A Full Body Workout Routine For Rapid Muscle Gains

If you've struggled to build muscle in the past, or you’re stuck at a plateau, or if you’re just looking for a good workout routine to build muscle as well as increase your strength, this full body workout routine could be just what you need.

A Simple Workout Routine

The uncomplicated plans are usually the ones that work best. If you stick to the big basic exercises you’ll work the most muscle in the least amount of time, and you’ll get the best hormonal response too. So you’ll build muscle faster with this approach than with any other type of program.

With this workout routine you’ll do three short workouts per week, alternating between two different ones. The two workouts have different emphases, and work together to produce the best overall results.

You’ll only do three exercises in each workout – a squat or deadlift together with an upper body push and an upper body pull. But you can add in a fourth later, when you've made a decent amount of progress. A lot of people find they can make good gains on a routine of this sort even when they have failed with everything else.

So your full body workout routine for rapid muscle size and strength gains will be as follows…

Workout A

Squat                           3 X 5 – 8          

Bench Press               3 X 5 - 8

Barbell Row                 3 X 5 - 8

Workout B

Deadlift                        1 X 5

Military Press               3 X 5 - 8

Chin-Ups                     3 X 6 – 8

(3 X 5 – 8 = 3 sets of 5 – 8 reps)

The sets and reps shown are your work sets. Before you do these you'll do two warm-up sets to prepare yourself for the heavier weights. So first do a set of 7 reps with about 60% of your working weight, then do a set of 5 with about 80%, and then move up to your full weight for your three work sets. When you are able to do 8 reps on all three sets, increase the weight by about 5 – 10% for your next workout.

Each of your sets should become progressively harder so that on your last set you are pushing close to your limit. But don’t go to the point of failing to complete a rep, as if you train to failure too often you will overtax your central nervous system, and this could easily stop your gains dead.

You’ll notice that with the deadlift you do just one set of 5 reps with your top weight. This is because deadlifts are very demanding and only one set is needed. So do your 5 reps, and if you feel you could have done a bit more increase the weight next time.

Moving Forward

When you've been training a few months and made some good gains you could add in a couple of extra exercises if you wish. Add barbell curls to workout A and parallel bar dips to workout B. Do 3 sets of 6 – 8 reps of these (after warm-ups).

Training in this rep range will build muscle that is strong, hard and dense, and it will do it quickly. Most of the growth will be due to myofibrillar hypertrophy, which is growth of the actual muscle fibers.

Further on down the line however you could switch to a routine of higher reps, which will cause even more growth to occur due to sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. That is growth which occurs due to increasing the amount of fluid and non-contractile proteins in the muscle cells.

Alternatively you might prefer a routine consisting of lower reps in order to increase your strength further. Or you could do a combination of the two for the best of both worlds.

This is an exceptional full body workout routine that will build muscle together with a very good level of strength. It does this by concentrating your efforts on the major muscle groups and training them with the right number of reps, and at the right frequency to give you the best results. So do give it a try. I’m sure you'll be delighted with the results.