The Strength & Size Program: Your Blueprint to Getting Big and Strong

Strength & Size is a six-week training program that combines the best of hypertrophy training with maximum strength work.

You get an old-school, hardcore routine that will put meat on your bones and allow you to tussle with the big weights.

In this article, you’ll learn what the Strength & Size program is and how it can help you get the gains you want.

Or click here to go directly to the training program in the app.

What Is the Strength & Size Program?

Strength & Size is a 4-day workout routine that combines bodybuilding training with strength work and powerlifting exercises.

It splits your body into a modified Push/Pull routine, but weaves your leg training in with your upper body days to maximize training frequency without wrecking your recovery.

The Strength & Size Schedule

Being a 4-day plan, you can arrange your training week to fit your life, but most train two days, rest one, train two, and rest two.

That means that you can have the weekend off if you want to.

It looks like this:

• Monday: Quads, Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, and Calves
• Tuesday: Back, Biceps, Hamstrings, and Abs
• Wednesday: Rest
• Thursday: Quads, Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps
• Friday: Back, Rear Delts, Hamstrings, Calves, and Abs
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest

That’s the default week, but you are free to switch your training days around so that you lift and rest when it fits your life and schedule.

The Strength & Size Program Day by Day

Strength & Size is an undulating periodization program. That’s a fancy way of saying that you mix heavy, low-rep strength days with lighter, high-rep muscle-building (hypertrophy) days within the same week.

Instead of doing a traditional bro split where you train chest once a week, you split the body into pushing and pulling days, hitting every muscle group twice a week.

You get the heavy mechanical tension you need to gain maximal strength and the volume and metabolic stress you want for serious growth.

Let’s take a gander at what each training day entails.

Workout 1: Quads, Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, and Calves

You kick off moving heavy iron and focusing purely on strength.

You’ll be doing heavy pressing movements for the upper body, fewer but brutal heavy sets for the legs, and a little calf work. And you bake heavy deadlifts into the mix to set the tone for the week.

Bring your lifting belt and the chalk.

Workout 2: Back, Biceps, Hamstrings, and Abs

Workout number two shifts gears to a hypertrophy-specific, pulling-focused workout (back and biceps).

You’ll be chasing the pump with higher reps, giving your central nervous system a chance to recuperate from yesterday’s heavy loads.

Add in some hamstring curls and ab work to wrap it up.

Workout 3: Quads, Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps

We’re back to pushing, but with hypertrophy as the number one goal.

More machines and isolation movements, plus lighter weights and higher reps.

Expect a massive pump and the highest number of total sets in the week.

Workout 4: Back, Rear Delts, Hamstrings, Calves, and Abs

The grand finale. You finish off the training week with another heavy workout.

This is a pulling-dominant workout focusing on your back, rear delts, and hamstrings.

Move big weights and don’t hold back, because you have the whole weekend to recover.

What Makes Strength & Size Effective?

Let’s count the ways.

1. Best of Both Worlds

Mechanical tension is the main driver of muscle gains, and muscle mass sets the long-term ceiling for strength.

The Strength & Size program is designed to help you both move heavy weights and look like you’re capable of doing so.

2. Optimized Recovery

The Strength & Size workouts can be daunting. Some are fairly long, and they all require serious effort.

But because you never do heavy pushing or pulling two days in a row, you can still recover.

The heavy days and light days complement each other, allowing your joints and nervous system to bounce back while your muscles flush out fatigue and get bigger and stronger.

3. No Junk Volume

Every single day has a purpose. You won’t be doing any sets to get tired for the sake of getting tired.

4. High Frequency

You’re hitting all big muscle groups twice a week, which research says is at least as good (or better) than doing it bro split-style once a week.

Who Is It For?

Strength & Size is for intermediate to advanced lifters, not beginners.

