Let’s Go!
This article contains the FULL weekly workout along with some further explanatory notes.
This cycle is a 5-day split, hitting each bodypart once per week.
But bear in mind that it’s not possible to completely isolate a muscle e.g. performing a bench press will stimulate the shoulders to a lesser degree, and hitting your triceps will always involve some lat stimulation.
It is therefore NOT true that you ‘only hit each muscle once a week’ with this sort of training program.
You give each muscle 1 day of primary focus and stimulation, and on other days they receive some secondary stimulation also. This, I believe, is optimal for growth and strikes a balance between under and over-training.
In contrast, when training each body part directly more than once per week, it is necessary to reduce the volume of sets as in the THT HIT cycle. (1 set to failure, 3 times a week).
THT has been designed to provide maximum muscle growth while at the same time keeping workout times to a minimum.
Your longest workout here is going to come in at around 50 minutes. As a general rule though, just ensure that you don’t spend any longer than an hour at the gym at any one time. Most days you’ll finish up in around 45 minutes or less, this is desirable.
Why?
Because natural bodybuilders must avoid over-training at all costs to limit catabolism and maximize the amount of time the body is in an anabolic environment.
You must provide maximum muscle stimulation in the minimum time possible; that’s exactly what THT does! Rip up those muscles quickly and then get the hell outta there and relax.
Since workouts are kept short you MUST…
MAKE EVERY REP COUNT!
MAKE EVERY SET COUNT!
The 5-Day Split
Here’s the 5-day workout schedule:
Monday – Legs (including calves)
Tuesday – Chest & Triceps
Wednesday – Biceps, Forearms, Abs
Thursday – Shoulders & Traps
Friday – Back
The T.H.T 2.0 Cycle Rules
(1) You will work each body part once a week. High muscle fiber stimulation, as occurs with THT training, demands about a week of recuperation between body parts. As I stated above, each muscle will receive its day of primary stimulation, and at other times in the week, some secondary (indirect) stimulation. This is absolutely fine. Greater muscle fiber stimulation and maximum recovery will MAXIMIZE growth and strength increases.
(2) You will train 5 days a week (doesn’t necessarily have to be Monday-Friday).
(3) Your workouts will never last more than 1 hour MAX.
(4) You will work to failure within the 8-12 rep range. IMPORTANT: Some exceptions are clearly labelled in the logs – look out for these!
(5) You will lift for 1-2 seconds and lower for 2 seconds on each rep i.e. a 1-0-2 cadence
(6) You will seek Progressive Overload every week (you need to keep written logs of your progress!).
(7) You will always perform 1 warm-up set before each body part. Your warm-up set should be about 50% of the weight that you will use for your first working set. Perform 10 or so reps and rest for 2 minutes before the first set.
(8) You will take 2 to 3 minutes rest between sets. (3 minutes for larger body parts)
(9) You will perform at least 6 sets, and 9 sets at most, for each muscle group with the following exceptions…
(10) You will work your traps, forearms, and calves with 2-3 sets per week at the end of a relevant workout. (more on that below)
(11) Stick to the same exercises and number of sets for the full cycle. This is the only reliable way to track progress and KNOW for certain that you are gaining.
(12) Every new cycle brings the opportunity to choose new exercises from the ‘exercise bank’ and start over again.
