycle
(and thus within a mesocycle), it’s probably best to resist the temptation to over- vary and use up 4 or more
quad movements per cycle. If you used, let’s say, 5 quad moves in one micro(and thus meso) cycle, you may
very well get excellent hypertrophy within that meso as you’re able to stimulate pretty much every part of that
muscle. But the what do you do one or two mesos later? You might only have, what, two or three new quad
movements that your body isn’t used to, stale on, and won’t respond to anymore? And if you use them, then
what do you do in the one or two mesos after? Just go back to the originals? That’s a fine policy for some
months, but you can’t do this sustainably for years as EVERYTHING will get stale because you’re using it too
often.
A better approach is to use just two or three quad moves per meso, and then rotate 1-2 quad moves in and out
with everyone or two mesos. For example, your exercise selection over several mesos could look like this:
Meso 1:
Squat
Hack Squat
Squat
Leg Press
Feet-Forward Squat
Leg Press
Front Squat
Lunge
Meso 2:
Meso 4:
Meso 3:
Hack Squat
Front Squat
Feet Forward Squat
Lunge
Meso 5:
Leg Press
Squat
Front Squat
As you can tell, it’s often months before an old movement is brought back into the mix, and by the time it is, the
body is very much primed for new adaptations to that movement. Of course, if you limit yourself to 3 exercises
per week or so, this means that you’ll only get to use 1-2 exercises per session. How the heck does that work?
Well, for it to work, you have to completely abandon the “3x10” paradigm of training volume. Instead of doing
2-3 sets of a single movement, you might have to do as many as 5,6, or even more. And if you fatigue so much
that the reps get super low towards the last sets, don’t be afraid to take a bit of weight off the bar (20% or so)
and keep plugging along!
In addition to exercise variation, load variation within the mesocycle should also be practiced. If you train quads
hard on two days, you can shoot for 8-10 reps on one of those days and 12-15 reps on another, or perhaps
metabolite work on another. In either case, it’s probably best to vary rep ranges somewhat between your
different quad training days of the week.
Range of Motion:
Let’s face facts. Training quads with a full range of motion SUCKS. It’s brutal, painful, and each rep seems to
take forever. But if you want maximum growth, there’s no other way. This means that you should likely invest
in Olympic Weightlifting shoes and control every rep ALL the way down. Squats that are done deep enough to
get your butt to your calves, leg presses so deep that (with a tight lower back) your knees are just lateral to your
chest, and so on. For some exercises like hack squats and leg presses, you’ll need to bring your stance in and
down on the platform, and that WILL reduce how much weight you can do, but that’s just a part of the dance!
Remember that stretch under load is an independent driver of hypertrophy, so when you’re wondering why the
hell you’re going so deep on quad moves, just remind yourself that there’s something down there you’re after…
and that something is the deep, painful tearing of quad tissue that literally causes muscle growth.
Special Metabolite Techniques:
Depending on your personality, metabolite tricks for the quads are either very fun or no fun at all. There are
four basic metabolite strategies to quad training, and they all “work” in their own messed up pain-inducing
ways.

Supersets
Take a more isolation-type quad move and take it close to failure, and then, with no rest, move onto a more
compound move and repeat. For example, put your 30RM on a leg press and crank out 25 or more reps (rest
pause at the top can come in handy here). As soon as you rack the weight, jump (charitably, you’ll kind of just
lumber and not jump at this point) up and do as many squats with your 20RM as you can. Now… it might only
be like 8 squats, but the metabolite effect will be realer than real.

Drop Sets
Start with, for example, 4 25’s on the hack squat. Maybe that’s your 20RM or so. Do a set, rest for a minute. Do
the second set, take off one of the 25’s, repeat. 8 sets later, you’ll be struggling with 6 reps at 95lbs and that hot
girl at the gym will walk in to see you at your most pathetic. But not to worry, your quads will be so pumped
out of your mind, she’ll be sure to swoon. And you might even reward her for her attention by vomiting at her
feet from all that lactic acid in your legs!