• If you’ve been lifting for at least 6–12 months and your newbie gains have stalled, feel free to give this program a whirl.
• If you love a heavy deadlift but also want the pump of a bodybuilding workout, this program was written for you.
• 4 days in the gym, 3 days out. The Strength & Size program fits perfectly into a normal workweek while giving you plenty of time for recovery and a life outside the weight room.

If you’ve got the basic barbell lifts down, your newbie gains have slowed to a halt, and you want a structured approach to keep progressing both your muscle growth and strength gains, this is for you. It’s for the “powerbuilder”, the lifter who wants their muscles to be as strong as they look.

For beginners, Strength & Size is overkill. Stick to a 3-day full body until you stop making gains.

Our beginner programs are more suitable for you:

• Beginner Barbell Program
• Beginner Powerlifting Program
• Beginner Strength Training Program
• Bodybuilding for Beginners

The Weekly Strength & Size Blueprint

Here’s a sneak peek at what the first week of Strength & Size looks like in our workout log app.

Can you switch out exercises if you can’t do them or if you like another one better?

Yes. I’ve designed the program so you can adapt it the way you prefer. Think of it as a template, not an edict set in stone that you must follow down to the letter each workout.

That being said, Strength & Size does revolve around compound lifts, including the big three powerlifting exercises and accessories for those. If you know you don’t like heavy squatting or deadlifting, another program might be more up your alley.

But changing lat pulldowns for pull-ups, dumbbell flyes for cable flyes, and similar switcheroos—go right ahead. The StrengthLog app even has a built-in function that suggests alternative exercises.

Workout 1

Quads, Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, and Calves

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Squat	4	6
Deadlift	3	6
Bench Press	4	6
Overhead Press	4	6
Bar Dip	4	6
Seated Calf Raise	4	10

Workout 2

Back, Biceps, Hamstrings, and Abs

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Lat Pulldown	4	12
Dumbbell Row	4	10
Close Grip Seated Row	4	12
Barbell Curl	3	10
Dumbbell Curl	3	12
Seated Leg Curl	4	12
Hanging Leg Raise	4	As many as you can

Workout 3

Quads, Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Leg Press	4	12
Front Squat	4	10
Leg Extension	2	15
Dumbbell Chest Press	4	8
Incline Bench Press	4	10
Dumbbell Chest Fly	3	12
Dumbbell Lateral Raise	4	12
Cable Lateral Raise	3	15
Barbell Lying Triceps Extension	3	10
Dumbbell Standing Triceps Extension	3	12

Workout 4

Back, Rear Delts, Hamstrings, Calves, and Abs

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Barbell Row	4	6
Lat Pulldown	4	12
Close Grip Seated Row	3	8
Reverse Dumbbell Fly	3	8
Romanian Deadlift	4	8
Standing Calf Raise	4	15
Cable Crunch	4	12

Notes

• The program has built-in progression week by week.
• The training volume increases week by week, reaching a fairly high number of working sets per workout by week six.
• Recommended percentages of 1RM for compound lifts like bench, squat, and deadlift are outlined in the app.

Warm-Up for Strength & Size (Fast, Effective Template)

Don’t forget to warm up before loading the bar with your heaviest weight. You’ll improve performance and might reduce the risk of injury.

Try this short and sweet routine before your workouts:

• General: 5–8 minutes of easy cardio (optional but recommended) + 2–3 dynamic drills for the day’s joints (e.g., high knees, hip openers, arm swings, scapular pull-ups).
• On strength days: Ramp your main lift with ascending sets until you reach your working sets. The stronger you are and the heavier weights you use, the more ramp-up sets you’ll need.
• On hypertrophy days: One or two ramp-up sets are enough.

Progressive Overload: How to Keep Your Size and Strength Gains Coming

Let’s assume you’re here to pack on some strength and size (if you weren’t, you’re thinking about starting the wrong program).

To make that happen, you have to force your body to adapt. The way to do that is progressive overload.

Progressive overload means making your workouts a little bit harder over time to give your muscles a reason to grow.

