6 Week Hercules Workout - Build A Powerful, Commanding & Functional Physique

Brad Borland is a strength & conditioning specialist, cancer survivor and the founder of WorkoutLab.

Hercules: The Thracian Wars tells the incredible story of the infamous son of Zeus and the challenges he faced solidifying himself as a mythological legend. Replete with the skills for battle and mountains of muscle and strength to boot, Hercules was well-suited to exist in such a world of lore.

A similar comparison can be made of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s prep for the role. No stranger to social media, The Rock took to Twitter and Instagram detailing, motivating and firing up his fans during his grueling 5am training sessions each and every day. “Focus” was a term often stressed keeping his fans on their toes as well as on the weights.

You can’t help but get motivated to the nth degree by both Hercules and the real life Rock smashing the weights and some heads. If you’ve followed the first Hercules Workout at all you know what it takes to build real, brutal muscle, quickly. By now you’ve built an impressive physique of raw muscle and strength with that program. Now it’s time to continue on your saga with more mass in mind, but with a slight shift.

Not only will you build more muscle mass with this Hercules-inspired workout, you will now challenge your mettle by refining that mass a bit accomplishing more muscularity and a brutal calorie burn.

The New Rules of War

Enough with the formalities, let’s get to work on your Hercules physique in the making. The “keep it simple” mantra will still apply here – complication equals frustration and you have more important things to worry about, like surviving the program.

Multi-joint, compound movements are also still in full force as the absolute best mass builders around. These moves give you the biggest bang for your buck packing on the mass quickly and efficiently while not wasting any of your time in the gym. Some single-joint moves will be implemented, but they will be basic in nature. No biceps pose cable curls here.

1. This program will have you training in two, three week phases. The first is heavy, brutal and will lay the foundation for what is to come. The second phase will have you working in a higher rep range, but that is no excuse to go light. If you’ve done the first Hercules program you know how you will need to push yourself.
2. You will train three days per week such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday or any other combination. Just be sure these specific training days are on nonconsecutive days.
3. In weeks 4-6, two days per week you will perform a high-intensity conditioning workout. This will help keep your metabolism ramped up and unveil all that muscle you’ve built.
4. Always execute proper form and technique. Leave your ego at the front door of the gym and use weights you can actually handle. Heaving up too much weight you have no business lifting is a surefire recipe for disaster.
5. Another essential requirement for this program is the warm-up. Priming the body for the work to come is imperative for long-term success. Without a proper warm-up injury isn’t just a thought, it can become a quick and unwelcome reality.
6. Try the program for six weeks or repeat it again for your own twelve weeks of labor with a week off or low intensity between.

The New Six Week Hercules Muscle and Strength Program

As stated earlier, this six week program will have you training to add muscle for three days per week and a metabolic conditioning primer two days per week in weeks 4-6. You will hit it hard and heavy the first three weeks and then for the second three weeks your reps will increase along with the pace. The key is to stay consistent and plow through the program. Try increasing the amount you use or reps each session gradually with good form and technique. Time to go to war!

Dynamic Warm-Up

Perform the following warm-up prior to each session to prep the body and raise body temperature for the work ahead. This will be in addition to your body part-specific warm-up sets.

Do one or two rounds of:

• Push-ups – 15 reps
• Prisoner squats – 15 reps
• Inverted row – 15 reps
• Burpees – 15 reps
• Hanging leg raises – 15 reps

Weeks 1-3

For the first three weeks you will alternate between each exercise pairing. Not necessarily a superset per se but for example: You will do a set of one exercise, rest and then a set of the other exercise and then rest again. Keep alternating between the two moves and rest after each set and then move on to the next pairing.

Weeks 4-6

For the second three weeks you will perform more superset-style workouts. The difference here from the alternating sets will boil-down to rest periods. No rest will be taken during supersets. You can either rest one minute after each superset is completed or, for a more intense workout, wait until all supersets are done for the particular pair of exercises and then rest one minute.

Conditioning days

Two days per week in weeks 4-6 you will perform the following conditioning day.

The mode of cardio will be your choice such as treadmill, elliptical machine, bike, sprints, swimming, sled, kettlebells, etc. or any combination.

30 minutes of HIIT-style training: 5 minute warm-up, 30 seconds high intensity, 1 minute low intensity for a total of 14 intervals then 4 minutes of cool-down.