Muscle Building Program - Pat Davidson

8-WEEK MUSCLE BUILDING PROGRAM
8 WEEK MUSCLE BUILDING PROGRAM
Pat Davidson
PAT DAVIDSON 1
Contents
Intro .............................................................................................................................................................. 2
Principles of Training .................................................................................................................................... 3
Specificity.................................................................................................................................................. 4
Overload ................................................................................................................................................... 5
Diet................................................................................................................................................................ 7
The Program ................................................................................................................................................. 7
Training Day 1 ........................................................................................................................................... 7
Training Day 2 ......................................................................................................................................... 14
Training Day 3: ........................................................................................................................................ 18
Training Day 4: ........................................................................................................................................ 23
PAT DAVIDSON 2
Intro
If you follow this program perfectly and do not build muscle over the course of these 8-
weeks, I give you full permission to never step foot in a gym ever again. Of course, the
likelihood that you, “did this program”, and didn’t gain any muscle over 8-weeks is slim
to none. Instead, if you failed to gain any muscle, then there are other certain things that
took place. Those things revolve failing to be adherent and compliant to the actual
program, and/or doing an abysmal job with nutrition and lifestyle management.
Terrible programs work all the time. They do so because whoever was doing the
program stuck to it and put in great effort. A bad plan that you go all in on is better than
either no plan at all or a great plan that you don’t follow.
When you get the combination of a great plan and excellent compliance and effort,
that’s when the magic happens. This plan should be outstanding. It will be based on an
understanding of the scientific body of knowledge of what grows muscle mass, and it
will also include real world in the trenches advice. I’ve personally done this exact layout
for 8-weeks and gone from 193 to 203 during that time period.
How did I manage to gain 10 pounds in 8-weeks on this plan? I followed a nutrition plan
based around hitting very specific macro-nutrient levels on a daily basis. I weighed my
food and inputted those values into an app for quantitative processing at every meal. I
did every single workout and executed every single set. I tracked my numbers and
progressed load or reps appropriately. I didn’t add extra training sessions to try to rush
the process. I tried hard, and I trusted the plan. So, if you are actually going to build
muscle, let’s talk about some of the important elements that you need to understand so
that you do not waste your time.
Principles of Training
There are four primary principles of training. They are:
1. Specificity
2. Overload
3. Individual Differences
4. Reversibility.
The last two are very easy to understand. Individual differences means that two different
people can do the exact same program and they can have very different results from
one another. Reversibility means that if you don’t use it, then you lose it. Principles one
and two need more time to talk about here. If you understand these principles, they will
go a long way in helping you not sabotage yourself.
PAT DAVIDSON 3
Specificity
Specificity means that you only get better at exactly what you do. If you’re trying to gain
muscle mass and you decide that you’ll accomplish this by doing a lot of calisthenics
and running, then you will not be providing a specific enough stimulus to reach your
goal. In order to grow muscle tissue, you have to recruit and fatigue the muscle fibers
inside that muscle.
A muscle is made up of many fibers inside of it. The fibers are divided up in many
different ways. One way they are divided is that some are slow twitch and others are
fast twitch fibers. Another way that they are divided is that some are physically biased
towards one end of the muscle, whereas other fibers are biased towards the other end
or the middle of the muscle. The way muscles grow is that we increase the size of the
already existing fibers that make up the muscle. We do this by adding structural and
contractile proteins to those fibers to make them bigger. The only way that this process
of adding proteins to the fibers occurs is if we manage to recruit and fatigue that specific
fiber.
Based on this, we’re looking to recruit and fatigue all the relevant fibers inside the
muscles that we are trying to grow. Before discussing overload, which will talk about
what kinds of weights and reps we need to do per set to recruit and fatigue the majority
of the available muscle fibers of a muscle, a couple other elements about specificity
should be mentioned.
First, if you are going to get a certain muscle to grow, you have to train that actual
muscle. You are not going to significantly grow your upper body muscles just by
squatting. You have to directly hit the relevant muscle itself with stimulus for that muscle
to respond by growing.
Second, you have to create enough stimulus at the muscle to threaten it in order for that
muscle to grow. The muscle is threatened by having a sufficient level of tension be
distributed through the tissue. The muscle can also be threatened by being an
environment where there is a large amount of waste products present.
Tension is directly related to the amount of weight that you are lifting for a given
movement. Sometimes people think this means that someone is mentally tensing the
muscle to a very high degree during this exercise. That is not what this term refers to.
To increase tension, you increase the load. This does not mean you have to lift the
heaviest possible weight for a one rep max, and in fact lifting that heavy on a plan to
grow muscle is a very poor choice.
Building waste products is the result of doing enough reps and sets to really make the
muscle work. The inevitable by-products of muscular work are heat and acidity. Work is
weight x reps x sets. If you do more work, you get more waste products, which create
their own signal to the muscle for it to grow. To grow muscle tissue, you cannot simply
lift something heavy once. You have to put in repeated efforts. Those efforts have to go
close to your limit capabilities, and they need to systematically increase over time.
PAT DAVIDSON 4
So, we need to lift something heavy enough to threaten us, and we need to lift it enough
times to threaten us at all the muscles that we’re trying to train to get them to grow. But
how heavy is heavy enough, and how many times is enough times to lift something?
Overload
To answer these questions, we need to discuss overload. Overload is a nebulous topic
that doesn’t ever have exact answers. Instead, overload provides us more of a
framework for us to work in.
Overload does not mean that you must lift something

