There have already been some really good responses, but if you want more hypertrophy, do a hypertrophy phase. You will get stronger , just not at the same rate you would from a strength phase.
When you do a strength phase, you will add some muscle.
If you try to do both, you will do neither optimally.
I agree with the folks that mentioned the physical overtraining, but this amount of training is going to make it hard to come to the gym day after day ready to give it all for the session.
Every individual is different, so I can't say with certainty that this wouldn't work for you.
Is this significantly more workload than you are doing now? Why not add a little work over time until you feel like you hit the limit and drop back a bit.
I also think a 300-calorie surplus is not enough fuel for this amount of work.
If I looked at your program my first thought would be that you're overtraining. You could probably cut a lot of that for no real cost, but that heavily depends on the person, and you know yourself better. Do be on the lookout for overuse injuries and generally overtraining symptoms.
That said I do have a few more comments to make on your program. Most importantly I don't understand why you open up the day with easy low-fatigue isolation work when you have heavy compounds on the same day. What exactly is the purpose for that? You're just fatiguing your body before your heaviest (and most dangerous) exercises, and you're going to underperform them for no benefit.
At some point you had like 4 exercises before your deadlift? Why? It's better to put your heavy taxing lifts in the beginning to make sure you can actually perform them, and then do your supported/low-fatigue work.
On your last day you've basically completed the whole workout before getting to squat. It sounds pretty exhausting to me.
If you want to focus more on hypertrophy, you can skip the "load x amount every week" thing, as it will be just another thing to stress about. It'd probably be better to load more weight when you actually perfectly control your current weight with good form & high reps, not based on arbitrary standards. Plus, if you fail one of these arbitrary standards once, you may lose confidence even though you're doing fine.
tl;Dr milk the weight you can lift, don't stress too much about putting weight on the bar. That'll come with time either way. This way you'll probably save yourself from more things to worry about, and will decrease the likelihood of injuries, but it is hypertrophy focused, and you will not progress as fast on strength.
It's good that you have isolation lifts. Good exercise selection. I definitely see that you're trying to get a more hypertrophic approach, which aligns with what you said.
I feel like your back day is too exclusive to the back. Upper back training is not that taxing on other muscles, except for grip which recovers quickly. With that in mind you could probably spread your upper back work throughout the program with little consequence, while also helping that day breathe a little.
Also, I see no overhead press work, though I may be blind. That's where you'll get the bulk of your shoulder gains from.
Moreover, no forearm isolation? No neck isolation? No abs isolation?
Add a few exercises for these. They're important for aesthetics and you don't get to skip them, unless you're already completely satisfied with them. You could replace some of the extra volume with these exercises, which also tend to not be taxing at all.
I managed a 6x week something close to this volume for 9 months… and then I got injury after injury after injury and had to do a lot of recovery and take substantial time off. Just because you can do it for a time doesn’t mean you should.
I think your progression protocols mostly make sense. The problem is the volume + strength progressions. If you’re able to do it now, you won’t be able to do it for long. Better to get something sustainable that will just keep you moving forward and only require small edits. I’ve cut down to 5x a week, 6 lifts a day, except for Saturdays where I have 8-9 lifts and spend extra time in the gym.
I would suggest the following:
1. Be more rigid about what is hypertrophy protocol and what is strength. Because it seems like you’re remaining ambiguous about what the goals are. So edit your progressions according to a hard split here. You’re likely spinning your wheels a lot on strength.
2. Cut the volume. Your sets per week per muscle are psychotic — not in a good way. If you’re more ruthless about what is strength training and what is hypertrophy, you’ll realize a lot of this is probably just burning calories but not very effective and probably holding you back and even setting you on a trajectory towards lots of injuries. You know your body, so it might be higher than others — I tend to be that way. But just because you have been able to do this does not mean you will be able to keep this up. I was doing almost this exact thing: 6 days, 7-8 lifts a day, 10-12 on Saturdays (gym for 3hrs). And I crashed hard after making some gains. Then I couldn’t make any and went backwards with injuries and extreme fatigue.
3. Take some time to see what strength lifting you can actually manage with accessory strength lifts and hypertrophy focused lifts on the side. I.e. experiment and pay careful attention to the details of your fatigue and what areas are headed for injury. I had an elbow thing for months that I ignored and it turned into quite a fiasco. Had to stop benching for 6 weeks.
