You all must have heard the unlimited benefits of cardiovascular workouts and how they are great for your health and help you burn calories etc., but strength training and building muscles are equally important; for both men and women.
When we talk about building muscles, we are not suggesting becoming bulky and hulk-like. You can look lean yet have strong muscles if you’re performing a combination of cardio workouts, strength training, and staying in a calorie deficit.
But do you know what building muscles can do for you? Having strong muscles means lesser injuries, improved body balance, better gains from other workouts, increased bone density, reduced chances of osteoporosis, and many more.
To help you build stronger muscles, we have designed the ultimate 8-week intermediate muscle-building workout plan that will help you get stronger and enable you to break through any muscle growth plateaus by shocking the muscles now and then.
Related Article: Gain Lean Muscles: Workout, Nutrition Plan & More
Workout Description
|
Main Goal |
Build Muscle |
|
Workout Type |
Split |
|
Training Level |
Intermediate |
|
Program Duration |
8 Weeks |
|
Days Per Week |
5 |
|
Time Per Workout |
60 Minutes |
|
Equipment Required |
Barbell, Bodyweight, Cables, Dumbbells, EZ Bar, Machines |
|
Target Gender |
Male & Female |
|
Recommended Supps |
Our 8-week muscle building plan is an intermediate-level workout guide that will require you to invest 60 minutes a day for 5 days a week. Since our guide is an intermediate fitness level plan, you must be aware of the exercise positions and the gym gear to be used to avoid straining or spraining your joints.
You will need gears like barbells, body weights, cables, dumbbells, EZ bar, and some other machines that will allow you to target your full body muscles over the weeks. We will increase and decrease the reps and sets with various workouts because we want to shock your muscles.
When you incorporate your regular gym routine with our workout plans, the muscles will go through a shock phase, which will enable them to break through the muscle growth plateaus.
The Target for 8-Weeks Intermediate Muscle Building Workout
The most important thing about achieving a dream is to set small, realistic goals. Accomplishing these small goals will boost your motivation and help you track your progress.
Similarly, for our 8-week intermediate muscle building workout program, we have designed the workouts to spread over 5 days of the week. For 5 days, you will be exercising for 1 hour, and the remaining 2 days will be taken as active rest days.
Active rest days are when you will be performing bare minimum workouts; like walking, running, stretching, etc. Having active rest days allows your body to keep up the exercising momentum while giving them the chance to recover.
Every day of the workout challenge will help target specific muscles so that only selected muscles are entirely focused, and the others are given their due rest to recover.
This workout program has been carefully designed to target your muscles in a combination that will help you shape and tone your body, so your muscles are built beautifully, and you don’t end up looking disproportionate.
Workout Program
Monday: Chest, Triceps and Shoulders
Tuesday: Back and Biceps
Wednesday: Legs
Thursday: Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps
Friday: Back and Biceps
Saturday: Active Rest Day
Sunday: Active Rest Day
Even though the workouts are highly effective, we suggest using the following supplements to enhance the result and help you reach far beyond your goals.
Protein Powder
Available in multiple flavours, the Whey Protein Powder by DMoose is the best available supplement. It contains various essential amino acids that act as building blocks for your muscles.
Moreover, the whey protein gives you added energy to survive through intense workout sessions, boosts fat burning rate, and helps in uplifting your moods.
Related Article: 5 Things You Should Keep in Mind When Taking Whey Protein
Creatine Powder
Creatine powder has been famous amongst the bodybuilders and weightlifter community because of its benefits.
Consuming creatine powder boosts muscle mass and overall strength, aids the muscle recovery process, enhances your ability to perform high-intensity workouts, and increases your energy and speed, so you can efficiently survive your workout routines.
Pre-Workout Powder
No matter the general opinion on the pre-workout powder, they do bring a scoop load of advantages.
They boost up the energy levels before you start the exercise, allowing you to survive the toughest of days, boost blood circulation, and enable nutrients to flood your muscles, which increases your mind’s ability to focus on workouts better.
Moreover, using Pre-workout Powder helps you fight off mental fatigue, so you don’t give up between workouts.
Related Article: The Science Behind Pre-Workout Supplements
Finally! Gain The Most Muscle Mass And Strength Possible in Just 12 Weeks!
