Monday: Upper Body Strength
The week begins by targeting the major upper body muscle groups to build a foundation of strength. This session focuses on compound movements that recruit multiple joints and muscles simultaneously, ensuring maximum efficiency and stimulating significant muscle protein synthesis. Prioritize progressive overload by aiming to increase the weight or repetitions slightly each week.
- Barbell or Dumbbell Bench Press: 3 sets of 6-8 reps. This cornerstone movement develops chest, shoulder, and triceps strength. Ensure your shoulder blades are retracted and depressed throughout the movement to protect the joints and effectively target the pectorals.
- Bent-Over Barbell Rows: 3 sets of 8-10 reps. This exercise is critical for building a strong back, improving posture, and balancing upper body development. Keep your back straight and pull the bar towards your lower chest, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top of the movement.
- Overhead Press (Barbell or Dumbbell): 3 sets of 8-10 reps. Executing presses while standing engages the core and builds functional shoulder strength. Press the weight directly overhead, avoiding excessive arching in the lower back.
- Pull-Ups or Lat Pulldowns: 3 sets to failure or 8-12 reps. These movements target the latissimus dorsi, which are key for achieving a V-taper torso. If using pulldowns, pull the bar to your upper chest while leaning back slightly.
- Dumbbell Bicep Curls: 3 sets of 10-12 reps. Isolate the biceps with a controlled movement, avoiding momentum to ensure the target muscles are doing the work.
- Triceps Pushdowns (Cable or Band): 3 sets of 12-15 reps. Use a rope or straight bar attachment to effectively fatigue the triceps, extending your elbows fully against resistance.
Tuesday: Lower Body Strength
This day is dedicated to building power and stability in the lower body, which houses some of the body’s largest muscles. Training these groups boosts metabolism and enhances functional fitness for daily activities. Proper form is non-negotiable to prevent injury, especially when loading the spine.
- Barbell Back Squats: 4 sets of 6-8 reps. The king of lower body exercises, squats develop quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, and core stability. Focus on descending with control until your hips are at or below parallel to your knees, then drive through your heels to stand.
- Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs): 3 sets of 10-12 reps. This hip-hinge movement places a superb stretch on the hamstrings and glutes while reinforcing proper bending mechanics. Keep a slight bend in your knees and lower the weight by pushing your hips back, maintaining a neutral spine throughout.
- Leg Press: 3 sets of 10-15 reps. A excellent secondary movement to add volume to the quads and glutes without the axial load on the spine. Lower the platform until your knees form a 90-degree angle, and drive through the entire foot.
- Walking Lunges: 3 sets of 10-12 reps per leg. Lunges improve unilateral (single-leg) strength, balance, and coordination. Take a large step forward, lowering your back knee toward the floor, and push off the front foot to return to the starting position.
- Seated or Lying Leg Curls: 3 sets of 12-15 reps. Isolate the hamstrings to ensure balanced development with the quadriceps, which is crucial for knee health.
- Calf Raises (Machine or Bodyweight): 4 sets of 15-20 reps. Train the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles through a full range of motion, pausing at the top of each contraction.
Wednesday: Active Recovery and Core
Mid-week is strategically designed for active recovery. This is not a day of complete rest but rather a low-intensity session to promote blood flow, enhance recovery from the previous two days of heavy lifting, and prevent undue systemic fatigue. The focus is on mobility and core stability.
- Light Cardio: 20-30 minutes of steady-state exercise such as brisk walking on an incline, cycling, or using an elliptical machine. Maintain a heart rate in zone 2 (where you can hold a conversation comfortably).
- Full Body Dynamic Stretching: 10 minutes of movements like leg swings, arm circles, torso twists, and cat-cow stretches to improve mobility and range of motion.
- Plank: 3 sets, hold for 45-60 seconds. This isometric exercise builds incredible core endurance and stability, engaging the entire anterior chain.
- Dead Bug: 3 sets of 12-15 reps per side. Lie on your back and slowly alternate lowering opposite arm and leg towards the floor, maintaining a braced core and keeping your lower back pressed into the ground.
- Bird-Dog: 3 sets of 10-12 reps per side. From a tabletop position on your hands and knees, extend one arm and the opposite leg simultaneously, keeping your hips square to the floor to challenge stability.
- Foam Rolling: 5-10 minutes focusing on major muscle groups like quads, glutes, back, and lats to alleviate muscle tightness and trigger points.
Thursday: Upper Body Hypertrophy
The second upper body session shifts the focus from pure strength to muscle growth (hypertrophy) by incorporating higher repetitions, more variety in exercises, and slightly shorter rest periods. This provides a different stimulus to the muscles, promoting growth and muscular endurance.
- Incline Dumbbell Press: 3 sets of 10-12 reps. This variation emphasizes the upper portion of the pectoral muscles, contributing to a fuller chest.
- Seated Cable Rows (V-Grip): 3 sets of 10-12 reps. Target the mid-back with a great mind-muscle connection. Pull the handle to your sternum, squeezing your shoulder blades together without using excessive body momentum.
- Dumbbell Lateral Raises: 3 sets of 12-15 reps. The premier exercise for building wider, more capped shoulders. Use a controlled tempo, raising the dumbbells to shoulder height with a slight bend in the elbows.
- Lat Pulldowns (Close Grip): 3 sets of 10-12 reps. A closer grip shifts some emphasis to the lower lats and can be easier on the shoulders for some individuals.
- Hammer Curls: 3 sets of 12-15 reps. This neutral-grip curl targets the brachialis muscle, which can add width and peak to the arms.
- Overhead Triceps Extension (Dumbbell or Cable): 3 sets of 12-15 reps. A highly effective isolation movement for the long head of the triceps, which contributes significantly to arm size.
Friday: Lower Body Hypertrophy and Metabolite Training
The training week concludes with a high-volume lower body session designed to maximize muscle pump and metabolic stress, key drivers of hypertrophy. Incorporating supersets or shorter rest periods can increase time efficiency and intensity, making this a challenging but productive finale.
- Goblet Squats: 4 sets of 10-15 reps. Holding a dumbbell or kettlebell at the chest promotes an upright torso and excellent depth, providing a fantastic pump for the quads and glutes.
- Bulgarian Split Squats: 3 sets of 10-12 reps per leg. This unilateral exercise is unparalleled for building leg strength and muscle while identifying and correcting imbalances. The rear-foot elevated position creates a significant stretch in the hip flexor and glute of the working leg.
- Superset:
- Leg Extensions: 3 sets of 15-20 reps. Isolate the quadriceps completely, focusing on a hard squeeze at the top of the movement.
- Lying Leg Curls: 3 sets of 15-20 reps. Immediately follow extensions with curls to thoroughly fatigue the entire thigh.
- Superset:
- Walking Lunges (Bodyweight or Light Dumbbells): 3 sets of 15-20 steps per leg.
- Bodyweight Glute Bridges: 3 sets of 20-25 reps. Focus on a powerful squeeze of the glutes at the top of each rep.
- Farmer’s Walks: 3 sets of 40-50 meters. Grab heavy dumbbells or kettlebells and walk with a proud chest and tight core. This exercise builds monstrous grip strength, core stability, and provides a potent metabolic finisher.