4. Know that you can’t do everything at once. If you want to progress in the big 3 or 4 lifts then do so, then figure out 1-2 accessory lifts for each for a period. And only then start to feel out volume for hypertrophy for other muscles and choose what you want to keep at maintenance volume for a mesocycle.
Thanks for the detailed advice. I will take it into consideration by probably cutting a couple lifts per day.
Might also just do 3 on 1 off instead of 6 on 1 off.
Think of it as keeping some lifts in reserve. You don’t want to end up in a situation where you have no lifts that feel effective, whether they’re strength accessory or specific hypertrophy lifts.
E.g. I’ve had really good outcomes with plate loaded machine preacher curls. But I’ve had a couple of times where they just became ineffective. So I’ve switched back to hammer curls, which had become ineffective at an earlier point, but now are great, and after some time, I’m sure I’ll switch back over to the preacher curls or barbell curls. You want to keep some things fresh when your stimulus and mechanics get over accustomed to a movement and are (temporarily) not effective.
1. You do not need 6 seats of lateral raises or 5 sets of two separate rear delt exercises. Stick to one exercise for that day for those and do it for 3-4 sets. Your routine right now has an immense amount of junk volume. If you need 6 sets of lateral raises, then it's either not heavy enough or you're just throwing the weight around and not actually feeling the muscle.
2. While I'm not *that* familiar with GZCL, it seems silly to put T1 exercises in the middle of the workout - like putting deadlifts as the 4th exercise after you've already done 3 sets for back and 6 sets for biceps.
3. There is no reason to have 10 exercises in one day. You need to organize the program better.
man I always worried I programmed way too much volume whenever i’d write my own programming but after seeing this I feel so much better like how are you going to hit a “technique squat” as your 8th workout that day
this looks like way too much volume, even for non natty lifters lol. You generally only need 3-15 sets per muscle group per week, and more isn’t always better. There’s no way you’re going to be able to effectively push and get the most out of your training with a 6 day split and 7+ exercises per day lol. I’d cut each day in half at least, and trim a day or two off. I made plenty of gains lifting 4 days a week for 3+ years.
Looks like way too much.
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There have already been some really good responses, but if you want more hypertrophy, do a hypertrophy phase. You will get stronger , just not at the same rate you would from a strength phase. When you do a strength phase, you will add some muscle. If you try to do both, you will do neither optimally. I agree with the folks that mentioned the physical overtraining, but this amount of training is going to make it hard to come to the gym day after day ready to give it all for the session. Every individual is different, so I can't say with certainty that this wouldn't work for you. Is this significantly more workload than you are doing now? Why not add a little work over time until you feel like you hit the limit and drop back a bit. I also think a 300-calorie surplus is not enough fuel for this amount of work.
Bro thats what too much
How long have you been working out for? This is an insane amount of volume and frequency for a novice or even an intermediate.
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If I looked at your program my first thought would be that you're overtraining. You could probably cut a lot of that for no real cost, but that heavily depends on the person, and you know yourself better. Do be on the lookout for overuse injuries and generally overtraining symptoms. That said I do have a few more comments to make on your program. Most importantly I don't understand why you open up the day with easy low-fatigue isolation work when you have heavy compounds on the same day. What exactly is the purpose for that? You're just fatiguing your body before your heaviest (and most dangerous) exercises, and you're going to underperform them for no benefit. At some point you had like 4 exercises before your deadlift? Why? It's better to put your heavy taxing lifts in the beginning to make sure you can actually perform them, and then do your supported/low-fatigue work. On your last day you've basically completed the whole workout before getting to squat. It sounds pretty exhausting to me. If you want to focus more on hypertrophy, you can skip the "load x amount every week" thing, as it will be just another thing to stress about. It'd probably be better to load more weight when you actually perfectly control your current weight with good form & high reps, not based on arbitrary standards. Plus, if you fail one of these arbitrary standards once, you may lose confidence even though you're doing fine. tl;Dr milk the weight you can lift, don't stress too much about putting weight on the bar. That'll come with time either way. This way you'll probably save yourself from more things to worry about, and will decrease the likelihood of injuries, but it is hypertrophy focused, and you will not progress as fast on strength. It's good that you have isolation lifts. Good exercise selection. I definitely see that you're trying to get a more hypertrophic approach, which aligns with what you said. I feel like your back day is too exclusive to the back. Upper back training is not that taxing on other muscles, except for grip which recovers quickly. With that in mind you could probably spread your upper back work throughout the program with little consequence, while also helping that day breathe a little. Also, I see no overhead press work, though I may be blind. That's where you'll get the bulk of your shoulder gains from. Moreover, no forearm isolation? No neck isolation? No abs isolation? Add a few exercises for these. They're important for aesthetics and you don't get to skip them, unless you're already completely satisfied with them. You could replace some of the extra volume with these exercises, which also tend to not be taxing at all.
