8 Week Hybrid Bodybuilding and Endurance Training Plan

If you’re looking for an awesome hybrid bodybuilding and endurance training plan then you’ve come to the right place. This is an 8 week program designed to build muscle mass, and aerobic endurance. Like my other programs, you’ll find no short cuts here, just hard work and well crafted programming. Keep reading if you want to build muscle mass, and endurance.

Traditionally, most coaches and athletes believed that you couldn’t build muscle mass while training for endurance activities, like running, cycling, or rowing. They are right, if you have a terrible training plan. In recent years, there has been a lot of research on this topic, and the science is clear. Endurance training doesn’t interfere with muscle growth, if done correctly.

Rest assured I have programmed this 8 week training plan to allow you to gain fitness, muscle, and strength. Here’s a quick overview below.

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8 Week Hybrid Bodybuilding and Endurance Training Plan Overview

• Primary goals are to build muscle mass, and aerobic conditioning
• 5 day per week program, with 2 rest days
• Can be done in any commercial weight room, and most home gyms
• Minimum of 3 endurance training sessions per week
• Strength gains are a secondary training goal

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As I alluded to earlier, there are many ways to build muscle tissue and aerobic capacity. There are just as many ways to work incredibly hard at both goals, and make very little progress. To avoid this we’ll cover some very important ground rules in the next section.

It’s important to point out that this program is for building mass and endurance, and is less focused on strength training. If you want a hybrid strength and endurance program then check out this great 8 week plan.

After that, we’ll review the first four weeks of this workout routine, and go over some of my programming methods. In the final sections of this article I’ll leave you with some nutrition and recovery tools that will put you on the right track. Let’s get to it.

Training to Build Muscle and Endurance

In research parlance, lifting weights and endurance training is called concurrent training. Luckily for us there has been a lot of good quality research on gaining strength, building muscle, and endurance training. While some of the research conclusions have differed on the details, the general consensus is that you can certainly train for both goals, as long as you follow a few guidelines.

I want to be clear that there are some drawbacks to concurrent training. There is no free lunch. Your body has a finite recovery capacity, otherwise you’d be doing 100 set workouts! Most research shows that there is some impact on power production, especially in the lower body. This is really only applicable for elite athletes that need peak power production like sprinters, high jumpers, and olympic lifters.

The most recent research analysis on lifting and cardio training, has some great take aways for our training. Here is an excerpt from that research review.

Maximal hypertrophic potential with concurrent exercise training may be achieved by (1) separating exercise bouts by 6–24 h, (2) adopting strategies that minimize overall exercise volume (i.e., utilizing high-intensity intervals, 2–3 days of aerobic exercise, and less than or equal to 2 days of leg lifting), and (3) favoring cycling as opposed to running.

Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy with Concurrent Exercise Training: Contrary Evidence for an Interference Effect

These rules are surprisingly simple to implement. First and foremost, is exercise separation. If you train hard in the gym, you need to allow your body to complete the initial stages of the recovery process before you give it something else to worry about, like aerobic exercise.

In my own training, I’ve found that separating the most similar training sessions from each other helps to reduce interference. For example, you wouldn’t want to do hard sprints and then try to do a big leg session in the same day. That’s simply too much to recover from, in that short time period.

Lifting Volume for Bodybuilding

The other big factor for gaining muscle size is programming the right amount of lifting volume. Most research shows that intermediate and advanced trainees do well at 10-15 sets per muscle group, per week. This can be increased up to 20-25 sets for some body parts, from time to time. A smart progressive overload plan is a must for traditional bodybuilding routines, but it’s even more crucial for hybrid programs.

These figures are really only applicable to traditional bodybuilding programs, with no additional endurance work. We can still gain a lot of muscle mass with lower volume, provided we use some intensity work, like supersets and functional fitness WODs, that target the appropriate muscle groups. The other key to maximizing muscle gain is picking the right kind of cardio.

If you’re looking for my most popular functional bodybuilding program then check this out.

