Cycle 3 Overview: What’s The Difference Between Strength and Hypertrohpy?

Cycle 2 was all about getting strong and we did exactly that.

In February we saw over 200 new personal records set and we were floored!

Cycle 3 is all about taking the strength we built and turning it into muscle and fitness.

In this article we will give you an overview of Cycle 3 and teach you the difference between strength training and hypertrophy/muscle building training.

Overall Focus

The focus for Cycle 3 is to drive lean muscle tissue up, increase endurance and make start to get comfortable running again before May and June.

The end of Cycle 2 had us lifting in the 2-5 rep range and making sure we were increasing weight every week.

Our next strength training cycle in April will be all about fitness so we are focusing on starting to build a bridge from strength to fitness in this cycle so we are ready to rock in April.

Daily Focus

For this training cycle we are adding more variety in our movements so we can focus on hitting higher reps in our sets without wearing our joints down or getting overtaxed in any one area.

Below is a weekly breakdown of how each day will be laid out but if you have any questions make sure to ask your coach when you take your next class.

Monday

• Front Squat + Landmine Press or DB Push Press and KB or DB Swings + Sprint Conditioning

Tuesday

• Close Grip Bench Press or Neutral Grip DB Bench Press + Split Squats or Dual KB Box Squats and Chin Ups or Ring Rows + Heavy Biceps and High Rep Triceps

Wednesday

• 30 Minute Tough Aerobic Conditioning + Shoulder Finishers

Thursday

• Deadlifts or Single Leg RDLs and Ring Rows or Heavy Carries + Landmine Squat or Goblet Squats and DB Floor Press + Heavy Triceps and High Rep Biceps

Friday

• Strict Press + Walking Lunges or Reverse Lunges and Single Arm Rows or Gorilla Rows + Sprint Conditioning

Saturday

• 30 Minute Tough Aerobic Conditioning + Bodybuilding

Strength Training Vs Hypertrophy. What’s The Difference?

Building strength vs building muscle is often made way too complicated when it doesn’t need to be. Here is what you need to know:

Strength

If you want to build strength you need to have a program that helps you move more weight. You can do that in a multitude of ways but the easiest (and most effective) way to do that is to simply do less reps each week and add more weight each week. Here is what that looked like in Cycle 2 and how weights may have increased (and did for ALOT of you):

Week 1 – 6-8 Reps – 165 lb Back Squat

Week 2 – 6-8 Reps – 185 lb Back Squat

Week 3 – 4-6 Reps – 195 lb Back Squat

Week 4 – 3-5 Reps – 200 lb Back Squat

Week 5 – 2-3 Reps – 205 lb Back Squat

The client spent less time under the weight in week 5 than they did in week 1 which allowed them to increase in weight. The magic in strength training is knowing when to change your reps and when to increase your weight.

Hypertrophy

When you are trying to build muscle you have a lot of great ways you can build muscle to choose from. The main way you can increase muscle is to spend more time under the weights. In the strength example we spent less time under the weights but we flip that on its head for hypertrophy.

In Cycle 3 we will do higher reps of each movement and generally stay in the 6-15 rep range so it allows us to have more “time under tension” when we lift.

The reason we do hypertrophy cycles AFTER our strength blocks is because (ideally) we can do our higher rep work with heavier weights now that we are stronger. Let’s use Bench Press as our example. If I could Bench Press 100 lbs but I increased the weight to 125 lbs after 5 weeks of strength training I now have a higher 60-80% number to aim for. Before strength training I would have done 6-8 reps at 60-80 lbs but now I am doing 6-8 reps at 75-100 lbs. This is going to make every session much more efficient and it will ensure I am able to build more muscle because I am spending more time under the weight and the weights are heavier. It’s a compounding effect that we wouldn’t have been able to have if we had not strength trained first.

So How Do You Use This?

1. We are going to continue using the RPE scale (articles linked below) to keep shooting for targets. In our hypertrophy cycle we want you to focus on getting a certain amount of reps away from failure on each set. If I have an 8/10 RPE I need to be 2 reps away from failure and if I am at a 7/10 I need to be 3 reps away from failure. This will ensure we are under the right weights for the appropriate amount of time.
2. If we go up in reps on an exercise try to use the same weight as last time and do more reps with that same weight. If I did 100 lbs for 10 reps last week then I will try to do 12 reps with 100 lbs in two weeks when I see that exercise again.
3. Use week 1 to make sure you feel really comfortable with each movement so that when you increase in reps you will feel really confident pushing yourself.

Nutritional Considerations

Building muscle is only possible with good nutrition. Trust me, I’ve tried to do it without the nutrition side and it just doesn’t work. Here are 3 things you need to nail if you want to make this cycle as effective as possible:

1. Over 75% of your muscle mass is comprised of water. Making sure you are hydrated is going to be the number 1 way to increase muscle for a majority of people. Focusing on making sure you are drinking 50% or more of your bodyweight in ounces of water per day will be crucial to muscle increases.
2. Sleep sleep and sleep some more. A majority of muscle is built at rest so prioritizing sleep is not optional if you are looking to optimize muscle growth. Aim to be consistent with the times you get to bed every night and you will see major benefits that aren’t just limited to building lean muscle tissue.
3. Increase protein consumption in the morning to 35-50 grams per day. Our bodies have storage centers for carbs and fats but don’t have the same stores for protein so making sure you are starting your day with protein will increase muscle tissue, energy and digestive rhythms 10/10 times.
4. Schedule an Inbody scan with one our Consultation Staff to see where you currently are and get personal recommendations on how you can make this cycle as effective as possible.

If you are interested in diving deeper into RPE we addressed it in our article on Cycle 2 and here are two of my favorite articles on the subject from EliteFTS and BarBend.

You all exceeded every expectation we had in Cycle 2 (and they were sky high to begin with) so let’s keep that momentum moving forward as we roll into Cycle 3.

We can’t wait to see what you accomplish!