In this 3-part series, we’ll be creating a simplified, beginner-friendly training plan that gets you stronger and helps you look good naked by building muscle.
You’ll be building your very own plan as we go, so you’ll end up with something you can take action on right away.
This plan will be specifically designed for a guy who has a time-sensitive schedule, and wants to get the most out of every limited minute he can spend in the gym.
Here are the different parts of this series you will be seeing:
Choosing Days and Exercises
Setting Reps and Weights
Making Progress
With this plan, you’ll be able to build muscle and strength for many months (or even 1-2 years).
Setting your schedule
The first decision to make is how many days you’ll be going to the gym each week.
For beginners, 2-4 sessions per week will yield solid results for a LONG time.
I always recommend you err on the side of fewer sessions, if you’re on the fence about your ability to show up as often as you’d like to.
If you know that it will be a stretch for you to hit 4 workouts per week, but 3 will happen EVERY single time – pick three.
If you have to ask, choose less.
Training makes you stronger and more jacked over months and years – it consistently nudges you an inch closer each time you take part.
If you’re unable to be consistent with your workouts, you’ll never see the progress you want.
Now that you have your workout frequency set up, pick the days you want to train.
Ideally, these workouts are evenly spaced throughout the week to allow time for you to recover in between sessions.
This will maximize your ability to train hard while you’re in the gym, while giving your body ample time to adapt to the work you’re giving it.
For our sample trainee, Frodo, let’s pick 2 days per week.
Saving middle-earth is time consuming business after all…
Monday
Thursday
Picking which muscles you want to train
You don’t need to train every muscle group on your body if you don’t want to.
If you don’t care about the size of your calves, that’s fine.
Or if you don’t want bigger arms, no problem.
But any muscle group that you want to grow, or look more defined, we should train.
So pick any or all of these.
Biceps
Triceps
Shoulders
Chest
Back
Quads
Hamstrings
Glutes
Abs
The case for full body training
In this program, we’ll train every muscle group that you want to grow, every single session.
If you have a limited amount of time and days that you can go to the gym, it’s the most viable choice.
Think about it:
Do you really want to train your chest on Monday, then not train it again until next Monday?
What is happening for the 5 days after you’ve recovered from your Monday workout?
Nothing. Breakdown.
Instead, let’s stimulate adaptations more frequently.
Tell your chest to grow on Monday.
Then again on Thursday.
You’ll build more muscle, and every rep you do will be of a higher quality.
Imagine you did 100 pushups on Monday – the last 50 reps would be much sloppier than the first 50.
Now if you split it up, you’ve got the chance to make 50 quality reps happen on each day.
Picking exercises
As a beginner with limited time, choosing primarily multi-joint exercises will be your best bet.
Multi-joint exercises are commonly referred to as ‘compound’ exercises.
They target many muscle groups at once, and use multiple joints at the same time.
Biceps curl = only moves the elbow joint = trains your biceps
Chin ups = moves the elbow and shoulder joint = trains your back AND biceps
So they give you a ton of ‘bang for your buck’ time-wise, since you can train more muscle at the same time.
As added benefits, they will help you get stronger much quicker, and are great for helping you build general fitness / work capacity, too.
Don’t get too caught up wondering which exercise is best for which muscle group.
As a beginner, you’re ultra-sensitive to getting stronger and growing new muscle with just about anything.
As long as an exercise seems like a basic, stable exercise that you feel comfortable trying out (and have access to the equipment for) you’re going to be fine.
Just run with it for now, and we can always swap it out later if it’s not working (part 4 of this series).
So let’s plug those big compound basics in first for all the major muscle groups, and sprinkle in some single-joint movements where they’re needed.
In our sample program, Frodo wants to grow muscle on his whole body.
Frodo’s sample plan
Monday
Barbell Squat (Quads)
Push Ups (Chest)
Dumbbell Row (Back)
Hamstring Curl Machine (Hamstrings)
Dumbbell Split Squat (Glutes)
Dumbbell Lateral Raise (Shoulders)
Dumbbell Bicep Curl (Biceps)
Dumbbell Skullcrusher (Triceps)
Thursday
Lat Pull Down (Back)
Walking Lunge (Glutes)
Dumbbell Bench Press (Chest)
Stiff Leg Deadlift (Hamstrings)
Leg Extension (Quads)
Cable Pushdown (Triceps)
Cable Curl (Biceps)
Cable Upright Row (Shoulders)
Exercise order
If you want to have a balanced approach to your workouts, and don’t care about any muscle group in particular, feel free to scramble the body part order that you train, as above.
This is what I recommend for almost all beginners.
But if you want to really zone in on a certain muscle group, or groups, be sure to prioritize training those muscle groups while you’re fresher.
Place your chest exercises (or upper body exercises) first in the session if you want to focus on them.
Saving time
Now that you have your full body workout plan, you might be wondering how the hell you’ll pull all this off in the limited time that you have.
Enter ‘supersets’.
This is back-to-back training that delays rest by grouping your exercises together.
It’s a super time-efficient way to get a ton of high-quality training done in a short period of time.
Group together exercises that don’t train the same muscle groups for the best effect.
Here’s the difference:
‘Straight Sets’
Squat, rest, Squat, rest, Squat
Pushup, rest, Pushup, rest, Pushup
Roughly 12-15 minutes of time there for 3 sets of 2 exercises.
‘Supersets’
Squat, Pushup, rest, Squat, Pushup, rest, Squat, Pushup
The exact same amount of work, but with half as much rest time.
So let’s group Frodo’s exercises that don’t use the same muscle groups.
Groups A, B, and C dictate which exercises will be done in superset style.
Monday
A
Barbell Squat (Quads)
Push Ups (Chest)
B
Dumbbell Row (Back)
Hamstring Curl Machine (Hamstrings)
C
Dumbbell Split Squat (Glutes)
Dumbbell Lateral Raise (Shoulders)
Dumbbell Bicep Curl (Biceps)
Dumbbell Skullcrusher (Triceps)
Thursday
A
Lat Pull Down (Back)
Walking Lunge (Glutes)
Dumbbell Bench Press (Chest)
B
Stiff Leg Deadlift (Hamstrings)
Leg Extension (Quads)
C
Cable Pushdown (Triceps)
Cable Curl (Biceps)
Cable Upright Row (Shoulders)
Now we’ve got a plan that makes Frodo stronger, and builds the muscle groups that he wants to train, without taking up too much of his ‘precious’ time…
In summary
1. Pick how many and which days you can go to the gym
Err on the side of less if needed.
Better to plan for 3 per week than to plan for 4 and end up doing 3.
2. Decide which muscles you want to train
If you want something to be bigger or more defined, select it.
Don’t worry if you’re not sure right now, just train your whole body.
3. Select the exercises you want to do
Choose mostly multi-joint exercises, sprinkling in single-joint exercises where needed.
Train the muscles you want to prioritize first, or just scramble them.
4. Group exercises to save time
Superset exercises, doing back to back work and delaying rest periods to save time.
You’ll get more done in the same amount of time.
But check this out…
There’s only so much you can do with pen and paper – in the next part of this series it gets real.
Make sure you have your plan put together by then, so you can show up prepared.
Because in the next part of this series, we’ll set up the weights, sets, and reps for this program by actually getting into the gym.
You’re going to be training harder, smarter, and more sustainably than just about every guy at your gym if you follow along.
See you soon,
Matteo
