Muscle building workout plan – A quick & healthy way to build mass

5 min

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By foodspring editors
October 16, 2020

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Building muscle mass means intensive training.

A mass building workout plan is fundamentally different from a normal muscle building workout plan (hypertrophy) or body sculpting workout plan.

The fundamentals of a mass building workout

It’s all about compound exercises, which work on the interactions between the large muscle groups in the chest, back and legs.

The key to successfully building mass, however, is progressively increasing strength.

We’ll show you what it’s all about and examine every variable of a mass building workout plan in detail.

Our goal: By sharing the theoretical foundations, we want to raise awareness for the special workout requirements for building muscle mass.

We also offer a selection of example plans for mass building and the option of creating your own mass building workout plan.

Workout frequency

Thoroughly training your muscles three times a week is enough to build high-quality muscle mass.

Intense strain with heavy workout weights and PB attempts put your muscles under stress and it is advisable to plan at least one day of rest between workouts.

As a general rule, you could divide the mass building workout plan into a split training for adjacent body regions or create a full-body cycle.

A full-body mass building workout is best for beginners (up to 6 months of training experience).

In a full-body workout, the focus is primarily on compound exercises: deadlifts, rowing, bench press, shoulder press and squats.

The high frequency of compound exercises can result in significant strength improvements very quickly.

Advanced athletes (at least one year of training experience) who want to build new muscle mass can also organize their workout plan as a split routine.

We recommend the classic triple split, which spends one day focusing on your back/biceps (day 1), one on your chest/triceps (day 2), and one on your legs (day 3).

Workout frequency at a glance:

3 workouts per week
Full body workout plan for beginners
Split workout for advanced athletes

The rest days in between are very important to allow time for your muscles to grow.

These processes only take place while your body is resting and regenerating, and not while your muscles are under stress!

Additional endurance training is completely counter-productive to building muscle mass.

High intensity training burns a lot of calories, making it extremely difficult to build mass. Long endurance runs promote the release of catabolic (muscle deteriorating) hormones, which means they have a negative influence on muscle mass building.

We recommend adding no more than one endurance training session per week to a mass building workout plan. It accelerates the transportation of nutrients in the muscles and supports the regeneration of individual muscles.

The endurance training should be completed on a rest day.

Rest intervals at a glance:

Muscles grow during the rest phase
Controlled endurance training for improved stamina

Tips for your mass building workout plan

1. Keep a workout diary

If you’re serious about developing quality muscle mass, you should definitely keep a workout diary, where you record your completed sets and the weights used.

This allows you to make sure you are progressively increasing your strength and weights.

2. Supplementary sports nutrition

In addition to progressive strength training and a structured nutrition plan, the intelligent use of sports nutrition as part of your workout plan is great for building mass.

Creatine helps improve both your explosive and maximum strength, which is particularly useful for heavy compound exercises at low reps.

Creatine also stores water in your muscles, which has a positive effect on glycogen storage in the muscles.

Popular favorites in the area of sports nutrition are protein shakes with whey protein, as well as various amino acids that support muscle growth. Interested in which shakes are the best choice for muscle building? Have a look at our article comparing protein shakes.

If you want to bring your muscle building workout plan to the next level, the proper preparation is key. The most efficient workouts begin before you even start to sweat. Your workout success begins in your head – trite, but true.

If you’re training hard several times a week, quick muscle recovery is crucial. That’s how you can guarantee you’ll have enough power for your next workout! If your workouts leave you burning, we suggest trying our Recovery Aminos. You’ve never had a faster recovery.

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3. Find a training partner

For beginners, it is particularly advisable to find a training partner who can explain the basic training techniques in detail and who can spot for you when lifting. This minimizes the risk of injury and maximizes the effectiveness of each exercise.

Motivating each other and meeting up to go to the gym together will help you deal with low phases.

Workout duration

Why is a short workout session of 45 to 60 minutes perfect for building mass?

It has to do with the release of hormones. Working out for longer than 60 minutes at maximum intensity causes the body to release large amounts of catabolic hormones – these promote the breakdown of muscle mass.

In order to promote the release of anabolic (muscle building) hormones instead, keep your workouts to less than 60 minutes. Too long and you’ll promote the breakdown of muscle mass.

Whey Protein – The classic

For: Quick nutrient boost
Special powers: Available immediately
When: Right after your workout

Learn more

Exercise selection

Stay away from isolation exercises or training on machines too frequently.

If you want to build mass, you have to work with free weights – compound exercises like deadlifts, bench presses, squats and shoulder presses should be a matter of course in any mass building workout plan.

The complex motions always address multiple muscle groups simultaneously and strengthen them specifically.

You can therefore stimulate growth in specific muscle groups and work on plenty of muscle fibre at the same time.

Your exercise selection at a glance:

Free weights instead of isolation exercises
Focus on compound exercises

We have also compiled some other workouts that can be easily included in your mass building workout plan.

Workout volume & intensity

The most effective number of reps for mass building is 3 to 6 reps (at maximum load).

The most important factor in your mass building workout plan is progression (continuous increase in weight).

Getting stronger with each workout and lifting more weight is the only way to stimulate muscle growth.

The following applies to the workout volume: You should do no more than 12-16 sets per workout.

Less is definitely more in this case! Since the focus of mass building is on heavy compound exercises, a maximum of 3 to 4 exercises per workout day is enough.

When it comes to mass building workouts:

Less is definitely more.

You should never do more than 5 sets of each exercise.

Of course this doesn’t include doing 1-2 warm-up sets to prepare your muscles for the extreme stress and to prevent injury. These aren’t included in the 5-set maximum.

Workout volume & intensity at a glance:

1-2 warm-up sets before every exercise
3-4 exercises per workout
3-6 reps

Rest interval

A rest interval of 120-180 seconds is required between maximum strength sets to allow complete recovery.

In between sets, you should stand up, drink fluids and mentally prepare for the next set.

Sources for this article

We at foodspring use only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial policy to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.