The End Of The Ultimate Weight Training Workout Routine

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If you’re reading this, then it appears you’ve made it all the way to the end of my guide to creating The Ultimate Weight Training Workout Routine. Nice!

At this point, I have just 5 things left to say.

1. Congrats!

First of all… congratulations are in order.

You’ve now learned more about weight training, program design, and how to get the results you want than the majority of the population will ever learn in their lifetime. So… congrats on that!

2. Put It To Use!

I hope you liked the guide and actually use what you’ve learned.

Because honestly, reading and learning and understanding are great and all, but the only way it’s truly going to work is if you actually put it into action. So… do that.

3. But Wait, There’s MORE!

Believe it or not, I still have a ton of information to share with you.

While this guide was pretty damn comprehensive, there’s actually plenty of stuff that I purposely left out, skipped over, or didn’t think fit right within this guide.

Stuff about weight training, cardio, diet and nutrition, supplements, building muscle, losing fat, increasing strength and performance, improving health, and much more.

And I’ll be sharing all of it right here on a regular basis. To make sure you never miss any of it, you can subscribe for free, and also follow me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

4. More Workouts To Choose From!

Even though I just covered how to create your own workout routine, I’ve realized that many people want something more.

More what? More proven workouts to choose from that I designed myself and have been using with my coaching clients for years with amazing results.

They are now all included as part of my Superior Muscle Growth program.

Feel free to check it out.

5. Give Me Your Feedback!

And last but not least, I want to hear your feedback. In fact, I want 3 different kinds of feedback.

  1. First, I want to know what you thought of the guide.
    I want to know what you liked best, what section was most useful, what you wish I covered in more detail or explained better, what you felt was missing (if anything), and basically just your thoughts and opinions on the guide itself.
  2. Second, I want to answer your questions.
    If you had any questions about any aspect of weight training, creating your routine, reaching your specific goal (building muscle, increasing strength, losing fat, etc.), the sample workouts or anything else while reading any part of this guide, email me here and ask. I will answer. Also be sure to check out the nearly 3000 comments below this post. Most questions have already been asked/answered at this point.
  3. Third, I want to hear how well it’s working for you.
    Once you start using the information contained in this guide, guess what’s going to happen? You’re going to start getting the results you want. Sounds good, huh? Trust me… it is. And when that starts happening for you, I want to hear all about it. So, email me and let me know.

The End

Well, that’s about it.

I hope you liked the guide (and if you did, be sure to tell your friends about it) and I hope you actually use what you’ve learned from it.

I also hope you subscribe for free, because I plan on writing similarly awesome and useful guides in the future.

And again, if you have any questions, comments, feedback, or just want to tell me how well it’s working for you, email me here.

Enjoy your results.

(This article is part of a completely free guide to creating the best workout routine possible for your exact goal. It starts here: The Ultimate Weight Training Workout Routine)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
About Jay
Jay is the science-based writer and researcher behind everything you've seen here. He has 15+ years of experience helping thousands of men and women lose fat, gain muscle, and build their "goal body." His work has been featured by the likes of Time, The Huffington Post, CNET, Business Week and more, referenced in studies, used in textbooks, quoted in publications, and adapted by coaches, trainers, and diet professionals at every level.

2,735 thoughts on “The End Of The Ultimate Weight Training Workout Routine”

2,735 Comments

  1. Jay
    I understand and follow the calorie partitioning while putting muscle.

    But during cutting, other than going into a calorie deficit of 20%, and maintaining the protein/fat/carb amounts as suggested by you – is there a calorie partitioning also?
    I mean, I will still be doing weights three times a week – so should the calorie deficit on the weight days be less than on the rest days (say 10% deficit on weight days and 30% on rest days?)

