Building a hypertrophy workout day 2

         Building on our previous post about building a hypertrophy workout three-day split we are on day two. On day one we deep dived a workout centered around chest and back. Today or day two of this workout templet is centered around legs and shoulders. Much of what we will do for Legs and Shoulders is going to be very similar in how we built our previous workouts.

Exercise Selection

    Leg day exercise selection is generally focused on the squat. Back squat/Front squat/goblet squat/air squat are all good choices. Machines wise you have your hack squat, Leg press, and Goblet squat. You also have your isolation exercises for the leg like leg extensions, hamstring curls abductors, and calf. The Smith machine is an option here. I would only recommend the smith machine for early lifters since the bar does not move; this may seem like it's a good thing but as your lift the bar or dumbbell are going to move in the bar path (which is fine) and other parts of your body (the Core) will act as stabilizers during the lift. This exercise plan is going to use the back squat as the building blocks of our training day. Leg press is going to follow the back squat then we get into more isolation exercises like hamstring curls and calf raises. For the shoulder muscle we a plethora of exercises that will enable us to hit all three heads (front, middle and rear) to hit to ensure we have balance in the deltoid muscle. Changing the angle of presses typically would hit the three heads to some degree. Since majority of the exercises require lifting weight over the head from either barbell or dumbbell, we have to more careful in terms of selecting an exercise. The moveability of the shoulder socket plays a factor as well; since it allows for movement in multiple plans technique is paramount. Considering these factors, we will use dumbbells as the building block. Seated Dumbbell Press followed by Standing single arm press, front and lateral raises then rear delt flies are exercises that hit all the shoulder muscles.

     

Legs	Shoulders
Back squat	DB Seated Press
Leg Press	Standing Single Palm in shoulder press
Hamstring Curl	Front & Lateral raises.
Calf Raises.	Rear delt fly

Reps and Load

Since this is a hypertrophy style workout we have a range of repetitions at our disposal. Generally speaking, for hypertrophy rep ranges are between 6 to 12 reps with each rep correlating to a percentage of 1RM. 6 reps would be 85% of 1RM, 7 reps at 83%, 8 reps at 80%, 9 reps at 77%, and 10 reps at 75%. Keep in mind these are allocated guidelines and offer a range of repetitions to shoot for to elicit a hypertrophy adaptation. Let's say your 1 RM max is 300 pounds and your goal rep count is 8. That means 300 x .80 is 240 pounds. Leg press and Hamstring Curls are going to be in the 10-rep range. Calf raises are going to be 10 reps as well. Seated Dumbbell press is harder to determine, however for full disclosure we will use the same percentage as the back squat. Standing Single Palm in Shoulder Press, Front & Lateral raises and Rear Delt Flies will follow the 10-rep range at 75%.      

Legs	Shoulders
Back squat (300 1RM) 8 Reps at 80% 1RM	DB Seated Press 8 Reps at 80% 1RM
Leg Press 10 Reps at 75% 1RM.	Standing Single Palm in shoulder press 10 Reps at 75% 1RM
Hamstring Curl 10 Reps at 75% 1RM	Front & Lateral raises 10 Reps at 75% 1RM.
Calf raises 10 Reps at 75% 1RM.	Rear delt fly 10 Reps at 75% 1RM.

    Sets and rest will look very similar to day 1. We will stick with the set range of 3-6 sets. 4 sets for our core exercises (Back Squats and DB Seated Press) with 3 sets for the rest of the workouts. Rest is going to be 90 seconds between the core and 60 seconds rest after sets for the rest of the workouts. Rest between exercises is going to follow suit. 

Legs	Shoulders
Back squat (300 1RM) 4 Sets of 8 Reps at 80% 1RM. 90 Seconds between sets	DB Seated Press 4 sets of 8 Reps at 80% 1RM.  90 Seconds between sets
90 Seconds	90 Seconds
Leg Press 3 sets of 10 Reps at 75% 1RM. 60 Seconds between sets.	Standing Single Palm in shoulder press 3 sets of 10 Reps at 75% 1RM. 60 Seconds between sets
60 Seconds	60 Seconds
Hamstring Curl 3 sets of 10 Reps at 75% 1RM. 60 Seconds between sets	Front & Lateral raises 3 sets of 10 Reps at 75% 1RM. 60 Seconds between sets
60 Seconds	60 Seconds
Calf raises 3 sets of 10 Reps at 75% 1RM. 60 Seconds between sets.	Rear delt fly 3 sets of 10 Reps at 75% 1RM. 60 Seconds between sets.

    Once we figure out our goal for the training (hypertrophy) we know the sets, reps, load lifted and rest periods. That shell can be applied to any workout split. All that is needed is to select exercises for the training day.