After injuring my back (reoccuring problem) while on Candito`s 6wk strength program I decided to change my goals, thus changing my program. I changed my routine to a P/P/L roughly 3 months ago in hopes for more aesthetic gains (which in my opinion, has been working). I kept all my reps in the 8-12 rep range. Though I can't help but to think back to Candito`s program where he mentioned how "strength and muscle mass go hand in hand." So my questions are:

Should I have strength orientated lifting days for hypertrophy goals? For example on p/p/l you hit each workout twice a week. Maybe one day for hypertrophy (low intensity) and one for strength (high intensity)?

This post was edited by Lancet_Jade on Mar 1 2015 03:42am

strength and muscle mass do not go hand in hand, period.

Yes you can gain considerable muscle mass while doing a strength program but volume beats strength for hypertrophy 100%

I would like to point out without even reading past the first line that most injuries of any significant severity will not heal within the time frame that it takes to become non-sore. Athletes will often rupture part of a tendon or ligament and take the next day or two off until the pain goes away, then continue to train. What actually ends up happening is a thin layer of scar tissue fills in the missing tissue once the inflammatory days are over and they go out and try to load this weak tissue and end up retearing. The healing process now has to begin again, and you're no better off than before.

Ofc intensity matters. You won't build mass on extreme low weights even if you do volume rep scheme because volume is Weight x Reps.

5x20x95=9500
4x20x115=9200
3x20x155=9300
5x10x185= 9250
8x5x230=9200

They are about the same volume but do they give the same exact training effect because of ''volume''? Nope the last 2 options would probably give the best results with one barely ''better'' for hypertrophy and the other for strength. However I would chose the later any days because the stronger you are the more hypertrophy potential you have.

Good info, thanks. The first two times I injured it I only took 5-7 days off. The last time it happened I took 16 days off and was seen by my doctor, whom I have a follow up with in a week. I haven't lifted heavy since (I don't do deadlifts anymore).

Haven't injured it since, though it still feels "weak" in that area.



Exactly my thought, I'd like to hear more opinions, but if I decide to incorporate strength work how should I go about it??


This post was edited by Lancet_Jade on Mar 1 2015 09:23am

give yourself 1-2 weeks or more depending on the severity of the injury (couple days complete rest or no-gravity movement) and then begin to mobilize by literally just practicing ROM unloaded.

Yeah I stuck with pure bodyweight exercises for almost 2 months with my ankle before progressively loading back up weight wise.

Actually full on squatted yesterday for the first time in ~6 months. Finally getting decent rom back in my ankle. *only went up to 95 lbs though ha

This post was edited by Snazzy on Mar 1 2015 11:54am

I am pretty sure Lightman discredited this statement in an older thread where everyone was recommending a beginner to use starting strength even tho all he cared about was hypertrophy. Something along the lines of, the weight doesnt matter, the individual could be repping 110 and have the same hypertrophic effects as another individual repping 185 assuming hes using a certain percentage of his maximal effort the lactic acid will still build up.

Yes and no. A warm-up set of 20 reps with the bar (45 lbs) gives a volume of 900 lbs while it also feel weightless. In some case low intensity would not give you the adaptation of hypertrophy a set with more weight could give to you. Yes in general if you want to gain hypertrophy you'd have to lift in an Hypertrophy rep range but to say weight doesn't matter is completely foolish.

DUP for me is far superior than pure hypertrophy/strength programs especially for someone natural.

But repping the bar while it feels weightless isnt using a certain percentage of your maximal effort for hypertrophic effects. Let's just say you need to use 70% of your maximal effort, someone repping the bar while it feels weightless may only be using 20% of his maximal effort, that isnt what hypertrophy is intended to do. The idea is to use a weight that is high for you, that those last few reps in the 10-12 range are a struggle/require effortt