The best free hypertrophy programs, compared
23 hypertrophy programs, every one free and shown in full on its own page. Pick by how many days you can train, then by what you have to train with.
- 2 days a week: Dumbbell Only Full Body
- 3 days a week: 20-Rep Squat, Dumbbell + Bench Full Body, Kettlebell Full Body, r/bodyweightfitness Recommended Routine, Strong Curves (Beginner), German Volume Training (GVT), Vince Gironda 8×8, DoggCrapp (DC Training)
- 4 days a week: Lyle McDonald's Generic Bulking Routine, 5/3/1: Boring But Big, PHUL, Dorian Yates HIT, GZCL: Jacked & Tan 2.0, Twice-A-Day
- 5 days a week: Bro Split, PHAT, Push Pull Legs · Upper Lower
- 6 days a week: Metallicadpa PPL, Metallicadpa PPL: 5/3/1, Arnold Split, High Frequency PPL, Mountain Dog PPL
All 23, line by line
| Program | Days | Session | Length | Level | Equipment | By |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dumbbell Only Full Body | 2 | 45–60 min | Ongoing | Beginner | Dumbbells only | Traditional |
| 20-Rep Squat | 3 | 40–50 min | Ongoing | Beginner | Barbell + a rack | Traditional |
| Dumbbell + Bench Full Body | 3 | 40–55 min | Ongoing | Beginner | Dumbbells only | Traditional |
| Kettlebell Full Body | 3 | 55–70 min | Ongoing | Beginner | Kettlebells | Traditional |
| r/bodyweightfitness Recommended Routine | 3 | 30–45 min | Ongoing | Beginner | Bodyweight | r/bodyweightfitness |
| Strong Curves (Beginner) | 3 | 40–50 min | 12 weeks | Beginner | Full gym | Bret Contreras & Glen Cordoza |
| German Volume Training (GVT) | 3 | 40–55 min | Ongoing | Intermediate | Full gym | Charles Poliquin |
| Vince Gironda 8×8 | 3 | 30–40 min | Ongoing | Intermediate | Full gym | Vince Gironda |
| DoggCrapp (DC Training) | 3 | 20–30 min | 2-week cycle, repeats | Advanced | Full gym | Dante Trudel |
| Lyle McDonald's Generic Bulking Routine | 4 | 45–60 min | Ongoing | Beginner | Full gym | Lyle McDonald |
| 5/3/1: Boring But Big | 4 | 50–70 min | 4-week cycle, repeats | Intermediate | Full gym | Jim Wendler |
| PHUL | 4 | 45–65 min | Ongoing | Intermediate | Full gym | Brandon Campbell Diamond |
| Dorian Yates HIT | 4 | 40–50 min | Ongoing | Advanced | Full gym | Dorian Yates |
| GZCL: Jacked & Tan 2.0 | 4 | 45–60 min | 12 weeks | Advanced | Full gym | Cody Lefever |
| Twice-A-Day | 4 | 35–50 min | Ongoing | Advanced | Full gym | Durata |
| Bro Split | 5 | 50–70 min | Ongoing | Intermediate | Full gym | Traditional |
| PHAT | 5 | 50–70 min | Ongoing | Advanced | Full gym | Layne Norton |
| Push Pull Legs · Upper Lower | 5 | 55–70 min | Ongoing | Advanced | Full gym | Traditional |
| Metallicadpa PPL | 6 | 50–70 min | Ongoing | Intermediate | Full gym | Metallicadpa |
| Metallicadpa PPL: 5/3/1 | 6 | 50–70 min | 4-week cycle, repeats | Intermediate | Full gym | Metallicadpa & Jim Wendler |
| Arnold Split | 6 | 50–70 min | Ongoing | Advanced | Full gym | Arnold Schwarzenegger |
| High Frequency PPL | 6 | 45–60 min | Ongoing | Advanced | Full gym | Durata |
| Mountain Dog PPL | 6 | 50–65 min | Ongoing | Advanced | Full gym | John Meadows |
Session times are worked out from each program's sets, reps and rests: the same estimate the app shows.
