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| Pictured: Not me. |
You are now probably wondering what PHAT is; according to Urban Dictionary and 90s black people, it is both a synonym for cool and an acronym for 'Pretty Hot And Tempting'. According to myself and various jacked dudes (the most eminent of whom is Layne Norton, who is probably to thank for popularising the system), it is also a acronym for 'Power-Hypertrophy Adaptive Training'. In practice this means it is a training system with the dual aim of building maximal strength whilst developing size.
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| This is Google Image's idea of 'PHAT'. I approve. |
Without further adieu here are 2 sample programmes:
Strength Bias PHAT programme
Day 1: Pulling Strength (Deadlift 5 sets x 3-5 reps, Hamstring movement 3 x 6-8, Row variant 3 x 6-8, Chin/Pull-up/Machine Pull-down 3 x 6-8)
Day 2: Pushing Strength (Bench Press variant 5 x 3-5, Overhead Press variant 3 x 6-8, High Incline Press or Behind Neck Press 3 x 6-8, Dip or Close Grip Bench 3 x 6-8)
Day 3: Squat Strength and Accessories (Back Squat 5 x 3-5, Front Squat or Leg Press 3 x 6-8, Calves 3 x 6-8, Abs 3 x 6-8, Shrugs 3 x 6-8)
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: 'Torso' hypertrophy and dynamic effort [DE] (DE Bench Press 5 x 3 (for DE work, use ~50% of 1 rep max), DE Chin or Row 5 x 3, Bench variant 3 x 12-15, Chin 3 x 12-15, Overhead Press variant 3 x 12-15, Row variant 3 x 12-15, Face Pull or Upright Row 3 x 12-15, Dip or Close Grip Bench 3 x 12-15)
Day 6: Legs and Arms hypertrophy and DE (DE Squat or Deadlift 5 x 3, Squat or Leg Press 3 x 12-15, Romanian or Stiff-Leg Deadlift 3 x 12-15, Hamstring Curl 3 x 12-15, Calves 3 x 12-15, Curl variant 3 x 12-15, Tricep Extension variant 3 x 12-15)
Day 7: Rest
Hypertrophy Bias PHAT Programme
Day 1: Upper Body Strength (Bench Press variant 4 x 3-5, Barbell Row variant 4 x 3-5, Overhead Press variant 3 x 6-8, Chins/Pull-ups/Machine Pull-down 3 x 6-8)
Day 2: Lower Body Strength (Back Squats 5 x 3-5, Deadlifts 3 x 3-5, Front Squats 3 x 6-8, Hamstring movement 3 x 6-8)
Day 6: Legs and Arms hypertrophy and DE (DE Squat or Deadlift 5 x 3, Squat or Leg Press 3 x 12-15, Romanian or Stiff-Leg Deadlift 3 x 12-15, Hamstring Curl 3 x 12-15, Calves 3 x 12-15, Curl variant 3 x 12-15, Tricep Extension variant 3 x 12-15)
Day 7: Rest
Hypertrophy Bias PHAT Programme
Day 1: Upper Body Strength (Bench Press variant 4 x 3-5, Barbell Row variant 4 x 3-5, Overhead Press variant 3 x 6-8, Chins/Pull-ups/Machine Pull-down 3 x 6-8)
Day 2: Lower Body Strength (Back Squats 5 x 3-5, Deadlifts 3 x 3-5, Front Squats 3 x 6-8, Hamstring movement 3 x 6-8)
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Back and Shoulder Hypertrophy and DE (DE Chin or Row 5 x 3, Chin/Pull-up/Machine Pull-down 3 x 12-15, Row variant 3 x 12-15, Overhead Press variant 3x 12-15, Face Pull or Upright Row 3 x 12-15, Lateral Raise 3 x 12-15, Shrug 3 x 12-15)
Day 5: Legs Hypertrophy and DE (DE Squat or Deadlift 5 x 3, Squat or Leg Press 3 x 12-15, Romanian or Stiff-Leg Deadlift 3 x 12-15, Hamstring Curl 3 x 12-15, Leg Extension 3 x 12-15, Calves 5 x 12-15)
Day 6: Chest and Arms Hypertrophy and DE (DE Bench Press 5 x 3, Incline Press 3 x 12-15, Close Grip Bench Press or Dip 3 x 12-15, DB or Cable Fly (vary angles) 5 x 12-15, Barbell or EZ Bar Curl variant 3 x 12-15, Tricep Extension variant 3 x 12-15, Dumbell Curl variant 3 x 12-15)
Day 7: Rest
If you are looking at this and thinking "What the bloody ef does any of this mean?" then this programme is not for you. This is not a beginner programme; you have to know your way around the gym. You don't have to be the most jacked and tanned guy there, but you should have good form on all the basic movements. Preferably you should at least a year or so of training under your belt, as this programme may well require some tweaking to personal needs, it is good to know how your body reacts to certain stimuli. For example, for me personally, I deal with high volume squatting and pulling pretty well; high volume pressing, on the other hand causes my dodgy right shoulder to hurt like hell and as such causes me to hate everyone and everything around me. Time spent training hard lets you learn ways in which you can and can't push your body and as such it would be prudent to amass some of that knowledge before taking on this programme.
