Just about every person who goes to the gym is there for muscle growth, but how does it actually work and how can understanding it help you make your workouts more effective?

What is Hypertrophy?

Hypertrophy is the creation of new muscle tissue. When you lift weights heavy enough to challenge a muscle it causes microscopic tears to the muscle fibres, which your body then repairs by filling in the gaps with new muscle cells. Over time these small amounts of new muscle cells add up to a noticeable amount of muscle mass. By targeting close muscle groups together via compound movements you can more effectively stimulate multiple muscles at once.

To most effectively promote hypertrophy, exercises should be split into sets and reps with rest periods in between. For example, a 3x10 would mean that you perform 10 reps, rest for 2-3 minutes to allow the muscle to recover, then repeat two more times for a total of three sets. This allows you to take a muscle close to failure multiple times, increasing the amount of muscle damage, and therefore hypertrophy, that you get from each exercise.

Now that you know what hypertrophy is, here are 5 workouts designed to cause hypertrophy for each different muscle group in the body -

Hypertrophy Chest Workout

Swiss Bar Press

Reps: 10-12

Equipment needed: Weight bench, Swiss Bar and plates.

Benefits: This variation takes stress off the shoulders, helping to ensure long term shoulder health.

Incline Dumbbell Press

Reps: 12-15

Equipment needed: Adjustable weight bench and dumbbells.

Benefits: The incline dumbbell press is great for targeting the upper chest. It also works the delts, making it a two-in-one bench press and overhead press variation.

Chest Dips

Reps: 6-8

Equipment needed: Dip bars and weighted vest.

Benefits: The position of the dip handles allows the hands to travel past the chest, letting you go deeper than a bench press and get a better stretch on the muscles.

Floor Fly

Reps: 8-10

Equipment needed: Dumbbells.

Benefits: The floor fly allows you to get a greater stretch and contraction on the pecs by moving the dumbbells out away from the body at the bottom, and then bringing them together and squeezing the muscle at the top.

Hypertrophy Arms Workout

Chin Ups

Reps: 8-10

Equipment needed: Pull Up Bar.

Benefits: This supinated grip is great for targeting the biceps alongside the upper back and forearms.

Swiss Bar Hammer Curls

Reps: 12-15

Equipment needed: Swiss bar.

Benefits: Swiss bar hammer curls require less stabilisation than dumbbells, meaning you can add more weight to the bar.

Preacher Curls

Reps: 10-12

Equipment needed: Preacher curl bench and EZ curl bar.

Benefits: Using an EZ curl bar makes preacher curls more comfortable, allowing for fantastic bicep isolation.

Swiss Bar Bench Press

Reps: 12-15

Equipment needed: Weight bench and Swiss bar.

Benefits: The bench press is perfect compound movement for tricep and chest development.

Dips

Reps: 15-20

Equipment needed: Dip bars.

Benefits: Dips heavily involve the triceps, keeping your torso upright biases them even more.

Hypertrophy Shoulder Workout

Face Pulls

Reps: 12-15

Equipment needed: Cable machine and rope attachment.

Benefits: Face pulls work the rear delts, giving your shoulders a great side profile.

Push Press

Reps: 8-10

Equipment needed: Dumbbells.

Benefits: The push press mainly targets the delts, but it also works the traps, quads, and hamstrings, making it great full body movement.

Lateral Raise

Reps: 12-15

Equipment needed: Adjustable weight bench and dumbbells.

Benefits: Lateral raises work the lateral, or side delts. Perform them seated on a bench for greater stability.

Shoulder Press

Reps: 10-12

Equipment needed: Adjustable weight bench and dumbbells.

Benefits: The shoulder press hits both the front and side delts.

Hypertrophy Legs Workout

Resistance Band Hamstring Curls

Reps: 15-20

Equipment needed: Resistance band.

Benefits: Using a Resistance Band for hamstring curls helps to even out the strength curve by loading the rep more at the furthest point, and deloading it at the bottom.

Glute Ham Raises

Reps: 8-10

Equipment needed: GHD Machine.

Benefits: The Glute Ham Developer allows you to perform glute ham raises to develop the hamstrings, glutes, and calves.

Romanian Deadlifts

Reps: 12-15

Equipment needed: Barbell and weight plates.

Benefits: The RDL is a deadlift variation where your posterior chain remains under tension for a wider range of motion.

Ramp Squats

Reps: 10-12

Equipment needed: Squat ramp, barbell and plates.

Benefits: Elevating your heels on a ramp lets you squat deeper, especially if you have ankle or hip mobility issues.

Bulgarian Split Squats

Reps: 12-15

Equipment needed: Split squat stand and dumbbells.

Benefits: By elevating one leg on a split squat stand you can work unilaterally, helping to prevent muscular imbalances.

Hypertrophy Back Workout

Seated Row

Reps: 12-15

Equipment needed: Cable machine and narrow grip row attachment.

Benefits: Seated Rows are a great full-back movement, hitting everything from the lats, to the traps, rhomboids, and rear delts.

Lat Pulldowns

Reps: 8-10

Equipment needed: Cable machine and lat pulldown bar.

Benefits: Lat pulldowns are one of the most popular back exercises in the world for targeting your lats.

Cable Machine Pullovers

Reps: 10-12

Equipment needed: Cable Machine and rope attachment.

Benefits: Cable pullovers let your hands travel behind the body at the bottom for a greater contraction.

Meadows Rows

Reps: 6-8

Equipment needed: Landmine attachment and barbell.

Benefits: Since it is performed unilaterally, the Meadows row is perfect for correcting muscular imbalances.

Now you have 5 complete workouts that will target every muscle in your body, add them into your program, or turn them into a 5x a week program on their own by doing each provided workout once a week, placing the two rest days as you feel you need them.

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Tags: Exercise Type > Strength ; Misc > Workout