Choosing Your Cardio Method

Most research on concurrent training highlights the need to be smart with your endurance training. If you’ve read my 20 pound weight loss program, then you already know that I like cycling for cardio. I’ve found that it pairs nicely with bodybuilding style training, and I’ve yet to experience any loss of strength as a result.

I can say anecdotally that cycling seems to have improved my lower body strength. During my weight loss program, I worked with moderately heavy weight, and I found that my squat and deadlift increased slightly as I lost a total of 8 percent body fat.

You can certainly build muscle and strength while running, but I’ve found that cardio that is less impactful is easier to recover from. For this program you should chose one type of cardio, and stick with it for the duration. Switching between running, cycling, or assault bike will dilute your progress. Stick with one and get good at it!

Now that we’ve covered some of the ground rules, let’s get to the programming. Don’t forget to put your email address below, and I’ll send you some awesome fitness resources, including my strength training guide, and weight loss guide.

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8 Week Hybrid Bodybuilding and Endurance Training Plan

This program requires you to make a few decisions. As we know, separating your cardio from your lifting will be important. I’ve written this program so that there are two days per week with both styles of training. I recommend that you perform an AM and PM session on these two days.

Most athletes will find that they can do their zone 2 cardio in the morning, as it’s pretty easy to do then. It will also help you feel energized for the rest of your day. You don’t have to use this schedule, but it tends to be the best way for most folks. Make sure you include at least 4-6 hours of separation between lifting and cardio.

There’s also one dedicated conditioning day. This day is designed to improve your anaerobic conditioning, and VO2 max. These are the types of workouts that generate nasty comments, but they’re absolutely crucial to build conditioning, and muscular endurance. Let’s get to week 1.

8 Week Hybrid Bodybuilding and Endurance Training Plan: Week 1

The first week of this program is designed to acclimatize you to this style of endurance and resistance training. As such, it’s the lowest volume week of the program. Broadly speaking, you’ll hit all the major muscle groups twice per week. You’ll work some of the smaller muscles a little more often.

I’ve also chosen a relatively even mix of compound free weight movements, and some isolation work on machines. It’s a pet peeve of mine to see programs that have 6+ isolation exercises with no compound exercises. While you don’t need to blast yourself with too much weight, you do need compound lifts, and moderately heavy free weights, for best results.

One of the most important notations I’ve included in this program is the term RIR. That stands for reps in reserve. It’s a great way to help guide your training intensity. If you see 2 RIR that means you will select a weight that allows you to finish the set with 2 reps left in the tank.

For the first week you’ll be feeling out these weights. It’s ok if you accidentally go too heavy or too light. The goal is to make sure that you aren’t taking all sets to failure, or never getting close to the limit. We need a nice medium to keep progressing. Now, let’s move on to week 2, where the hard works gets even harder!

8 Week Hybrid Bodybuilding and Endurance Training Plan: Week 2

In this week the volume increases, at a reasonable rate. For most movements you can expect a few more reps. Or you might be working with 1 RIR. Remember, it’s important to use proper form. There is never a need to prioritize heavy weights over smart training for building muscle mass.

If you want to build strength you need to prioritize load like in my Hybrid Strength and Endurance Training Plan. However, the goal here is to build muscle mass, and endurance, so we will prioritize volume.

As I mentioned above, make sure you’re sticking with the same cardio style each week. The goal here is to allow you to make good improvement with that method of training.

For the zone 2 cardio it’s important that you don’t train too hard. The easiest rule of thumb is to make sure you can breath through your nose while doing the activity. If you can’t, you’re working too hard. For many runners that means you’ll mostly likely be alternating between running and walking. Next is week 3.

8 Week Hybrid Bodybuilding and Endurance Training Plan: Week 3

This is where the rubber meets the road. Like many of my programs, week 3 is the peak week prior to a deload in week 4. In this week, I’ve often added an extra set, which drastically increases the totally weekly volume. Continue to train like you’ve been, taking the same rest periods between sets, even though you have more overall work to do.

