To develop and maintain lean muscles, one has to be disciplined, feed well, and follow a good strength training program. With the numerous workout plans that are available, the following 5 are among the best in the market in terms of building lean muscles.
1. Full Body Workouts.
Full body workouts refer to the training sessions in which all the big muscles in the body are targeted. Conventional routines of full body training involve training 3 days in a week. Every workout engages muscles such as chest, back, shoulders, arms, glutes, quads, hamstrings, and core. Your exercises include compound movements such as squat, dead lifts, chin up, bench presses and overhead presses. These motions involve many muscles at a go.
Full body training is perfect for putting together overall mass and chiseling out a muscular and well toned body. Because of the fact that you hit your whole body muscles more often than in body part split routines, you’re going to promote more of protein synthesis and stimulate more muscular development in the long run. Simply ensure that you give each muscle group at least 48 hours to have enough time for rest before you begin exercising on the muscles again.
An example full body workout could look like this:An example full body workout could look like this:
A. Bench Press: 3 sets x 5 reps
B. Barbell Row: 3 sets by 6 reps
C. Goblet Squats 3 sets x 8 reps
D. Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets of 10 repetitions
E. Chin Ups: 3 sets
2. Push/Pull Split Routine.
A push/pull split works on the push and pull movements for 2 different days of a week. The push day is aimed at chest, shoulders and triceps. It is the pull day that hits back and biceps. You would then do legs on another day and so on and so forth. Another great split is the upper/lower split, but the emphasis here lies in movement patterns rather than muscles.
A sample 4 day push/pull routine could be:A sample 4 day push/pull routine could be:
Day 1: Push Day (chest, shoulders, triceps)
- Bench press
- Incline dumbbell press
- Overhead press
- Lateral raises
- Triceps pushdowns
Day 2 – Pull Day (Back and Biceps)
- Pull ups
- Barbell rows
- One arm rows
- Pulldowns
- Biceps curls
Day 3: Legs
- Squats
- Lunges
- Hip thrusts
Day 4: Off or light cardio.
The push/pull split enables you to properly train each muscle twice a week with enough recovery time in between. It also allows you to optimise exercise choice and the amount of work that you are able to perform on the target muscles.
3. Upper/Lower Split.
The upper/lower as the name suggests, it divides your training into upper body and lower body exercising. You train either 4 days or 6 days during the week. It is a very effective split for putting muscle gain on your entire body.
Here’s a sample 4 day upper/lower split:Here’s a sample 4 day upper/lower split:
Day 1: Lower Body
- Deadlifts
- Leg presses
- Walking lunges
- Leg curls
- Calf raises
Day 2: Upper Body
- Bench press
- Bent over rows
- Shoulder press
- Lat pulldowns
- Biceps curls
Day 3: Lower Body
- Squats
- Bulgarian split squats
- Hip thrusts
- Leg extensions
Day 4: Upper Body
- Incline bench press
- Pull ups
- Lateral raises
- Triceps extensions
- Face pulls
In the long run try to gradually progress and use more weight, volume and intensity on your muscles. It is recommended that a span of 48 hours should elapse before the same groups of muscles are exercised again in order to achieve maximum growth.
4. Hybrid Training.
This type of training involves incorporating elements from different workout splits into one plan. For instance, you could work chest and triceps, which are the push muscles, on one day and back and biceps, the pull muscles, on the next day. You’d also include a specific day for the leg muscles.
It is important because this enables you to access various splits. You train your muscles enough for constant muscle protein synthesis and also get enough rest as well. Hybrid set up also offers variation to forestall coaching frustrations.
A hybrid schedule could be:A hybrid schedule could be:
Day 1: Pectoral and tricep muscles
Day 2: Quadriceps, hamstrings and calves
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Back and Biceps This is the day that most people will pay attention to as it is the most visible part of the body.
Day 5: Shoulders & Abs
Hybrid training can be modified to fit into your schedule and your ability to recover from intense workouts. Just follow the right programming code as outlined in the program for the best outcomes.
5. High Intensity Training (HIT).
High Intensity Training or HIT involves short and powerful workouts that incorporate full range of body motions. Rather than having higher volume, longer duration training, HIT maintains sessions as short, high intensity using compound movements.
A sample HIT routine may look like:A sample HIT routine may look like:
- Squats: 4 sets x 6 reps with 90 seconds rest
- Bench Press: Perform 4 sets of 6 reps with 90 seconds of rest.
- Bent Over Rows: 4 sets x 6 reps with 60 secs rest
Or the use of a single exercise which can be easy as performing squat movement for instance.
The very high intensity of HIT workouts releases muscle building hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone. This leads to improved rate of protein synthesis for growth of muscle tissues.Increase in muscle mass which is achieved through brief workouts with HIT is significant and results in muscular strength. Interpreting this, one can conclude that even progressivites who use higher volume programs also hit a bar at some point thus making it wise to change to HIT training.
The only thing that should be noted when it comes to HIT is that one should start with low impact and gradually increase the intensity. This form of training puts a lot of stress on the nervous systems which needs enough rest in between the training sessions.
Gaining Lean Muscle with the Right Exercises
If your goal is to build lean muscles, it is also time to incorporate compound movements involving body weight, free weights, resistance bands, and machines. It is also important to mention that one should not focus on bending with more weight than necessary, but on performing the movement correctly. Stick to one of these top 5 workouts consistently along with proper nutrition and you’ll witness gradual positive transformations over time. Review and assess progress on a monthly basis and adjust variables accordingly to overcome stagnation.
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