The Best Way to Build Muscle

I want to talk to you today about the best way to build muscle.
If what you’re doing at the moment isn’t working, please pay attention.
What I have to say might be just what you need to get better, faster results.
Step one is to decide how many days a week you’re going to train.
The first option is to train your whole body three times a week on alternate days, normally Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday or Wednesday, Friday and Sunday will work just as well.

Monday: Whole Body
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Whole Body
Thursday: Off
Friday: Whole Body
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off

Option two is to train four days a week using an upper/lower split. You hit the upper body on Monday, lower body on Tuesday, then take Wednesday off. Thursday is upper body, Friday is lower body and you have the weekend off. Each muscle group is trained twice a week. Of all the training splits I’ve used over the years, this one is my favorite.

Monday: Lower Body
Tuesday: Upper Body
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Lower Body
Friday: Upper Body
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off

The third option is something called the push/pull/legs split. You train either four or five days a week, doing the pushing movements (chest, shoulders, and triceps) on Monday, the pulling movements (back and biceps) on Tuesday.
Then you take a day off before training legs on Thursday, followed by another day off on Friday. On Saturday you go back to the beginning and do the push workout again.

Week 1

Monday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Tuesday: Back, Biceps
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Off
Saturday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Sunday: Back, Biceps

Week 2

Monday: Off
Tuesday: Legs
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Friday: Back, Biceps
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Legs

So you train for two days, take a day off, followed by one day of training, followed by another day off. Each muscle group is trained every fifth day. Because you don’t train on the same days each week, you’ll need a very flexible schedule to pull this one off.
While there are literally thousands of different routines available, these are the ones that will pack on the maximum amount of muscle in the shortest possible time.
It’s often said that beginners should avoid split routines and stick with full-body workouts that involve working each muscle group three times per week.
That’s mainly because they can’t recruit as many muscle fibers in each workout, don’t create as much muscle damage, and so can recover more quickly.
But as long as their training program and diet are set up correctly, beginners can still make good progress on split routines that involve training 4-5 days per week.
In this Baylor University study, a group of beginners gained 12 pounds of muscle in just 10 weeks using a 4-day split routine.
A 12-week trial, this time using untrained beginners on a 5-day split routine, shows that guys using milk as a post-exercise supplement gained almost nine pounds of muscle with no additional fat.
In much the same way that beginners can make impressive gains using a split routine, anyone who has moved past the beginner stages of training can still add a substantial amount of size by working their whole body three times a week.
University of Alabama researchers, for example, found that a group of men who had been lifting weights for several years gained almost 10 pounds of muscle on a full-body routine performed three days per week for three months.
As a rule, the heavier you train, the longer it will take to recover. So if you’re using a weight that limits you to 3-5 repetitions per set, you will need more rest between workouts for the same muscle group. With lighter weights and higher repetitions (10-15), you can often repeat a workout for that same body part 2-3 days later.

The next step is to train very hard and concentrate on getting strong at pressing, pulling and squatting.
Make sure to choose big, compound exercises. The best exercises for each movement category are as follows:

Horizontal push (flat/30-degree incline barbell bench press, flat/30-degree incline dumbbell bench press, suspension trainer push-ups)
Horizontal pull (seated row, dumbbell row, inverted bodyweight row)
Vertical pull (chin-up, close grip front lat pulldown, wide grip front lat pulldown )
Vertical push (standing barbell press, standing dumbbell press, seated dumbbell press)
Knee dominant (squat, split squat, leg press)
Hip dominant (deadlift, sumo deadlift, rack pulls)

If there is a secret to building muscle, it’s to keep on getting stronger in the 5 to 15 repetition range on a few basic exercises for each major body part. If you’re not getting stronger, there’s a good chance you’re not getting bigger either.
A total of 20-25 “work sets” per workout (excluding warm-up sets) is more than enough to trigger rapid gains in strength and size. That’s not 25 sets per muscle group, that’s 20 sets in total for the entire workout, divided across 1-3 exercises for each muscle group. There is rarely a need to do more.
Most of your training should be done using heavy weights in the 5-8 repetition range. For maximum muscle growth, you should also include some higher rep (10-15) sets in your workouts.
There are numerous different ways to do this, from higher rep sets (10-15) and short (30-60 seconds) inter-set rest periods to a couple of back-off sets at the end of a series of heavy sets. Even just using a light weight and slowing your reps right down will make your muscles grow.
Don’t get carried away with all the advanced techniques you read about in the magazines. Blitzing your muscles with lots of forced reps and descending sets might leave you feeling sore. It also leads to a greater stress on the neuromuscular system, which is going to extend your recovery time. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to grow any faster.
There’s no proven link between soreness and growth, and no rule that says you have to annihilate each muscle group in order to make it grow. And contrary to what you might think after watching this trailer for Pain and Gain, wearing a unitard or tank top is not a requirement for building muscle. So please don’t do it.
To repeat, building a decent amount of muscle means that you will need to get strong. There is no such thing as big without strong. Don’t let anyone try to kid you otherwise.
You will also need to get into the habit of planning your workouts in advance. Before you even set foot in the gym it’s vital that you know exactly what you’re doing when you get there. If you’re serious about gaining muscle, just “winging it” won’t be good enough anymore. That’s why I highly recommend keeping a training diary.
Probably the most important benefit of a training diary, and the single biggest reason why most people don’t use one, is that it will force you to face facts. Is what you’re doing delivering results? Or are you doing nothing more than simply repeating the same workout over and over again in the hope that it’ll suddenly start working?
It’s also a good idea to include some kind of deload or light week for every 3-9 weeks of hard training.
Yes, I know you’re worried that taking your foot off the gas will leave you smaller and weaker, especially if you’re the type who sees any amount of time off as a wasted opportunity for progress. But your body isn’t a machine and will benefit from a rest now and again, especially as you get older. I know it’s a cliché, but sometimes you do need to take a step back in order to take two steps forward.
What you do in the gym is only half the story when it comes to gaining muscle mass. Without enough food, much of your muscle-building efforts in the gym will go to waste. Here’s a quick and simple way to work out your calorie needs for building size:

1. Firstly, calculate your lean bodyweight. For example, if you weigh 175 pounds at 20% body fat, you have 35 pounds of fat and a lean bodyweight of 140 pounds.
2. Multiply your lean bodyweight by 20. Using a lean bodyweight of 140 pounds, that gives you 2800 calories per day.

If you find that you’re not gaining any weight, increase your calorie intake by around 250 calories per day until the scale starts moving in the right direction.
I know that might not sound like much, especially when you compare it with some of the 5000 calorie “bulking” diets out there. But you can’t force your muscles to grow faster simply by stuffing yourself with food.
That’s because there’s an upper limit on the amount of nutrients you can take in and turn into muscle. If you’re currently eating below this upper limit, then you’ll build muscle faster by increasing your nutrient take.
But once you hit your maximal rate of muscle gain, simply adding more calories won’t automatically lead to a faster rate of growth. All that’ll happen is that you get fat.

Once you have a decent training and nutrition program set up, the key to building muscle as fast as humanly possible is to stick with it. Frequently I read that you should keep changing your routine every few weeks to “confuse” your muscles and make them grow.
For most people, this is a mistake. There is no point in variety for the sake of variety, and the best way to make absolutely no progress at all is to keep jumping around from one routine to the next.
Forget about your body type or your genetics. You can’t change them, so there’s no point even thinking about them. Set challenging but realistic goals for yourself and work as hard as you can towards achieving them.
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About Christian Finn

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.