that is the heaviest possible thing that you can lift. It also
doesn’t mean that you have to go to your absolute limit
every time you do something. Instead, it means that we
have to go close to your limits. Close enough to really
challenge our body.
You can overload yourself from an aerobic standpoint, or

a speed standpoint, or a learning standpoint. None of
these will be specific to growing muscle mass though. To
grow muscle mass, we have to overload the specific
target muscles of the body that we are trying to grow.
For something to be heavy enough to stimulate muscular

growth, it seems to have to be at least 30% of your 1 rep
max for a given lift from a weight standpoint. This is
pretty light when you think about it. You may be able to
lift something that is 30% of your 1 rep max for 50 or
more reps. We can say that 30% is the lower end of the
tension stimuli realm for inducing a muscle growth
response so long as those sets are taken to a point very
close to failure.
On the other end of the tension stimuli continuum, you have loads that are 100% of your
1 rep max. These certainly provide enough tension to send a signal for muscle growth,
and if you do a lot of sets to accumulate a ton of volume with that level of weight, you
can grow muscle mass.
With the lower end and the upper end of the tension continuum, there are obvious
downsides. When something is 30% of your 1 rep max, you have to do an incredible
number of reps with that weight. This can be extremely aggravating at a certain point.
When something is 100% of your 1 rep max, this is going to wreak havoc on your joints
and skeleton if you decide to accumulate a large amount of volume with something that
heavy.
PAT DAVIDSON 5
Most experts recommend loads between 30% and 85% of your 1 rep max as being
appropriate for building muscle mass. In fact, so long as you do an equal number of
sets that get very close to failure, you can get an equal muscle building effect from
weights anywhere between this 30% to 85% continuum of sufficient and appropriate
tension. That’s a very wide range, and that can be really helpful based on an individual
person’s preferences of how they like to train, and with certain exercises that seem to
make more sense being pretty light with lots of reps, or others that seem to feel better
when they’re heavier with fewer reps.
From a logistical perspective, the most common rep range for growing muscle tissue is
between 8 and 15 reps. These kinds of sets are not too heavy where they tend to lead
to excessive joint pain, and they aren’t so light where you have to do a million reps to
get close to failure. Sets between 8 and 15 hit the logistical sweet spot for training to
hypertrophy, and generally make up the majority of sets that committed individuals in
the growth game train with.
In order to present the stimulus required for growing muscle tissue, you must get close
to failure with your sets. You do not need to go to failure, instead you have to come to
within proximity of failure. It appears as though you may be able to stimulate muscle
growth by coming to within five reps short of failure on a set as the greatest distance
from failure that can still provide a growth stimulus. Whenever you stop a set short of
failure and leave reps in the tank, these reps are called reps in reserve (RIR).
Five RIR appears to be the furthest from failure that you can end a set and still provide
a growth stimulus. As you continue to train with a given exercise and become more
accustomed to it, you may have to reduce RIR to still provide a growth stimulus. In
addition to this, when you are using lighter weights, closer to 30% of the 1 rep max, it
