Summary

The PHUL workout routine is a specialized four-day-per-week program designed to optimize both muscle size and strength, targeting upper and lower body strength and hypertrophy separately.

Abstract

The PHUL workout routine, which stands for Power, Hypertrophy, Upper, Lower, is tailored for individuals seeking to maximize muscle size and strength. It involves two days of strength training with heavy loads and low reps, followed by two days of hypertrophy training with moderate to lighter loads and medium to high reps. This routine is not recommended for beginners, as they can achieve size and strength gains through simpler programs. The PHUL system emphasizes the importance of separating strength and size training, suggesting that while there is a correlation between size and strength, targeted training can optimize both. The program includes specific exercises for each focus area, with periodization and adjustments based on individual response and progress. It allows for flexibility in scheduling and exercise selection, and it underscores the necessity of proper nutrition and calorie surplus for size gains.

Opinions

The PHUL system is considered an excellent method of training for those beyond the beginner stage.
It is suggested that some individuals may respond better to higher or lower rep ranges within the hypertrophy spectrum.
The program's high volume necessitates starting with comfortable weights and stopping sets with reps in reserve to ensure recovery.
Progressive overload is key, with weight increases each week until sets can no longer be completed within the prescribed rep range.
Regular de-loads or resets are recommended when progress stalls.
Exercises can be modified as long as they train the same movement patterns, which can also help prevent plateaus and injuries.
The program's flexibility allows for a three-day schedule if necessary, continuing workouts into the next week.
Abdominal exercises are not included but can be added at the end of lower body training days.
Rest periods should be adjusted based on the type of exercise, with longer rests for compound exercises.
Nutrition is highlighted as a critical component for muscle size gains, with a moderate calorie surplus and adequate protein intake advised.

The PHUL Workout Routine for Size and Strength

The Power, Hypertrophy, Upper, Lower training split.

If you want to build up your strength, as well as your muscle size, to the maximum amount possible, the PHUL workout program could be a useful tool to help you achieve that.

It’s not the be-all-and-end-all of powerbuilding routines, but it is an excellent method of training, and will certainly give you tremendous results if you use it properly.

So, what is the PHUL system, and what are the considerations you need to bear in mind to get the best results from it? Let’s find out.

What Is the PHUL Training System?

PHUL stands for power, hypertrophy, upper, lower, and it’s just a basic four-day-per-week upper/lower body split routine, with a slight difference.

Your first two workouts of the week will focus on strength training. That is training with heavy loads for low reps. Some hypertrophy (growth) work is also included in these two days.

Then, your last two workouts will focus exclusively on hypertrophy training. That is training with moderate to lighter loads for medium to high reps.

Beginners do not need to worry about splitting up their training focus like this, however, as they will generally be able to increase both their size and their strength very well by using a generic 3–4 sets of 5–8 reps training regimen, with a focus on just a few compound exercises. So, this is not a beginner’s routine.

Also, there is a strong correlation between size and strength, anyway, and being bigger generally means being stronger as well. However, it is possible to get a lot stronger without increasing your size. And it is also possible to get bigger without getting stronger.

But you can only increase your strength so much at a given size. After that, if you want to get stronger still, you will have to get bigger.

So, getting bigger will allow you to get stronger, and getting stronger will allow you to use heavier weights on your hypertrophy work, which will give a stronger muscle-building stimulus, allowing you to get bigger.

Therefore, once you are past the beginner stage, it makes sense to train specifically for both size and strength. You can separate these into training blocks if you wish. Or you can do them both together — as in the PHUL system.

Generally speaking, sets of 1–8 reps are good for building strength, but 1–5 is better, with 3–5 being the most commonly used rep range. For hypertrophy, sets of anything between five and 30 reps are equally effective — on average. However, some people do respond better to the lower end of this rep range, and others respond better to the higher end of the range. Also, higher reps, with lighter weights, are easier to recover from (usually), so it makes sense to take advantage of this if you find you grow well from that sort of training.

So, in the program below, the reps suggested for the hypertrophy work can be adjusted according to what suits you best.

