Training · Gym
Gym 12
The gym twin of Calisthenics 12. Same 12-week frame: 3 sessions/wk, 15–20 min, two easy intro weeks, then strength and hypertrophy days alternate. Progress by adding weight, which you log on the cards.
← All training · Calisthenics · Posterior chain · Shoulder card
How a session runs. Two supersets. Superset 1: push ↔ pull. Superset 2: knee ↔ hip. You alternate between the two moves of each pair until the rounds are done. Pairing opposing muscles lets one rest while the other works, which roughly halves the session time without costing performance.
Set up both stations of a pair next to each other (e.g., dumbbells at the pulldown, or the leg press beside the RDL rack) so the transitions stay quick.
Two sessions, A and B, alternate automatically (Mon A · Wed B · Fri A, then B · A · B the next week). Type the weight you used into the box on each exercise. It's saved separately for strength and hypertrophy days and is there next time.
The 12 weeks
IntroWk 1–2
Learn the lifts. Light. Find your weights.
BuildWk 3–6
Alternate strength / hypertrophy days.
Deload → PushWk 7 · 8–11
Easy week, then heavier sets + drop sets.
Deload + TestWk 12
Hard 5s Friday; run Wk 8–12 again.
This week
Rules
- Weight progression (double progression): stay at a weight until you hit the top of the rep range on every set, then add the smallest jump: about 5 lb on machines or a barbell, or the next dumbbell up. Reps drop back to the bottom of the range, and you build up again.
- Strength day: 3 × 4–6, RIR 2, about 60s between moves in the pair. Hypertrophy day: 3 × 8–15, RIR 1–2, about 30–45s between moves.
- Starting weights (Weeks 1–2): pick a weight you could lift for ~15 reps and do 10. By the end of Week 2, your hypertrophy weight is one you can do about 12 reps with, leaving ~3 in reserve. Start strength days about 15–20% heavier.
- Drop set (Push phase, hypertrophy days): on the last set of every move, go near failure, cut the weight ~25% right away, and go near failure again. One drop only.
- Shoulder guardrails: no dips, no behind-the-neck anything, no overhead pressing until the shoulder card's criteria are met. Press with elbows ~45° from the body; pulldowns neutral-grip to the chin. Pain > 3–4/10 → drop the weight or swap to the machine version.
- Machine taken? Swap within the pattern: DB bench ↔ machine chest press, leg press ↔ hack squat ↔ goblet squat, pulldown ↔ assisted pull-up, RDL ↔ 45° back extension, hip thrust ↔ glute bridge machine.
- Missed a session? Do the next one. Post-call or under-slept? Run it as a deload.
Evidence base
- Iversen VM, et al. No time to lift? Designing time-efficient training programs for strength and hypertrophy. Sports Med 2021;51:2079–95.
- Robbins DW, et al. Agonist-antagonist paired set resistance training: a brief review. J Strength Cond Res 2010;24:2873–82.
- Schoenfeld BJ, et al. Strength and hypertrophy adaptations between low- vs. high-load resistance training: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Strength Cond Res 2017;31:3508–23.
- Refalo MC, et al. Influence of resistance training proximity-to-failure on skeletal muscle hypertrophy: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Sports Med 2023;53:649–65.
- Grgic J, et al. Effects of linear and daily undulating periodized resistance training programs on muscle hypertrophy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PeerJ 2017;5:e3695.
- Sødal LK, et al. Effects of drop sets on skeletal muscle hypertrophy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Med Open 2023;9:66.
- Maeo S, et al. Greater hamstrings muscle hypertrophy but similar damage protection after training at long versus short muscle lengths. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2021;53:825–37.