I’ve designed an intermediate upper/lower split routine with a hypertrophy focus and I thought I’d share it with you guys. I’ve seen other intermediate routines on this sub, but a lot of them seem to focus pretty heavily on skill work/gymnastics. That’s great if that’s what interests you, but if you’re someone who primarily wants to look good naked then it’s not necessarily the most efficient use of your time (though any quality routine will get you there eventually).
The routine looks pretty similar to other intermediate lifting routines out there (e.g. Lyle McDonald’s generic bulking routine or A Workout Routine’s intermediate routine), but obviously uses bodyweight progressions instead of weights.
Suggested Warmup 5-10 mins
Do 30-60 seconds of each of the following movements
Forward leg swings
Lateral leg swings
Fire hydrants
Squat hold
Forward arm circles
Backward arm circles
Scapular wall slides
Band dislocates
THE ROUTINE 30-60 minutes
Upper A
Lower A
Upper B
Lower B
*Note that everything without a * next to it is a progression
**superman can be substituted for any posterior chain exercise, e.g. reverse plank
Rest times
Reps
Rest time
If you’re strapped for time (or just bored) you can speed things up by doing supersets, much like in the recommended routine. Just cut the rest time in half and alternate between push/pull exercises each set.
Schedule
Ideally, this should be done on a 4 days/week schedule but you can also do 3 days/week and alternate if that suits you better.
Picking specific exercises from the progressions
You’ll need to figure out which level of each progression is appropriate for the given rep range. If you follow the links in the table, you’ll see that I’ve made videos of each level (that I’m capable of doing) of each progression so it shouldn’t be too hard to go in and pick what feels right.
As a rule of thumb it should be moderately difficult for you to do the high end of the rep range and you should start at the low end. So for a 6-10 rep range pick the exercise that feels challenging to do 10 reps and start off your work sets at 6 reps.
Also note that most of the progressions have a different rep range depending on the workout, so you’ll be doing a different exercise for each progression depending on whether you’re doing an A workout or B workout. The reason for this is that there’s some evidence that a greater variety of rep ranges is beneficial for intermediate to advanced trainees.
P.S. If none of the exercises are difficult enough you can either (a) just do enough reps that it is challenging, or (b) use a weighted exercise (recommended). If you advance enough you will probably have to switch to weighted exercises (e.g. squat, deadlift) to continue seeing lower body progress.
Progressing
Add reps as you’re able until you’re strong enough to advance to the next progression level. Keep in mind progressive overload (i.e. adding reps or moving to more difficult exercises) is the number one thing that stimulates muscle growth, so continual progression is key.
Deloading
If you completely stop progressing for 2-3 weeks, drop back to the previous exercise in each progression and start progressing from there again.
Suggested Cooldown 10 mins
Do ~90 seconds of each of the following stretches
Prayer stretch
Rear clasp stretch
Couch stretch
Hamstring stretch
Glute stretch
DIET
Not going to say much here except that it’s pretty difficult to build muscle unless you’re eating at a caloric surplus, and it becomes increasingly difficult the more advanced you get. But also don’t go overboard. As a general rule of thumb pretty much anything you eat beyond a 250 calorie surplus (i.e. ~2 lbs of weight gain per month) will just be stored as fat (unless you’re using steroids).
TL;DR Kind of hard to tldr this… but if you’re interested in an idiot-proof, easy-to-follow version of this routine (+ a meal plan to match) you can join the beta of a web app I’m getting ready to release.
EDIT: forgot to include dips
The routine looks pretty similar to other intermediate lifting routines out there (e.g. Lyle McDonald’s generic bulking routine or A Workout Routine’s intermediate routine), but obviously uses bodyweight progressions instead of weights.
Suggested Warmup 5-10 mins
Do 30-60 seconds of each of the following movements
Forward leg swings
Lateral leg swings
Fire hydrants
Squat hold
Forward arm circles
Backward arm circles
Scapular wall slides
Band dislocates
THE ROUTINE 30-60 minutes
| 4x6-10 pushup | 4x6-10+ pistol squat | 4x6-10 handstand pushup | 4x6-10 Russian curl |
| 4x6-10 row | 3x10-15 Russian curl | 4x6-10 pullup | 3x10-15+ pistol squat |
| 3x11-15 handstand pushup | 3x10-15+ glute | 3x11-15 dip | 3x10-15+ glute |
| 3x11-15 pullup | 2x10-20 calf raises* (optional) | 3x11-15 row | 2x10-20 calf raises* (optional) |
| 2x10-20 superman* | 2x30sec L-sit | 2x15 superman* | 2x30sec plank |
Upper A
Lower A
Upper B
Lower B
*Note that everything without a * next to it is a progression
**superman can be substituted for any posterior chain exercise, e.g. reverse plank
Rest times
| 6-10 | 2:30+ |
| 11-15 | 1:30 - 2:00 |
| 15+ | 1:00-1:30 |
Reps
Rest time
If you’re strapped for time (or just bored) you can speed things up by doing supersets, much like in the recommended routine. Just cut the rest time in half and alternate between push/pull exercises each set.
Schedule
Ideally, this should be done on a 4 days/week schedule but you can also do 3 days/week and alternate if that suits you better.
Picking specific exercises from the progressions
You’ll need to figure out which level of each progression is appropriate for the given rep range. If you follow the links in the table, you’ll see that I’ve made videos of each level (that I’m capable of doing) of each progression so it shouldn’t be too hard to go in and pick what feels right.
As a rule of thumb it should be moderately difficult for you to do the high end of the rep range and you should start at the low end. So for a 6-10 rep range pick the exercise that feels challenging to do 10 reps and start off your work sets at 6 reps.
Also note that most of the progressions have a different rep range depending on the workout, so you’ll be doing a different exercise for each progression depending on whether you’re doing an A workout or B workout. The reason for this is that there’s some evidence that a greater variety of rep ranges is beneficial for intermediate to advanced trainees.
P.S. If none of the exercises are difficult enough you can either (a) just do enough reps that it is challenging, or (b) use a weighted exercise (recommended). If you advance enough you will probably have to switch to weighted exercises (e.g. squat, deadlift) to continue seeing lower body progress.
Progressing
Add reps as you’re able until you’re strong enough to advance to the next progression level. Keep in mind progressive overload (i.e. adding reps or moving to more difficult exercises) is the number one thing that stimulates muscle growth, so continual progression is key.
Deloading
If you completely stop progressing for 2-3 weeks, drop back to the previous exercise in each progression and start progressing from there again.
Suggested Cooldown 10 mins
Do ~90 seconds of each of the following stretches
Prayer stretch
Rear clasp stretch
Couch stretch
Hamstring stretch
Glute stretch
DIET
Not going to say much here except that it’s pretty difficult to build muscle unless you’re eating at a caloric surplus, and it becomes increasingly difficult the more advanced you get. But also don’t go overboard. As a general rule of thumb pretty much anything you eat beyond a 250 calorie surplus (i.e. ~2 lbs of weight gain per month) will just be stored as fat (unless you’re using steroids).
TL;DR Kind of hard to tldr this… but if you’re interested in an idiot-proof, easy-to-follow version of this routine (+ a meal plan to match) you can join the beta of a web app I’m getting ready to release.
EDIT: forgot to include dips