seems as though you have to come closer to failure to provide a growth stimulus
compared to heavier sets that are closer to 85% of the 1 rep max. All this being said, it
appears as though sets that end anywhere between 1 and 5 RIR with 30-85% 1 rep
max are adequate sets to be able to provide a stimulus for muscle growth.
When discussing the number of sets that someone would have to do for a given muscle
group to make it grow, the collective body of research seems to show that 10 sets per
muscle group per week is the lower end for demonstrative growth. The upper end of
sets per muscle group that people seem to be able to perform and still recover from is
30 sets per muscle group per week. There are obviously significant individual
differences that apply to this concept. With that being said, these 10 to 30 sets per
muscle per week guideline is a decent framework to operate within to drive muscle
growth in training.
PAT DAVIDSON 6
Diet
The final critical variable to discuss with muscle growth is diet. You will not be able to
grow appreciable muscle unless you are on a surplus diet. A surplus diet is one where
you are eating more calories than you are burning, and you are gaining weight. Perhaps
if you are an absolute beginner, you may be able to gain muscle while not gaining any
weight, but this muscle gain will still be unsubstantial. If you are not gaining weight, then
you are not growing muscle to any meaningful degree.
The number of surplus calories in the diet does not need to be enormous. A surplus of
250 to 500 calories per day seems to be a reasonable window to work within where you
will gain weight and muscle, but not a significant amount of fat.
When you start creeping well over the 500 calories per day mark, more and more body
fat will be gained in the process of the weight gain. Some body fat gain is inevitable with
any proper muscle gain program and dietary approach.
You should not be afraid of gaining a little fat in this process. With that being said, you
do not need go completely overboard and eat above and beyond a 1,000-calorie
surplus per day and layer on enormous amounts of fat.
The Program
This will be an 8-week program. The program will start off with the smallest number of
working sets per muscle group per week in week 1 and build up to the highest number
of working sets per muscle group per week in week 8. Weeks 1 through 4 will feature
sets going from 10 sets per muscle group in week 1 up to 14 sets per muscle group in
week 4. Weeks 5 through 8 will feature sets going from 15 sets per muscle group in
week 5 up to 18 sets per muscle group in week 8.
What Will Be in This Phase
- 4 training days
- 4 days that will feature aerobic tempos
- 4 days that will feature hypertrophy-based lifting
o 2 Upper Body Days
o 2 Lower Body Days
Training Day 1
Tempo Aerobic Training
In Joel Jamieson’s breakdown of different types of aerobic training, he puts tempo

training into level 1, which is the easiest group of aerobic training methods. So, this type
of training method isn’t meant to absolutely murder you. Don’t get this mixed up with the
idea that we won’t be working hard though. This will challenge you. It just won’t bring
you to max HR, keep you there, and then leave you in a heap on the ground at the end.
PAT DAVIDSON 7
The way we’re going to be doing this is that we’re going to pick an aerobic modality and
perform aerobic intervals on it. You will have an on phase and an off phase with these
intervals. The on phase will be 15 seconds, and the off phase will be 45 seconds. In
other words, every minute on the minute (EMOM), we will be performing 15 seconds of
aerobic work.
How hard should you be going?

