How to Build Muscle: The Perfect Gym Workout Program

How often to exercise

Arrange workouts three times a week. For example, you can study on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and leave the weekend free. Or train on other days according to your schedule. The main thing is that between two workouts there is at least one day of rest - during this time your muscles will have time to recover.

How to find weight

To figure out your working weight, try a bar or light dumbbell exercise. If you, without straining, were able to complete the specified number of repetitions, take the next weight dumbbells or hang pancakes of 2, 5 or 5 kg on the barbell. It's still easy - hang some more. Your weight is the one at which at the end of the set you can hardly perform the exercise, but the technique does not suffer.

How many sets and reps to do

Beginners are advised to do a lot of reps with light weight. This approach provides:

The speedy formation of a neuromuscular connection, which is necessary to increase muscle mass.
Active growth of muscle mass.
No injuries from heavy weights.

To keep your program simpler, do the same number of sets and reps on all exercises. Do all of the exercises below for three sets of 10 reps unless otherwise noted.

What should be the warm-up

Warm up before exercising.

Joint warm-up: twist the joints, make bends and turns of the body.
Five minutes of light cardio: quiet jogging on the treadmill, elliptical training, jumping rope.

If strength exercises are performed with a weight of more than 20 kilograms, warm-up approaches are necessary before them. You do the exercise 3-5 times with an empty bar, and then add 10-20 kilograms.

For example, if you are doing 50kg back squats, your warm-up sets will look like this: 20x3, 30x3, 40x3, one minute rest, and the first set with a working weight.

What exercises to do

Starting with your abs will tone them up so that they support your core better and prevent your back from rounding in movements such as deadlifts or back squats.

1. Raising the body on the press

Training program in the gym: Raises the body on the press

Place your legs bent at the knees on the floor or lay them on a hill so that the knee angle is 90 degrees, put your hands behind your head. Do three sets of 20 reps.

2. Raises the legs on the press

Gym Workout Program: Abdominal Leg Raises

This exercise puts a load on the hip flexors. Do three sets of 20 reps.

Lie on the floor, put your hands along the body. Raise your bent knees up so that your thigh is perpendicular to the floor. Lift the basin off the floor and feed it up, then lower and repeat.

3. Hyperextension

This exercise has a double benefit: it pumps the back extensors, which help you hold your back during deadlifts and squats, and activates your glutes. The latter is especially important for people with sedentary work.

The exercise can be done on an incline hyperextension machine where the body is at an angle, on a Roman chair in which the body is parallel to the floor, or on the GHD.

Tilt your body to parallel with the floor or slightly lower, and then straighten your back up. The deeper you bend down, the more your glutes are turned on.

4. Squats with a barbell on the back

The exercise puts stress on the front of the thigh and buttocks.

To get started, experiment with the position of your legs and find out which stance is most comfortable for you: wide, narrow, with knees extended or only slightly out to the sides.

Watch your technique while squatting.

The back should remain straight at all times during the exercise. If it rounds off at the bottom, your back muscles are not strong enough, take a lighter weight.
The feet should not come off the floor.
Squat in full range: at least to parallel with the floor or slightly lower.

5. Bench press

Pumps the pectoral muscles, engages the triceps, shoulders and core muscles.

Lie on a bench press with your feet wide and your feet flat on the floor. To determine the width of the grip, grab the barbell and lower it to your chest. At the lowest point, the forearms should be perpendicular to the barbell. Take the barbell, move it to the position above the chest, lower it until it touches the chest and lift it up again.

Here are some of the features of the technique:

If you are using a medium grip, the wrists, elbows and bar are in the same plane.
Feet firmly pressed to the floor, do not put your feet on your toes.
Move in full amplitude, touch the bar to the chest.

6. Deadlift

The deadlift works on the back of the thigh, glutes, and back extensors.

Walk up to the bar, place your feet so that the bar is over the laces of your sneakers, close to your shin. Grab the barbell just beyond shoulder-width apart and bend your knees. Raise the bar with a straight back until the hip is fully extended.

