Hi guys,
After a three year hiatus where I could not go to the gym, I used this routine to get back to nearing my old levels of muscle size in a very short time. In 6 months I went from 84.9 with 22% bodyfat to 88.6kg with 15% bodyfat. I developed this routine while training others and tweaking it to work almost universally.
I wanted to use this routine as my stepping stone to a nice career in sports medicine, but lately my ambitions have steered me to a different medical field. So here it is, open source and free for anyone to use and change to their liking:
This is a very intense high volume routine to gain mass in the off season; 4-5 pounds of muscle gain a month is not unheard of. A complete mastery of the techniques to perform these exercises is a must to prevent injury. If you don’t know how to correctly do these exercises, do not try this training method just yet. Implement the exercises you don’t know in a conventional routine and come back when you feel comfortable with the movements.
Routine consists of workouts A/B/L, with A and B having three variations. The structure is A1,B1,L, day off, A2,B2,L, day off, A3,B3,L. So every 11 days you are doing 9 workouts.
You should complete this sequence at least 6-8x times, which will take 2-3
months, before assessment of muscle development. After such a cycle a rest period of two weeks should take place where you only do light cardio and stretches.
Except where otherwise specified,
exercises are done at the working weight with a 15/10/8/6/3 rep sequence and a maximum rest time of 30 seconds, and then followed up with volume sets of 6 reps at 80% the working weight until you fail to complete a whole set.
The rep sequence sets should be done until failure, the volume sets should be done with 1 rep in reserve.
Progression:
The working weight is increased when you can complete the rep sequence with a controlled and correct movement. For the first few workouts, this is expected to almost always happen every single workout
Diet:
2 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight, total calories= TDEE + 600kcal (+-200kcal). When designing a diet plan, put more focus on slow digestion proteins like casein and egg protein instead of fast acting proteins like whey. Protein timing is however irrelevant.
Body composition should be measured every four weeks by 7 site skinfold caliper measurement. If the gain in fat free mass is less than 40% of the total mass gain, reduce the daily kcal surplus with 100-200kcal
Workouts:
A1 Dumbbell Incline fly
A1 Dumbbell Overheadpress
A1 Dumbbell JM press
A2 Guillotine incline dumbbell press
A2 Lateral raise bentover/standing superset 4x12
A2 Skullcrushers
A3 Chest pressmachine
A3 Upright Row (no volume sets)
A3 tricep cable pulldown
B1 Seated 30degree incline hammer curls
B1 Wrist curls 3x20
B1 Chinups 3 sets until failure
B1 Shrugs 3x12
B2 Preacher curls
B2 Reverse Cable Curls 4x12
B2 Lat pulldown 4x12
B2 Dumbbell row
B3 Standing barbell curls
B3 pronating cable curls 4x12
B3 semisupinated chinups 3 sets until failure
B3 Low cable row
L kettlebell goblet squats 10x10 (max rest time 1 minute)
L Leg curls 10x6
L adduction machine 3x20
L sitting calve raises 3x20
For the second cycle, replace JM press for weighted dips and add 8x6 rep deadlifts at the start of the legs workout. Also replace kettlebell goblet squats for barbell front squats. Accurate assessment of body composition should guide any other changes in exercise.
How do I progress?
Each workout you try to hit the rep sequence for each listed movement. If you are not able to do this, repeat the same working weight for the next time you do the movement. Otherwise, add weight the next time. Either way, the total weight you are moving will increase every time. This forces the muscles to grow.
Going to failure
For the working weight sets, it is important to go to failure every set, do not stop before the muscle fails completely. This means that for the rep sequence 15/10/8/6/3, if you end up doing 20/8/5/4/2 instead, that’s great but you should still try to hit the minimal reps in the sequence next time with the same weight. Do not spare yourself in the first couple of sets to match the rep sequence in the later sets.
Controlled variables
Always perform a movement with the same speed and technique. Rest time should be fixed, I recommend 30 seconds max. If you don’t like timers, count your breaths; after ten breaths you start the next set.
Why the odd leg day exercises?
This routine is based on old school bodybuilding ideals, mostly from the work of Vince Gironda, who believed that for perfect aesthetics men should not have a big ass. Front squats hit the quads more and the rest of the exercises builds mass without destroying the V-shape (small waist, wide shoulders) you should strive for.
Why these exercises?
These exercises are selected based on empirical experience combined with what we know works best based on (very limited) EMG research. You should not only aim to gain mass, you want that mass to be in the right places to give you that old school v-shape and the optical illusion of mass.
At some point you can replace these exercises with similar variations that work the same muscles, although I would recommend to follow the routine as is for at least 3 months before changing things up.
How about barbell work, where is my beloved bench press?
Firstly going to failure repeatedly in this manner and with this high of a volume is dangerous when doing an exercise like barbell bench. Also dumbbell presses are superior to barbell bench when it comes to hypertrophy training.