You’re going to be going at 65 to 70% of peak output. Charlie Francis and Derek
Hansen have featured a lot of tempo work in their programming and coaching of
sprinters. The big thing that they have tried to get across to people is that you don’t
want to make the tempo runs too fast.
I’d rather have you at 64% than 71%. If you’re working with sprinters, and they run a 10
second 100 meters, 65% of that would be to have them run 15.4 second 100 meter runs
for tempo. This is kind of where the 15 second time frame comes from.
If I am using the True Form self-propelled treadmill for these. I don’t have an exact top
output number for these pieces of equipment. However, I have found numbers that
make sense for me on the treadmill, but I’ll usually be somewhere between 12.5 and
13.5 mph on the. If I am using an Assault Bike for these, I’ll try to go at 87 RPM every
time for output.
What if you need alternate pieces of equipment? Alternate pieces that I can think of
off the top of my head that would be fine include, a rower, Jacob’s Ladder, Versa
Climber, Slide Board, a treadmill, or running outside. I would not recommend a ski erg
for this. Your triceps are going to be fried with a ski erg.
How are these going to be arranged? How many of them are we going to do? The
following list will breakdown the aerobic tempo training volume across the block
Week 1
Set 1: 15 seconds on, 45 seconds off x 4 repetitions
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
PAT DAVIDSON 8
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Resistance Training
This will be an upper body lift. The muscle groups trained will be chest, back, arms, and
shoulders. We will be getting 5 working sets per muscle group for these regions in this
workout.
Chest exercises will be divided into horizontal pushing exercises and flies. Back
exercises will have two divisions. First, we’ll divide the back into lats and mid-back. With
lats we’ll divide exercises into vertical pull and unilateral assistance exercises. With mid-
back, we’ll divide exercises into horizontal pull and unilateral assistance exercises. With
arms, we’ll divide it into biceps and triceps. Shoulders will be divided into vertical push
and some kind of isolated anterior delt, lateral delt, or posterior delt exercise.
My recommendation for horizontal pushing exercises would be to try to opt for a piece
of equipment that can allow convergence of the arms in front of you during the press. A
barbell does not allow this and is therefore slightly less biased towards the pecs with the
pressing. A pressing machine where the arms come in towards midline will bias the
chest slightly more. Dumbbells where the bells move in towards each other at the top
will allow convergence as well. Dumbbells can be a pain in the ass when you’re really
strong though, just because it sucks to pick them up and get them into position. Fly
exercises feature convergence of the arms towards midline at a high level. I would
recommend a pec deck or a cable machine over dumbbells any day with flies.
My recommendation for vertical pushing is to use a high incline press. Most people do
not have full shoulder flexion. Trying to go straight overhead is usually something that
makes you jam something into a position that is less than ideal. So, just make your life a
little easier and press within your actual shoulder flexion range of motion. With the
isolated deltoid exercises, I would recommend focusing on your personal weak links. I
usually stick with some kind of lateral raise. Those hit the largest swath of deltoid tissue.
As sets increase across the block, I’ll add in more exercises, and those exercises will
focus on rear delts more.
With the pulling exercises, for the main lat exercise and mid-back exercise, I would
recommend a lat pulldown for the lats, and a chest supported row for the mid-back.
Those are easy to perform drills that will allow high levels of tension and low cognition.
The unilateral drills would be single arm lat-pulldown and single arm rows. With these
unilateral drills, you can be a little more targeted.
PAT DAVIDSON 9
For biceps and triceps, I usually try to find an exercise that trains them in a short
position, and a long position. With biceps, a preacher curl trains the short position, and
a spider curl trains the long position. For triceps, a push-down trains the short position,
and an overhead extension trains the long position. In
the beginning, you can probably just pick one position
and one exercise and do all your sets there. As the
sets build up, adding more exercises and hitting more
positions is probably a good idea. The other thing is
that you will be getting biceps in during your pulling
exercises and triceps in with your pushing exercises.
The exact ratio of contribution is debatable, but this
will be reflected in the number of direct sets in the
programming.
As you transition from week 4 to weeks 5 through 8