Who each one suits
Dumbbell Only Full Body
Best forRun this if your equipment starts and ends at dumbbells — a home gym corner, a hotel fitness room, a garage with adjustables.
ProgressionDumbbells jump in big steps — often 2 kg or more per hand — so adding weight every session is a dead end.
20-Rep Squat
Best forRun it if you want size fast and already squat competently — the set only works if your technique holds up while your lungs and will are failing.
ProgressionThe squat adds 2.5 kg every single session you complete all twenty reps — no weekly waves, no percentages, just 7.5 kg a week onto a set of twenty.
Dumbbell + Bench Full Body
Best forThis is the right pick if your home gym is dumbbells plus a bench and you want a plan that uses both properly rather than a barbell program with awkward substitutions.
ProgressionEverything runs on wide-range double progression, the sane way to progress when your weights only exist in fixed jumps.
Kettlebell Full Body
Best forMade for anyone whose gym is a bell or two in the living room, a garage, or a park — minimal equipment, no barbell, no machines.
ProgressionEvery weighted movement runs double progression inside its rep range — swings work 12–20, goblet squats, rows and high pulls 8–12, cleans and presses 5–8.
r/bodyweightfitness Recommended Routine
Best forFor anyone who wants real strength training with no weights — students, travellers, home trainees with a doorway pull-up bar and not much else.
ProgressionThe rule is simple and unforgiving: work each movement from 3×5 up to 3×8 with strict, controlled reps — no kipping, no half range.
Strong Curves (Beginner)
Best forAnyone whose first goal is building the glutes and lower body — the book was written for women, but the programming is just good lower-body hypertrophy training and works for anyone.
ProgressionProgression works on two levels, exactly as the book writes it.
German Volume Training (GVT)
Best forGVT is for intermediate lifters who want size and are prepared to eat for it — running a 10×10 routine in a calorie deficit is a fast route to burnout.
ProgressionThe load stays fixed until you've earned the increase: complete all ten sets of ten — the full hundred reps — with the same weight and clean form, then add a small jump (2.5 kg is plenty) next session and rebuild.
Vince Gironda 8×8
Best forThe vince gironda 8x8 program suits experienced lifters chasing a dense, classic-physique look — especially as a deliberate change of stimulus after months of heavy low-rep work, or during a cut when joints appreciate lighter loads.
ProgressionLoad progression is earned, not scheduled.
DoggCrapp (DC Training)
Best forThis is an advanced program with no apologies.
ProgressionThe rule is beating the logbook.
Lyle McDonald's Generic Bulking Routine
Best forThe generic bulking routine is for intermediates in a deliberate calorie surplus — the name is a contract, and running it while cutting misses the design entirely.
ProgressionEverything advances by double progression.
5/3/1: Boring But Big
Best forBBB is built for lifters past the beginner stage — you've run a linear progression like Starting Strength or GZCLP, adding weight every session no longer works, and you want to get bigger while your strength keeps climbing.
ProgressionYou start by setting a training max — 90% of your true 1RM — for each of the four lifts.
PHUL
Best forPHUL suits a lifter who has finished a linear-progression program and wants both numbers and a physique — the classic powerbuilding profile.
ProgressionThe two kinds of day progress differently, and keeping them straight is where most people slip when running PHUL off a spreadsheet.
Dorian Yates HIT
Best forThis is an advanced hypertrophy program, and 'advanced' here means something specific: you must be able to genuinely reach muscular failure, which most lifters have never actually done, and then stop.
ProgressionEvery exercise runs double progression off its one working set.
GZCL: Jacked & Tan 2.0
Best forRun it if you're an intermediate coming off GZCLP or another linear program and your priority has shifted from adding plates every session to adding muscle while strength keeps ticking up.
ProgressionProgression is the chart itself.
Twice-A-Day
Best forThis is an advanced program with an unusual gating requirement: not strength, but schedule.
ProgressionThe two halves of the day advance by different rules, on purpose.
Bro Split
Best forPick this split if per-session focus matters more to you than per-week frequency: you get to empty the tank on one muscle, chase the pump through four angles, and know it has a week to grow back.
