How to Adapt a 6 Week Hypertrophy Program for a Garage Gym and Home Use

In this article I will demonstrate how to adapt a 6 week hypertrophy program for a garage gym and home use.

All the information comes from my personal experience.

I completed the adapted version last week.

How to Adapt a 6 Week Hypertrophy Program for a Garage Gym

First, let’s look at the program that I chose. It is from Muscle and Fitness.

They have an excellent spectrum of choices.

Program Details

The program itself is designed for a gym, and for a lifter that has access to all the equipment that a gym allows.

Due to COVID-19, I am training primarily in my garage gym, where I have access to the following equipment:

• Barbell and Bumper Plates
• 1x Kettlebell
• Jump Rope
• Mobility Bands

I wanted to do the best I could with what I had, rather than not complete the program at all. I decided to adapt everything that I needed to.  

Under each of the four workout days I have included exactly how I adapted each exercise. I hop it can help you.

The Workouts

Here are the workloads for the 4-day split.

Day 1: Legs

How I Adapted

Squat

One of the main issues is that I did not have a squat rack or a bench.

This meant that everything I wanted to Squat, I had to Clean it into position first. This was fine for the first couple of weeks. The added stimulus of the Clean made it fun and challenging but I quickly got to my 1 rep max clean, and so the Squat was not heavy enough.

When I reached this point, I changed to Zercher Squats. They were brutal and the first session destroyed me. Once I got used to the technique, I completed the rest of the program with them. If you are willing to grind, these are an excellent adaptation.

Machine Hack Squat

The adaption here was simple, I switched it to the Barbell Hack Squat.

This was a completely new exercise for me, so I spent time working on the technique. I found that the combination of the Zercher Squat followed by the Barbell Hack Squat was punishing and excellent. It pushed me hard in completely new ways.

Leg Curl

This was tricky without the machine. I wanted to still try to simulate the same movement and smash the quads.

I used a high wooden bench on a swing seat. I sat on the bench, used my arms to hold me in place and balanced a 25kg plate on my feet and shins. I was able to get a good range of motion but it became tricky trying to balance multiple plates on my feet. Still, the motion was the same and it provided a pretty decent pump for a makeshift construction.

Seated Calf Raises

This one was fairly simple. I sat on a standard garden chain, rested the barbell and weight across my legs and performed the Calf Raises.

Day 2: Chest & Biceps

How I Adapted

Bench Press

I changed this to Floor Press. Throughout the six weeks the Floor Press really helped to strengthen and build my triceps. I noticed this for other overhead work as well when it came to locking the movements out (Strict Press).

With the Floor Press you can never move through the full range of motion so my chest definitely missed some stimulus here.

Incline Bench Press

I needed to recreate the same angle so I elevated my feet, balanced a bumper plate on my back and did Push Ups.

Cable Crossover

I tied bands to the metal frame of a swing set and replicated the movement.

Hammer Strength Chest Press

With this movement I tried a few options that didn’t create much stimulus at all (Floor Presses with Plates etc) so I decided to change it to Flys with Bumper Plates. This worked my grip pretty hard as well which was a great ancillary benefit.

Rope Cable Hammer Curl

Adapted to Hammer Curls with bumper plates.

Preacher Curls

I changed this to Kettlebell Concentration Curls.

Day 3: Back

How I Adapted

Lat Pulldown

This was simply a case of changing the machine for a band. It didn’t hit as hard as the machine load would have but I was able to still create a pretty decent stimulus from the tension of the band.

Cable Row

I used the Pendlay Row to swap in another barbell pulling movement. It isn’t an exact substitute but the range of motion is roughly similar and it is a great way to build strength and muscle.

Pull Up

I didn’t have a Pull Up bar so I used a tree instead. This changed the grip and sometimes I also included towel Pull Ups to help my grip strength, as that is a weakness of mine.

Hyperextension

This was one of the hardest exercises to adapt. I switched to hyperextensions on the floor but this does have a much shorter range of motion.

Day 4: Shoulders & Triceps

How I Adapted

Lateral Raise

This was a simple switch of load to Bumper Plates instead of the standard dumbbells.

Front Raise

Again, I changed the dumbbells to what I had available, in this case the barbell. I had never tried this exercise with a barbell but it was a great burner for the shoulders. Trying to slow the downward path of the barbell is a great challenge that really maximises time under tension.

Reverse Pec Dec

These were substituted for Rear Delt Flys with Bumper Plates. This was a decent way to work on grip strength as well.

Seated French Press

I switched this to Skull Crushers on the floor with the barbell.

Additional

On a few occasions I also swapped in Kettlebell Strict Presses and Seated Z Presses to add variety and new challenges.

Non-Training Days

I generally have one long hike and one long bike ride per week, so I tried to complete these on non-training days where possible.

On the recovery side, I would recommend jumping in a lake or river a couple of times per week for a swim. The cold water is excellent for general physical recovery, mental health and getting back in touch with nature.

I hope that this experiment on how to adapt a 6 week hypertrophy program can be helpful for you and enyone else that trains at home.