Now let’s look at how to train each body part…
Monday – Legs (including calves) – click here for full details on the leg workout
- Barbell Squats
- Barbell Squats
- Leg Presses
- Leg Presses
- Stiff Leg Deadlifts
- Stiff Leg Deadlifts
- Standing Machine Calf Raises
- Standing Machine Calf Raises
Tuesday – Chest & Triceps – click here for full details on the chest & tricep workout
- Flat Barbell Bench Press
- Flat Barbell Bench Press
- Incline Dumbbell/Barbell Bench Press
- Incline Dumbbell/Barbell Bench Press
- Flat Dumbbell Flies (or pec deck)
- Flat Dumbbell Flies
TRICEPS
- Decline Tricep Extensions (with straight or EZ bar)
- Decline Tricep Extensions (with straight or EZ bar)
- Decline Tricep Extensions (with straight or EZ bar)
- Tricep Cable Push Downs
- Tricep Cable Push Downs
- Tricep Cable Push Down
Wednesday – Biceps, Forearms, Abs –
click here for full details on the biceps & abs workout
- Standing Dumbbell Curls (Alternate)
- Standing Dumbbell Curls
- Standing Barbell Curls
- Standing Barbell Curls
- Standing Barbell Curls
- Seated Incline Dumbbell Curls
- Seated Incline Dumbbell Curls
FOREARMS
- Dumbbell or Barbell Wrist Curls
- Dumbbell or Barbell Wrist Curls
ABS
- Weighted Decline Sit-Ups
- Weighted Decline Sit-Ups
- Kneeling Cable Crunches
- Kneeling Cable Crunches
- Weighted Hanging Leg Raises
- Weighted Hanging Leg Raises
Thursday – Shoulders & Traps – click here for full details on the shoulders & traps workout
- Standing Overhead Barbell Press
- Standing Overhead Barbell Press
- Standing Overhead Barbell Press
- Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press
- Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press
- Dumbbell Lateral Raises
- Dumbbell Lateral Raises
TRAPS
- Trap Bar Shrugs (or use a barbell or smith machine)
- Trap Bar Shrugs (or use a barbell or smith machine)
- Trap Bar Shrugs (or use a barbell or smith machine)
Friday – Back – click here for full details on the back workout
- Deadlift
- Deadlift
- Deadlift
- Bent Over Barbell Row
- Bent Over Barbell Row
- Bent Over Barbell Row
From the end of the first week you’ll feel this workout producing results!
Now grab your free workout logs and start tracking your progress straight away!
Click to download your FREE logs!
Please note that all 5 logs are contained in one file – click on the tabs at the bottom
The great news is that this not only an effective workout, but an ENJOYABLE one too!
You’ll look forward to every gym session and find it easy to stick with it.
So get training and make sure you let me know about your awesome results!
PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7 | PART 9 | PART 10 | PART 11 | PART 12 | PART 13
Train with Intensity!
Mark McManus
I’m so considering doing up a THT 2.0 cycle when I finish THT HIT in a few weeks! In fact, I’m pretty much decided on it right now! Thanks for “re-fixing” this for all of us, Mark!
Mark. Thanks so much for doing this all for free. I’m starting a new cycle in 2 weeks so I’m going on to this one. I’ll make sure and study up on it do I know exactly how to do before then.
Just a little tweak I did, if anyone would rather change the split:
M: Chest and Biceps
T: Legs and Abs
W: Shoulders and Traps
T: Rest
F: Back and Triceps
This is what works for me, as bis and tris get a little more work over the week. Anyway, thanks for the awesome workout, Mark. You really have it all figured out.
What cycle do you prefer Mark, 2.0 or 3.1 Volume? Obviously, you must feel 3.1 is the most update with what you have learned and tried in terms of building the most muscle in shortest time frame.
Thoughts.?
So what happend if right now I am doing THT Volume Cycle ? do I have to stop and do THT 2.0? or what you recommend?
Thanks for all the work you putting into the site. Really appreciated.
Can you recommend any substitutes for
*Leg Presses
*Tricep Cable Push Downs
*Kneeling Cable Crunches
I work out at home mostly with free weights and a simple smith machine which has no cable.
Wow! Thank you so much, this is awesome!
One question for open discussion, why are some of the exercises from Mark’s series on the best exercise for each workout not even included in this?
(for example: the nautilus pullover/decline cable pullover for back from “How To Get Lats Like a Bat’s”)
OK, questions… I **hate** bent over rows with the white hot fiery passion of a thousand suns. Any brilliant ideas on a substitution on this? Cuz, like, I really frigging hate them.
