Strength & physique
phase.fitness for bodybuilders and physique athletes
Volume is the dose, and the dose has landmarks. phase.fitness counts your weekly sets per muscle, starts a block near the minimum effective volume, climbs toward the adaptive range while performance holds, and deloads before the recoverable ceiling becomes a problem.
Updated
The short answer
phase.fitness plans hypertrophy from the volume-landmarks document its generator reads: large muscles from 8–10 weekly sets to 12–20, medium 6–8 to 10–16, small 4–6 to 8–14, at 6–12 reps and 65–85% with each muscle trained 2–3 times a week on an upper/lower or push/pull/legs split. Each week's sets and targets are planned when the block is written; the block ends with a deload at maintenance volume, earlier if performance drops with persistent soreness. For a cut, the fat-loss document's rule applies — hold the load, trim the volume, plan the exit. Routines go to Hevy or Liftosaur and the sets come back.
When should a hypertrophy block end?
At the planned week or when performance drops, whichever comes first. phase.fitness plans each block from minimum effective volume toward the top of the adaptive range and ends it with a deload at maintenance volume — earlier if the log shows performance falling together with persistent soreness, the sign the block has gone past what you recover from.
Is upper/lower or push/pull/legs better for hypertrophy?
The one that fits your days. phase.fitness trains each muscle two or three times a week, as its frequency document prescribes, and picks the split from the days you have: upper/lower on four, push/pull/legs on six. The weekly sets per muscle matter more than the split that delivers them.
Your week, honestly
Nobody counts the sets.
Twenty for chest and six for hamstrings, because that is how the split fell — and the landmarks say the hamstrings needed ten to sixteen.
The block never ends.
Volume climbs until sleep and motivation go, and the deload arrives as an injury instead of a plan.
The cut throws the muscle away.
High reps, light weights, more cardio — the exact combination that removes the signal protecting lean mass.
What phase.fitness does about it
Weekly sets per muscle, counted
phase.fitness counts the sets per muscle from your logged sessions and compares them with the landmarks — MEV, MAV, MRV — for each group.
Progressive workload
Every week's set and rep targets are planned when the block is written, and the last week of a block is a deload by construction.
Frequency from the document
Each muscle 2–3 times a week on the split that fits your days — upper/lower on four, push/pull/legs on six — never one session of eighteen sets.
Loads held, volume trimmed toward MEV, familiar exercises, easy cardio for expenditure, and a maintain phase planned from the start.
Programs to start from
Each of these is a page of its own, with the phases, a sample week and the evidence behind it.
SHypertrophy program built on volume landmarks5–8 wk · 4–6 d/wk · all levels
SPush / pull / legs program, six days6–8 wk · 6 d/wk · intermediate
SUpper / lower split, four days8 wk · 4 d/wk · intermediate
SCTraining for fat loss: keep the muscle, lose the rest10–16 wk · 3–4 lifting + 2–3 easy cardio d/wk · all levelsThe apps you already use
The evidence
The documents this page is built from
These are the knowledge-base documents the phase.fitness generator reads for this case. The phases, bands and weekly numbers above are transcribed from them.
- Volume Landmarks for Hypertrophy — updated 2025-01-18
- Training Frequency Guidelines — updated 2025-01-18
- Resistance Training During an Energy Deficit — updated 2026-09-01
Frequently asked questions
How does phase.fitness decide my weekly volume?
From the volume-landmarks document: each muscle starts a block near its minimum effective volume and climbs toward its adaptive range while the last set stays at RPE 8–9 and performance holds. phase.fitness counts the sets from your logs and compares them with the landmarks.
Does phase.fitness plan nutrition?
No. phase.fitness plans the training; a surplus or a deficit is yours. For a cut, the training follows the fat-loss document's rule — hold the load, trim the volume — and reads your bodyweight when it comes in from Intervals.icu or Apple Health.
Which split will I get?
phase.fitness picks the one that fits your days and the frequency the document prescribes: full body on three, upper/lower on four, push/pull/legs on six. Templates for the last two exist in the library and import without AI credits.
The only app that plans strength, cardio and calisthenics together
For a physique athlete the calisthenics day is the straight-arm work the split leaves out — support holds, L-sits, lever steps — trunk and scapular strength that shows in every heavy set and adds no junk volume.
Right now, phase.fitness is the only training app that writes strength, cardio and calisthenics into one periodized program — same calendar, same phases, same recovery budget.
You choose the mix. A calisthenics-only plan, a cardio-only block, strength plus cardio, or all three: the phases, the end-of-phase analysis and the sync work the same way with one modality or three.
Why calisthenics is in the plan
Bodyweight skill work is strength training in a different shape. Straight-arm work, levers and handstands build scapular control, tendon capacity and relative strength that barbell and machine work leave untouched, and they transfer because they are closed-chain, whole-body patterns. Treated as a modality rather than a warm-up, they get sets, holds and progressions like a squat does.
No exercise catalogue on the market contains a tuck front lever, so those sessions run in the phase.fitness built-in player; strength goes to Hevy, Liftosaur or a Garmin watch, cardio to Garmin and Intervals.icu. How the skill work is programmed.
Free to start, no card. Connect the apps you already use and build the first phase.