    Thanks

    • You meal calorie cycling, not partitioning? In that case, yes, I’m a big fan of calorie cycling in a deficit as well. But explaining that will take a full chapter in my next book. Stay tuned. 🙂

      • silly question, i’m eating 50p/30c/20f..w the calorie deficit my daily amount is 2400, i’m 6’3″ 208 w 10-11% bf.so here’s my question, when do i change my diet plan? my goal is to be at 9%, so im sure ill eventually hit 9%, than what? change the deficit ? add 500 and even it out? i don’t wanna keep losing weight and i certainly don’t wanna lose muscle, so what should i do? thanks

        • Once you’ve lost as much fat as you want to lose, you’d increase your calorie intake in small increments until you hit your new maintenance level and weight loss stops.

  2. How do you do Jay?

    Thank you for your website. I simply have not found a superior package despite many hours of exploring. However, I do have a question that I hope you can assist me with. I am a 55 year old male who has tinkered with weights on and off for 35 years. Do I need to dilute the programme to factor in my age or does it simply depend on the recovery capacity of the individual?

    Thank you
    Mike

    • The recovery capacity of the person is ultimately the key factor here, as there are guys who are 55 and haven’t lifted in years who are still in vastly different stages of health and fitness, along with vastly different lifestyles (sleep quality, stress levels, diet, etc.) all of which plays a role in recovery and performance.

  3. Hi, I just read all of your articles on the best workout plan and diet plan. I learned a lot of information that will help me greatly. I just got one question though: I always get told that stretches and warm-ups are also essential to avoiding injuries along with all the push/pull, proper form, etc., so should I start all my workouts with warm-ups, stretches, and then compound exercises and whatever after that (Isolation, etc.).

    Thanks a lot for writing this article. I learned more than I would’ve ever even if I spent my entire life researching. This is by far the best workout article I have read.

      • HI, im currently doing your intermediate upper/lower split workout from the “aworkoutroutine” post. I was hoping you could help me out with the splitsquats.. Do i have to do them with either the front foot elevated or is it rather the rear one and also, can you tell me what muscles its supposed to be mainly targeting (i’m guessing hams not quads). One last thing, I was wondering if I could possibly add leg ext. in the workout since it feels great when i do them, if of course it would be somewhat beneficial for my level. Thanks for your help.

        • Split squats are to be done with both legs on the floor, nothing is elevated (that’s a bulgarian split squat). It’s primarily a quad exercise, but plenty of glutes and hams are involved as well.

          Leg extensions would be best in place of something like split squats, not in addition to it.

  4. Hey J! I’m re-reading your articles and stumbled across this quote in ‘Bulk and Cut’: “please have a close friend or family member kick you square in the nuts.” This made me LOL irl. Just wondering if you watched South Park? xD

  5. Is it possible to lose fat and retain muscle while only being in a caloric deficit? (eating enough protein to maintain current muscle & 0 strength training whatsoever)

  6. Hi jay
    Beginner following the “ABA BAB” routine.

    Quick question:

    Is it ok if I change the order from (this order works better for me)

    Squats – bench press – rows – triceps pull down – calf
    To
    bench press – Squats – rows – calf – triceps pull down

    And
    Deadlift – pullups – shoulder press – barbell curls – abs
    To
    Shoulder press – deadlift – pull ups – abs – barbell curls

  7. Hi, I am a silly beginner and as such I stupidly started working out with 4 days a week and 10 different exercises. But reading your beginner workout suggestion seems to have finally put some modicum of sense into my head.

    However, I have a few questions:
    1) My schedule pretty much only allows me to train for two conscutive days with 2-3 days of rest in between. Could I still create a servicable upper/lower split by simply doing all the upper body exercises from A and B followed by the lower body ones the next day?

    2) My physiotherapist recommended doing squats to strengthen a knee that won’t allow me to run. I found that working out with more than bodyweight brings the pain back, but I’d still like to have some kind of quad exercise that I can increase as time goes on. Would adding a leg curl in addition to bodyweight squats be a terrible idea? (I find that this doesn’t seem to hurt my knee, while barbell squats or leg presses do)

    3) Would adding a rotator cuff / posterior delt exercise to the upper body be advanced stuff I can worry about later?

