Preface:

Let me preface this by saying that the best training program is a training that you can stick to and makes you feel awesome. I have always avoided bodybuilding in the past because it has always made me feel like shit, i.e tired and sore the entire time. The programs I tried, some bodyweight fitness stuff and Greyskull Linear Progression for beginners didn't really feel appealing. I also tried the typical 5x5 and ended up overtraining and feeling even worse. Couple that with some injuries and the pandemic, and I found myself on the couch for well over a year. playing COD.

Granted, I did a lot of mistakes in terms of diet and resting. I am fortunate enough only to gain a slight weight of muscle and around 4kg of fat (8.8lbs), so I'm by no means an expert on the subject matter or a ripped thundercock telling you to lift harder bro. I'm just a guy who's torn between a part-time job, uni studies, pussy and hustling that barely have the time to train. But for the first time in my life, I stick to a program for more than 4 months. And guys, it's working. And I just want to introduce this program to any of you who would like to start bodybuilding.

What is the program and its key components?

PHAT is a program designed by Layne Norton, a powerlifter and bodybuilder and a Ph.D holder. You can read all about the program on its official website here. But I'll try to dumb it down in this post. PHAT mixes the best of the 2 worlds of fitness: bodybuilding and powerlifting.

Simply put, bodybuilding emphasizes lower weights and higher reps and sets, whereas powerlifting emphasizes heavier weights and lower reps and sets. Each discipline have their corresponding techniques and movements to accommodate these umbrella concepts, like powerlifting having explosive and snappy movements, whereas bodybuilding emphasizes form and slower more technical movements to hit more muscles.

With their vastly different concepts and approaches, these 2 worlds meet on some key components to fitness:

1. Consistency

Consistency is of utmost importance when it comes to fitness. It doesn't matter what happens in your life, you're not getting pussy, your girlfriend broke up with you, your boss shit on you, your flatmate is acting like a little bitch... you've got to always hit the gym. Even when you don't feel like it. At those times when you feel, "Fuck this I can't do it" just give it a shot. The pump you'll feel after working out will make you feel great. Even the days especially when you're starting out, you feel sore as fuck and legitimately can't physically work out, give yourself another rest day then hit the gym the next day.

This is what helped me stay consistent: you should look at your consistency levels as "cycles". The cycle starts on the first day of the program, and ends with the last day. It doesn't matter if it takes a week or a week and a half, you've got to always have a cycle in and a cycle out.

2. Muscle Stimulation

This is as important of a concept as consistency. Muscle stimulation is what it is: making your muscles work. If you can't hit the weights that you have set as goal, it's okay. Keep going to failure, you'll hit them next week (more on this later). But you need to go to the gym thinking, "I am here today to stimulate my muscles and help preserve their health" as opposing to "I am here today to get ripped and stronger". One is more grounded in reality and easier to maintain, the other is more impatient and driven by fantasies of a Chad body.

3. Linear progression

The weights, work volume, reps and numbers in general need to get. The fuck. Up. Cycle in cycle out, the numbers go up. More on this later.

The Program:

With that out of the way, let's talk about the workout schedule of PHAT.

  • DAY1: UPPER BODY POWER (80% of 1RM)
  • DAY2: BOTTOM BODY POWER (80% of 1RM)
  • DAY3: REST
  • DAY4: BACK AND SHOULDERS HYPOTROPHY (70-80% of Power weight)
  • DAY5: BOTTOM BODY HYPOTROPHY (70-80% of Power weight)
  • DAY6: CHEST AND ARMS HYPOTROPHY (70-80% of Power weight)

1RM stands for 1 Rep Max. It is that weight that you can only do one rep in while all shaking and sweating, grinding and have your body morphing into some subhuman stances to gather momentum to get that rep done. Completely not recommended for anyone to discover. However, on your first day at the gym, for example take bench press, put on 10kg on the bar and start doing 3-5 reps and see how you feel. The weight that feels rather "hard" to do is the desired 80% of 1RM and you should stick to it.

Day 1 and Day 2 are powerlifting days as you might have guessed. These are my personal exercises:

Day1: Upper body power (REST: 2-3 minutes) Day 2: Bottom body power (REST: 2-3 minutes)

Exercise sets x reps Exercise sets x reps
Bench Press: 3x3-5 Squats 3x7
Rows 2x6-10 Deadlifts 3x7
Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3x6-10 Leg extensions 2x6-10
Cambered curls 3x6-10 Leg Curls 2x6-10
Dumbbell skull crushers 3x6-10

The website goes into details about "Main exercises" and "assistant"/"auxiliary" exercises . But these reps and sets are rookie numbers compared to the Hypotrophy bodybuilding days.