Oh, and about back day… do I really have to give up my lat pull overs? I love those as much as I hate rows… nice stretch, hell usually even cracks my back doing them… would I hurt anything or be over training to drop 2 or 3 sets of lat pullovers in on back day?
Also, my grip is the absolute weak link on everything (nerve damage, spurs, blahblahblah…), so I’m wondering, can I do the presses with the smith machine instead of a free weight? Kind of worried I’ll drop it on myself… lol
Any and all help is much appreciated… took me a minute to get the amount of weight right on the THT3.0 Volume cycle but damn if it didn’t start showing results once I did!! Looking forward to trying this out in the imminent future. 🙂
Do I stop doing the HIT Cycle and start this cycle instead?
Thanks
How important is the exact rest period between each exercise. Typically I work out with my friend and after I am done with my set; he will do his set and then I will again do mine. So it may not exactly work to the rest time specified. Do I need to time each rest period?
Hello Sir,
One of mine friend who is a expert in this field give me the below mention workouts.
I told him that i want to concentrate on biceps and triceps more,so he has given me the below mention workouts,he told me that working the same muscle twice per week is good for protein synthesis,pls let me know..
MON
BARBELL CURL
PREACHER CURL
MACHINE PULL DOWN FOR TRICEPS
ONE ARM EXTENSION
INCLINE DUMBELL PRESS
SQUAT
WED
CHIN UPS
LEG PRESS
OVERHEAD PRESS
DUMBELL SHRUGS
SAT
BARBELL CURL
PREACHER CURL
MACHINE PULL DOWN FOR TRICEPS
ONE ARM EXTENSION
FLAT BARBELL BENCH PRESS
SQUAT
Hey Mark, Just wondered about your thoughts on Shrugs with dumbells instead of the aforementioned. I find it allows my traps to rise up in a more natural path than with any bars that seems to ride along my quads. Is there any reason not to use Dumbells over Bar based shrug exercises? Thanks. BTW TSPA Week 2 going well so far :0)
@Will. @Erik. @Chris. Yes, the volume cycle was an evolution from this. I re-posted it because some veteran musclehackers asked for the program again. There is no need to quit your current cycle, finish it at the end of 10 weeks. If you want to try this for your next cycle, go ahead.
@Sean. This is an old program, published before that series came out. I’m putting it out there because readers wanted it. Consider it a third cycle to factor into you THT program. So you can alternate between the HIT, volume, and 2.0 cycles of THT.
@brontoburger. Here’s alternatives…
* Leg Presses – Squats or a variation of the squat like hack squats.
*Tricep Cable Push Downs – Dips, close grip bench press
*Kneeling Cable Crunches – Reverse crunches, or a lever seated crunch machine if your gym has one.
@Jo. I hated barbell rows to until I tried an unusual type of form that I learned from Jeff Willet. Read the description in this post
https://musclehack.com/how-to-do-bent-over-barbell-rows-video/
I’m assuming you mean lat pullovers with a dumbbell? They not a good choice. There is literally no resistance on the lats at the top of the movement. Contrast this to the pullover machine, maximum resistance when the lats are fully contracted. Use a pullover machine if you can. Yes, you can use a smith for benching, don’t listen to the local gym “experts” on this one. It’s absolutely fine.
@John. Taking the same amount of rest is important for tracking progress. If you took 1 minute last week, and 3 this week, you’ll lift more, but it wasn’t genuine progress. Similarly, if you took less, you’ll lift less and think the program isn’t working. Serious trainees us a stopwatch. Also, the longer rest periods are important for reasons I specified in this article…
https://musclehack.com/the-tht-2-0-training-cycle-%e2%80%93-failure-maximum-recuperation-part-3/
@Jimmy C. No. I’ve no problem with that. I personally don’t use dumbbells because holding a dumbbell that heavy in each hand is damn hard! You can get the same benefit you’re taking about and use heavy loads by switching to a ‘trap bar’ – look it up.