You will also notice that not every exercise is a set-in-stone prescription, many are broad movement guidelines. This means you will need both the knowledge of weight training movements to breakdown the exercises that may fit these guidelines and also the knowledge of self to know which of the applicable movements suits you best. For example where I have written 'Row variant' there are a lot of exercises which fit the billing - 45 degree barbell rows, Pendlay rows, Yates Rows, Cable rows, Meadows rows, Dumbell Rows - knowing which exercise works well for you (whether that is in terms of maximum weight lifted or feeling maximum contraction and pump in the target muscle, depending on day) is up to you. So feel free to play around, stick to the principles and basic structure, but don't be afraid to change things a bit to suit your preferences; maybe you don't like Close Grip Bench or Dips and would rather do JM presses? They are a great exercise so go for it. Maybe you hate front squats? Firstly you are stupid and I hate you, but you might put in Olympic style back squats or narrow stance leg press instead. Learning what does and doesn't work for you is an important and underrated factor (and one I'll probably write an article on sometime). However, there is one caveat: if you suck at something and deep down you know it is important, don't skip it on the pretence that it doesn't work for you; if you can only do 2 pull ups it's probably because you're weak and/or fat, embrace the suck, work hard and get better.
Even for those that know what they are doing, there does need to be some further clarification and guidelines. On the strength days (that is Days 1-2/3) you want to have long rest periods, usually around 3 minutes, enough to make sure you can exert near maximum effort on each set, especially for the first exercise in each workout. For these days, the weight that you move for the first exercise is of primary importance, you want to be aiming to beat your numbers from the previous week in each session.
Day 5: Legs Hypertrophy and DE (DE Squat or Deadlift 5 x 3, Squat or Leg Press 3 x 12-15, Romanian or Stiff-Leg Deadlift 3 x 12-15, Hamstring Curl 3 x 12-15, Leg Extension 3 x 12-15, Calves 5 x 12-15)
Day 6: Chest and Arms Hypertrophy and DE (DE Bench Press 5 x 3, Incline Press 3 x 12-15, Close Grip Bench Press or Dip 3 x 12-15, DB or Cable Fly (vary angles) 5 x 12-15, Barbell or EZ Bar Curl variant 3 x 12-15, Tricep Extension variant 3 x 12-15, Dumbell Curl variant 3 x 12-15)
Day 7: Rest
If you are looking at this and thinking "What the bloody ef does any of this mean?" then this programme is not for you. This is not a beginner programme; you have to know your way around the gym. You don't have to be the most jacked and tanned guy there, but you should have good form on all the basic movements. Preferably you should at least a year or so of training under your belt, as this programme may well require some tweaking to personal needs, it is good to know how your body reacts to certain stimuli. For example, for me personally, I deal with high volume squatting and pulling pretty well; high volume pressing, on the other hand causes my dodgy right shoulder to hurt like hell and as such causes me to hate everyone and everything around me. Time spent training hard lets you learn ways in which you can and can't push your body and as such it would be prudent to amass some of that knowledge before taking on this programme.