Day4: Day 4 BACK AND SHOULDERS HYPERTROPHY (REST 1-2 minutes)

Exercise sets x reps
Rows: 3x6
Seated cable row 3x8-12
Braced dumbbell rows 2x12-15
Close grip pulldowns 2x6-10
DB shoulder press 3x8-12
DB Slide lateral raises 3x12-20

Day5: LEGS HYPERTROPHY (REST 1-2 minutes)

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Exercise sets x reps
Squats 3x7
Deadlifts 3x7
Leg extensions 2x6-10
Leg Curls 2x6-15

Day6: CHEST AND ARMS HYPERTROPHY (REST 1-2 minutes)

Exercise sets x reps
DB press: 3x6
Incline DB press 3x8-12
Incline chest press 3x12-15
Incline cable press 3x15-20
Incline cable fly's 3x15-20
DB Preacher curls 3x8-12
DB concentration curls 2x12-15
DB Cambered triceps extension 3x8-12
Cable press downs with rope 2x12-15

Explanation

Guys, I know that it looks overwhelmingly a lot, but trust me, once you start doing it, you will feel awesome for a few reasons.

The days that will break you will be the powerlifting days trying to break through your Personal Records, whether that's in weights or reps. You will feel sore and like shit for the next few days. But it is okay, you should look forward to the next training day.

The hypertrophy days, since you are training with 70-80% of the weight that you had on the power days and since they have 1-2 minutes rest in between exercises, should feel like a breeze. You will cut through sets and reps like AAA athlete and go home feeling greater than ever.

If in one particular exercise, say Incline DB Press (3x8-12), you do the current sets at 10kg dumbell: 10-9-9), the next cycle, you will try again with the same weight (10kg) until you hit the full 12-12-12. And usually by the time the next cycle has started and you had done your powerlifting day, you should be more than ready to attain all maximum number in each reps range.

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The exercises that were a bitch to break through for me were Incline cable press and fly's. I remember for 2 entire cycles on 5kg!! I finally managed to hit the full 20-20-20 on both of them. In doing so, I advanced 10kg on the bench press exercise.

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And once you hit all of your range, ONLY THEN you advance the weight. The same rule applies to powerlifting. You do not advance in weight until you are done with your reps range.

Remember, that what you are trying to achieve is muscle stimulation and consistency, nothing else. Don't let your ego get in the way and try to push yourself further than your boundaries. If you can't, then you can't, just give it time and come back next week stronger than ever.

I think it is also needless to mention that you need to jot everything down, the reps, the weights, and sets, a bonus would be the volume. These must always go up. If you can't go up in the weights due not being able to hit the ranges last week, you try to do at least one more rep (and yes it happened once that I couldn't advance more than 2 reps per set, it was a nightmare). If the ranges are done and dusted the week prior, then you take the weights up, and you keep on going. For DB exercises, I recommend that you advance with 1-2kg, and for bar exercises, you advance with 2.5kg.

I have even created a feedback loop where the weights I have on the powerlifting days suggest an 80% for the hypertrophy days, and the weights used on hypertrophy days suggest an 80% 1RM weight for the powerlifting days because sometimes I lift more than 80% on the hypertrophy days and I find myself hitting almost 100%. So the next powerlifting day, I just add 3-5kg and keep going.

I forgot to point out that when starting out in the first week month or so, take 2 rest days at the end of every cycle instead of one. And every 4 weeks, you need to deload for a week, i.e take a prolonged rest where you do some light cardio or straight up nothing just to get back in shape and not feel burnt out. Also when warming up, try doing the exercises you have but with light weight/without weight.

Conclusion:

Hey, this program worked for me. It is not boring, you've got a variety of exercises, it is unorthodox, and it's bold and smart. The one thing that fascinates me the most about this is the splits. By the time you are hitting a muscle group, it will have already had at least a day or two of rest, which should help you work out more effectively. It feels like it is designed for busy people who want to be even busier and feel awesome about working out. I highly recommend this.

Don't ask me for any progress pics lol I still haven't made any significant physical change. But my body feel awesome and stronger. I actually feel fit.

AMA in case you are wondering about something.