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Monday: Chest, Triceps, and Shoulders
Since the chest, triceps, and shoulders are all 'push' related body parts they will be put together in the workout to maximize efficiency.
A lot of chest and shoulder movements secondarily work the triceps. For example, the Dumbbell Bench Press primarily works the chest but also works the triceps due to the elbow going through flexion and extension.
Chest and shoulder exercises can have an effect
on how much weight you use when doing direct tricep work, BUT ultimately create an overload stimulus prime for
building more muscle.
You will be
performing 3 sets for your chest and tricep exercises while 4 sets will be done for the shoulders. Some sets
will involve a descending rep scheme.
As a general rule of thumb, as the reps go down the weight you are using should be going up. Take for example the Incline Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise. For the first set of 15 reps, you might use 10lbs, for the second set of 12 reps you might increase it to 12lbs, and for the last two sets of 8 reps, you may increase it to 15lbs.
Chest |
||
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
3 |
10, 10, 8 (Adding Weight) |
|
3 |
10 |
|
3 |
Max |
|
Triceps |
||
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
3 |
8-10 |
|
3 |
10 |
|
3 |
10 |
|
Shoulders |
||
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
4 |
12 |
|
4 |
15, 12, 8, 8 (adding weight) |
|
Tuesday: Back and Biceps
On Tuesdays for the next 8-weeks, you will be targeting your back and biceps muscles together.
This efficient splitting of muscles will help you save time without compromising your muscles. Since they are located close by, the workouts performed usually incorporate both the muscles simultaneously.
To train your back and bicep muscles efficiently and maximize your gym time, you will perform 3 sets of each workout, with reps between 8-10. Make sure you only take a few-second break in between to keep your muscles warm and worked up and aligned with your body’s tempo.
|
Back |
||
|
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
|
3 |
MAX |
|
|
3 |
10 |
|
|
3 |
10 |
|
|
3 |
10 |
|
|
3 |
8-10 |
|
|
Biceps |
||
|
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
|
3 |
8-10 |
|
|
3 |
10 |
|
|
3 |
10 |
|
Wednesday: Legs
Congratulations! You have made it through the first two days of our workout plan and are now headed to the third day of workout. Since our primary goal is to build a symmetric muscular body, we will now have to bring our focus to the lower body.
On Wednesday, we will be targeting all aspects of the legs. This includes the quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves.
You will be performing 3-5 sets for the various exercises with a varying range of reps that correspond with each specific exercise, but one thing is for sure that by the end of Wednesday’s session, your legs will feel like jelly.
Quads, Glutes and Hamstrings |
||
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
4 |
10,10,8,8 |
|
3 |
8 on each leg |
|
3 |
12 |
|
3 |
15 |
|
3 |
15 |
Calves |
||
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
5 |
10,8,8,8,6 (heavy) |
|
5 |
15 (light) |
Thursday: Chest, Triceps, and Shoulders
We are returning to exercising our Chest,
Triceps, and Shoulders for Thursday since they have had time to recover over the last two days and are now ready
to work again.
Since this is the
second time we are targeting them, you will be performing different exercises this time, so you don’t get bored
over the 8-week routine.
Chest |
||
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
4 |
10, 10, 8, 6 |
|
3 |
10 |
|
3 |
10 |
Triceps |
||
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
4 |
10, 10, 8, 6 |
|
3 |
10 |
|
3 |
10 |
Shoulder |
||
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
4 |
10, 10, 8, 8 |
|
3 |
12 |
Friday: Back and Biceps
Friday will be your last working day of the week. On this day, you will be again training your back and biceps with different workouts, performing 3-4 sets of each exercise and 8-10 reps per set.
Back |
||
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
4 |
10 |
|
3 |
10 |
|
3 |
10 |
|
3 |
8-10 |
Biceps |
||
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
4 |
8-10 |
|
3 |
10 |
|
3 |
10 |
Conclusion
Training your body in separate parts and targeting the complimentary muscles is the key to building a symmetric and beautifully sculpted body. Whether you’re a man or woman, training the muscles is crucial for all of us as it helps you avoid any injuries, improve your body postures, and perform your everyday tasks more efficiently.
Following a proper schedule consistently and patiently will help you achieve your goals. Still, this process will be boosted, and the results will be enhanced if you add this new routine and your cardio workouts and take active rest days instead of leaving out your muscles to dry out cold.
