Hypertrophy training entails doing workouts that specifically increase muscle size or muscle mass. It comes with plenty of benefits, from boosting your metabolism to supporting bone health to improving everyday movement and strength. Lifting weights is the most common way to increase hypertrophy, so if you want to build lean muscle, you’re going to want to take a look at these hypertrophy workouts for women.
What Are Hypertrophy Workouts?
Hypertrophy workouts are a type of resistance training that focuses mostly on strengthening your muscles and building your muscle size. Muscle mass plays an important role in overall health and wellness. It contributes to better mobility, increased metabolic rate, improved bone density, and can help manage certain diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Hypertrophy training is an excellent option for building muscle mass and strength. Building strength is super important not only for aesthetics, but for day-to-day life as well, as it enables you to lift and carry things as well as move more easily. To elicit hypertrophy, you have to train each body part multiple times a week. This can be done with split workouts, which we explain in detail below.
What Are the Benefits of Hypertrophy Workouts?
- Increased muscle strength and size
- Improves movement and functional capacity
- Increase in strength and lifting abilities
- Reduced likelihood of age-related muscle loss and diseases
- Reduces risk of injury
- Increases metabolic rate
- Improves bone density
- Reduces body fat
- Lowers blood pressure
- Reduces risk of osteoporosis
- Potentially improves insulin sensitivity
3 Upper Body Hypertrophy Workouts
1. Dumbbell overhead press
Stand upright, keeping your back straight. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, at your shoulders with an overhead grip. Exhale as you raise the weights above your head in a controlled motion, pause briefly, then inhale as you lower the dumbbells to shoulder level. Repeat.
2. Bent over row
Stand with your legs shoulder-width apart with your knees slightly bent. Hold a dumbbell in each hand with a neutral grip (palms facing each other). Hinge forward until your torso is at a 45-degree angle. Pull the dumbbells toward your body, beside the bottom of your ribcage. Lower the weights in a controlled manner to starting position, staying bent over until all reps are completed.
3. Dumbbell chest press
Lie with your back on a bench or flat on the floor with your knees bent and a dumbbell in each hand. Your palms should be facing your feet. Extend your arms and push the dumbbells over your chest (your arms should be directly over your shoulders at the top). Once your arms are straight, pause and lower the weights back down to shoulder level. Repeat.
3 Lower Body Hypertrophy Workouts
1. Weighted hip raises
Lie on your exercise mat with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, about hip distance apart. Place a weight like a dumbbell or barbell on your hips. Lift your hips until your body forms a straight line from your chin to your knees. Pause and squeeze your glutes, then lower your hips back to the starting position. Repeat for the desired number of reps.
2. Dumbbell calf raise
Stand upright, holding a dumbbell in each hand by your sides. Your feet should be hip distance apart with your toes facing forward. Raise your heels off the floor and contract your calves, slowly returning to starting position. You can start slow and build up speed for more of a challenge. Also, try doing calf raises from first position with your heels touching and feet turned out about 45 degrees.
3. Split lunge with weights
Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding dumbbells straight down at your sides. Take a big step forward with your left foot, keeping your ankles, knees, and feet in a single line. Keeping your spine vertical, lower your back knee toward the ground and push your front knee forward (it shouldn’t go beyond your front toes). Push upward with your legs to return to starting position. Do the same thing on the other side and repeat.
3 Full Body Hypertrophy Workouts
1. Weighted squats
Start with your feet about shoulder width apart and your toes turned out 15 to 30 degrees. Slowly descend, bending through the knees, hips, and ankles, stopping when your knees reach a 90 degree angle. Then return to the starting position and repeat. You can hold dumbbells by your side or a medicine ball in front of your chest.
2. Dumbbell lunge to bicep curl
Holding dumbbells at your sides, step your left foot forward and bend your knees until your left thigh is nearly parallel to the floor. This is your lunge position. As your lunge, do a bicep curl at the same time, curling the weights in front of your chest, palms up. Push up to return to the starting position and repeat with your right leg.
3. Dumbbell Deadlifts
Stand with your feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent and hold a dumbbell in each hand in front of your thighs. Hinge at your hips, bending slightly at your knees. Push your butt back and keep your back flat. Your torso should be almost parallel to the floor and your weights should reach your shins. Keep your core tight and push through your heels to stand up straight. Keep the weights close to your body as you pull up. Pause at the top and squeeze your butt. Repeat.
3 Hypertrophy Split Workouts
1. Upper-Lower Split
This split trains the upper body muscles on one day and lower body on another, and repeats that structure. This can be done 4 times or 6 times a week, and you can choose different muscles and exercises to focus on for different days. It’s a great, basic system to follow to balance training different muscle groups.
2. Push-Legs-Pull Split
This split trains chest, triceps and delts (push) one day, lower body the next, and on another day, back, biceps and rear delts (pull). This is ideal if you’re looking to hit every single muscle group. It prioritizes compound exercises and allows for adequate recovery time between muscle groups before you start training again.
3. Full Body Split
This split breaks up training into specific body parts, usually focusing on two body parts a day. For example, one day you would focus on chest and biceps, another day you would focus on quads and glutes. It prioritizes isolation exercises to develop the singular muscle groups being worked.
If one of your fitness goals is to build lean muscle, these hypertrophy workouts are for you!
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