The Ascension Program
If you're looking at a 5-day per week training program, you're already serious about building an impressive physique. This is everything you need to maximise your hypertrophy training across those five days, with every exercise in it explained properly.
- 5-day upper-lower-push-pull-legs split, hitting every muscle twice per week
- A full written tutorial for every single exercise in the program
- Science-backed exercise selection, validated by biomechanics
- Double progression and RPE-based training, with no complicated periodisation
- Full warm-up protocols, recovery planning and fatigue management
I've worked with hundreds of guys over the years to help them build muscle, strength, and confidence. And I see a lot of confusion about effective hypertrophy training, thanks to social media. Lots of guys think they need complicated periodisation schemes, or obscure stretch-focused exercises they've seen on TikTok.
Sets per muscle per week, because more must be better?
Set per muscle per session, because anything more is overtraining?
Don't overcomplicate it. We know how to build muscle, because people have been doing it systematically for well over a century. There are decades of lifting culture and experience to draw from, and more science every day to add to that body of evidence. The problem isn't that the answers don't exist. It's everything sitting on top of them.
Periodisation you don't need. Mesocycles, percentage-based blocks and phase potentiation: these are great for strength training and driving specific adaptations, but for hypertrophy, they're not necessary. It adds complexity that costs you attention without buying you growth.
Exercises chosen for the algorithm. Unstable, awkward movements that limit load and range of motion, picked because they look novel rather than because they build muscle.
No idea how hard to actually push. Some sets taken past failure, others left four reps short of failure, with no consistent standard to judge them against from one week to the next.
Five days of work but no structure holding it together. Training this often only pays off when the sessions are organised so that each one supports the next rather than digging into your recovery.
Upper, lower, push, pull, legs. Having 5 days buys you room to really focus on each muscle twice a week over rather than cramming it into four sessions. Each workout will likely take 60 to 90 minutes.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | RIR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bench press or machine chest press | 3-4 | 5-8 | 1-2 |
| Chest-supported row | 3-4 | 6-10 | 0-1 |
| Overhead press (barbell or machine) | 2-3 | 6-10 | 1-2 |
| Vertical pull | 2-3 | 6-10 | 0-1 |
| Triceps isolation | 2-3 | 8-12 | 0-1 |
| Biceps isolation | 2-3 | 8-12 | 0-1 |
Every set has a target RIR, so you always know how hard to push. And every exercise comes with a full written tutorial: how to set up, how to execute it, the biomechanics behind why it's there, and the alternatives to use if your gym, mobility or injury history calls for something different.
Most programs hand you a list of exercises and leave you to work out the rest. This one takes every movement in the program, in the order it appears, and walks you through how to perform it and why it's in there. That section alone is most of the book.
The scapular plane sits between the sagittal and frontal planes. Knowing where your upper arm travels is what decides which pulling variation belongs in your program.
In a frontal plane pull, your upper arm will be out to the side, like in a wide grip lat pulldown. In a sagittal plane pull, your upper arm will be directly in front of your body, like in a close neutral grip lat pulldown with a v-handle.
In your program, include one frontal plane pull and one sagittal plane pull. Ideally both in one week, but if you only do one vertical pull per week, alternate between these two patterns weekly.
What you get for every single exercise.
Setup
Grip width, foot position, bar placement and how to get into position safely.
Execution
The path the weight should travel, what to brace, and what you should be feeling.
Rationale
Which muscles are targeted by an exercise, and the biomechanics behind why that movement does it best.
Alternatives
What to use instead if your gym, mobility or injury history calls for something different.
Basic, proven compound exercises and the best isolation work for each muscle, with no unnecessary complexity. Here's what the whole system is built on:
Reps in reserve
Train close to failure on most sets. Every exercise in the program has its own RIR target, so the heavy compounds and the isolation work are each pushed to the right level rather than all treated the same.
Hard sets per muscle, per week
Enough volume to drive progress, without so much fatigue that the next session suffers. Five days buys you quality per session, not more sets just for the sake of volume.
Sessions per muscle, per week
The upper-lower-push-pull-legs split means every muscle gets trained twice, with the second exposure coming from a different angle rather than repeating the first.
Reps per set
Moderate to heavy loads through a full range of motion, using stable exercises that let you push hard without the setup becoming the limiting factor.
Double progression, so you always know what to do next.
Increase the reps within the rep range first. Once you've maxed out the range, add a small amount of weight and build the reps back up.
No percentages, no mesocycles, no deciding on the day whether this is a week to push yourself. The program tells you, and it keeps working from your first week on it to your hundredth.
| Preacher curl, 3 × 6-10 | Reps |
|---|---|
| Week 1: 30kg | 9, 9, 9 |
| Week 2: 30kg | 10, 9, 9 |
| Week 3: 30kg | 11, 10, 9 |
| Week 4: 32.5kg | 8, 8, 7 |
| Week 5: 32.5kg | 9, 8, 8 |
| Week 6: 32.5kg | 10, 9, 9 |
When you're resting, sleeping, and eating. That matters more on a five-day program than on any other, because there's less room in the week for costly recovery mistakes.
