Short for Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower, PHUL blends power and size building principles for the athlete looking to get stronger and bigger. The PHUL program follows many of the principles of powerbuilding programming, but could also be considered a bodybuilding program.
Table of Contents
PHUL Workout Program
| Program Name | PHUL (Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower) |
|---|---|
| Program Goals | Strength, Hypertrophy |
| Days per Week | 4 or 6 days |
| Training Style | Split, PPL |
| Program Length | 4 Weeks or 13 Weeks |
| RPE or Percentage of 1RM | % of 1RM |
| Experience Level | Novice, Intermediate, Advanced |
| Spreadsheets Available | 3 |
You’ll find 4 day and 6 day versions of PHUL below.
PHUL is an ideal program for the lifter that wants to continue to develop their strength in heavy compound movements like the squat, bench press, overhead press, and deadlift, but also want to add size to their physique.
Assistance exercises like lat raises, tricep extensions, dumbbell press, incline press, face pulls (and more – it’s a lot, in a good way) will induce hypertrophy as long as diet and recovery are well managed. The PHUL program even calls for supersets to add additional challenge to the workouts.
PHUL on Boostcamp App
If you prefer to use an app version of PHUL, Boostcamp is a great option.
It also has other popular programs like nSuns, GZCLP, Greg Nuckols Beginner Program, Candito 6-week Strength, and Reddit PPL.
Boostcamp is free on iOS and Android.
Video Overview: PHUL Workout (4 Day Version)
PHUL Advanced Spreadsheet (6 Day, 13 weeks)
This is a 6 day a week version of PHUL by J Bui. It features pretty explicit guidelines for the hypertrophy work as well, which is helpful for athletes seeking a bit more guidance for accessory movements.
Even though the spreadsheet contains 13 weeks, it progresses weights in 4 week intervals. So the program is essentially 4 weeks long before recalculating gains and programming off of those new maxes.
Make sure you fill in actual values for the pink numbers. This will auto-calculate other weights for you.
PHUL 4 Day Workout Spreadsheet + PDF (2016)
If you’d prefer a PDF overview of the 4 day version of PHUL to print out and take to the gym, you can find one here via Muscle & Strength.
The weights shown in the spreadsheet are a sample. You will need to determine your own. The spreadsheet is meant mostly as a log so you can track progress on the PHUL template.
If you’d prefer to use an app on your phone instead of a spreadsheet, you can use the Boostcamp app to run PHUL.
Questions about PHUL?
Discuss PHUL with other lifters on the Lift Vault Forum.
PHUL Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is PHUL?
PHUL stands for Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower. It’s a popular 4 day split workout that groups training sessions into upper power, lower power, upper hypertrophy, and lower hypertrophy. It’s good for those that want to improve their maximum strength and stimulate muscle growth.
How is PHUL different than a PPL?
A PPL program groups workouts into push, pull, and legs days, which has a lot of similarities with an upper/lower training split. However, some of these PPL training sessions might work upper and lower body muscle groups in the same session.
For example, a pull training session often includes deadlifts and rows. These would be split into lower (deadlift) and upper (rows) training sessions for PHUL. PPL splits are often run 3 or 6 days a week, while PHUL is a 4 day per week program. Generally speaking though, an upper/lower split and a PPL split have more similarities than differences.
What is the difference between PHAT and PHUL?
The most obvious difference is that PHAT is a 5 day training split and PHUL is a 4 day training split. As a result, PHAT is more rep-heavy than PHUL in a given week, programming 90% more reps than PHUL.
PHAT also has more high rep sets, as it only has 30% more sets than PHUL, yet still achieves the aforementioned 90% rep increase. PHAT was created by Layne Norton, who is known for high volume programs (see his other program PH3 for another example of this).
Overall, both are better suited for intermediate lifters, with PHUL being a better starting point. PHAT could be considered if progress stalls on PHUL.
For more details, see this great blog post by Gym Minutes.