Features of the technique:

Keeping your back straight will relieve pressure on your lower back.
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, turn the socks outward 15-25 degrees.
Raise the barbell close to your shins, practically slide over them (but, of course, not like in the-g.webp" />

Gym Workout Program: Raise the barbell close to your shins

7. Row of the upper block to the chest

Gym Workout Program: Row of the upper block to the chest

This exercise loads the latissimus dorsi.

Sit on the machine, grab the handle and pull it towards your chest. Exercise with your back muscles, not your arms and shoulders.

8. Press the bar from the chest while standing

Gym Workout Program: Standing Chest Press

This exercise works on the shoulders, especially the front, and the pectoral muscles.

Grasp the bar with a straight grip shoulder-width apart or slightly wider. Raise the bar up, at the extreme point, fully straighten your elbows and bring your hands back a little behind your head.

Several features of the technique:

Look forward, do not raise your head behind the bar.
When the bar is in front of your head, do not raise your chin, but move your head back.
Do not lean your body back while pressing.

9. Lifting the bar for biceps

This is an isolated exercise for the biceps of the shoulder.

Take a barbell with a reverse grip shoulder-width apart, raise it, bending your arm at the elbow, and gently lower it.

Features of the technique:

To take the pressure off your lower back, tilt your body forward slightly.
To protect your elbow joint, lower your weight gently and in a controlled manner, rather than throwing it down.
You can shift the load on different biceps heads due to the position of the elbows (take the elbows back - load the outer biceps head more, bring the elbows forward - load the inner biceps head).

10. Breeding dumbbells in an incline

Gym Workout Program: Bent-over Dumbbell Swing

This movement works out the back of the shoulders.

Take dumbbells, bend to parallel with the floor and spread your arms to the sides.

Peculiarities:

Do not lift your shoulders up, they should be lowered to turn off the trapezius muscles from work.
To increase the load on the posterior deltoid muscles, slightly rotate the hands with the little fingers up.

11. Extension of arms on the block for triceps

Stand next to the upper block, grab the handle with a straight grip, slightly push the body forward, do not round your back. It is important to fix the entire shoulder girdle so that only the forearms move during the exercise.

Peculiarities:

You can shift the load to different triceps heads by changing the grip (the straight grip pumps the lateral head of the triceps, and the reverse grip the long one).
The pull of the upper block with a rope handle allows you to spread your arms at the bottom point and turn your hands outward with your little fingers (this also allows you to better work out the long head of the triceps).

How long will this program last?

You can do this program for one to two months, and then either switch to splits to work harder on each muscle group, or continue to pump the whole body in one workout, but change the number of sets and reps in accordance with your goals.

If you like variety and the same exercises done day in and day out take away your interest and motivation, you can diversify your workouts with the movements below.

How to diversify your workouts

Movement from the program	Replacement options
Lifting the body on the press	Body lifts on a Roman chair, V-shaped body lifts
Leg raises on the press	Raising the knees to the chest while hanging on the horizontal bar, raising the legs to the horizontal bar
Squats	Barbell Back Lunges, Kettlebell or Dumbbell Sumo Squats
Bench press	Breeding dumbbells lying down, push-ups, press on the Hammer simulator
Deadlift	Leg curl on a lying machine, deadlift (deadlift on straight legs)
Row of the upper block to the chest	Bent-over barbell row, bent-over dumbbell row, Bent-over T-bar row
Standing chest press	Standing dumbbell press
Lifting the bar for biceps	Lifting dumbbells for biceps
Bent over dumbbell breeding	Breeding hands on the simulator ("reverse butterfly")
Extension of the arms on the block for triceps	French bench / standing press, reverse dips with legs on a hill, push-ups on uneven bars

How to cool down

After your workout, devote time to stretching all muscle groups. There is no scientific evidence that stretching reduces post-workout muscle pain, but it does:

Increases the elasticity of muscles and connective tissue, which reduces the risk of injury during training and in everyday life.
Partially removes restrictions that can prevent you from doing exercises with correct technique.