Hypertrophy + 5k/Middle Distance (4-week program)

Put on size without surrendering your engine.

The usual trade is real: bulk up and watch your 5K fall apart. This block refuses it. You get four weeks of genuine hypertrophy volume on the barbell, and a running plan that holds — and by week three, sharpens — your middle-distance fitness.

How the loading works

You test four lifts once. Enter the weight and the reps and the workbook estimates your one-rep max, sets a training max from it, and calculates every single prescribed weight across the block as a percentage of that number — rounded to the nearest 5 lb, because that is how plates come. No guessing what "moderate" means. No RPE roulette. You look at the cell and you load the bar.

Your 3-mile test time seeds the run side: every session gets a pace target and a treadmill speed, so the easy days stay genuinely easy and the hard day is actually hard.

What is inside

• Four weeks, five days a week, all five mandatory — four lifting days and a dedicated run day.
• Four barbell lifts on percentage-driven loading with high-rep back-off sets for size.
• Running built to protect the adaptation: 4 to 6 mile Zone 2 nose-breathing efforts early, so aerobic work supports rather than competes with the lifting, escalating to a 3-mile time trial in week three.
• Shorter run efforts folded into lifting days at prescribed percentage efforts, keeping frequency up without adding fatigue you cannot recover from.
• A movement library with demos for every exercise plus warmup and mobility work.

Hybrid Strength Index. The workbook scores you on RLP's own metric — deadlift strength divided by mile pace — and benchmarks it against the field: special operations 70+, infantry, firefighters and MMA 60+, police 50+, climbers and triathletes 40–50, runners 30+. One number that tells you whether you are strong, fast, or actually both.

Who this is for

Hybrid athletes who need to add mass for a job standard or a bodyweight class without losing their 5K, and runners who have finally accepted they need muscle.

Specifications

• Format: Excel workbook (.xlsx), auto-calculating. Printable.
• Length: 4 weeks · 5 days per week
• Anchor test: 3-mile / 5K for time, plus four barbell lifts
• Equipment: barbell and rack, pullup bar, dip station, measured route
• Delivery: instant digital download

This is a training tool, not medical advice. Clear hard training with your physician if you have any reason to.