    Thanks for a good read with lots of common-sense information! 🙂

    • 1. You might be better off just doing the full body A workout, 2 days off, full body B workout, 2 days off, full body A workout, etc.
      2. Leg curl is not a quad exercise… unless you meant leg extension?
      3. That can be added now if needed/preferred.

      • Thanks for your answers!

        I seem to have been unclear as to 1) and 2)

        1) The days I can go to the gym are wednesday/thrusday one week, followed by monday/tuesday and friday-saturday on the next, then the schedule repeats. Thus I could at most work out on average twice a week if I don’t train on consecutive days… what would you recommend in this case? I’d personally like to go to the gym more often than just twice a week on average, if nothing else to burn a few calories doing something I enjoy.

        I could do upper/lower only when I need to work out two days in a row, and the A/B split otherwise, but maybe this is even worse since it means less consistency?

        2) I meant leg extension, sorry 🙂 But I’ve since reconsidered… I figure that if the physiotherapist wants me to do squats to strengthen minor muscles and not just the quads, then adding an isolation exercise for the quads will just make this discrepancy worse. So I thought I’d just stick to dumbbell/bodyweight quads, start off light and add a little weight at the pace my knee allows.

  8. Since the ideal weight gain for males is 0.5 lbs per week with a caloric surplus of 250 each day… what would happen if I had a caloric surplus of 500 (all of it protein)? Would I be gaining 1lb of muscle or would the other 0.5 only be fat?

    • It would be fat. The human body can only gain so much muscle at a given rate. So exceeding that rate guarantees that the excess weight gained will always be body fat and not muscle.

  9. Jay,
    Thank you for all your answers.
    I am a 40 year old beginner, following ABABAB.

    I will admit that maybe one or two days every week, I exceed my drinking quota – I go up to 4-5 light beers/night. I know that ain’t ideal, but if it does happen, I have read that the best nights to get “sloshed” are when the next day you don’t have any weight training scheduled.

    Is that true? If not, is there any other scheduling preference that I can follow to minimize the bad effects of getting sloshed?’
    Thanks !!

  10. I am following the beginner workout routine and I have learned the proper form for all exercises, except for two exercises that I fail at doing:

    1) Flat Barbell Bench Press: I cannot balance the bar. It keeps wobbling even if I try different widths for the grip.
    2) Squats: I cannot even do a single squat without almost falling backward and without any weight. I hear it is a problem for tall guys; I am tall with relatively long legs.

    I perform these two exercises using a smith machine. It has helped a lot so far.
    But, is a smith machine a good alternative? or do you recommend other alternatives?

    • Have you literally just started lifting? If so, the shaky bar during bench press is pretty normal and improves pretty quick with each workout (get a spotter to play it safe, of course). Being unable to squat the bar without falling over is a good sign you should probably start out with bodyweight squats to learn the movement.

      • Then, it seems that you do not recommend the smith machine in both cases.

        For the barbell bench press, I started 3 weeks ago. I tried to lift using the free barbell at the beginning, and when I found the bar shaking all the time, I started using the smith machine since then. I guess I will try the free barbell again till I am better at it.

        For the squats, last time, I tried to extend my arm forwards with no weights, and I am balancing better. I can feel my upper legs working, but not my glutes. Should I keep this form , and maybe carry dumbells later while doing it? Is there another form of squats you recommend?

        Thanks

  11. Hypothetically speaking, will I build muscle if I’m following your intermediate muscle building routine, while in a caloric surplus, but not eating any protein?