you’ll notice some changes. There will be additional
arm, chest, and shoulder isolated movements prior to
your pushing and pulling exercises. In addition, you’ll
see that you have exercise 1 and 2 for many of these
muscle groups.
Something to keep in mind with hypertrophy-based

lifting is that you do not have to accumulate all your
sets for a muscle group with one exercise. The
research in hypertrophy shows that having more
exercises for a muscle group is better than doing all
your sets with only one exercise. The tricky part with
this is that you do not want endless variety, and you
want to stick with exercises until you master them;
however, you also need to add exercise variations in
to put more stimulus on certain muscle fibers of a
given muscle. Each exercise for a specific muscle will have its own unique properties,
and it will bias the greatest part of the stimulus to certain fibers of the muscle. So,
having a few exercises per muscle group becomes important, particularly as sets for a
muscle group start mounting up in a program. Keep this in mind as you are reading the
program and making your own individual decisions on your exercise selection.
Week 1:
A1. Horizontal push (example DB bench press) 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

A2. Vertical Pull (example lat pull-down) 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
A3. Unilateral Horizontal Pull (example DB row) 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
PAT DAVIDSON 10
B1. Vertical Push (example incline DB bench press) 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
B2. Horizontal Pull (example chest supported row) 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
B3. Unilateral Vertical Pull (example one arm lat pull-down) 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
C1. Biceps (example DB curls) 4 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

C2. Triceps (example triceps push-down) 4 x 8-15, 3-5 RIR
C3. Delts (example lateral raise) 3 x 8-15, 3-5 RIR
C4. Flies 3 x 8-15, 3-5 RIR
Week 2:
A1. Horizontal Push 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

A2. Vertical Pull 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
A3. Unilateral Assist Horizontal Pull 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
B1. Vertical Push 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

B2. Horizontal Pull, 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
B3. Unilateral Assist Vertical Pull 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
C1. Biceps 5 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

C2. Triceps 5 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
C3. Delts 4 x 8-15, 3-5 RIR
C4. Flies 4 x 8-15, 3-5 RIR
Week 3:


B2. Horizontal Pull 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
C1. Biceps 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C3. Delts 5 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
C4. Flies 5 x 8-15, 3-5 RIR
Week 4:

PAT DAVIDSON 11

B2. Horizontal Pull 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
C1. Biceps 7 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C3. Delts 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
C4. Flies 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
Week 5:
A1. Biceps exercise 1 (example preacher curl), 2 sets x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
A2. Triceps exercise 1 (example overhead extension), 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
A3. Pecs exercise 1 (example low to high fly), 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
A4. Delts exercise 1 (example rear delt fly), 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
B1. Horizontal push, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

B2. Vertical pull, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
B3. Unilateral assist horizontal pull, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
C1. Vertical push, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C2. Horizontal pull, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
C3. Unilateral assist vertical pull, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
D1. Biceps exercise 2 (example DB curl), 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

D2. Triceps exercise 2 (example triceps push-down), 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
D3. Pecs exercise 2 (example cable fly), 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
D4. Delts exercise 2 (example lateral raise), 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
Week 6:
This workout should look identical to the workout from Week 1 in this block. The
increase in volume this week for upper body lifting will take place in Training Day 3.
A1. Biceps exercise 1, 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

A2. Triceps exercise 1, 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
A3. Pecs exercise 1, 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
A4. Delts exercise 1, 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR


PAT DAVIDSON 12
D1. Biceps exercise 2, 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

D2. Triceps exercise 2, 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
D3. Pecs exercise 2, 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
D4. Delts exercise 2, 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
Week 7:




Week 8:
This workout should look identical to the workout from Week 1 in this block. The
increase in volume this week for upper body lifting will take place in Training Day 3.



