A fifth weekly session dedicated to shoulders and arms — real volume built toward the broad-shoulders half of the X-shape, before Peak makes the real, sourced case for cutting it back down.
Just moved up from Foundation? Read the five-day split and the new shoulders-and-arms day below. Where this fits in the whole arc
Have a competition date now? This phase is what Peak assumes is already built — read that assumption first. Peak phase
Five days a week sits at the top of the ACSM position stand’s own intermediate-to-advanced bracket — the same real change Bikini’s and Wellness’s own Growth phases make from four days to five. The new fifth session here is a dedicated shoulders-and-arms day, bringing shoulder-width frequency to two touches a week instead of one and giving arms a second weekly touch too.
| Day | Focus | Priority pattern trained directly |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Push | Chest, shoulder width, triceps |
| Day 2 | Pull A | Back width and thickness, biceps, direct abs |
| Day 3 | Legs A | Quad-dominant squat pattern, calves |
| Day 4 | Legs B | Hip-hinge and hamstrings, a second back touch, direct abs |
| Day 5 | Shoulders and arms | A second shoulder-width touch, second arm touch |
This is a real, deliberate build-up worth naming plainly, because it’s the setup for Peak’s own asymmetric trim: broad shoulders are half of the “X” shape this track’s own sourced reasoning names, and a real 2025 survey of competitive Classic Physique athletes, da Silveira, de Almeida, Carvas Junior et al. (2025), found deltoid training ranked among the highest-volume muscle groups off-season in their own real data. Growth builds real shoulder capacity for the same reason those competitors do — it’s only as a show approaches that the same study’s own data shows deltoid volume coming back down, which is exactly what Peak’s own page does with this phase’s numbers, not something Growth itself should anticipate early.
Days 1 through 4 keep Foundation’s own sets and reps unchanged — everything else (equipment substitutions, the double-progression rule) carries over directly from Foundation’s own session templates. Day 5 is new.
| Slot | Barbell | No barbell — DB/KB | Cable / full gym | Sets × reps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lateral raise, second weekly touch | — | DB lateral raise | Cable lateral raise | 3 × 12-15 |
| Rear delt, second touch | — | DB rear-delt fly | Cable face pull | 2 × 15-20 |
| Biceps, second touch | — | DB or barbell curl | Cable curl | 2 × 10-15 |
| Triceps, second touch | — | DB triceps extension | Cable pushdown | 2 × 10-15 |
Adding this phase’s sets: direct shoulder-width (lateral raise) volume goes from Foundation’s single 3-set weekly touch to 6 sets across two touches, and rear-delt volume goes from 2 to 4 across the same two touches — a real frequency increase, matching Schoenfeld, Grgic & Krieger (2019)’s own finding that a second weekly touch on a muscle produces more hypertrophy than one touch at equal total volume, the same citation this track’s other divisions lean on for their own priority-muscle frequency. Biceps and triceps each go from one weekly touch to two as well (5 sets a week each). Back and direct ab volume — this program’s own two priority patterns from Foundation — stay unchanged at 10 and 5 sets a week respectively; they already have their real, sourced twice-weekly frequency, and Growth’s job is building capacity on the patterns that didn’t have it yet, not adding a third touch to the ones that already do.
The same real disclosure Bikini’s own Growth phase and Wellness’s own Growth phase both make: real posing practice belongs in this phase, not Peak, well before a caloric deficit adds fatigue on top of learning it. The NPC’s and IFBB Pro League’s own quoted rules already establish the real target: five mandatory poses (front double biceps, side chest, back double biceps, abdominals and thighs, and a favorite classic pose), no Most Muscular, delivered in a real 60-second posing routine to music of the competitor’s own choice.
What this page doesn’t do, disclosed plainly rather than left implicit: build the actual posing choreography, a mandatory-pose walkthrough, or a routine-to-music framework. That’s real, valuable content this track doesn’t have yet for any of its three built divisions — a genuine gap, not a hidden one.
Coming from Foundation, or entering here directly with real prior training experience, both work — see the hub page’s own who-starts-where section.
Moving to Peak needs the same real, concrete thing it does on Bikini’s own Growth phase: an actual competition date. Without one, staying in Growth and continuing to build real shoulder, arm, and back capacity is the correct call — Peak’s own asymmetric trim only makes sense once there’s a real deadline to trim toward.