This is the final portion of the 8 Week Hybrid Bodybuilding and Endurance Training Plan. This will be a four week training cycle following a similar programming schedule as part one. By the end of this program you should be more muscular, with improved endurance capacity. Keep reading for more.
This program starts with part one of the 8 Week Hybrid Bodybuilding and Endurance Training Plan. I highly recommend you start there, otherwise you’ll find you’ve quickly jumped into hot water! If you’ve done any of my other hybrid programs you know they aren’t easy. Here’s a quick overview of this workout program.
8 Week Hybrid Bodybuilding and Endurance Training Plan Overview
- Primary goals are to continue to build muscle mass and endurance from part one
- 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
- Expect the same schedule as part one with different programming
Because this is a hybrid program, there is quite a lot of volume. It is imperative that you listen to your body throughout this program. Some days you’ll be ready to hit the gym hard, and others you won’t be at your best. In fact, I highly recommend using something that monitors your heart rate variability (HRV).
I use the excellent Garmin Epix 2 to monitor my training and recovery. It works very well. Before we get to the details for part two of this hybrid resistance training plan, let’s review some keys to this style of programming.
Hybrid Training: Keys to Success
Hybrid workouts are challenging because you’re asking your body to improve at two different things at once. This is known as concurrent training. For many years exercise scientists, and researchers, thought that these two types of exercise styles created an interference effect which blunted your ability to improve at either style of training.
With further research, it became clear that there certainly is an interference effect if your program is written poorly. They found that as long as you separate your endurance training session from your gym sessions, by 4-6 hours, you can almost completely eliminate this effect. For more info on program scheduling, check out part one of this program.
Total Lifting Volume
The most important variable that we must manipulate is lifting volume. This is defined as the total amount of sets and reps for each muscle group. This is one area that athletes often mess up. Most research shows that 10-15 sets per muscle group, per week is ideal. Doing too much is just as bad as doing too little.
For muscle building you can use a set size of 5-30 reps. It’s imperatative to pick the right intensity, relative to your one rep max. Because this is a bodybuilding program, where we are interesting in muscle growth more than strength gains, we will be erring towards the middle end of this spectrum. Traditional bodybuilders had it right, 8-15 reps does quite well for our purposes. Next we’ll talk about building your aerobic engine.
Building Your Aerobic Engine
As a coach this is one area that holds back most bodybuilding athletes. As a general rule, bodybuilding is an anaerobic energy systems sport. Each gym workout relies on anaerobic energy production, to complete all of your sets. That’s why you can often see pro bodybuilders who appear lean, and in great shape, unable to jog for more than a few minutes at a time.
What most athletes misunderstand is that your ability to recover between sets, and between your workouts, is purely aerobic. You aerobic energy system doesn’t just provide energy for long steady efforts, it also clears metabolic waste products from your blood stream, during anaerobic activities.
The larger your aerobic engine becomes, the harder you can work, and the faster your recovery time improves. It also helps your overall cardiovascular health. I’ve also noticed that I tend to get sick less often when I’m more aerobically fit.
Now that we’ve covered some of the benefits of hybrid training, let’s get to the hybrid training plan. 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.
8 Week Hybrid Bodybuilding and Endurance Training Plan: Week 5
As I alluded to earlier, the programming schedule remains the same for part two of the training plan. I find that athletes do well when they have some continuity between training cycles. I’ve changed the movements, rep schemes, and planned for progressive overload for each muscle group.
Most often I’ve kept the same type of compound movement patterns on each day. You’ll notice the accessory work has changed as well. This helps to keep training fresh, and ensures that you continue to progress. I’ve found that after 3-4 weeks of training, your body has already adapted to a specific movement, and training style. This means we must change to continue to grow.
This hybrid athlete training program is designed to maintain the right balance for each type of training. Otherwise you’ll have a harder time achieving your fitness goals. Now let’s get to the next week of training. Before we do that, I encourage you to check out my most popular functional bodybuilding hybrid program below.
