I'd like to put on about 10 pounds of (muscle)mass before the end of the year and I've worked out a bodybuilding routine that I believe will get the job done.
Days: 2. The whole body once a week, with my schedule I will not find time to work out more than that, besides there's so much else I rather be doing, the benefit of working out more does not outweight the benefit of working out less.
Sets: no more than 3, there is no evidence of any benefit doing more than 3 sets, I'm quite confident that 3 sets will be more than plenty to fire off all musclefibers and put my body into full beast mode.
Reps: about 8-10, maybe slightly higher for shoulders to avoid possible injury (a proven rep range that works well for Ronnie Coleman and plenty of others) no need to go neither higher or lower if you're looking for adding mass.
Intensity: is overrated. Instead I will focus on mind/muscle connection and working the actual muscle, no need for going to failure, drop sets, giant sets, forced reps etc all that is just made up stories to sell articles and books and have no scientific base. At least not for putting on MASS, remember, mass not strength, there's a difference.
Sundays:
Lat pulldowns - a good proven exercise that will add width and dimension to your back. Sure I could do chins or pull ups but they're quite hard to do and uncomfortable, besides there's no evidence that they would be all that superior.
Rows pulley - every professional bodybuilder does them.
Incline bench in the smith machine - there's really no evidence of any benefit of the incline to a flat bench but it feels nice to lay down in the incline position. Smith makes me work out on my own.
Machine Lateral Raises - lateral raises is probably the singled most important exercises for overall shoulder development, front delts get targeted on the incline so no need for that.
Machine flyes - debatable if flyes does anything, but it kinda feels nice as a finisher.
Smith machine shrugs - it's fun to do.
Mondays
Leg press - a superior leg exercise to pretty much anything else.
Lying legcurls - for complete hamstring development.
Seated calves - all the way down, all the way up, no jerking and most important - do it barefoot.
Standing calves - see above.
Biceps curl barbell - science proves that 1 exercise for biceps is enough, however not all exercises hits all parts of the biceps. This one does. Do not use a too wide or too narrow grip or the whole bicep will not be targeted.
Triceps pushdown - most excersises seems to target all three heads of the triceps, however some like the overhead dumbbell puts a lot of stress on the elbows and should be avoided for that reason.
That's pretty much it. I reckon a typical workout will take about 45 minutes so 90 minutes all together per week. This should be do-able and as we know, the best workout is the once that actually gets done.
