Trainers weigh in on how to design a weekly workout plan that promotes muscle growth.
If you’re trying to build more muscle, committing to an optimal weekly workout plan is key. For one thing, it’ll help you become more efficient at the gym since you’ll be focusing on exercises that are important to your goals. Plus, you’ll be able to avoid overworking your muscles by incorporating adequate rest, which will decrease your risk of injury and help you see real results.
When it comes to building strength and gaining muscles, there are a few ways to do it. Read on for top trainers’ advice for crafting the ideal muscle-gain workout plan.
5 Days Per Week Muscle-Gain Workout Plan
To encourage hypertrophy (increased muscle size), you’ll want to go with low reps of heavy weights. Rather than performing full-body strength workouts every day, follow a workout split that works different body parts on different days, suggests Autumn Calabrese, Beachbody trainer and creator of 21 Day Fix. (FYI, you won’t just build muscle: You’ll reap all the other benefits of lifting heavy weights too.)
Muscle Building Splits
“When you break it up into specific body parts, it allows you to put the focus on that one muscle group,” she says, “so you can exhaust it to the max and then give it a long enough break to recover and repair, which is where the muscle gain happens.”
A common way to structure this type of muscle-gain workout plan is to do a “pull” routine (focusing on your back and biceps) on Monday, legs on Tuesday, a “push” workout (hitting your chest and triceps) on Wednesday, rest on Thursday, butt on Friday, shoulders and abs on Saturday, and another rest day on Sunday, she says.
Erin Oprea, trainer to Carrie Underwood and Kelsea Ballerini, and author of The 4×4 Diet, suggests aiming for 8 to 10 reps of a heavy weight (one that’s still light enough to maintain proper form).
6 Days Per Week Muscle-Gain Workout Plan
Oprea suggests that a week of workouts could consist of back and chest on Monday; quads, calves, and core on Tuesday; biceps, triceps, and butt on Wednesday, rest on Thursday; hamstrings, lower back, and shoulders on Friday; core, triceps, and chest on Saturday; and quads, biceps, and obliques on Sunday.
A perfect workout program is nothing without consistency, so whether you’re laying out a beginner or advanced routine, make a plan that you’ll actually stick to. It doesn’t have to be extremely time-consuming. Both Calabrese and Oprea think 30 minutes a day is long enough to see results, providing you’re working hard enough during that time.
Cardio to Support Muscle Gain
If your goal is muscle gain, you’ll want to do less cardio than you would if your main goal was weight loss, says Oprea. You should still do cardio, but not as much, and rely on shorter bursts like sprints rather than prolonged steady state cardio, she says.
Nutrition for Muscle Gains
It also becomes more critical to get enough protein in your diet, Oprea says. The National Institutes of Health’s Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) recommends a minimum of 0.36 grams of protein for each pound you weigh per day. However, if you’re working out really hard on a regular basis, you may want to aim closer to 0.75 grams of protein per pound of body weight, according to Cynthia Sass, R.D., a performance nutritionist based in New York and Los Angeles.
Progress and Weight Tracking
It’s also important to log every workout to make sure you’re progressing over time. “Tracking your weights is one of the most important things you can do when you’re trying to build muscle,” says Calabrese. “You need to make sure that you’re making progress and that you’re pushing yourself a little more every week.”
You can’t lift the same amount of weight for the same reps for the same amount of time every week. Following the principle of progressive overload, you need to continually change up your weightlifting routine and challenge your muscles if you want to see growth.
Rest and Recovery
Planning a weekly schedule will also help ensure that you’re giving your muscles adequate time for rest and repair. Strength training causes micro tears in muscles and as the body initiates a repair process for damaged fibers it adds mass over time. Rest is crucial in this repair and rebuild process and to help prevent injuries. If you rush it and try to lift with intensely sore muscles you’ll likely have poor form and set yourself up for fatigue and injury.
By alternating focus of muscles each day you are building in rest for specific muscle groups. Additionally, scheduling one or two full rest days will ensure that you feel energized for your workouts and aren’t overtraining.