Occlusion
Take a tight band or specialized occlusion band and wrap it around each leg right at the hip crease. Then
perform 4-6 sets of light weight (30RM) quad work without taking the band off between sets. And keep the rest
breaks to under a minute. Ouch

Giant Sets
Put your 30RM on the hack squat or leg press and do a set close to failure. Write down or remember how many
reps that was. About a minute later repeat with another such set, again close to fail. You get to stop doing sets
like this only when you hit a certain total rep number. For those just starting out, 50-60 reps should do. For the
very well trained deep into their mesocycle, a sum total of 100 reps can be done. About 1 min rest between each
set, by the way.
Periodization
:
Just like with most bodyparts, your first mesocycle should be moderate weights and reps. The next mesocycle
can be more of the same with perhaps slightly different rep ranges and exercises, OR it can be a higher volume
block that incorporates lighter weights (closer to the 60%1RM mark) and more metabolite training. After that
meso, a shorter (3-4 weeks) mesocycle of strength training (70-85%1RM) with lower volumes is likely a good
idea to resensitize your muscles for more growth, at which point you repeat the process.
Sample Programming:
Special Notes:
People will say that you don’t NEED squats to get
big legs. And they do have a point. You can grow
very big legs without ever squatting. But to get your
BIGGEST legs, you almost certainly need to squat.
So no matter what else you do for legs, squat high
bar, squat strict, squat deep, and squat for reps of 812, and you’ll be giving yourself the biggest edge in
leg growth.
MV = Maintenance Volume
This is the amount of training (number of sets, as we’ll be using) that allows you to maintain your current level
of muscular size. If you’ve never trained, obviously that amount is zero sets! But when you begin training hard
and make gains above your body’s default levels of muscle, you’ll need to train at least at your MV to keep
what you have. Bad news: there’s no way to NOT TRAIN and keep your gains. Good news: MV is actually
very low, and especially as long as you go heavier in training (75%1RM+), you can keep almost all of your
muscle with as little as 6 working sets per bodypart per week in most cases. Another piece of good news is that
while your 75%1RM values go up as you build more muscle (and thus you will need to go heavier and heavier
to keep your gains at maintenance volume), the ease with which your body keeps gains also goes up with time.
So that while you would expect the MVs of advanced lifters to be much higher than 6 working sets per week,
they usually aren’t, and set for set, beginners through advanced alike only need very small volumes of training
to keep their gains.
We’ll have maintenance volume guesstimates listed for each bodypart in the muscle group training guide, but
why? Don’t we want GAINS instead of just maintenance? For sure, but periods of low volume training are
important on occasion to give your growth processes a break and let them refresh to maximum effectiveness yet
again. And if your life is catching up to you and for some time you can’t hit the gym as much as you need to
make gains, knowing your MVs can let you spend just as much time in the gym as is needed to keep your gains
for when you can train much more again without either doing extra and making your life tougher or constantly
worrying that you’re not doing enough.
MEV = Minimum Effective Volume
This is the amount of training that actually grows your muscles. Anything below this amount maintains them at
best, so if you’re training to make gains, you had better make sure to be above your MEV. Now, your MEV is
the minimum effective volume, so it’s not going to be your average weekly training volume unless you literally
want to make the slowest gains possible. But it’s a great place to start the first week of your mesocycles and
build up from there. When individuals just started training recently, they pretty much grow from anything, so
their MVs and MEVs will be nearly identical. However, the minimum volume needed to grow climbs higher
and higher the more training experience you have, so your MEV starts to really leave your MV behind as you
grow from an intermediate level to an advanced level of development.
