This is a 6 day hypertrophy program built on Dr. Mike Israetel’s volume landmarks, using the numbers from Renaissance Periodization’s 2024 per-muscle guides. You start each muscle group near the volume where growth kicks in, add sets and weight every week for four weeks, then take a deload on week 5. The spreadsheet does the bookkeeping, so you can see exactly how many sets each muscle is getting and when to back off.
The whole idea is volume landmarks: the set ranges that maintain muscle (MV), start growing it (MEV), grow it fastest (MAV), and the ceiling your body can still recover from (MRV). Instead of running the same sets every week like a fixed program, you ramp volume across the mesocycle toward your MRV and then reset with a deload. It’s the Renaissance Periodization approach to hypertrophy training, turned into a spreadsheet you can actually run.
I’d point intermediate and advanced lifters here, not beginners. It’s six days a week and plenty of volume to manage, and you get more out of it once you can tell the difference between a productive amount of work and too much. If you’re newer or short on time, start with a simpler program like PHUL and come back to this when you want to push volume on purpose.
Table of Contents
Mike Israetel Hypertrophy Video Overview
Dr. Mike Israetel covers how hypertrophy training should change as you move from beginner to intermediate to advanced in this video.
5 Week Hypertrophy Workout Routine Spreadsheet
This is a 6 day hypertrophy routine that runs a 4 week mesocycle and deloads on week 5. Day 3 is your rest day. I rebuilt the spreadsheet in September 2026 around the volume landmarks RP published in its 2024 per-muscle guides, which are a good deal lower than the 2017 numbers the old sheet used. More on that below.
The sheet does the volume math for you. Every muscle starts week 1 at the top of its MEV, climbs to the low end of its MRV by week 4, and drops to maintenance volume for the deload. Sets per exercise, rep ranges, RIR targets and weights are all filled in. You log reps.
Using the Spreadsheet
- Volume Plan tab. Leave every muscle at Priority = No for a balanced program, or set one or two to Yes. A priority muscle ramps to its MRV*P band instead, which is how RP handles a lagging body part. Don’t prioritise more than two.
- Exercise Plan tab. Pick each slot’s exercise from the dropdown (or choose Custom and type your own), then enter a starting weight and the increment you’ll add when you progress. Starting weights should be something you could do for the top of the rep range with about 3 reps in reserve. The Calculators tab will work one out from any recent set.
- Week tabs. Do the sets, log your reps in the green cells. RIR targets are 3 in week 1, 2 in week 2, 1 in week 3 and 0-1 in week 4. Cells past that week’s set count are greyed out.
- Progression is automatic. If every logged set hit the top of the rep range, next week’s weight goes up by your increment. If not, the weight holds and only the sets go up.
- Week 5 is the deload. About half the sets at week 1 weights with 4 or more reps in reserve. Then start week 1 again; your new weights carry over.
- Summary tab. Totals every week’s sets by muscle straight from the week tabs and checks them against the plan, so you can see exactly where each muscle sits relative to its landmarks.
Spreadsheet built by Lift Vault from Renaissance Periodization’s per-muscle hypertrophy guides (linked in the table below). Dr. Israetel and RP aren’t affiliated with this sheet.
What Changed in 2026
Mike’s original volume landmarks article is from January 2017 and the first version of this spreadsheet was built from it. Between December 2023 and January 2024 RP republished every per-muscle training guide with new landmark tables, and the numbers moved a lot. Most MEVs roughly halved and MRVs came down. Each muscle also got a second pair of bands (MAV*P and MRV*P) for when it’s your priority.
The old sheet had two other problems the new numbers exposed. It treated rear and side delts as one muscle and ran them up to 30 sets a week, when RP now puts rear delt MRV at 12 to 20. And it started quads and hamstrings at or above their new MRV in week 1. Here’s the side by side:
| Muscle | 2017 MEV / MRV | 2024 MEV / MRV | Sets in this program (wk 1 → wk 4) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chest | 10 / 22+ | 4-6 / 16-24 | 10 → 16 |
| Back | 10 / 25+ | 6-8 / 20-26 | 10 → 20 |
| Quads | 8 / 20+ | 4-6 / 14-18 | 8 → 14 |
| Hamstrings | 6 / 20+ | 2-4 / 8-14 | 4 → 8 |
| Glutes | 0 / 16+ | 6-8 / 24-30 | 8 → 12 |
| Biceps | 8 / 26+ | 8-10 / 20-26 | 10 → 18 |
| Triceps | 6 / 18+ | 4-6 / 16-20 | 8 → 16 |
| Side delts | 8* / 26+* | 6-8 / 24-30 | 10 → 20 |
| Rear delts | 8* / 26+* | 0-4 / 12-20 | 4 → 10 |
| Front delts | 0 / 12+ | 0-2 / 8-12 | 3 → 4 |
| Calves | 8 / 20+ | 4-6 / 16-24 | 8 → 14 |
| Abs | 0 / 25+ | 0-4 / 12-20 | 4 → 10 |
| Traps | 0 / 26+ | 0-4 / 12-20 | 4 → 10 |
* The 2017 sheet combined rear and side delts as one muscle group.