  12. Jay,
    I am a 40 yr old beginner, following your beginner routine for a year now.

    Question re bench press please:
    I know that using dumbbells is preferred to a machine (I don’t use a smith machine though). But here is my situation:
    I don’t have a spotter, and also using dumbbells I am unable to execute progressive overload since I am afraid of falling over or dropping the dumbbells.
    While using the machine on the other hand, I can get to progressive overload, and also go for that additional last rep (something which I cannot do with dumbbells for fear of injury, etc)

    So given my situation, and the fact that I plan to transition to intermediate routine in a couple months – will using machines give me better gains? [Primarily from a looks perspective – I don’t care too much about strength, balancing muscle strength, etc)

    Much thanks

    • Your muscles don’t know nor care what equipment you’re using. They just know tension. So if you can safely place tension on a given muscle group and then gradually increase that tension overtime, muscle will be built.

  13. Hello,
    I am following your beginner workout routine and am loving it so far! I have a question regarding squats.

    Would it be acceptable for me to do Bulgarian split squats instead of a regular back squat as a beginner? I only ask because I have a visible muscular imbalance in my right quad due to an ACL repair years ago and feel like my other leg takes over a bit when doing back squats. My thinking is that the unilateral nature of the slit squat would potentially help in correcting that but not sure.

    Or would the back squat be sufficient for correcting this imbalance because I’m a beginner?

    Thanks in advance for any help!

    • I can’t give you any specific advice when it comes to injury stuff or correcting issues caused by injuries, but if you wanted to replace squats with a single leg exercise, I’d go with regular split squats (not Bulgarian) or single-leg leg press.

  14. Regarding your article on horizontal & vertical push/pull movement patterns: What would upright-row & rear delta raises come under? Also would you say sit ups/crunches need to be balanced out with hyperextensions?

    • These are exercises that really don’t fit perfectly in any category, but generally speaking rear delt stuff would fit best in the ‘horizontal pull’ group, and upright rows in the ‘vertical push’ group.

      As for the other question, it’s not a bad idea, though I wouldn’t call it a requirement.

  15. Jay,
    40 yr old male.
    I genetically have a flat butt. Is there any way I can improve the appearance (more round) of the butt. I ask since I have read that butt-shape genetics cannot be overcome by exercise.

    So even if I exercise my butt will it remain totally flat in appearance (although it might get some more firmness)?

    thx

  16. How deep do you recommend going when barbell back squatting? A lot of people say squatting 90 degrees is partial squatting. But it is impossible for me to squat parallel because of flexibility.

  17. Hi Jay,

    I have followed your beginner workout routine and thoroughly enjoyed it! I got some great results, so thank you very much for all the informative content here and the amount of help you have managed to give me.

    For about 6 months I tried a few other programs however I settled on your 4 day “The Muscle Building Routine” a month ago and I am really enjoying it so far. I am sorry if this has been asked before, but I feel like my arms are lagging behind and I want to really focus on improving the strength and size of them compared to the rest of my body. Would you recommend just sticking to your “The Muscle Building Routine” or are there any kind of alterations you would make specifically for better arms?

  18. Hi Jay!
    Must say I love the site. Been recommending you to many many friiends..
    I’ve been doing your beginner workout for about 2 months (except I replaced pullups with bent over barbell rows until I get a pull-up bar in my shiny new home gym) and starting to see some nice results (I cut from 84 to 75 kg (180cm male) just prior to finding your site, but still aiming to lose a few kgs before I focus primarily on muscle gain)

    I was just wondering: If I’m about to go on a 10-14 day hiking/camping trip, how should I proceed with my workouts? i.e. Should I try to do some free body training like pushups etc. on the same days as my regular workouts would be, or just consider it a bust and spend the 2 weeks focusing on weight loss?

    Will there be any effect in the pushups/pullups/squats etc. if I haven’t really done them without weights before and would therefore be unable to estimate if I’ve put in any form of progressive overload whatsoever? And is not, should I stick to 3 x 10-12 sets or somesuch, or just do as many as possible.

    Thanks and sorry for the long question. Consider any answer optional 🙂

    • If there is any form of training (even lighter body weight stuff) that you can do during a 2 weeks trip without ruining your life during that trip, then I’d suggest doing it. It won’t be ideal, but it will be better than nothing.