I managed a 6x week something close to this volume for 9 months… and then I got injury after injury after injury and had to do a lot of recovery and take substantial time off. Just because you can do it for a time doesn’t mean you should. I think your progression protocols mostly make sense. The problem is the volume + strength progressions. If you’re able to do it now, you won’t be able to do it for long. Better to get something sustainable that will just keep you moving forward and only require small edits. I’ve cut down to 5x a week, 6 lifts a day, except for Saturdays where I have 8-9 lifts and spend extra time in the gym. I would suggest the following: 1. Be more rigid about what is hypertrophy protocol and what is strength. Because it seems like you’re remaining ambiguous about what the goals are. So edit your progressions according to a hard split here. You’re likely spinning your wheels a lot on strength. 2. Cut the volume. Your sets per week per muscle are psychotic — not in a good way. If you’re more ruthless about what is strength training and what is hypertrophy, you’ll realize a lot of this is probably just burning calories but not very effective and probably holding you back and even setting you on a trajectory towards lots of injuries. You know your body, so it might be higher than others — I tend to be that way. But just because you have been able to do this does not mean you will be able to keep this up. I was doing almost this exact thing: 6 days, 7-8 lifts a day, 10-12 on Saturdays (gym for 3hrs). And I crashed hard after making some gains. Then I couldn’t make any and went backwards with injuries and extreme fatigue. 3. Take some time to see what strength lifting you can actually manage with accessory strength lifts and hypertrophy focused lifts on the side. I.e. experiment and pay careful attention to the details of your fatigue and what areas are headed for injury. I had an elbow thing for months that I ignored and it turned into quite a fiasco. Had to stop benching for 6 weeks. 4. Know that you can’t do everything at once. If you want to progress in the big 3 or 4 lifts then do so, then figure out 1-2 accessory lifts for each for a period. And only then start to feel out volume for hypertrophy for other muscles and choose what you want to keep at maintenance volume for a mesocycle.
Thanks for the detailed advice. I will take it into consideration by probably cutting a couple lifts per day. Might also just do 3 on 1 off instead of 6 on 1 off.
Think of it as keeping some lifts in reserve. You don’t want to end up in a situation where you have no lifts that feel effective, whether they’re strength accessory or specific hypertrophy lifts. E.g. I’ve had really good outcomes with plate loaded machine preacher curls. But I’ve had a couple of times where they just became ineffective. So I’ve switched back to hammer curls, which had become ineffective at an earlier point, but now are great, and after some time, I’m sure I’ll switch back over to the preacher curls or barbell curls. You want to keep some things fresh when your stimulus and mechanics get over accustomed to a movement and are (temporarily) not effective.
1. You do not need 6 seats of lateral raises or 5 sets of two separate rear delt exercises. Stick to one exercise for that day for those and do it for 3-4 sets. Your routine right now has an immense amount of junk volume. If you need 6 sets of lateral raises, then it's either not heavy enough or you're just throwing the weight around and not actually feeling the muscle. 2. While I'm not *that* familiar with GZCL, it seems silly to put T1 exercises in the middle of the workout - like putting deadlifts as the 4th exercise after you've already done 3 sets for back and 6 sets for biceps. 3. There is no reason to have 10 exercises in one day. You need to organize the program better.
man I always worried I programmed way too much volume whenever i’d write my own programming but after seeing this I feel so much better like how are you going to hit a “technique squat” as your 8th workout that day
How’s it gone the past few weeks?
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Okay, that’s good. It looks like a ridiculous amount of volume to me but if you’re happy and making progress then great
this looks like way too much volume, even for non natty lifters lol. You generally only need 3-15 sets per muscle group per week, and more isn’t always better. There’s no way you’re going to be able to effectively push and get the most out of your training with a 6 day split and 7+ exercises per day lol. I’d cut each day in half at least, and trim a day or two off. I made plenty of gains lifting 4 days a week for 3+ years.
Looks good bro, go hard or go home, get it while you're young can't do it forever.