8 Week Hybrid Bodybuilding and Endurance Training Plan: Week 6
Week 6 is the second week of part two. Here, we ratchet up the exercise intensity in the gym. You’ll find that you finish each lift with a little heavier weight, than you did last week. Moreover, we’ve added a little more length and intensity to our cardiovascular training sessions.
You will also notice that some upper body and lower body movements remain unchanged, as I consider them staples for any good bodybuilding program. Things like leg extensions, squats, and hamstring curls are great way for building lower body muscle mass.
If you look closely, you’ll notice that I never pair challenging gym exercises with cardio that will tax the same muscle groups, in the next workout. Running on sore legs is the best way to have a miserable workout! Now, let’s get to week 7.
8 Week Hybrid Bodybuilding and Endurance Training Plan: Week 7
The general theme for this week is an increase in load for the gym movements. You can see this on the incline dumbbell press in session 31. Last week you were working at 1 RIR (reps in reserve). This week you’re working to as heavy as possible on the final set, or AHAP.
While it’s not necessary to include very heavy lifting in a bodybuilding program, you need to work with moderately heavy weights, that challenge your muscles. I’ve found that one or two hard sets for each movement provides the correct stimulus for hypertrophy.
I also want to point out that you should maintain the same cardio style that you used in cycle one. I recommend cycling, or a variant, like assault bike. There’s nothing wrong with running, it’s just a little harder to recover from, and doesn’t pair with the rest of the program as well.
However, if you’re a field sport or tactical athlete that needs to run well, then you should absolutely pick running for your cardio. Be warned, you’ll have quite the long run on those Zone 2 cardio days. Next let’s talk about week 8.
8 Week Hybrid Bodybuilding and Endurance Training Plan: Week 8
This week is a lower volume week. It’s designed to allow you to recover from the challenging training you’ve been doing up to this point. That doesn’t mean that it’s easy. In many cases you’ll find you’re handling heavier weights than you have previously.
This week is a reduction in lifting volume, and anaerobic endurance training volume. This is where you’ll find the biggest improvements in muscle gain. Your body must have time to make the muscle tissue, or your muscles don’t increase in size!
You’ll notice that you’re still doing plenty of Zone 2 cardio, even during a recovery week. That’s because Zone 2 cardio requires almost no recovery resources, especially if your cardio training method is non-weight bearing, like assault bike or cycling.
Now that we’ve finished this program, you’re probably scaring your friends and family with your muscular physique, and your cardiovascular fitness. However, I bet you want to continue making progress. In the next section I’ll give you several great follow on programs that can help you continue to build endurance, strength, and muscle. Let’s find your new program.
Finding Your Next Fitness Program
In this section I’ll recommend several of my most popular programs. They will be separated by training goal. You’ll see hybrid programs, which are similar to this program. You’ll also see programs that include functional fitness style training with WODs and Metcons. Lastly, I’ll include a few specialty programs that can help build pure functional strength, or lose body fat.
If you want my number one recommendation for a follow on program, then I would check out the 8 Week Hybrid Strength and Endurance Training Program below. It is very similar to this program, but it is designed to build strength over pure muscle.
Hybrid Training Programs
- 8 Week Hybrid Strength and Endurance Training Plan
- The 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program
- 12 Week Advanced Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program
Functional Fitness Programs
- 7 Week Free Functional Bodybuilding Program
- 10 Week Functional Power Building Program
- 15 Week Lift Heavy Run Fast Program
Specialty Programs
- 20 Pound Weight Loss Program for Lifters, and Functional Fitness Athletes
- 9 Week Functional Fitness Program for Tactical Athletes
- 11 Week High Intensity Muscle Building Program for Hardcore Bodybuilders
I encourage to you click around on a few programs that seem appealing to you. That will take you to each programs home page, where you can see all the details you need to make a good decision. Now let’s finish this article up.
Final Thoughts
You have everything you need to keep pushing your fitness to the next level. I highly encourage you to head back to part one of this program for a quick review of the recovery, and nutrition information that I included there.
I find that athletes often overlook these two areas, and as a result, leave a lot of their gains on the table. Remember, what you do outside of the gym is just as important as what you do inside.
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.
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.
