Unleash YOUR Best Version: 5 Best Workouts to Maximize Muscle Growth

Us ‘gym rats’ have two things in common, we love working out and we are always trying to level up in the weights room for maximal muscle growth. Although I am not here to give you a personalized workout plan for muscle gain, we will cover 5 types of workout that you may want to adapt and employ. These workouts have been proven to maximize muscle growth at different training levels.

5 Best Workout Types For Muscle Growth

1. Push Pull Leg Workouts (Advanced)

If i could describe the push pull legs split with one word, that word would be INCREDIBLE! These workouts give you the perfect opportunity to hit every muscle group twice per week. The lifting intensity would ideally be around 70%-80% to target 6-12 reps for hypertrophy (muscle building). These workouts can take a lot of exertion and are more for the advanced lifters trying to maximise the length of resistance training induced muscle protein synthesis (weekly muscle building). Look at it as a short term investment towards a bigger and stronger body in the long term. However, you must note that the sheer volume that goes into these workouts can overreach the central nervous system. An occasional de-load week becomes vital to continue training hard and making sure that you do not overtrain the body. Personally, I train intensely for 3 weeks, followed by a de-load in week 4. I simply taper down my total sets, intensity, and training frequency. Taking a week off can sound appealing, but it actually makes you less effective with your lifting movement pattern. Just like any skill, we need to keep in check with movements, even if we are not lifting heavy. I have sketched out an example push, pull, leg workout plan for muscle gain, giving you an idea of how to target different muscle groups.

Monday (Push)	Tuesday (Pull)	Wednesday (Legs)	Thursday (Push)	Friday (Pull)	Saturday (Legs)	Sunday (Offday)
Lower chest Upper chest Pectoralis minor Mid/front deltoids Triceps	Lats (upper, middle, lower) Trapezius/rhomboids (upper, middle, lower) Rear deltoids Biceps	Quadriceps Hamstrings Calves Gluteus Lower back	Lower chest Upper chest Pectoralis minor Mid/front deltoids Triceps	Lats (upper, middle, lower) Trapezius/rhomboids (upper, middle, lower) Rear deltoids Biceps	Quadriceps Hamstrings Calves Gluteus Lower back	Light walking Massage (optional)

2. Strength Training Workouts (Novice-Advanced)

Strength training is not directly the best way to build muscle, but it can still help through the mechanism of mechanical stress (microtears of the muscle)

Furthermore, these workouts are periodised correctly, the strength can translate into the moderate intensity hypertrophy workouts to achieve more reps and greater muscle stimulus.

There are many strength training protocols you can use, some examples are the 5 x 5 or Wendler 5 3 1.

Now you are probably wondering what exactly these are, well the 5 x 5 is your 5 rep max for 5 sets of your compound exercises like Barbell bench press, barbell squats, barbell deadlifts etc. So, we are looking at 85% intensity or above.

Similarly, the Wendler 5 3 1 is a more advanced powerlifting program where you would use an intensity that you can lift 5 reps, 3 reps and 1 rep. The intensities could be close to your maximum 1RM lifts (100%).

3. Linear Hypertrophy Workouts (Novice-Intermediate)

‘Hey bro, here’s my workout routine.’ Linear hypertrophy workouts are basically ‘bro splits’ where each workout focuses on 1 major/1 secondary muscle group with moderate intensities and 3 sets per exercise. You could expect to hit each muscle once per week.

Linear hypertrophy workouts are likely to maximize muscle growth for intermediate lifters. The only time that I would personally use these types of workout is during a de-load, as the volume is lower compared to push pull leg workouts.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Chest + Triceps	Rest	Back + Biceps	Rest	Shoulders	Legs	Rest

4. Whole Body Circuits (Intermediate-Advanced)

With busy schedules and life responsibilities, working out 6 times per week can get difficult. Here is where whole body workouts come in.

Whole body workouts allow you to activate all major muscles in the body, whilst saving a whole heap of time.

In my opinion, whole-body circuits are not as effective as ‘push-pull legs’ as you most likely would not be getting the same level of stimulus.

Nevertheless, a couple of sessions per week would probably be enough to maximize muscle growth for the time you are putting in.

So for those of you who want to give whole body circuits a try, you should set up a few exercises and complete a set of each without taking a rest.

At the end of a single circuit, you could take a few minutes break before starting another round. Personally, I would go for 3-5 rounds of each circuit.

Just for illustration purposes, I have highlighted two whole-body circuits below that a lifter could use.

Monday (Lower Body Circuit)	Thursday (Upper Body Circuit)
Barbell Squats (Quads + Glutes) Machine Leg Curls (Hamstrings) Seated Calf Raises (Calf muscles) Barbell Good Morning (Lower back + hamstrings + glutes) Sprints (Whole body + Cardio)	Barbell Bench Press (Chest + Triceps) Tricep Dips (Triceps + Pectoral minor) Wide Grip Pulldown (Lats + Biceps) Dumbbell Back Row (Upper Back + Biceps) Bicep Curls on Cable Machine (Biceps) Tricep Extension on Cable Machine (Tricep)

5. Bodyweight Workout (Beginner-Novice)

You are probably thinking that bodyweight exercises are not good enough to maximize muscle growth. CORRECT! But bodyweight workouts are enough to reap all of the newbie gains.

If your fitness level is really low, you can even make modifications to your exercises. Perhaps you could try doing quarter reps for squats or shifting your weight onto the knees opposed to the toes during pushups?

Even a single weekly session could provide noticeable results. Besides muscle gains, bodyweight exercises have many other benefits that we will now get into.

Firstly, bodyweight exercises can be done from home. This makes them convenient and perfect for anyone suffering from social anxiety.

Secondly, you need little to no equipment to do them. For this reason, they cost nothing unless you invest in a pullup bar that can be attached to a door frame.

I have made a table below to give an example of what a bodyweight workout could look like for someone with little to no resistance training experience.

Bodyweight Workout

Push-ups (Chest + Shoulders + Triceps)
Plank (Core)
Bodyweight Squats (Legs)
Chin-ups (Back)
Bar hangs (Shoulder + Back)