The rebuilt program totals 91 sets in week 1 and 172 in week 4, down from 127 and 194. That’s still plenty of work spread over six days, which is why I’d keep this one for intermediates and up.
Exercise selection changed too. The 2024 guides each list the movements RP recommends for that muscle, and those lists are what fill the dropdowns. Occlusion curls, the “as few sets as possible” pushup and pullup blocks and the Smith machine feet-forward squat from the old sheet are gone; barbell, dumbbell, cable and machine staples took their place. Rep ranges follow RP’s rule of thumb: about half of each muscle’s weekly sets at 10 to 20 reps, the rest split between 5 to 10 and 20 to 30, with hip hinges kept at 5 to 10 and leg curls at 10 to 30.
Understanding Hypertrophy Training Volume
Volume landmarks are measured in hard working sets per muscle per week. RP’s 2024 guides define six of them:
- Maintenance volume (MV): the sets you need to keep the muscle you have. Roughly 2 to 6 for most muscles, and close to zero for muscles that get hit hard by other lifts (front delts, rear delts, traps, abs).
- Minimum effective volume (MEV): the lowest number of sets that still grows the muscle. This is where each mesocycle starts.
- Maximum adaptive volume (MAV): the range where you grow fastest. Most of your training weeks should sit here.
- Maximum recoverable volume (MRV): the most you can recover from. You can touch it for a week before a deload; you can’t live there.
- MAV*P and MRV*P: the same two bands for a muscle you’re prioritising while holding everything else near MEV. In the spreadsheet, setting a muscle’s Priority to Yes swaps it onto these bands.
Two more pieces from the 2024 guides that the program follows. Frequency: most muscles recover well enough for 2 to 4 sessions a week, with the small ones (side delts, rear delts, biceps, calves, abs) tolerating 3 to 6. Rep ranges: roughly half of a muscle’s weekly sets in the 10 to 20 range, the rest split between 5 to 10 and 20 to 30.
All of these are averages for intermediate lifters with 3 to 7 years of training. Yours will sit higher or lower, which is why the sheet logs everything: the RIR you hit and whether you cleared the rep range are how you find out where you actually are. The next section is Mike’s method for working that out.
How to Find Your Individual Optimal Training Volumes for Hypertrophy
Below are summaries of how to find different volume training landmarks for yourself. A full explanation is available in Dr. Israetel’s article.
Many of the below volumes reference “rep strength” or “performance.” Here is how this can be measured.
Performance or rep strength can be measured using RPE or reps in reserve. If during Week 1 of training you did 4 sets of 12 reps of bicep curls with 15 lb dumbbells and felt you had 2 reps in reserve at the end of your 4th set and then you repeated this weight*rep*set scheme at the end of a mesocycle and felt like you had 5 reps in reserve after the final set of curls – congratulations, you increased performance.
Similarly, if the last set during week 1 was RPE 8 and that same weight*rpe*set scheme was an RPE 6 on the test week after a mesocycle, performance was increased.
How to Find Your Maintenance Volume
- Two to three times per year should be spent doing maintenance training and eating to resensitize your body to stimulus and growth.
- Start by following the “MV” volume recommendations laid out on the Volume Plan tab of the spreadsheet (the 2024 MV column).
- If your rep strength has been conserved at the end of one mesocycle at the prescribed volume, then the volume was adequate.
- Next mesocycle: try reducing the number of sets to see if your MV is even lower.
- If your rep strength declined, volume was too low and your MV is higher than the volume of work down in the previous mesocycle.
- Next mesocycle: increase the number of sets and see if rep strength can be conserved.
- General tip: be conservative. Your MV is probably lower than you think.
How to Find Your Minimum Effective Volume
Mike outlines two methods for calculating your minimum effective volume.
- Method 1: Start with the recommended MEV (the MEV column on the Volume Plan tab) and run for one mesocycle. Increase weights each week, but do not increase the number of sets. Test your performance on core exercises for each muscle group at the end of the mesocycle.
- If it improved, the volume of the last mesocycle was at or above your MEV. Try lowering volume by 2 sets each week and see if progress can continue to be made. Do this until you discover a volume that does not increase your performance. Add 2 sets to the volume that did not increase your performance and this is your approximate MEV.
- If your strength on a core exercise for a muscle group did not improve, the volume was below your MEV. Try adding 2 sets per week until performance improves.