This is a specialized routine to gain mass quickly, If you like the big three and want to compete in powerlifting meets, I suggest you do a specific routine focused on those movements
How come some exercises have conventional straight sets instead of rep sequence style?
Some exercises do not lend themselves for going to failure with short rest intervals, because there is a higher chance of injury, because of a low range of motion, or because your technique will unavoidably get worse each set when going to failure.
For upright rows you should not do volume sets because of a higher risk of injury when doing this movement with high volume.
I have seen this repseq stuff before?
Yes it’s nothing more than basically one pause rep set, but with a fixed amount of reps to aim for before increasing the working weight. Pause rep sets have been used for decades with good results. The volume weight sets have been described in many workout routines as well and force you to aim for maximal volume each workout. The alternating exercises are pulled and adapted from Dante Trudel’s DC training.
Why is this workout called Bison Bulk?
What is a workout routine without a cringy name? Also Bisons are amazing and very underrated animals. We should mention Bisons more. You can call this routine whatever you like btw.
What are your credentials?
I do not have any to share since sharing any relevant credentials would deanonimize me to some extent. I work in the medical field, but to be honest not specifically physical therapy or sports medicine. If you like to follow anyone with actual credentials instead I would recommend you to look up Dr Mike from renaissance periodization. Don’t buy his app though, waste of money. Get a paper notebook and a nice pen instead.
Why is this routine better than routine x or routine y?
It isn’t. It might give you amazing results, it might not. Do whatever you feel is right, just be consistent in how you train
why biceps before back?
Because it works great, you can also do the more conventional back before biceps if you want and I won’t shed an eye.
Keep notes
Log everything you do, every set, every rep, how hard the set was etc. The next time you do the workout, you want to beat your previous workout.
Example log entry of workout A1:
Dumbbell incline fly
Working weight: 14kg
16/11/8/6/3 reps
Volume weight: 11kg
6/6/5 reps
Dumbbell Overheadpress
Working weight: 22kg
14/8/8/5/2 reps
Volume weight: 18kg
6/6/6/4
Dumbbell JM press
Working weight: 16kg
15/12/8/7/4
Volume weight: 12kg
6/6/6/6/4
In this case this person would increase the weight for flyes and jm press next workout, for the dumbell overheadpress he would try again to hit the rep sequence next workout with the same working weight.
Let me know if you have questions or comments.
After a three year hiatus where I could not go to the gym, I used this routine to get back to nearing my old levels of muscle size in a very short time. In 6 months I went from 84.9 with 22% bodyfat to 88.6kg with 15% bodyfat. I developed this routine while training others and tweaking it to work almost universally.
I wanted to use this routine as my stepping stone to a nice career in sports medicine, but lately my ambitions have steered me to a different medical field. So here it is, open source and free for anyone to use and change to their liking:
This is a very intense high volume routine to gain mass in the off season; 4-5 pounds of muscle gain a month is not unheard of. A complete mastery of the techniques to perform these exercises is a must to prevent injury. If you don’t know how to correctly do these exercises, do not try this training method just yet. Implement the exercises you don’t know in a conventional routine and come back when you feel comfortable with the movements.
Routine consists of workouts A/B/L, with A and B having three variations. The structure is A1,B1,L, day off, A2,B2,L, day off, A3,B3,L. So every 11 days you are doing 9 workouts.
You should complete this sequence at least 6-8x times, which will take 2-3
months, before assessment of muscle development. After such a cycle a rest period of two weeks should take place where you only do light cardio and stretches.
Except where otherwise specified,
exercises are done at the working weight with a 15/10/8/6/3 rep sequence and a maximum rest time of 30 seconds, and then followed up with volume sets of 6 reps at 80% the working weight until you fail to complete a whole set.
The rep sequence sets should be done until failure, the volume sets should be done with 1 rep in reserve.
Progression:
The working weight is increased when you can complete the rep sequence with a controlled and correct movement. For the first few workouts, this is expected to almost always happen every single workout
Diet:
2 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight, total calories= TDEE + 600kcal (+-200kcal). When designing a diet plan, put more focus on slow digestion proteins like casein and egg protein instead of fast acting proteins like whey. Protein timing is however irrelevant.
