The Best Workout Structure For Muscle Gain

Today we're going to break down how to actually gain muscle.

We’ll also cover the best way to structure workouts for it.

I can guarantee its not what you think or expect.

There's a lot to cover, but I've made it as simple & practical as possible for you.

The reality is this:

The only way to achieve an impressive physique is by gaining significant amount of muscle.

And the only way to build a significant amount of muscle is with proper resistance training.

When you put in place the right resistance training protocol...

You'll be able to maximize muscle gain and your physique in less time.

Which also means:

• higher metabolism

• look better in any clothes (or less clothes)

• higher libido & testosterone

• more confidence & energy

• an impressive body that stands out from most

Unfortunately, so few people understand how to actually do this.

This results in people who go to the gym for years, yet their dream bodies evades them.

Most People Don't Understand What Actually Drives Muscle Gain.

They think certain things build muscle when they actually don't mean anything:

• They think if they aren't sore it wasn't a good workout (not true)

• They think if they didn't sweat it wasn't a good workout (not true)

• They don't rest enough between sets (eg. HIIT workouts or classes) because they think it's more efficient (not true)

• They think there is a magical number of sets or reps to do in an exercise that produces muscle (not true)

Once you get to the end of this article, you'll have a clearer understanding of muscle gain.

And how to create a workout program that will help you achieve more of it.

Let's break it down.

Step 1: Progressive Overload & Technique

Also known as "Progressive Mechanical Tension".

This is the primary driver of muscle gain.

What does it mean?

It means to increase load on the muscle over time.

This is the only reason you can force a muscle to grow.

"We couldn't lift that, we need more muscle" is the signal your body hears.

One of my first clients that was trying to build muscle was stuck for years before he came to me.

He was going in the gym and “lifting weights”.

He was doing “supersets” and “dropsets”.

But he was lacking the first key thing: he was not progressive overloading.

He was not increasing in load over time.

He started a year ago... and he was lifting around the same still a year later.

How many people do you know like this?

Most people in the gym have been lifting the same weights for a decade.

We got him tracking his workouts to ensure he knew what weight he hit last time so he could beat it next time.

BOOM.

Results started coming in.

It was almost like he started working out yesterday.

"Newbie gains" all over again.

Now, keep in mind:

Your technique when executing your resistance training exercises needs to be high quality.

It needs to be slow and controlled on the lowering part of the lift.

And it needs to be precise & explosive on the "lifting" part of the lift.

Quality technique is how we avoid injury, which is crucial for muscle gain.

Injury leads to loss of muscle gained.

And quality technique makes sure we target the muscles we are actually want to work.

Quality technique is a skill that will take time to improve on.

But, unless you aim to improve on it, you will develop the dangerous habit of poor technique.

We've all seen those people at the gym who are a disaster waiting to happen.

Don't be like them.

Though, you may already be like them….

In which case, watch a tutorial video on how to execute the exercise.

Then, record yourself doing it to see how you can improve.

I am 15 years in and still am improving my technique.

So don't get too stuck on this.

The goal is to lift in a way that is safe and controlled.

But don't expect perfection.

Progress > perfection.

Step 2: Intensity & Volume

Most gym-goers are either not pushing hard enough, or pushing too hard to gain muscle.

I know that sounds counter-intuitive.

But here is what I mean.

To build muscle, you need to push a single set far enough to make your muscle aware that it needs to grow.

This is known as “Intensity”.

In order to progressively overload, you need to push each set to a high intensity (near failure on each set).

If you stop your set at 10 reps, but you could have done 20.

Why would your muscle grow?

"We've got plenty of room before we run out of resources" is what your body will tell itself.

So how do you know you've pushed hard enough to force muscle to grow?

When you are pushing the weight as hard as you can and it starts slowing down.

In other words, you are pushing as hard as before, but the weight is starting to move more slower.

We call this "Rep velocity".

This indicates that your muscles are struggling to lift the weight.

That stimulates growth.

Usually you have around 3 reps at the end of the set that will feel this way.

So if you do a set of 10 reps, and you cannot push the weight anymore than 10 reps...

You will start feeling the weight slow and your effort grow somewhere around rep 7.

If you push your hardest but cannot complete another rep, we call that "mechanical failure".

Very few people ever push close to this limit.

And some push way beyond it.

Both are not conducive to muscle gain.

Instead, aim for most of your sets to fall between the 3rd last "tough" rep and failure.

