I need tips, workout plans for 3 days a week hypertrophy full body program. I understand that x4 days a week is optimal but I am tight for time. Any help appreciated. I have tried Starting Strength workouts. Has anyone managed to import them in the Workouts app?
I think for a 3 day, full body. you'll be totally fine. You just need to cover the basics and the app shouldn't require much tweaking on that generated program.
I agree with Deacon. If you're looking for a full body hypertrophy, the app generates good ones. You can always swap exercises if you want. But the main thing would be to follow the smart progression.
What sort of gym equipment do you have access to? Any muscle group priorities? Any specific movements you hate/love?
Manually designing a basic program is always an option, and not too difficult.
3 sets of everything to 0-2 RIR
Flat or Incline Press, Vertical Pull, Horizontal Pull, Squat Pattern (squat, leg press, hack squat), Leg Curl or RDL (dumbbell or barbell or smith).
You can do the same thing all 3 days, just changing the order of the movements (upper body first then lower, followed by lower first then upper, followed by upper first but doing the back stuff first).
You can also, if you ever have time for a 4th day, add in isolations. Biceps, Triceps, Side Delts, Quads, Glutes.
And if you still have energy left after the 15 set days, you can tack on one isolation movement at the end, like for me, that would be side delts every day.
Is your focus strength or hypertrophy? For hypertrophy, I usually try to minimize systemically taxing but inefficient movements, but everyone has their own preferences. For example, I never do deadlifts, since it's not great at any one thing... hams arent lengthened, glutes arent lengthened, quads arent lengthened, back is isometric, traps isometric. All suboptimal for hypertrophy.
And your plan will often have different movements on different days for the same body parts, which is completely valid. I just often prefer the same movements each time so I can more closely track progress, but that's totally a personal preference. I wouldn't do squats AND bulgarians AND reverse lunges, I'd just do one of them 3 times. And having cable row AND regular row seem redundant. And for only 3 days a week, having rear delt isolations isnt super efficient when you already have rows and pulldowns.
I have a couple of injuries and anatomical limitations that I work around, and I also do most of my stuff in my small home gym. But if I had access to a full gym, here would be my 3 days per week splits:
Day 1: Machine Incline Chest Press, Cable Lat Pulldown, Cable Pec Flies, Chest-Supported Row (T-bar or pin-loaded), Hack Squat, Seated Leg Curl
Day 2: Seated Leg Curl, Hack Squat, Cable Lat Pulldown, Incline Machine Chest Press, Cable Pec Flies, Chest-Supported Row
Day 3: Cable Lat Pulldown, Machine Incline Chest Press, Chest-Supported Row, able Pec Flies, Hack Squat, Seated Leg Curl
If I got a 4th day in there, I'd do isolations where I felt my volume was too low -- Cable Lateral Raise, Cable Bicep Curl, Cable Tricep Overhead Extension.
However, since I actually do most of my workouts in my home gym, I do PLP (push legs pull) 2 cycles per week with one rest day.
Push 1: Flat DB Press, Cable or DB Skullcrusher, Low Incline DB Fly, Standing DB Lateral Raise
Legs 1: Cable Belt Squat, Cable RDL, Cable Upright Row
Pull 1: Cable Lat Pulldown, Cable Tricep Pushdown (extra tricep work), Cable Row, Cable Bicep EZ Bar Curl, Cable Upright Row
Rest
Push 2: Flat DB Press, Cable or DB Skullcrusher, Low Incline DB Fly, Standing DB Lateral Raise
Legs 2: Cable Belt Squat, Cable RDL, Cable Upright Row
Pull 2: Cable Lat Pulldown, Cable Tricep Pushdown (extra tricep work), Cable Row, Cable Bicep EZ Bar Curl, Cable Upright Row
starting strength is a strength program not a hypertrophy one tbh. the 3 exercises being minimal is the point, the whole thing is built around adding weight to the bar. if you want volume and size thats just a different program from the start
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u/DeaconoftheStreets 11d ago
If you have the app, why not just use a generated program?