Sleep, food and stress handled properly.
Without proper recovery your progress stalls, your risk of injury climbs, hormones like testosterone suffer, and your motivation plummets. This guide covers how to fix each of those inputs.
- Sleep and circadian rhythm
- Calories, protein and micronutrients
- Stress management
- Active recovery and fatigue management
- The signs you're under-recovering
What to do when progress stops.
When progress stalls for weeks on end, it's either that the stimulus isn't enough or that fatigue is too high. Each has a different fix, and the guide walks you through both, including when a deload is genuinely warranted.
- Raising the stimulus
- Reducing accumulated fatigue
- How to structure a deload week
- Why needing a deload is usually a warning sign
Bringing up the lagging muscles.
By the intermediate stage, most men have areas that need more work than others. The guide covers how to prioritise them without unbalancing the rest of the program.
- Which muscles to prioritise, and when
- How much extra work is worth adding
- Where exercise choice is the real problem
- Specific strategies for every muscle group
Plus the mistakes that quietly cost people years of progress.
Many people spin their wheels not because they're lacking effort, but because they make small mistakes that compound over time. The guide covers each one, what it does to your results, and how to avoid it.
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01
The full 5-day program
Five complete sessions (upper, lower, push, pull, legs) with every exercise, set range, rep range and RIR target laid out. Ready for you to take into the gym on Monday.
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02
A written tutorial for every exercise
This is the largest part of the book. Each movement in the program gets a thorough walkthrough: setup, execution, the biomechanics behind why it's there, and the alternatives to use if your equipment, mobility or injury history calls for something different.
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03
Full warm-up protocol
A complete four-phase warm-up with exact exercises, sets and durations, plus how to work up to your first heavy set on each lift. Takes 10 to 15 minutes.
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04
Volume, intensity and progression
How hard to train, how much to do, and exactly when to add weight. Including how to handle progression across multiple sets so your later sets don't fall too far behind your first.
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05
Plateaus and deloading
What to do when progress slows down, how to tell whether the problem is insufficient stimulus or excessive fatigue, and how to structure a deload if you need one.
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06
Recovery
Sleep, nutrition, stress management, active recovery and fatigue management, with the warning signs that tell you to pull back before you dig yourself too deep into a recovery hole.
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07
Common mistakes and weak points
The mistakes that quietly cost people years of progress, plus how to bring up a lagging muscle group, with specific strategies for each one.
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08
24 questions answered
Equipment, injuries, cardio, cutting, missed sessions, changing the schedule, supplements, tracking progress. I answer the practical questions that come up once you're actually running the program.
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09
Free lifetime updates
Every future version of this program is included with your purchase at no extra cost. The version you have will always be the best one available.
Who is this program for?
Intermediates who want to build muscle, gain strength, and create a balanced, aesthetic physique, and who can commit to training five days a week. If you're new to lifting or can only train four days, my Hypertrophy Blueprint is the better starting point.
How is the program structured?
A 5-day upper-lower-push-pull-legs split. Every major muscle group is trained twice a week, with the second exposure coming from a different angle rather than repeating the first.
How long are the workouts?
Each session typically takes 60 to 90 minutes, depending on your rest periods and how many sets you perform.
How long should I run it for?
It's built to keep working indefinitely. The double progression method is sustainable and reliable, so there's no point at which the program stops giving you something to chase.
Can I really recover from training five days a week?
Yes, provided the volume per session is sensible and your recovery is in order. That's exactly why the program uses moderate volume rather than piling on sets, and why there's a full chapter on sleep, nutrition, stress and fatigue management.
What if I don't have access to the right equipment?
Every exercise in the program comes with a list of alternatives, so you can train the same target muscle with whatever your gym has. The tutorials explain what each movement is doing, which makes substituting straightforward.
What if I miss a session?
Push the schedule back by a day and carry on. Don't skip a session and jump ahead to the next one. The priority is getting all five in, in order.
Can I do cardio alongside it?
Yes. Low intensity steady state cardio can go after your lifting sessions, and if you want HIIT, keep it to one or two sessions a week so it doesn't eat into your recovery.
Can I run this while cutting?
Yes. Use it to maintain muscle while losing fat, and focus on holding your gym performance steady through the cut to minimise muscle loss.
What format is it delivered in?
An 83-page PDF, available to download the moment you've paid. You'll also receive every future update to the program free of charge.
Five sessions a week, every exercise explained in full, and a progression method that tells you exactly what to do next. No complicated periodisation to wrap your head around, no strange exercises, and nothing in the program that isn't there for a reason.
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Don't waste another year on bad programs. I've wasted years of my life on ineffective training, hitting a ceiling and crashing back down. You don't need to learn it the way I did. Lock in, follow the principles we know build muscle, and dedicate yourself to the physique you know you're capable of.