PAT DAVIDSON 13

Training Day 2
Tempo Aerobic Training

This will follow exactly the same protocol as
training day 1.
Resistance training
This training day will be a lower body lift. As the

sets go up across the block, more exercises will
be added. I’m going to do my best to not make
the really heavy bilateral exercises add up in
sets to an insane degree. There’s no need to
abuse the spine too much. We are trying to grow
muscle tissue, not crush our skeletons.
The muscle groups will be divided as follows.

Quads will be trained with knee dominant
exercises and leg extensions. Hamstrings will be
trained with hip dominant exercises and
hamstring curls. Glutes will be trained with
unilateral hip bridges. Calves will be trained with
calf raises.
For exercises, the last exercise I would pick would be a low bar barbell back squat for
knee dominant, and a deadlift off the floor for hip dominant. If you have to use a barbell,
choose a high bar back squat, and an RDL rather than a deadlift off the floor. A safety
squat bar or Transformer bar is better than a high bar back squat. Do not be afraid of
using a machine like a hack squat or choosing a 45-degree hip extension bench rather
than a deadlift variation for your hip dominant exercise.
Compound movements that create tremendous muscular stimulation while minimizing

axial fatigue are best case choices for your lower body knee and hip dominant choices.
As you transition from week 4 to week 5, you’ll notice some changes that take place.
The workouts will start with unilateral exercises and leg extensions and hamstring curls.
There are a few more things to note with this transition.
PAT DAVIDSON 14
One of the biggest factors I’m trying to consider within the design of this day is to not
add up the sets of the big bilateral exercises too much. I am not trying to crush people’s
skeletons in this program.
I want to get the most amount of muscle gain with the least amount of skeletal wear and
tear as possible. Rather than increase the number of bilateral knee and hip dominant
sets across this block, what I will put in as additions in place will be unilateral knee and
hip dominant sets. This is also helpful because it adds in more exercises per muscle
group which is beneficial from a hypertrophy standpoint.
The hard part about unilateral exercises is that often times they are more difficult to load
and progress, particularly with hip dominant exercises. My suggestion for the hip
dominant exercises is to do a single leg deadlift, but to put your back foot flat on a wall
behind you. This will keep your body in a good position to target and train your
hamstrings, and you’ll actually be able to progressively overload the exercise in a
consistent and reliable manner. If the back foot is not secured, you’ll probably be
flopping all over the place like a mess.
We will also be adding in another exercise for calves and glute bridges. With the glute
bridge, this is easy. We had only unilateral glute bridges in the first block. Now we will
have a bilateral glute bridge coming into play in this phase in the A exercises. For
calves, hopefully you have the ability to do some kind of standing calf raise and seated
calf raise. If you do not have this kind of optionality, just keep doing the same exercise
for more sets.
Week 1
A1. Bilateral Knee Dominant (example squat) 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

A2. Hamstring Curls 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
B1. Bilateral Hip Dominant (example RDL) 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

B2. Leg Extensions 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
C1. Calves (example seated calf raise) 5 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

C2. Unilateral Hip Bridge (Glutes) 5 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
Week 2:
A1. Bilateral Knee Dominant 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

B1. Bilateral Hip Dominant 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

C1. Calves 6 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

PAT DAVIDSON 15
Week 3:


C1. Calves 7 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

Week 4:


C1. Calves 7 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

Week 5
A1. Unilateral Knee Dominant (example split squat) 1 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
A3. Unilateral Hip Dominant (example single leg deadlift) 1 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
A4. Leg Extension 1 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
A5. Calves Exercise 1 (example standing calf raise), 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
A6. Bilateral Glute Bridge, 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
B1. Bilateral Knee Dominant 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

B2. Hamstring Curls 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
C1. Bilateral Hip Dominant 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C2. Leg Extensions 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
D1. Calves Exercise 2 (example seated calf raise), 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
D2. Unilateral Hip Bridge (Glutes) 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
PAT DAVIDSON 16
Week 6
This workout is the same as what you did in week 1. The increase in lower body volume
comes in training day 4 for this week.
A1. Unilateral Knee Dominant 1 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

A3. Unilateral Hip Dominant 1 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
A5. Calves Exercise one, 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR


D1. Calves Exercise 2, 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

Week 7

A5. Calves Exercise 1, 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR



PAT DAVIDSON 17
Week 8
This workout is the same as what you did in week 3. The increase in lower body volume
comes in training day 4 for this week.