- Method 2: To approximate whether a particular training session was within your MEV, ask the following questions.
- Did the training session provide a pump?
- No pump = 0 points
- Some pump = 1 point
- Great pump = 2 points
- Did the training session challenge the target muscles?
- No = 0 points
- Lots of tensions and fatigue = 1 point
- Muscles felt stressed and exhausted near their limit = 2 points
- Did the training session make you sore?
- No = 0 points
- Stiff for a few hours after or a little sore the next day = 1 point
- Sore for multiple days = 2 points
- Did the training session provide a pump?
- A score between 2 and 4 is likely to be within your MEV.
- If you’re training a muscle group 2x per week, expect more 4’s.
- If you’re training a muscle group 3-4x per week, expect more 3’s.
- If you’re training a muscle group 5-6x per week, expect more 2’s or even 1’s.
How to Find Your Maximum Adaptive Volume
Finding MAV is done by continually adding sets until soreness becomes excessive and performance begins to degrade. Here is how to quantify excessive soreness and degrading performance.
- Soreness at the end of a session
- No soreness = 1 point
- A little stiff or sore afterward, but not sore at all by the time the next session for that muscle group occurred = 2 points
- Definitely getting DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), but it went away just in time for that muscle group’s next session = 3 points
- You got DOMS and were still feeling them during the next session = 4 points
- Performance during a session (this is modified from the article in an attempt to make it more usable)
- You had had 2+ reps in reserve, RPE 7 or lower = 1 point
- You had 1 rep in reserve, RPE 8 = 2 points
- You just barely got all the reps, RPE 9/9.5 = 3 points
- You missed reps or had performance degrade from last week (accounting for different weights, etc.) = 4 points
- How many sets to add based on points
- 1 + 1 = add 2 or 3 sets to that exercise
- Any 2’s = add 1 set to that exercise
- Any 3’s = do not add any sets to that exercise
- Any 4’s = consider taking a light session, half week, or full deload
Mike Israetel Hypertrophy FAQs
What is the Mike Israetel hypertrophy program?
It’s a 6 day, 5 week hypertrophy mesocycle based on Dr. Mike Israetel’s volume landmark framework. You train each muscle group in the set range that drives growth, ramp the volume up each week, then deload on week 5 to recover and grow.
Is this program good for beginners?
Not really. The volume is high and it asks you to autoregulate, which is hard to judge when you’re new. A beginner grows fine on far less work. Start on something simpler like PHUL or PHAT, then come here once you have a feel for how much work you actually recover from.
What are MEV, MAV, and MRV?
They’re volume landmarks measured in working sets per muscle per week. MEV is the least volume that still builds muscle, MAV is the range where you grow fastest, and MRV is the most you can recover from before fatigue starts eating your progress. RP’s 2024 guides add MAV*P and MRV*P, which are the same two bands for a muscle you’re deliberately prioritising. The program walks each muscle up from the top of its MEV to the low end of its MRV across the mesocycle. The full breakdown is in the sections above.
How long should I run it?
One mesocycle is the 4 build weeks plus the week 5 deload. You can run it back to back. Your weights carry into the next round automatically (the sheet bumps any lift where you hit the top of the rep range on every set), so start week 1 again and let the ramp repeat. If performance stalled in week 4, your sets crept past what you could recover from, so lower that muscle’s week 4 target on the Volume Plan tab before the next round.
Can I swap exercises?
Yes. Every slot on the Exercise Plan tab is a dropdown filled with the exercises from RP’s guide for that muscle, plus a Custom option where you can type your own. The week tabs pull the new name, and the sets still come from the muscle’s weekly target, so nothing else needs adjusting. Keep the swap in the same rep range if you can.
Is this Mike Israetel’s own program?
No. It’s Lift Vault’s interpretation of the volume landmarks and per-muscle guidance RP publishes for free. Mike and RP didn’t write it and aren’t affiliated with it. If you want the real thing with autoregulation built in, that’s what the RP Hypertrophy app sells; this spreadsheet is the free, hands-on version.
Why did the volume go down in 2026?
Because RP’s numbers did. The original spreadsheet used the 2017 landmarks, which had chest at a 10 set MEV and quads at 8. The 2024 guides put both at 4 to 6. The old program also lumped rear and side delts together and pushed them to 30 sets by week 4, which is roughly double what RP now considers recoverable for rear delts. The rebuilt sheet starts every muscle at the top of its 2024 MEV and finishes at the low end of its MRV. Week 1 is 91 sets instead of 127, and week 4 is 172 instead of 194.
What should I do after this program?
Run another mesocycle with adjusted volume, or rotate to a different hypertrophy structure for variety. PHAT and PHUL are good changes of pace, and a maintenance block every few mesocycles keeps you fresh for the next hard push.