In other words - you should push hard on each set.

Or else you need 100 sets to do what you could do in 10.

Which brings me to the next point.

Most gym-goers are doing too many sets, or not resting enough between their sets.

The concept of how much total work you're doing is what we call "Volume".

Sets & reps.

Let’s simplify the guidelines.

There is plenty of data to support the following recommendation:

Somewhere between 5-8 sets per muscle group per workout, done 2x per week is probably best.

That means a total of ~ 10-16 sets per week for a muscle.

As for reps, anywhere between 5 and 30 reps can produce muscle gain (if you push hard enough as we explain above).

But 6-12 reps is probably the best for efficiency of time & fatigue.

You can do LESS than this and you'll be okay.

But doing more is likely not worth it.

(If this still sounds confusing, we'll put it together in the next section.)

But this assumes you are resting enough between your sets.

So let's also cover rest times real quick as well.

First: you must be resting between sets.

Circuit workouts do very little for muscle gain.

It's physiology.

Class-based workouts or HIIT workouts are cardio workouts.

They build no muscle (unless it is your first month of working out).

If you rest less than 90 seconds between sets, you will need DOUBLE the amount of sets (volume) than if you rest 2 minutes + between sets.

That's right.

2 minutes of more.

Sounds boring? Sounds like you don't have time for that?

Well, like I said:

If you rest less than 2 minutes, you will need double the sets on average for the same result.

So the time actually ends up being the exact same.

But the difference is you will accumulate less fatigue so each set you do can be high quality.

The more fatigue you accumulate, the more risk of injury and the more you involve cardio.

It could also lead to longer recovery between workouts.

Everyone wants to know "How many sets?" before they understand quality technique and progressive overload.

They also want to know "How many sets?" before they understand how hard they need to push on each set.

This is a big mistake.

The result is someone going into the gym and aiming for an arbitrary number of reps.

They don't push the muscle to grow on any set.

They rest very little between sets because they feel fine & fresh still.

They execute movements with bad technique.

They don't track anything and don’t progressive overload.

But you will not make this mistake.

Step 3: Putting Your New Program Together

By this point, hopefully you've learned a lot of eye-opening things.

You (likely) have learned that you were not working out in a way that produces muscle gain almost at all.

But how do we put this together in a practical way?

Let's break down an example of an effective workout structure for muscle gain.

Including all the factors we broke down.

Example Structure:

Let's say you want to focus on 4 muscle-building workouts per week.

You want to hit each body part 2 times per week, for 5 sets each time (10 total sets weekly).

You can split up the workouts into Upper and Lower Days.

Upper 1, Lower 1, Upper 2, Lower 2 (4 Days).

On upper day 1, you can hit 1 exercise for chest, 1 for back, 1 for biceps, 1 for triceps and 1 for shoulders.

Example Upper 1: Bench Press 5 sets x 6-12. Row 5 sets x 10-12. Tricep Pushdown 2 sets x 8-10. Bicep Curls 2 sets x 8-10. Lateral DB Raise 3 sets x 10-15.

You might be wondering why only 2 sets for the arm exercises and 3 for shoulders?

Because compound lifts like bench presses work the triceps and shoulders.

And rows work the biceps.

So we can account for some overlap there.

On Upper 2, it can be the same set up but different variations of the exercises.

IE: Incline DB press instead of flat bench press.

Moving on to lower body.

Example Lower A: Squat 5 sets x 6-10. RDL 5 sets x 6-10. Glute Machine 3 sets x 10-15. Calf Raises 5 sets x 6-10.

Again, less glute work directly due to overlap from the squat and RDL.

Lower 2 will be the same set up with different variations of the exercises.

To top it off you will do the following:

Track your workouts to ensure you are applying progressive overload week to week.

Rest around 2 minutes between every set.

Push each set to where you only have 1, 2 or 3 reps left in the tank at most. (You can reach failure on the last set sometimes)

You are executing every rep with high quality technique.

You are ensuring you are sleeping plenty.

You are eating conducive to muscle gain (a future newsletter).

And you now have built out a program that allows you to stimulate muscle growth.

And you do it in a very time-efficient way.

These workout sessions should not take more than 60 minutes (if not less).

And you will be well on your way to sculpting an impressive physique.

Because you now understand the foundations of a muscle building workout & how to apply them.

I’ll see you at the top.

-Jon.

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