Body composition should be measured every four weeks by 7 site skinfold caliper measurement. If the gain in fat free mass is less than 40% of the total mass gain, reduce the daily kcal surplus with 100-200kcal
Workouts:
A1 Dumbbell Incline fly
A1 Dumbbell Overheadpress
A1 Dumbbell JM press
A2 Guillotine incline dumbbell press
A2 Lateral raise bentover/standing superset 4x12
A2 Skullcrushers
A3 Chest pressmachine
A3 Upright Row (no volume sets)
A3 tricep cable pulldown
B1 Seated 30degree incline hammer curls
B1 Wrist curls 3x20
B1 Chinups 3 sets until failure
B1 Shrugs 3x12
B2 Preacher curls
B2 Reverse Cable Curls 4x12
B2 Lat pulldown 4x12
B2 Dumbbell row
B3 Standing barbell curls
B3 pronating cable curls 4x12
B3 semisupinated chinups 3 sets until failure
B3 Low cable row
L kettlebell goblet squats 10x10 (max rest time 1 minute)
L Leg curls 10x6
L adduction machine 3x20
L sitting calve raises 3x20
For the second cycle, replace JM press for weighted dips and add 8x6 rep deadlifts at the start of the legs workout. Also replace kettlebell goblet squats for barbell front squats. Accurate assessment of body composition should guide any other changes in exercise.
How do I progress?
Each workout you try to hit the rep sequence for each listed movement. If you are not able to do this, repeat the same working weight for the next time you do the movement. Otherwise, add weight the next time. Either way, the total weight you are moving will increase every time. This forces the muscles to grow.
Going to failure
For the working weight sets, it is important to go to failure every set, do not stop before the muscle fails completely. This means that for the rep sequence 15/10/8/6/3, if you end up doing 20/8/5/4/2 instead, that’s great but you should still try to hit the minimal reps in the sequence next time with the same weight. Do not spare yourself in the first couple of sets to match the rep sequence in the later sets.
Controlled variables
Always perform a movement with the same speed and technique. Rest time should be fixed, I recommend 30 seconds max. If you don’t like timers, count your breaths; after ten breaths you start the next set.
Why the odd leg day exercises?
This routine is based on old school bodybuilding ideals, mostly from the work of Vince Gironda, who believed that for perfect aesthetics men should not have a big ass. Front squats hit the quads more and the rest of the exercises builds mass without destroying the V-shape (small waist, wide shoulders) you should strive for.
Why these exercises?
These exercises are selected based on empirical experience combined with what we know works best based on (very limited) EMG research. You should not only aim to gain mass, you want that mass to be in the right places to give you that old school v-shape and the optical illusion of mass.
At some point you can replace these exercises with similar variations that work the same muscles, although I would recommend to follow the routine as is for at least 3 months before changing things up.
How about barbell work, where is my beloved bench press?
Firstly going to failure repeatedly in this manner and with this high of a volume is dangerous when doing an exercise like barbell bench. Also dumbbell presses are superior to barbell bench when it comes to hypertrophy training.
This is a specialized routine to gain mass quickly, If you like the big three and want to compete in powerlifting meets, I suggest you do a specific routine focused on those movements
How come some exercises have conventional straight sets instead of rep sequence style?
Some exercises do not lend themselves for going to failure with short rest intervals, because there is a higher chance of injury, because of a low range of motion, or because your technique will unavoidably get worse each set when going to failure.
For upright rows you should not do volume sets because of a higher risk of injury when doing this movement with high volume.
I have seen this repseq stuff before?
Yes it’s nothing more than basically one pause rep set, but with a fixed amount of reps to aim for before increasing the working weight. Pause rep sets have been used for decades with good results. The volume weight sets have been described in many workout routines as well and force you to aim for maximal volume each workout. The alternating exercises are pulled and adapted from Dante Trudel’s DC training.
Why is this workout called Bison Bulk?
What is a workout routine without a cringy name? Also Bisons are amazing and very underrated animals. We should mention Bisons more. You can call this routine whatever you like btw.
What are your credentials?
I do not have any to share since sharing any relevant credentials would deanonimize me to some extent. I work in the medical field, but to be honest not specifically physical therapy or sports medicine. If you like to follow anyone with actual credentials instead I would recommend you to look up Dr Mike from renaissance periodization. Don’t buy his app though, waste of money. Get a paper notebook and a nice pen instead.
Why is this routine better than routine x or routine y?
It isn’t. It might give you amazing results, it might not. Do whatever you feel is right, just be consistent in how you train
why biceps before back?
Because it works great, you can also do the more conventional back before biceps if you want and I won’t shed an eye.
Keep notes
Log everything you do, every set, every rep, how hard the set was etc. The next time you do the workout, you want to beat your previous workout.
Example log entry of workout A1:
Dumbbell incline fly
Working weight: 14kg
16/11/8/6/3 reps
Volume weight: 11kg
6/6/5 reps
Dumbbell Overheadpress
Working weight: 22kg
14/8/8/5/2 reps
Volume weight: 18kg
6/6/6/4
Dumbbell JM press
Working weight: 16kg
15/12/8/7/4
Volume weight: 12kg
6/6/6/6/4
In this case this person would increase the weight for flyes and jm press next workout, for the dumbell overheadpress he would try again to hit the rep sequence next workout with the same working weight.
Let me know if you have questions or comments.