Stregnth vs hypertrophy for size.

denato1

I have been lifting for just over a year now. In the past 1.5 years I have lost 130 lbs and started to get fit. I have done stronglifts 5x5 and phul. I prefer the 2/3 day a week full body programs due to busy life with 4 young kids.
My current lifts are squat 3x5 300lbs, deadlift 3x5 375lbs, bench 5x5 165lbs, overhead press 5x5 110lbs (seated due to low ceilings), bent over row 5x5 175lbs. Also do accessory barbel curls, pushups, tricep extensions, incline dumbbell press, reverse fly.
I am looking to put size on my upper body and progress my lifting. Wondering if I should change to a hypertrophy program or modify strong lifts to a higher rep range for size growth.

Help me, recommend a 2 day a week program or advice. Thanks in advance

Lean59man

I think you are pretty muscular looking. You are doing well. Congrats.

Your pressing is weak. Your squatting and pulling is good. So you should work on improving your pressing.

My suggestion since you are doing full-body is to cut back on the number of exercises. Keep the squats, deadlifts, bench, seated press, curls. Add a calf exercise. Less exercises and you will recover better and get stronger. Your pressing should improve. Change out an exercise or two from time to time. After 2 months switch dips for bench press for example. Or don't.

You must have realistic expectations. It is impossible to look like the physique stars unless you are on drugs.

Hypertrophy can be achieved by focusing on total reps per exercise. If total reps per exercise are in the 20-40 range you should get hypertrophy. So 5x5 or 3x10 or 10x3, etc. These are WORK sets, not warmup sets. You can stay with your current program if you structure it properly. Example: You do 3 work sets of 5 and then drop the weight and do 2 more sets of 8-12 reps. Total reps in the range of 31 to 39 reps.

Ironandwine69

Why are your bench and overhead so low?

denato1

I can only attribute it to a very weak cheat. I curl 70lbs with as bar and tri extensions. I do I,clone dumbbell bench 3x10 at 50lbs each arm. I made good progress on must lifts except chest movements and my left shoulder has some issues I never got taken care of

denato1

I follow the stronglifts template with accessories so I do 5 to 6 exercises a night. It's just a long time lifting, 2 hours most nights

billkansas

Why not consider lower rep ranges for bests of 3x3? This could help get unstuck, presuming you're in a stall.

We've got a lot in common. Our squat bests are practically the same, you deadlift better (my best is 340x5), and I press slightly better (I'm still recovering from left shoulder problems too). I also have small kids at home including a 5 month old so training time is limited. I think I'm older, but have more hair (gray ).

Personally, I object to higher rep ranges except on occasion when it strikes my fancy.... It's no longer fun to squat 275 except as a light/recovery day.

I'm very impressed with your weight loss- not something I know anything about.

not_a_runner

Running a strength focused program is not going to be as optimal for muscle gains as running a true hypertrophy program.
If you only want to train 2-3 days per week, I would look for a 3 day full body hypertrophy program. You'd be better off finding an established program than trying to modify one.