  19. Hi Jay!

    What a fantastic site! I’m still working through “The Ultimate Weight Training Workkout Routine,” but am really pleased and impressed with what I’ve seen so far! Great info, well-explained, and SO logical.

    I’m a 44-year-old woman coming off a long stretch of inactivity (had both hips replaced within the last year), and have been struggling with how to get back into weight training. Your beginner’s routine is perfect. . I feel like I can actually DO this routine, and am making progress–and at the same time it’s great to not feel like the whole endeavor is doomed because I’m not ready to do powercleans (or pull-ups, or whatever) right now, and need to substitute another exercise that’s more feasible for me.

    Your reminders to “not screw with it” are even better. Think I’m gonna get that put on a t-shirt… 😉

    So, thank you! Looking forward to keeping track of your site, and to getting your program at some point in the very near future.

  20. in your Beginner’s workout routine version 2, i noticed that you biceps and triceps are each only 1 set for 10-12 reps. I fell like i’m not working these muscles enough, shouldnt they be treated like any other muscle group and be 3 sets for 8-10 reps? especially if the goal is hypertrophy?

    • For a beginner, usually not. Beginners are exceptions to most of the typical “ideal” things to do, as they tend to benefit most from a very specific type of training.

  21. Hi! I love this whole article and it help gain so much enthusiasm about going back to the gym! Keep up the good work! I just have one question: I want to incorporate deadlift in my routine, should I use it in upper or lower body split? Thanks again!

  22. Hi Jay,

    Thank you for this website! I read through all the articles in ” The ultimate weigth trainning workout routine” and I would like to start training with your Intermediate 4 day upper/lower body split with the emphasis on the lower body and target glutes. Please can you kindly advise, if additional exercises like weighted hip trust, glute kickbacks, kettle ball hip trust can be added to this routine? And if so, should they be added last to the list? Alternatively what other exercises would you recomend to target glutes.

    Also, can you direct me to one of your articles regarding HIIT training?

    Many thanks,
    Aga

  23. Jay,
    beginner, in muscle building phase —
    [I know it’s not ideal but]…. if I get a portion of carbs for the day through 1-2 beers – is that foolish to even assume it is ok?

      • Thanks Jay

        Then Is the best if I do 20-30 minutes of additional light cardio every day to offset the couple light beers everyday? Meaning, my diet and calorific partitioning etc remains per your recommendations – just some extra cardio to offset the beer?

  25. Hello Jay,

    I would like to ask about some exercises in the beginner’s routine:

    1) Squats: As barbell squats are still difficult for me, do you suggest that I go with Hack squat machine or goblet squats as a pre for doing barbell squats?
    – Can I add an exercise for the glutes separately?, because I don’t feel them worked enough in the squats for me.

    2) Deadlifts: Is it okay to let the barbell reach the ground after each rep?

    3) Pull ups: I cannot perform pull ups without weight assist.
    Do you suggest that I perform it without assist for 1-2 reps until I can do a full set? or keep progressing with assisted pull ups?
    – Also, which grip width is better? I am currently using narrow grip with the palms facing forwards.

    4) You said before that you have a plan for a topic about the thin neck (the neck itself), but can you give a hint about it? A suggestion for a certain exercise maybe?

    Thanks

    • 1. Any other type of squat (or leg press) would be a fine replacement for barbell squats. Regarding adding a glute specific exercise, I wouldn’t recommend doing that in the beginner program. That’s an intermediate adjustment in my opinion. Some type of squat + deadlifts will typically be plenty for glutes for now.

      2. Yes.

      3. If using an overhand grip, hands should be slightly wider than shoulder width. If using an underhand grip, hands should be about shoulder width. For progression, if you can currently only do about 1 rep, I’d progress with an assisted pull-up for a bit until you can get more reps on your own. And then eventually do a combination of body weight and assisted reps.

      4. Nothing yet… still needs a full article.

  27. Hello,

    Thanks for the great website! Very informative.

    Regarding weight training, how much should I lift to get results? I fear that the weights might be too light to make a difference or too heavy to cause injury.

