This is the foundation of all the workouts discussed here at the site, where I can hopefully teach you how to gain muscle. It is simple in the extreme, but it is at the very heart of how normal people can hope to gain a good amount of muscle mass, and look different to almost every other person they are likely to meet. Most people either have excess weight and no muscle mass, or are what we call skinny fat.

Thin in most places, but with a slight paunch and still no muscle.

Others are simple skinny, and if this is you then you are in a better position than most.

Workout Routine To Build Muscle

You are going to be shocked by both the brevity and the infrequency of the routine. This is for a reason. Recovery is just as important as training. If you train too often then you will never grow. You need to tax your muscles and then you need to let them rest to recover. And then to also grow a little before you tax them again. Let’s look at the routine and then have a quick discussion about frequency. This really is one of the best ways to build muscle fast.

Trap bar deadlifts or Squats Chin Ups or bent over rows Bench press or Dips Shoulder press Biceps curl

That is it, and to be honest even the curls are optional.

Reps are between 15 and 20 for legs and from 8-12 for the rest.

You need to find out what rep range works best for you. And this is where trial and error comes into play.

Progressing With Weights

At the heart of any successful training program to build muscle is weight progression or reps progression. As you get into the groove of your training and are struggling to eek out the last rep you may find that whatever you do you can never get past performing 10 reps.

Week after week you are stuck at this level.

But you may find that if you drop your rep range to a max of 8 then you can progress with adding more weight a lot easier. So always take the ranges as a guideline. The aim is to consistently add weight to the bar as often as possible. If you find that as soon as you add weight to the bar when you can perform 10 reps, but suddenly drop down to only being able to do 6, you have either added too much weight or you are not suited to that rep range.

Try dropping to 8 reps and seeing if you can stay consistent with that rep number while still adding weight every week.

The faster you can progress at any given rep count whilst adding weight consistently then the quicker you will grow muscle.

Best Bodybuilding Routine

At the heart of a successful bodybuilding routine is the leg work. This is brutal. Reps should always be high, between 15 and 20. This stimulates muscle growth through the whole body and is the core of the whole workout. You should aim to add a lb or 2 each and every workout until you are lifting some very impressive poundages.

Do this for a few years and your whole body will be transformed.

See the article on how often to train to build muscle for guidelines of how often you should perform this workout. And if you perform rest pause training this is of prime importance. Never neglect your leg training, and make sure that it is done in perfect form, keep adding weight, and you will stimulate huge amounts of growth over your whole body. Your legs will grow, your back and shoulders will grow, and so will your arms. And if possible train in one of the power racks for sale that I have reviewed, safety is paramount.

How Many Sets

For the legs a maximum of 2-3 sets is all that you should need. And once you progress to real rest pause training for the legs then you are not going to want to pick the bar back up after 1 set, it is brutal to say the least.

For other exercises 3 sets are recommended.

Reverse Pyramid Training

This is my preferred way of training. You do your first set with your maximum poundage for the given rep range. Then on subsequent sets you will lower the weight so that you can match the rep range. It means you are always using the heaviest weight you can for each set.

Alternatives are that you use the same weight for each set. This means that the first two sets will be hard but nowhere near as tough as the final set, where you will be feeling the burn and getting pretty exhausted. But it is not as intense as reverse pyramid training, and for most it will not give the best results. i.e the quickest progression in terms of muscle gain and weights progression.

Are You Serious!????

I know, the brevity goes against everything that you have read. But this is for a reason. Recovery is so important that it should not be overlooked. Train hard, train very infrequently, and as long as you are progressing with the poundages week after week, do you think that you won’t be getting bigger?

Look at it this way. If you can perform chin ups twice a week and in a years time you can perform 10 reps with 50 lbs around your waist hanging from a belt, how much bigger do you think your arms and your back is going to be? A lot, right?

So, keep is simple, keep it brief, and add weight to the bar every single workout if you possibly can. And don’t forget to eat! If you are thin and simply cannot seem to add weight then you need to eat more and more and more until this begins to happen. See the how to gain weight quickly article for more info on this. If you are overweight then watch your diet, eat clean, cut out the crap, and make a slight deficit under your maintenance level.