About This Calendar
This 10-week hypertrophy calendar is a volume-driven muscle-building block for intermediate lifters. It runs three sessions per week on a classic split — chest/triceps, back/biceps, legs/shoulders — and manipulates one variable at a time: sets and reps climb steadily, drop for planned deloads, then climb again. Mechanical tension accumulated across hard sets is the primary driver of muscle growth, and this plan is engineered to deliver progressively more of it.
The progression follows two waves. Weeks 1-3 ramp volume from 4x10 up to 5x10 per muscle pairing. Week 4 deloads at 3x8 so accumulated fatigue clears. Weeks 5-7 trade some reps for load — 5x8, 5x6, then a 6x6 overreach week — before a second deload in week 8. The final two weeks shift to heavy strength-hybrid work and a max-effort peak, converting the new muscle into performance and setting up your next block.
A realistic outcome for an intermediate lifter eating in a small surplus with about 1 g of protein per pound of body weight: 2-4 lbs of muscle over the ten weeks, with visibly fuller chest, back, and legs and meaningful strength gains on your main lifts. Take the deload weeks as written — growth happens when you recover from volume, not while you drown in it.