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| I didn't know what to put here, so tits. |
You will also notice that not every exercise is a set-in-stone prescription, many are broad movement guidelines. This means you will need both the knowledge of weight training movements to breakdown the exercises that may fit these guidelines and also the knowledge of self to know which of the applicable movements suits you best. For example where I have written 'Row variant' there are a lot of exercises which fit the billing - 45 degree barbell rows, Pendlay rows, Yates Rows, Cable rows, Meadows rows, Dumbell Rows - knowing which exercise works well for you (whether that is in terms of maximum weight lifted or feeling maximum contraction and pump in the target muscle, depending on day) is up to you. So feel free to play around, stick to the principles and basic structure, but don't be afraid to change things a bit to suit your preferences; maybe you don't like Close Grip Bench or Dips and would rather do JM presses? They are a great exercise so go for it. Maybe you hate front squats? Firstly you are stupid and I hate you, but you might put in Olympic style back squats or narrow stance leg press instead. Learning what does and doesn't work for you is an important and underrated factor (and one I'll probably write an article on sometime). However, there is one caveat: if you suck at something and deep down you know it is important, don't skip it on the pretence that it doesn't work for you; if you can only do 2 pull ups it's probably because you're weak and/or fat, embrace the suck, work hard and get better.
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| Neither fat nor weak. |
Even for those that know what they are doing, there does need to be some further clarification and guidelines. On the strength days (that is Days 1-2/3) you want to have long rest periods, usually around 3 minutes, enough to make sure you can exert near maximum effort on each set, especially for the first exercise in each workout. For these days, the weight that you move for the first exercise is of primary importance, you want to be aiming to beat your numbers from the previous week in each session.
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| Matt Kroc didn't get this huge from lifting baby weights |
On hypertrophy days (Days 2/3-6), shorter rests are required, both because shorter rests are optimal for maximal hypertrophy stimulus and because otherwise, the workouts would take a fucking age; 90 seconds or so is a good guideline. Consequently, the weight that you move is not of the utmost importance, you should be aiming for stimulation of the muscles and 'the pump'. At the very least, this will make you look really good in the gym so you can eye-fuck yourself in the mirror and hold on to the hope that maybe, just maybe, an attractive member of the opposite sex is also doing an eye-fucking on you. Converse to my usual recommendations, on these days where the focus is work volume and pump for a targeted muscle group, machines are fine. I know, I know, this goes against everything I usually preach and I need to wash my filthy mouth out; however, there is a time and place for almost everything, and this is one of the very few times or places for the use of machines, if you so wish. Supersetting exercises, preferably from opposing muscle groups might also be a good idea as it can lead to a large decrease in the time in the gym necessary to get your required lifting volume in. If you find the workouts are still taking longer than you would really like, even with honest short rest periods and supersetting, drop the dynamic effort work first and perform a pure pump style workout.
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| The pump: it's as satisfying as coming, at least according to Arnold. |
This might also be a good place to throw in a quick description on what exactly dynamic effort work is to those that think 'the Westside Method' is one of Tupac's early albums. Dynamic effort work, as popularised by Louis Simmons et al. at Westside Barbell Club, refers to lifting significantly sub-maximal weights with as much speed and acceleration as is possible. Many, many articles have been written on the whys and hows of DE training, but to summarise and greatly simplify: the point of throwing around weights that are much lighter than you could lift is to increase your rate of maximal force production, that is, your power output. Adding in dynamic effort work will lead to increased power which will in turn allow you to lift greater weights in the long run.
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| He may be fat these days, but you will never be 'two tomahawks on your chest' cool. |
Finally, know that this programme is not for the lazy and half arsed, the stressed out and short on time or the tiny-eating, "I just want to tone up" girly men. If you want to get the most from this programme you need to commit, hit it hard in the gym, rest and recover well when out of the gym and make sure you are getting sufficient amounts of quality calories. If you fulfil these criteria then this programme is the unabashed balls for packing size on your frame and getting you stronger than a black guy on PCP.
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