The PHUL Workout Program

Your strength work is done on the big compound lifts, particularly the squat, bench press, and deadlift, though a couple of others are also included. The smaller compound exercises and isolation exercises are used specifically for hypertrophy. So, your routine is set up as follows:

Monday — Upper Body Strength Focused

Bench Press 3–4 X 3–5
Bent-over Row 3–4 X 3–5
Incline Dumbell Press 3–4 X 10–12
Lat Pulldowns 3–4 X 10–12
Overhead Barbell Press 3–4 X 6–8
Barbell Curl 3–4 X 12–15
Lying Triceps Extension 3–4 X 12–15

Tuesday — Lower Body Strength Focused

Squat 3–4 X 3–5
Bulgarian Split Squat 3–4 X 12–15
Deadlift 3–4 X 3–5
Lying Leg Curl 3–4 X 12–15
Calf Raise 3–4 X 12–15

Thursday — Upper Body Hypertrophy

Incline Bench Press 3–4 X 10–12
Cable Row 3–4 X 10–12
Cable Flyes 3–4 X 12–15
Close-grip Pulldowns 3–4 X 10–12
Lateral Raise 3–4 X 12–15
Preacher Curl 3–4 X 12–15
Triceps Pressdowns 3–4 X 12–15

Friday — Lower Body Hypertrophy

Zercher Squat 3–4 X 10–12
Leg Press 3–4 X 12–15
Romanian Deadlift 3–4 X 12–15
Seated Leg Curl 3–4 X 12–15
Calf Raise 3–4 X 12–15

Training Considerations

This is a relatively high-volume training program (especially if you do four sets of most of the exercises), so you should start with weights that are fairly comfortable to use. Volume is a much more potent driver of hypertrophy than proximity to failure, and training very close to failure is difficult to recover from. Therefore, most of your sets should be stopped with around 1–3 RIR (reps in reserve). Your first set will generally be a little harder than your last set, and you can periodize the effort as well.

Periodizing will mean starting your program with weights which you can do for the top end of the rep ranges on all your sets without much difficulty (3–4 RIR on all sets), but you will add a little weight each week until it gets hard to get through them. If you fail to get through all your sets while maintaining the rep count (stopping with at least 1 RIR), stay with that weight, until you can get them all.

For your strength work, it’s even more important to stop short of failure, though, again, you can periodize your effort as above.

When you get to the point where your progress has stalled, take a de-load week, or just do a reset on the exercises(s) that you have stalled on, and build back up again.

As mentioned above, the repetition ranges for the hypertrophy work can be adjusted according to your personal preferences, and what you respond best to. If you get a good pump, and you feel that your muscles have been well worked, with no pain being felt in your joints when performing the exercise, you are probably about right.

Also, the exercises can be altered if you wish, as long as they train the same movement patterns. And, if you are planning to do this program for the long term, you may want to switch most of the exercises for similar ones every 3–6 months, anyway. For many exercises, however, this may only mean a slight change in grip width or stance, rather than a different exercise, as such.

Although this is a four-day-per-week training program, if you cannot get to the gym four days per week, you can do it over three days (or alternate days), if you wish. Just do the workouts in the order listed, and continue them into the next week. There’s no law that says you have to stick to a seven-day training regimen.

This program does not include any abdominal exercises, but if you want to include one at the end of your lower body training days, that’s fine. Good examples are crunches, hanging leg raises, and ab wheel rollouts.

Rest periods between sets should be about 1–2 minutes for the isolation exercises, and 2–3 minutes for the compound exercises. But you can take more if you need to.

Finally, this is not a training consideration, but it’s worth mentioning that if you want to gain size, you will need to eat at a calorie surplus. But keep this moderate, as if you gain too fast, most of it will likely be fat. Also, your protein intake should be around 0.8–1.0g per pound of body weight(assuming you are at least relatively lean) per day.

So, is the PHUL workout routine the ultimate size and strength development program? No, but it is very good and will serve as an excellent foundation on which you can build later if you want to achieve the absolute peak strength that is possible for you. Or you can just run this permanently if you wish. It’s entirely up to you. Thanks for reading.