    Thank you

  28. I’m curious how 1 rep of an exercise that uses a muscle (let’s say your triceps), as a secondary muscle, compares to a rep of another exercise using the same muscle as the primary muscle. Are the reps equivalent for that muscle or would you need more reps if you were doing an exercise in which the muscle was only a secondary to a larger muscle group?

    • I don’t think you’ll ever find a perfectly accurate answer to that one. Too many variables (e.g. some people use more or less triceps while bench pressing than others).

  29. Hello,

    Thanks very much for this guide. It’s amazing and very clear! I’ve been very interested in the optimal volume range article. However, I see that you haven’t indicated a weekly volume for glutes. Is that because they’re getting hit indirectly while working out the other muscle groups?

    Thanks!

  30. I don’t have the motivation or patience to work out. Is lifting absolutely essential to prevent muscle loss in a deficit or can a high protein intake be good enough?

    Thanks

  31. Say I only did bicep curls for biceps and no other compound lift that involves biceps at all. Would the optimal volume range for biceps still be 30-60 since there is no overlap? Or is it 60-120?

  32. Hey Jay, I love the four day upper/lower split. I’ve been training pretty serious for the last two years using various routines, 5 day splits, 4 day splits, high volume, low volume etc. Went from 6’2 143 lbs to about 173 lbs. Still considered a girly man if you’ve ever visited bodybuilding.com forums however, I’m very pleased with my gains and don’t intend on stopping. Your motto seems to be ” do what feels good for you but be smart about it”. Well, I like this routine. I’m coming back to it for a second time. Experienced some overtraining symptoms with the 5 day routines and minimal progression. My diet’s too inconsistent to see constant gains from it. I get it, you have to eat. I need a life outside of food sometimes or I hate everybody. ANYWAYS. Would it be counter productive to come back to this workout again? There’s a lot of recommendations for routine switching every 4-6 weeks or at least altering weight/rep schemes. Current Lifts, Deadlift 235lbs X8, Bench 170lbs X8, Squat 200lbs X 8…….Not impressive but boy, you should’ve seen me two years ago. Thanks Jay

    • It’s definitely okay to come back to it. Hell, it’s okay to use the overall template of this routine for the next decade and just ocassionally change minor things (exercises, rep ranges, etc.).

      And I don’t recommend switching routines until there’s an actual reason to do so.

      • Awesome, thanks Jay. Wonderful site too. I can’t stand most other sites out there…..douchebag oversaturation.

  33. What do you think about single leg leg presses, and how would you implement them in the muscle building routine?

  34. Hey there, love the guide! I’ve been doing the beginner’s 3 day full body split for about 3 months now and really enjoying it. I want to start lifting 4 days a week and wondering if doing this split would work…

    M- Full Body (A)
    T- Full Body (B)
    W- Off
    R- Full Body (A)
    F- Full Body (B)
    Sat and Sun – Off

    I’ve seen the 4-day upper/lower splits, but I like the efficiency of the full body workouts. Is 4 days too much for these types of workouts?

    Thanks in advance! Keep up the great work.

  35. All I can say is…. WOW. I have spent most of my day reading your program guide here from start to finish and…. WOW. This guide is so well thought out, organized, and easy to understand. I am not quite a beginner and not quite up to intermediate but I am taking your advice… I am starting the beginner program Monday in fact!

    I’d also like to say… THANK YOU. I have been doing a lot of searching and reading over the last couple weeks trying to find information presented in such a way that it’s explained without making me feel like an idiot. Your guide here is so well presented and explained that I have learned so very much. I especially appreciate that you have fully explained the WHY behind it all. Undoubtedly, this guide had taken you a huge amount of time and effort; thank you for doing this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

    Best Regards,
    Jenn

  36. How do I get bigger calves? No matter what I do, they WILL NOT GROW. I do squats, deadlifts, leg press, and calf raises. Everything else grows but my calves look like chicken calves!!! I am following your intermediate routine too!