Training Day 3:
Aerobic Tempo
Follow the same prescription as Training Day 1 and 2.
Resistance Training
This will be an upper body lift. It will be very similar to Training Day 1. There are a
couple of differences. First, there is a hang power clean protocol in this training day.
This will be the same hang power clean protocol that was found in Block 4. Second, the
order of the hypertrophy focused lifts is different than Training Day 1, and there are
slight differences in the number of sets in some exercises compared to Training Day1.
You should use the same exercises on Training Day 3 that you used in Training Day 1
for each category of exercises.
Be aware that there will be a similar transition from week 4 to weeks 5 through 8 that
was featured in Training Day 1. You will have exercises for arms, chest, and shoulders
prior to your pressing and pulling exercises. You should use the same exercises for
Exercise 1 for Biceps, Triceps, Delts, and Pecs that you used in Training Day 1, as well
as the same exercises for exercise 2 for those same muscle groups.
PAT DAVIDSON 18
Olympic Lifts:
Hang Power Clean Warm-Up
A1. Front Squat (RPE 2) 5 reps x 2 sets

A2. RDL (RPE 2) 5 reps x 2 sets
A3. Hang Above Knee to Triple Extension Shrug (RPE 2) 5 reps x 2 sets
A4. Hang Above Knee to Triple Extension High Pull (RPE 2) 5 reps x 2 sets
A5. Hang Muscle Clean (RPE 2) 5 reps x 2 sets
A6. Hang Power Clean (RPE 2) 5 reps x 2 sets
A7. Hang Power Clean (RPE 4) 5 reps x 2 sets
Following the Weightlifting Warm-Up, you’ll be getting into your work sets for the day. In
this block, the work sets should not be excessively difficult. Stay light, easy, and
comfortable with the work sets. The following is the working sets for Weightlifting in
Resistance Training Day 1.
Hang Power Clean Work Sets
Set 1: Hang Power Clean (RPE 5) 5 reps

90 second set rest
90 second set rest
Hypertrophy Focused Lifting:
Week 1:
A1. Vertical push 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

A2. Horizontal Pull 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
A3. Unilateral Assist Vertical Pull 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
B1. Horizontal Push 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

B2. Vertical Pull 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
B3. Unilateral Assist Horizontal Pull 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
C1. Biceps 4 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

C3. Delts 3 x 8-15, 3-5 RIR
C4. Flies 3 x 8-15, 3-5 RIR
PAT DAVIDSON 19
Week 2:
A1. Vertical Push 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR


B2. Vertical Pull, 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR
C1. Biceps 5 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

C3. Delts 4 x 8-15, 3-5 RIR
C4. Flies 4 x 8-15, 3-5 RIR
Week 3:


C1. Biceps 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C3. Delts 5 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
C4. Flies 5 x 8-15, 3-5 RIR
Week 4:


C1. Biceps 7 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C3. Delts 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
C4. Flies 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
PAT DAVIDSON 20
Week 5:

B1. Vertical push, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

B2. Horizontal pull, 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
B3. Unilateral assist vertical pull, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
C1. Horizontal push, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C2. Vertical pull, 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR
C3. Unilateral assist horizontal pull, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

Week 6:




PAT DAVIDSON 21
Week 7:
This workout should look exactly the same as week 2. The increase in upper body
volume this week takes place on Day 1.




