How to build a hypertrophy program

A practical, no-fluff walkthrough you can finish in a few minutes.

Hypertrophy training is about doing enough hard, progressively heavier work for each muscle group across the week, then recovering. This guide walks through building a plan with the Hypertrophy Tracker builder and exporting it as a CSV you can take to the gym.

1. Pick a split that fits your week

Choose a split based on how many days you can realistically train:

More days isn't automatically better — consistency and recovery matter more than squeezing in extra sessions.

2. Set your weekly schedule

Mark which days are training vs rest and label each session (Push, Pull, Legs, Upper, Lower…). Rest days are part of the plan, not a failure — they're when muscle actually grows.

3. Assign exercises and weekly volume

Add exercises to each day. A common evidence-based target is roughly 10–20 hard sets per muscle group per week. Start at the lower end if you're newer or recovery is limited, and bias toward compound movements (presses, rows, squats, hinges) with isolation work to fill gaps.

4. Choose how each exercise progresses

Progressive overload means gradually doing more over time. Per exercise you can use:

• Double progression — add reps within your range (e.g. 8→12), then add weight and reset reps.
• Custom weight jumps — a fixed increase each week, useful for big compounds.
• e1RM-based — progress relative to an estimated one-rep max.

5. Plan deloads

Every few weeks, a lighter deload week helps you recover and keep progressing. Mark weeks like 4, 8, and 12 as deloads and the plan reduces their targets automatically.

6. Export and track

Export a week-by-week CSV with target weight and reps for every set. Open it in Excel or Google Sheets, fill in your actual numbers each session, and re-import later to adjust. See the CSV reference for the format and the FAQ for common questions.