    • Some form of calf specialization program may be ideal. Either that, or find a time machine and either A) find better parents with better calf genetics, or B) be obsess for most of your life.

  38. Hi Jay,
    I’ve been doing your beginner’s routine for about 10 weeks (got my brother and gf in on it too a few weeks back) and seeing some nice progress.

    I’m the classic hard-gainer (weighed 62kgs from 16 tp 26 yo. not ever budging more than 0.2 kgs.) But once I stopped doing sports 3-4 hours a day My massive caloric intake and work-stress eventually brought me from 62 to 85 in the span of a year. When I started your routine, I was still losing fat accumulated during what I like to call my sympathetic pregnancy (though I did gain weight faster than my gf and no luck losing 7kgs in labour) 😀 I started weightlifting/ your routine at about 80kgs, now I’m at 72. (181cm tall).

    What I’m wondering is whether it might not be more beneficial for me to turn around and get into a surplus so I don’t just end up being skinny-fat. While I intentionally started out with very light weights to get the form right, I’ve been adding 2-5kgs to all of my lifts pretty much every session, (i.e. went from 26kg to 91kg deadlift, 19-75kg squat, 19-43kg bench, 19-32kg military press etc.) At this point however, I’m not sure I can keep up this tempo while at a deficit.

    Sorry for such a long comment, but what would you recommend. Get on a surplus and keep increasing my strength or keep losing weight. (it has been pretty easy for me to lose 1kg per week with machine-like regularity, so I’m feeling I should shift focus on what’s always been tougher for me due to my build, I can lose some kgs later)

    just for clarification, I’m 28 and have 17cm wrists 😀 That and the 62 kg at 181cm for a decade despite heavy sports involvement (but no serious weightlifting) should be some indication I’m not lying about the ectomorph claim 🙂

    Thanks, (PS your ectomorph post was great BTW)
    F.

  39. 12 months I used to follow your beginner routine, which was going great, until I hurt my lower back 3 months in, back causing me to completely skip all leg workouts. I was out of the gym for 3 months, then came back and only did your upper body in your intermediate routine.

    Fast forward a year, should I go back to the beginner routine? My upper body is more developed than my legs, and I want my legs to catch up.

  40. Hi jay
    1) Is there a good machine-based alternate for the incline dumbbell flyes?
    2) For the abs workout, should there also be a “progressive overload”?

    thanks !!!

  41. Jay,

    This is re alcohol consumption (which you had mentioned a glass of wine/day is ok).

    I should be consuming 2000 calories (50 g fat, 170 g protein, 300 g carb) per day.
    And I drink a glass of wine.

    Should I then take 200 calories out of 2000, and then divide 1800 calories that are left into fat/protein/carb intake?

    thx much

  42. I read ALL of your workout routine and diet plan sites and learned a lot.
    For instance I am one of these guys that trained 4 different programmes in a week (2 muscles groups per time) and sometimes I loose a training due to work so it is 7 days between same muscle group AT BEST 🙁

    Anyway I realise that is why I had so little progress over the years now. So I will try to change to upper/lower aiming for 4 days a week and accepting 3 times a week if work requires so. Meaning much shorter time between trainings.
    I understood all except one thing:

    I have 4 trainings per week:
    A: Upper Body
    B: Lower Body
    C: Upper Body
    B: Lower body

    i have the requirment of i.e. max 120 reps for chest per week and I have to aim for progression. Now the question does Training A have to be identical with training C? Or can it be like this:

    A: Chest: Flat Barbell 3×8, Cable Flyers 3×8 and Incline Dumbell Flyers 3×8 (72)
    C: Chest: Declined Barbell 3×8, Flat Dumbbells 3×8 (48)

    Etc. with all other exercises? This way I will still only do each chest exercise ONCE a week, but I will train chest twice a week. If not it is very little amount of exercises I can have in my programme…

    In addition if the goal is looks, do you still recomend mixing the rep/set for diffrent exercises i.e. have 4×6 for Flat Barbell, 3×8 for Cable Flyers and 2x 12 for Dumbell flyers in same exercise? I would probably like just doing 8 for all as it is easy, but maybe it shouldn’t be and should be varied…

    That was my question I hope you can answer it as I want to make a program that will finally work so I stop wasting my time energy and money for no results (like I have been)…

    • Some people prefer having just one upper or lower workout that they repeat twice per week, while others (I’d say the majority… myself included) prefer having 2 different upper and lower workouts.