Week 8:



C3. Unilateral assist Horizontal pull, 5 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

PAT DAVIDSON 22
Training Day 4:
Tempo Aerobics:
Follow the same prescription as what was laid out for Training Day 1, 2, and 3 here.
Resistance Training:
With this lower body lift, be aware of the fact that the order of exercises is different than
Training Day 2. Also be aware that the sets are slightly different for some of the
exercises as well. Keep the same exercises that you used in Training Day 2. Be aware
of the same transition that takes place between Week 4 and Weeks 5 through 8. Use
the same exercises for the different categories throughout the 8 weeks.
Week 1:
A1. Bilateral Hip Dominant 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

A2. Leg Extensions 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

C1. Calves 5 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

Week 2:


C1. Calves 6 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

Week 3:


PAT DAVIDSON 23
C1. Calves 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

Week 4:


C1. Calves 7 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

Week 5:


C1. Bilateral Knee Dominant 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C2. Hamstring Curls 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

Week 6



PAT DAVIDSON 24

Week 7
This workout should be the same as week 2. The increase in lower body volume comes
on Training Day 2 of this week. The only difference is in the RIR in the A exercises,
where they all move to 2-3.




Week 8




PAT DAVIDSON 25

Muscle Building Program - Pat Davidson

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8-WEEK MUSCLE BUILDING PROGRAM

8 WEEK MUSCLE BUILDING PROGRAM

Overload does not mean that you must lift something

You can overload yourself from an aerobic standpoint, or

For something to be heavy enough to stimulate muscular

What Will Be in This Phase

Tempo Aerobic Training

In Joel Jamieson’s breakdown of different types of aerobic training, he puts tempo

How hard should you be going?

As you transition from week 4 to weeks 5 through 8

Something to keep in mind with hypertrophy-based

A1. Horizontal push (example DB bench press) 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

C1. Biceps (example DB curls) 4 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

A1. Horizontal Push 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

B1. Vertical Push 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

C1. Biceps 5 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

A1. Horizontal Push 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

B1. Vertical Push 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C1. Biceps 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

A1. Horizontal Push 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

B1. Vertical Push 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C1. Biceps 7 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

B1. Horizontal push, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C1. Vertical push, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

D1. Biceps exercise 2 (example DB curl), 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

A1. Biceps exercise 1, 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

B1. Horizontal push, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C1. Vertical push, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C3. Unilateral assist vertical pull, 4 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

D1. Biceps exercise 2, 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

A1. Biceps exercise 1, 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

B1. Horizontal push, 5 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C1. Vertical push, 5 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

D1. Biceps exercise 2, 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

A1. Biceps exercise 1, 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

B1. Horizontal push, 5 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C1. Vertical push, 5 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

D1. Biceps exercise 2, 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

Tempo Aerobic Training

This training day will be a lower body lift. As the

The muscle groups will be divided as follows.

Compound movements that create tremendous muscular stimulation while minimizing

A1. Bilateral Knee Dominant (example squat) 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

B1. Bilateral Hip Dominant (example RDL) 2 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

C1. Calves (example seated calf raise) 5 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

A1. Bilateral Knee Dominant 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

B1. Bilateral Hip Dominant 3 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

C1. Calves 6 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

A1. Bilateral Knee Dominant 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

B1. Bilateral Hip Dominant 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C1. Calves 7 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

A1. Bilateral Knee Dominant 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

B1. Bilateral Hip Dominant 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C1. Calves 7 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

B1. Bilateral Knee Dominant 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C1. Bilateral Hip Dominant 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

A1. Unilateral Knee Dominant 1 x 8-15, 3-4 RIR

B1. Bilateral Knee Dominant 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C1. Bilateral Hip Dominant 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

D1. Calves Exercise 2, 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

A1. Unilateral Knee Dominant 2 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

B1. Bilateral Knee Dominant 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

C1. Bilateral Hip Dominant 3 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR

D1. Calves Exercise 2, 6 x 8-15, 2-3 RIR