ProgressionOne rule runs the entire week: double progression.
PHAT
Best forThis is an advanced program and the workload is real: five long sessions, over twenty working sets on some days, and every muscle hit twice a week.
ProgressionThe power lifts add weight whenever you finish every set within the 3–5 (or 5–8) rep prescription.
Push Pull Legs · Upper Lower
Best forThis 5-day split fits the intermediate who has outgrown three-day programs but knows a six-day PPL would collapse the first busy week.
ProgressionTwo engines drive the week.
Metallicadpa PPL
Best forDespite the nickname, the real entry requirement is scheduling, not experience: six gym days a week, every week.
ProgressionThe primaries progress like a classic linear program: 2.5 kg per session on bench, press, rows and squats, 5 kg on deadlifts, with the AMRAP top set showing how much room is left.
Metallicadpa PPL: 5/3/1
Best forRun this when you've milked the base Metallicadpa PPL — the 1×5+ top sets have stalled and resets only buy a few weeks — but you're not willing to give up six-day PPL volume for a barbell-only intermediate program.
ProgressionThe five wave lifts cycle over four weeks: a 5s week topping out at 85% of the training max, a 3s week at 90%, the 5/3/1 week finishing with a single at 95%, then a 40/50/60% deload.
Arnold Split
Best forRun this if you want classic bodybuilding volume and can actually give it six days a week — the split has no rest built in except Sunday, and the sessions are not short.
ProgressionThere is no percentage math here — the pyramid itself is the regulator.
High Frequency PPL
Best forThis program assumes hypertrophy is the goal and six days are genuinely available — there is exactly one rest day, and skipping sessions unravels the twice-a-week frequency the whole design leans on.
ProgressionThe heavy anchors — bench, row, squat, overhead press, deadlift, weighted chins — progress the strict way: land the top of the rep window (6–8 on the barbell lifts, 4–6 for deadlift, 6–10 on chins) on every single set and the weight rises next time that day comes around.
Mountain Dog PPL
Best forThis routine is for the hypertrophy-focused lifter whose joints have started billing for years of heavy barbell PPL — or who simply responds better to feeling a muscle work than to watching a bar-weight number.
ProgressionMeadows programmed by feel, adding load whenever reps were crisp.
Common questions
How many days a week do these hypertrophy programs take?
From 2 to 6 days a week. 2 days: Dumbbell Only Full Body. 3 days: 20-Rep Squat, Dumbbell + Bench Full Body, Kettlebell Full Body, r/bodyweightfitness Recommended Routine, Strong Curves (Beginner), German Volume Training (GVT), Vince Gironda 8×8 and DoggCrapp (DC Training). 4 days: Lyle McDonald's Generic Bulking Routine, 5/3/1: Boring But Big, PHUL, Dorian Yates HIT, GZCL: Jacked & Tan 2.0 and Twice-A-Day. 5 days: Bro Split, PHAT and Push Pull Legs · Upper Lower. 6 days: Metallicadpa PPL, Metallicadpa PPL: 5/3/1, Arnold Split, High Frequency PPL and Mountain Dog PPL.
Which of these has the shortest sessions?
DoggCrapp (DC Training), at about 20–30 minutes a session. Session times are worked out from each program's sets, reps and rests, the same estimate the app shows.
Which ones suit a beginner?
Dumbbell Only Full Body, 20-Rep Squat, Dumbbell + Bench Full Body, Kettlebell Full Body, r/bodyweightfitness Recommended Routine, Strong Curves (Beginner) and Lyle McDonald's Generic Bulking Routine. They are written for lifters in their first year or so of training.
Can I run any of them without a gym?
Yes: Dumbbell Only Full Body (dumbbells only), Dumbbell + Bench Full Body (dumbbells only), Kettlebell Full Body (kettlebells) and r/bodyweightfitness Recommended Routine (bodyweight). The rest need a barbell or a full gym.
Are these programs free?
Yes. All 23 are free to run in Durata, and every set of every session is shown on each program's own page.
Run any of them in Durata
Every program here is free in Durata, with each one's own progression worked out for you as you log.