The Best Muscle Building Workout Routines
Today let's talk about muscle and how you can build more of it.
I recently got an e-mail from a guy I'll call Joe. His question is a common one.
If you want to build more muscle, and what you're doing at the moment isn't working, pay attention.
What I have to say to Joe might be just what you need to get better, faster muscle-building results.
"I am new to the whole bodybuilding thing and have been at it for almost a year," Joe wrote in his e-mail. "I don't have any technical knowledge about setting up a routine and have just been using the bodybuilding routines I see in the magazines."
"At the moment, I'm doing my biceps and triceps on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while my shoulders and back are trained on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. In each workout I do about 25 sets per muscle group. Does this look like a good workout plan to you?"
Here's what I told Joe...
This is a horrendous training routine. I'd suggest that you change the
whole thing... fast. There's no work for your chest
or legs. And the arms are getting worked either directly or indirectly every day, which is way
too much.
Truth is, you'd probably be better off ignoring much of what you read in the muscle magazines.
Professional bodybuilders will typically use large training volumes (e.g. lots
of sets and repetitions) and/or various techniques designed to fatigue their
muscles (such as forced repetitions or descending sets).
These kind of high-volume, high-fatigue workouts create a large amount of muscle damage. And as with any injury, the more damage you create the longer it'll take to heal.
So if you use a very high volume of exercise for each muscle group, you'll need more recovery time before training that muscle again (that's one reason training each muscle group once per week has become so popular).
The problem is that anything professional bodybuilders do has to be seen in light of the fact that the majority (with the exception of those competing in "natural" contests, and even then I have my doubts about some of them) are using vast amounts of anabolic drugs.
You can't take a program used by a heavily drug-assisted genetically gifted champion bodybuilder and assume that someone who trains without the same level of pharmaceutical assistance will get the same results simply by following the same program. It just doesn't happen.
There are a few reasons why such high-volume, high-fatigue workouts are not optimal for the natural trainee who wants to build muscle.
Firstly, while a small amount of damage helps to trigger growth, too much is counterproductive. Damaged tissue won't respond as well to the various anabolic hormones your body produces, such as testosterone, which can limit the potential for growth.
What's more, studies show that the short-term increase in protein synthesis that occurs after a workout returns to normal after 36-48 hours [2]. And simply creating more muscle damage doesn't appear to make this rise in protein synthesis last any longer [1].
In other words, when you train a muscle group directly only once per week, the muscles might spend a few days in an "anabolic state" after the workout. But for the rest of the week you're missing a second (and maybe even a third) opportunity to stimulate more growth.
Blitzing your muscles just once a week with lots of sets, repetitions and high-fatigue methods is going to extend your recovery time. But it's not necessarily going to make you grow any faster.
Here's what Muscle Gaining Secrets author Jason Ferruggia has to say on the subject...
Sometime in the 60’s, sensible muscle building workouts started becoming less and less prevalent with the rapidly growing usage of anabolic steroids.
In the days of old, men like Steve Reeves and Paul Anderson trained with far more reasonable, lower volume programs. Unfortunately these smarter muscle building workouts started to disappear during the 60’s.
By the time Arnold got to Gold’s Gym in Venice for the first time, high volume, body-part splits were the widely accepted way for everyone to train for size and strength.
For the drug free lifter who does not possess muscle building genetics quite up to par with the current Mr Olympia, training this way is a huge mistake. |
As you become more advanced, there are also individual factors that you'll need to take into account when deciding how frequently each muscle group should be trained:
Size
Large muscle groups tend to recover more slowly than smaller muscle groups. For example, the smaller arm muscles (i.e. biceps and triceps) can be trained more frequently (2-3 times per week), while the larger muscles in the legs take longer to recover and will respond better to 1-2 workouts per week.
Exercise type
Compound exercises (such as the squat or deadlift) involve more muscles and more motor units, which means they increase the demand on the central nervous system (CNS) compared to single-joint movements (such as the biceps curl). Such exercises should either be performed less frequently or form part of a program where you cycle the effort level (i.e. heavy/light days).
Muscle damage
A workout that involves a high training volume (lots of sets), intensity (low repetitions and heavy weights) and effort (a high proportion of sets taken to muscular failure or beyond) will create a lot of muscle damage. This means it'll take longer to recover from than one involving lighter weights, lower volumes and less physical effort.
Nutrition
If you're eating a poor diet that contains a sub-optimal amount of one or more nutrients, then your rate of recovery is going to be impaired and training frequency will need to be reduced accordingly.
Training age
A beginner can train each muscle group more frequently than someone with a few years of training under their belt. Beginners can't recruit as many muscle fibers in each workout, don't create as much muscle damage, and so can recover more quickly. The longer you've been training, the more recovery time you'll need.
If you've built a decent "base" of muscle and want to improve certain muscle groups, then some kind of split routine might be the way to go.
But it's my view that most people will respond best to either a) a whole-body workout done 2-3 times per week or b) an upper-lower body routine performed four days each week.
While there are many ways to skin the proverbial cat, these are the
routines that I recommend for most people most of the time.
Routine #1: 3-day routine
Although this routine works the whole body three times per week, different movement patterns (legs, push, and pull) are emphasized in each workout.
Monday: Whole Body (legs emphasis)
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Whole Body (upper body push emphasis)
Thursday: Off
Friday: Whole Body (upper body pull emphasis)
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
Routine #2: 4-day routine
With the 4-day routine, each muscle group is worked twice a week. I like to work shoulders and arms directly only once each week, as they receive a lot of indirect stimulation when you train your chest and back.
Monday: Lower Body
Tuesday: Upper Body
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Lower Body
Friday: Upper Body
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
Routine #3: 3-day routine
A good option for those with a few years of serious training behind them is to turn the 4-day routine into a 3-day one by adding an extra day of rest. This way, each muscle group gets hit three times over a 2-week period.
Monday: Lower Body
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Upper Body
Thursday: Off
Friday: Lower Body
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
Monday: Upper Body
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Lower Body
Thursday: Off
Friday: Upper Body
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
The 4-day routine is my personal favorite, and it's the one I'm
currently using in the gym. The exact exercises, sets, repetitions
and rest periods that I recommend are shown in Muscle
Evo.
About the Author
 Christian Finn holds a master's degree in exercise science, is a certified personal trainer and has been featured on BBC TV and radio, as well as in Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Fit Pro, Zest and other popular fitness magazines.
If you want better, faster results from the time you spend in the gym, click here now for instant access to his step-by-step muscle-building and fat-burning workout routines.
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References
1. Gibala, M.J., Interisano, S.A., Tarnopolsky, M.A., Roy, B.D., MacDonald, J.R., Yarasheski, K.E., & MacDougall, J.D. (2000). Myofibrillar disruption following acute concentric and eccentric resistance exercise in strength-trained men. Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 78, 656-661
2. MacDougall, J.D., Gibala, M.J., Tarnopolsky, M.A., MacDonald, J.R., Interisano, S.A., & Yarasheski, K.E. (1995). The time course for elevated muscle protein synthesis following heavy resistance exercise. Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology, 20, 480-486
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