Most People Get Hypertrophy Training Wrong—Here’s How To Do It Right

On the surface, how to train for hypertrophy is simple: Lift weights, eat a lot, get big.

Yet most people never achieve the physiques they aspire to. Sometimes, it’s genetics. Other culprits include a bad diet or incompatible lifestyle. But when it comes down to it, there’s a chance you’re leaving gains on the table because you don’t have the right hypertrophy workout to begin with.

Let’s break down what it costs to build muscle and provide some actionable, evidence-based tips for hypertrophy training. Consider this your crash course on muscle-making.

What Is Hypertrophy Training?

Clinically speaking, hypertrophy refers to the processes which lead to the growth of an organ or tissue. In the world of fitness, we regard hypertrophy training as exercise performed with the explicit goal of growing muscle tissue. 

• Hypertrophy training entails making existing muscle mass larger, not generating new muscle cells from scratch.
• Creating new muscle cells in new areas is called hyperplasia—something science isn’t confident occurs in humans to a meaningful degree. 

How does exercise create hypertrophy? Internally, lifting weights provides three different stimuli to your muscles:

• Mechanical tension
• Muscle damage
• Metabolic stress

Mechanical tension is currently regarded as the most important factor in generating hypertrophy. The more tension you apply to a muscle (from lifting weights), the stronger its impetus to adapt and grow larger.

Nutrition for Hypertrophy Training

The other piece of the muscle-building puzzle is nutrition. In some situations—like if you’re brand-new to lifting weights, or you’re carrying a lot of extra body fat—you can build muscle without paying too much attention to your diet.

But if you do hypertrophy training on a regular basis, the importance of proper nutrition is clear: You need enough calories and protein to fuel hypertrophy, or you’ll likely end up spinning your wheels.

• A caloric surplus where you eat more than your maintenance energy requirements provides extra energy for hypertrophy.
• Dietary protein to the tune of .7 to 1 gram per pound per day ensures you have the amino acids required to repair your muscles. You can get some of this from whey protein if needed. 

Benefits of Hypertrophy Training

Hypertrophy training isn’t entirely form over function. While most people get into bodybuilding to change their physiques, hypertrophy training benefits also include plenty of practical, real-world improvements to quality of life. 

Bigger Muscles

Let’s start with the obvious. Hypertrophy training makes your muscles bigger (if you do it right). For many people, it’s an end unto itself, not a pleasant byproduct of pursuing another fitness goal. 

Helps Boost Strength

Does hypertrophy increase strength? Well, a bigger muscle is often a stronger muscle. Even professional strength athletes like powerlifters do plenty of hypertrophy-focused workouts. Studies involving highly-trained bodybuilders have shown that larger quadriceps produce more force than trained powerlifters’ legs in some cases.

Raises Metabolism

You may have heard that muscle burns calories and fat doesn’t. To an extent, that’s true—muscle tissue burns three times as many calories as fat does just by existing. However, the magnitude itself is small. Every pound of muscle you add will burn about 6 more calories per day; a pound of fat burns 2. 

Improves Bodily Resilience

You can also think of muscle mass as insulation which protects your joints. As we age, our bodies naturally begin to lose muscle. This erosion can be mitigated, halted, or even reversed by resistance training. Research tells us that larger, stronger muscles actively reduce the risk of injury from everyday incidents like falls. 

How To Train for Hypertrophy

Time to get practical. When it comes to maximizing hypertrophy, the devil is in the details. Small adjustments to the exercises in your workout, how you perform them, or how often, can make a big difference. 

Exercise Selection for Hypertrophy

What are the most effective hypertrophy exercises for muscle growth? Like most things health and fitness, it depends.

Hypertrophy training—that is, bodybuilding—isn’t a strength-based sport like powerlifting or weightlifting. There are no mandatory exercises. You pick and choose movements that target the muscles you’re working on based on factors like:

• Progression: “Can I consistently apply progressive overload to this exercise in some way?”

• Comfort: “Can I perform this exercise without pain or discomfort, especially while lifting heavy?”

• Precision: “Does this exercise effectively target the muscle I want to work? Can I ‘feel the burn’?”

• Practicality: “Is this an exercise I can reasonably set up and perform with the resources I have available?” 

If you find an exercise that hits all four parameters, keep it in your toolbox permanently. Most moves will satisfy two or three of these factors. If you try an exercise and it only hits one, swap it out or modify it.

There’s no specific hypertrophy rep range. Studies show you can build muscle performing 5 to 30 repetitions as long as you’re training close to failure. Generally speaking, large, multi-joint exercises should be performed with fewer reps; save the high-rep work for machines, cables, and other accessories. 

Exercise Order for Hypertrophy 

There are no hard rules about the order in which you perform hypertrophy exercises during your workout. That said, you’re at your best when you walk in the door. It’s wise to place demanding, high-priority exercises, or exercises targeting a weak point, at the front of the session. 

Hypertrophy Training Intensity, Volume, & Frequency

Intensity, volume, and frequency are the three primary knobs you turn within your workout routine. 

• Intensity refers to how much effort you’re putting in, measured as a percentage of your 1-rep max on a given exercise, or as your proximity to muscular failure (RPE or RIR). 

• Volume describes how many non-warm-up sets you perform at a time, usually within a week of training.

• Frequency is how often you target a specific muscle group for growth, or how often you perform a specific exercise.

High-intensity training, where you go to failure on every set, isn’t required to build muscle. Most of your sets should be within two to four reps from failure.

When it comes to volume, modern scientific research has landed on 12 to 20 sets per muscle group, per week, as an optimal range for most people. 

As for frequency, hitting a muscle twice per week allows you to divide up your weekly volume into two sessions instead of one. That way, you can apply more effort on each exercise and make better gains.

Hypertrophy Workout Examples

Here are a few examples of hypertrophy training for both the upper and lower body. Remember—these are just templates meant to showcase the principles of solid bodybuilding training in action. 

Your own workouts probably don’t look the same as what’s below. But if you’re stuck on starting, these provide a solid jumping-off point. 

Upper Body Hypertrophy Workout

• Barbell Bench Press: 3 x 6

• Lat Pulldown: 3 x 8

• Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 2 x 8

• Straight-Arm Pulldown: 2 x 12

• Barbell Curl: 3 x 8

• Triceps Pushdown: 3 x 8

• Lateral Raise: 2 x 15

Lower Body Hypertrophy Workout

• Back Squat: 3 x 6

• Hip Thrust: 3 x 8

• Walking Lunge:  2 x 10

• Leg Curl: 2 x 10

• Calf Raise: 2 x 15

The Big Picture

Hypertrophy training is all about finding the right tool for the job. Building muscle is a physiological process with mostly set-in-stone rules; working out for muscle growth is individualized. 

Nail the basics—work hard on comfortable exercises, eat hearty—and watch the gains roll in.

FAQs

What is hypertrophy training?

Hypertrophy training is weight lifting performed with the goal of increasing muscle size. 

What workout is best for hypertrophy?

There is no best workout for hypertrophy. You can build muscle with a variety of different exercises and rep ranges. Your goal should be to experiment until you find a hypertrophy workout that works for your body. 

What are the best exercises for hypertrophy?

Some exercises are more effective for hypertrophy than others due to ease of access, convenience, and comfort. You’ll have to undergo some trial and error—the “best” hypertrophy exercise is the one you can comfortably push the hardest. 

References

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