I still expect you to try to move up in reps or weights when I specify, but it’s ok if you aren’t always able to do so. Some folks will have an easier time of going up in weight, and sometimes you just have a bad workout. Don’t stress if you have to maintain the lighter weight from last week. The goal is to improve broadly, not on every single rep, and set. Now let’s get to the final week in part one of this program.

8 Week Hybrid Bodybuilding and Endurance Training Plan: Week 4

This last week represents a reduction in overall training volume and intensity. It’s more similar to week 1, with the caveat that the cardio remains elevated. I alway advise my athletes to resist the urge to add in anything extra on these weeks.

It feels counter productive to be doing less in the gym, but it’s absolutely required to make progress. You don’t build muscle by constantly beating yourself up. You build it by allowing your body to repair the damage you’ve already done!

This is also the last week where you’ll see these movements structured in this manner. In part two you can expect to see different programming including: different exercises, sets, reps, and some special high intensity methods. Now that we’ve covered the program in some detail, let’s get to some nutrition resources, to help you follow a healthy diet.

If you’re looking for an awesome muscle building program with a little less volume then this is for you.

Nutrition Resources and Recommendations

I hope you have a big appetite. You’ll need to eat a lot to properly fuel these workouts, if you want best results. As an example, I would expect that on cardio and lifting day that I would burn around 600 calories per hour cycling in zone 2. The lifting session would be between 400-500 calories. That puts my total caloric output for the day around 3500 calories!

I recommend downloading this nutrition calculator, using the muscle gain tab. This will likely put you at the low end of where you need to be for best progress. I would then add in more carbs until I started to see weight gain from one week to the next. I would then go back down a few hundred calories. This will ensure that you’re eating enough macro nutrients to really benefit from this bodybuilding and endurance training plan.

Recovery Methods

I’m going to assume your sleeping 7-8 hours a night, and paying attention to your nutrition, while drinking reasonable amounts of fluids. Those are the big three, and it’s a good idea to get those right before worrying about anything else.

In this section I’ll share two methods that I use to increase my performance and speed up my recovery. The first is hyperventilation breathing. All you need to do is take 25 deep breaths, 30 seconds before your set. It only works on big compound movements like pull ups, squats, bench press etc. Research shows that you can actually lift more weight and reps by using this method.

The other easy method is to perform a cool down after your lifting. Sit on a bike and peddle at 60 watts for 10 minutes. You could also walk at an easy pace or row at the equivalent output. This helps your body return to its resting state, and speeds up recovery. Research shows that it helps build muscle as well. Whatever you do, stay away from ice baths for this program.

Final Thoughts

This program is going to be a lot of hard work. I expect you to make quick progress if you pay attention to your training and recovery. Don’t go overboard with the details. Just make sure that you’re putting in good, consistent work, and you’ll be making gains in no time.

I also encourage you to find a routine that works during cardio. Long zone 2 workout sessions can be boring, but they are incredibly important for your bodybuilding workout performance, just as much as your endurance base.

If you’re running, I highly recommend picking up one of these Garmin smart watches, like my favorite Garmin Epix 2. It will provide you with the right data to stay in the correct intensity zones. It also tracks valuable recovery metrics like sleep, and heart rate variability. I’ve had mine for about 2 years and absolutely love it.

If you’ve finished this part of the program, then head over here to see the next four weeks of this awesome hybrid bodybuilding endurance program.

If you have any questions put them in the comments section below, and I’ll get you an answer, or point you in the right direction. Now get out there and get training. Don’t forget to join the email list below so you can get all the latest articles sent directly to your inbox.

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We are not affiliated with any other company or entity including CrossFit Inc. Each workout plan is entirely owned by Tier Three Tactical and we recommend that you exercise under the supervision of a professional coach. It’s also recommended that you seek medical clearance from a licensed medical doctor before starting any fitness program.