r/beginnerfitness•
Spede2

Strength training with low volume, high intensity supplemental work

Hi! After lifting for about 6 months mostly bodybuilding style I'll want to incorporate strength training into my next program for the rest of the year. However in order to save time in the gym I'd also want to lower the sets of my other work down to two and basically push them all to failure. So I concocted the following A/B/C full body split with rest days between each where every training day has one main lift supplemented with additional hypertrophy exercises (I prefer full body splits over PPL)

A

  • Bench Press 5 x 3-5 (Main lift w/ warmup sets)

  • Pull-up 3 x 6-10 (not a typo, I initially had 4 sets here since I can't reach 8 min reps on three consecutive sets for the 3 x 8-12)

  • Calf Raises 2 x 8-12

  • Lat Raises 2 x 10-15

B

  • Deadlift 5 x 3-5 (main lift w/ warmup sets)

  • Inclined Bench Press 2 x 8-12

  • Bulgarian Split squats 2 x 8-12

  • Crunches 2 x 10-15

C

  • Squat 5 x 3-5 (main lift w/ warmup sets)
  • Overhead Press 2 x 8-12
  • Dumbbell Rows 2 x 8-12
  • Reverse Crunches 2 x 10-15

All of the 2 x * were 3 x * on my first draft. The rep ranges are more like indicative of the weight: I'll add weight till I reach failure around rep 10-12 or so. These would be done with a rest day in between and so far while doing higher volume work recovery hasn't been an issue.

The question is: Is the high intensity hypertrophy training where all the sets are to be pushed into failure going to impede strength training?

Also: I'm planning on starting my powerlifting weights from theoretical 1RMs calculated from my current performances and rounding them down for the 5-rep weights. I forget; should I rather use TM over 1RM for this instead?

Posted Sep 29, 2026, 2:26 AM UTC

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