MAV = Maximum Adaptive Volume
This is the range of volumes in which you make your best gains. It’s a much more of a range than the other
volume landmarks because it changes greatly within each training mesocycle (week to week). Every time you
train a specific bodypart with a specific set of exercises, weights, and volumes, you get muscle growth as a
result. Overload the system, and you get results. But systems adapt, and what was overloading last session is no
longer overloading this session. In order to keep overloading, you must use heavier weights and… higher
volumes with each successive microcycle in an accumulation phase of training. So each time you train hard, the
volume needed to get the same great gains in the next session goes up, and thus, your MAV continually goes up
through the mesocycle. Eventually, the amount of volume to keep you progressing at the best rates actually hits
and then exceeds the amount of volume you can even recover from, making further gains impossible within that
microcycle and demanding a deload and perhaps some exercise selection changes in the next mesocycle to keep
the gains coming. Because the MAV changes markedly through each training session, it can’t be a goal you
want to hit but should rather be the range you aim to move your volume through. And for most intents and
purposes, that range sits between the MEV and MRV. This means that you’ll start the volume of most of your
mesocycles at just at or above your MEV and over the course of the mesocycle work up to or just above your
MRV. The average volume in that range is thus your MAV. We could try to get clever and conclude that neither
dipping so low so that we get to our MEV nor climbing so high so that we get to our MRV is optimal, so why
not just stay in a very tight range right between the two and always get the best gains every microcycle of the
meso!?
The first problem with that is that this approach doesn’t allow for enough progression. Let’s say 16 sets per
week is your MAV for a certain bodypart. You hit 16 sets in the first week and get GREAT gains! Ok, now
what? If you do 16 again next week, that’s no longer your MAV, so you have to go up. If your new MAV is 18
sets, you’re only going to be able to hit maybe a week or two more before you run straight into your MRV and
can’t go any further. You’ll need to deload to drop fatigue and thus your accumulation:deload ratio is going to
be quite low… you could have gotten more quality training in had you started below 16 sets. And in fact,
because you might be doing rep ranges or exercises you’re not used to, your growth response may be higher
than you thought per set, so your actual MAV might be less than 16 sets at the beginning of a mesocycle. On the
other hand, if you start at 12 sets and reach 16 sets and just stop and deload, not only do you have a shortened
mesocycle but you also miss out on the benefits of functional overreaching from approaching or just passing
your MRV in the last accumulation week before your deload. However you slice it, it seems that to give your
body the quality time and repeated overload stimulus needed to grow best, starting at the low end and ending at
the high end of your MAV range is best. How do you do that? Well, you just find your MEV, find your MRV,
and run most of your mesocycles between the two! So if your MEV is 12 sets and your MRV is 20 sets per
week, you might run a mesocycle that looks something like this:
Week 1: 12 sets
Week 3: 16 sets
Week 5: 20 sets
Week 2: 14 sets
Week 4: 18 sets
Week 6: 6 sets (deload)
You’ll notice in the individual muscle group guides that the MAV range does not extend all the way down to
the MEV or up to the MRV in most cases. This is because the MAV range is the average of where your training
should be, and that starting your mesocycles under it (close to your MEV) and ending them over it (close to
your MRV) is not just ok… it’s usually recommended! Think of the recommended MAV numbers in the guides
as set numbers you should aim to pass through in the middle of the accumulation phases of your mesoscycles.
MRV = Maximum Recoverable Volume
Your body can only recover from so much. Once all of your body’s recovery systems are in full use, any more
disruption to the system (training being a big one) will cause incomplete recovery during that time. Yes,
training hard is great, but if you train harder than your body can recover from, you can forget about growing
because your body won’t grow any muscle if it can’t recover on a regular basis. In fact, you can’t even expect
growth if you train right AT the volume at which your body can barely recover (your MRV), because the body
uses all spare resources to just recover and doesn’t have anything left to power growth. Many training studies
on beginners show limited or no growth early in the training process, and a big reason for this finding is that
untrained individuals are so unused to training, and training is such a big shock to them, that their bodies can
barely even recover at first and no real growth occurs. Only when these individuals have been training for a few
weeks do their bodies begin to be able to tolerate the volume, heal enough, and still have room left to grow.
So while your MEV tells you about the minimum you need to train to grow, your MRV tells you about the
maximum. Going just over your MRV right before deloading can actually make you grow even more via the
process of ‘supercompensation via functional overreaching,’ but chronically training at or above your MRV will
result in no gains of any significant kind. Because of the benefits of overloading and functional overreaching,
MRV volumes are not “to be avoided at all costs,” but are rather “goals to hit once at the end of an
accumulation phase and stay well under at all other times. You climb to your MRV, you don’t jump straight to
it.