Hypertrophy Training: Summing Things Up

Intensity (%1RM): 60-85%

Rep Range: 20-5 repetitions per set (this is reversed to match the intensity range)

Rest between sets: Anywhere from 30-60 seconds to 2-3 minutes depending on exercise and rep range

Total volume per workout: 30-60 repetitions per muscle group (pay attention to overlap)

Frequency: Each muscle group twice per week or once every fifth day under some situations

Exercise selection: Exceedingly variable, interacts with repetition range

Exercises per muscle group: 1-2 per muscle group per workout is generally sufficient

Failure or not: Depends but generally used sparingly for the volume recommendations made here.

As I’ve noted throughout the series, the nature of hypertrophy training lends itself to a massively broad set of recommendations and that alone may be part of why so many different approaches seem to “work” for growth. To achieve the above values, you can go anywhere from 3-4X15-20 reps at 60% of maximum in a non-lock style (fatigue/pump training) to 8 sets of 5 at 80-85% of maximum (heavy tension training) to almost any combination of sets and reps you can come up within those extremes (5×5 + 2X20, 4X6-8+3X10-12, etc, etc).