  43. Quality read, some really good advice there. Just a quick question about warm ups? I might well have missed something in the blog.
    What do you suggest for warm ups before starting your routine? Would you go with a lighter lift for the same lift or just a general warm up like 5 mins cardio to get things moving?
    Thanks for the read.

  44. If I take creatine for 1 year, then stop for 6 months, then start taking creatine again by just doing 3-5g per day, will I need to wait the 20-30 days to feel the effects again?

  46. Will I get eventually get injured if I do pullups without any opposing movement pattern? For some reason I do not enjoy doing shoulder press or any vertical push!

  47. Hi ..I read this and the other guide about the best diet plan, in the other guide you said that you should eat protein and do exercises to make your body know that you want lose fat and build muscle…. my question is …is the sample workout routine for beginners that you put in this guide does this ? Is it enough to make your body know where to put calories and protein in ? And make it use fat instead of muscle when it needs energy ? Thanks , your guides are literally the best that I have read ever … Again thanks a lot .

  48. Thank you sooo much ! This is a really useful site. It’s really going to help me ensure I have a good program layed out for myself and that I have good ideas of how to modify it from time to time.

    I do have a question for you…

    I’m a woman pushing 60 and am primarily interested in maintaining myself as I head into old age – continuing to be healthy and as vigorous as I’m able to be and keep my inevitable decline as gentle as possible. I’ve been training for about 12 years, with many years working with an excellent trainer. So I do have good form (but I”m sure it was better when I had her eyes on me!), and am familiar with all the exercises you include in your “best workout routine”.

    I have for years been on a 2x/week schedule doing 3 sets of 15 reps for each exercise – welcoming failure when i occurs but generally just trying to increase my weights gradually. I’m not trying to bulk up, or be a “lifter”. At my age I am still able to get stronger and increase my weights, but soon enough I know I’ll have to increase muscle just to maintain at the same weight, if you follow me. Endurance, balance, and flexibility are also as important as muscle strength.

    So…. which of your “fitness goal” categories would you put me in?

    Oh – and a 2nd question – in your “best workout routine” recommendations – in the Upper Body A, what you recommend as the best alternative to the barbell press? My husband is busy on his own workout, so I don’t have a spotter and therefore generally do a dumbbell press instead. But I see that you have that in Upper Body B.

    We have a well equipped gym with both hammer strength machines, and also free-motion cable machines.

    Thanks !

    • 1. Safe to say you’re probably in a combination of categories.

      2. Dumbbell press would be perfectly fine. You’ll just be doing it heavier/for lower reps in upper A, and slightly lighter/higher reps in upper B. Another option would be to make either of these dumbbell presses a hammer strength chest press instead. Totally up to you and your own preferences.

  49. I’ve been looking around for something exactly like this! I loved it!. I’ve tried to create my workout plan a few times before and I’ve just been confused about what exercises I should do, which day, how many reps, etc. and it’s been a nightmare. So coming across this website has been heaven for me. Not only have I read them but I’ve printed out all our the steps and info so I can review later. Another thing the website was easy to navigate a few other websites that try to break down information have a whole bunch of ads and the pages freeze. Thank you again!

  50. Hi, beginner here which is going to start doing your ABA BAB training.
    First off i would like to thank you for taking the time to make and share all of this awesome infomation. 😀

    I wondering if its possibly to do some running and Martial art exercises on the side while doing the ABA BAB training? since i need to train my endurance and Martial art techniques

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