If you keep doing the exact same workout week after week, month after month, your physique is going to stay exactly the same, too.

The most common way to handle progressive overload is by slapping another plate on the bar every few weeks.

That is indeed one of the big ones, but if that were the only way to progress, you’d hit a wall very soon. No one can constantly increase the load on every exercise all the time.

Here are three of the big dials you can turn to overload your muscles:

1. Up the Weight (Intensity)

The old reliable. You lift heavier.

• Week 1: Squat 100 lb for 10 reps.
• Week 2: Squat 105 lb for 10 reps.

2. Do More Work (Volume)

Keep the weight the same, but crank up the reps or add another set.

• Week 1: Bench press 135 lb for 8 reps.
• Week 2: Bench press 135 lb for 9 reps.

Alternative: Keep it at 8 reps, but add another set: do four sets instead of three.

3. Control (Tempo & Technique)

Make the same weight feel miserable (in a good way) by controlling the movement better.

• Week 1: Heaving a barbell curl up and letting it plummet back down.
• Week 2: Curling it up with speed and power, but taking 2–3 strict seconds to lower it.

Your Game Plan: Double Progression

For the Strength & Size program, we’re going to lean on dials one and two: adding weight and adding reps. And it’s always a good idea to control the weights with good technique, but I trust you to handle that part.

Here is your step-by-step plan:

1. Pick a weight you can handle for your target rep range with good form.
2. Once you can hit the top end of those target reps for all your sets, bump the weight up a tiny bit.
3. Your reps will drop down a bit with the new, heavier weight. This is supposed to happen.
4. Spend the next few workouts building those reps back up to the target.
5. Rinse and repeat.

This neat little trick is called double progression, and it’s one of the simplest yet most effective ways to use progressive overload.

When you follow the program in StrengthLog, you have everything lined up and ready to go. You only have to do the fun part: lift.

A quick reality check: You won’t be able to add weight or reps every single workout forever. If things worked like that, you’d be bench-pressing your Fiat Ritmo by year three. Stalling for a week or two is perfectly normal once you’re past the beginner phase.

One last tip: You can’t beat your previous numbers if you have no idea what they were. If you don’t know what you lifted last Thursday, you’re just guessing this Thursday. Log your training.

Fortunately, the StrengthLog app remembers every rep you do, so you always know exactly what you need to beat.

Quick Loading Recommendations

• For big lifts (squats, deadlifts, presses, and rows), add ~1–2.5 kg (2.5–5 lb) to upper body lifts and ~2.5–5 kg (5–10 lb) to lower body lifts when you can do all sets of the recommended reps with ~1–2 reps in reserve (RIR).
• For hypertrophy exercises and isolation movements, increase the weight by the smallest possible amount (i.e., the next dumbbells up the rack) when you can do your target reps on all sets with good form and 0–2 RIR.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Strength & Size Routine

Questions? Fire away—I’ve got the answers.

Follow the Strength & Size Program in StrengthLog

What’s the best way to track the Strength & Size workout routine?

In StrengthLog, our workout log app. It’s one of our premium programs that combines both bodybuilding and strength-focused training.

That way, it’s super easy to keep track of your weights and reps and make sure you’re on the right path to tremendous gains.

StrengthLog remembers what weights you used in your last session, and automatically loads them into your next one. And trying to improve on your last workout is the key to getting bigger and stronger over time.

Download it and start tracking your gains today!

Note that StrengthLog is free, but you’ll need a subscription to follow this program in-app. We offer a 14-day free trial (no strings attached and no funny business) that you can activate in the app, so you can check it out before making a decision.

Final Rep

If you’ve ever wondered whether you should train for strength or hypertrophy, the answer is yes.

Strength & Size removes the false choice. Open up your StrengthLog app, start the program, and start lifting and logging.

Stronger. Bigger. Better. That’s the plan.

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Last reviewed: 2026-02-20