Muscle-building training for busy people (Benjamin's workout plan)

The following article is written from Benjamin's perspective:

Today's article will serve as an example of how you can design your workout if, say, you can only train rarely, but you of course still want to build muscle.

Since this is exactly my goal at the moment and I haven't even presented my own training plan yet, I think this is a very good occasion to explain my training plan to you in detail.

Background

But first some context for why I created my current training plan: On the one hand, I want to have as much time as possible for the development of further exciting features for the Alpha Progression App with Marwin. On the other hand, I also want to build up as much muscle mass as possible.

Unfortunately, I can't do both. That's why I have to prioritize what's more important to me. Every hour I spend working out might give me 0.01% more muscle mass (because I'm pretty advanced). But every additional hour I spend working on the app adds value for thousands of people.

When I think about it, the decision is pretty obvious to me. I'm putting my own training on the back burner for now. That's why I decided 4 months ago to reduce my training from 6-7 sessions per week to only 3-4 sessions. Admittedly, that was a bit of an adjustment in the beginning.

I split my training into 4 different training days and train every other day. By the way... we are often asked about this: It is no problem at all to create such a plan in the Alpha Progression App.

Your training week can be longer or shorter than the 7-day calendar week, and of course your muscles don't care if you train chest on Monday or Wednesday.

Since I only work out every other day, I decided to work out longer per session. Before, I needed 1.5-2 hours per session, but now I need 2-2.5 hours (depending on how much I talk or how many Insta Stories I do).

That doesn't sound like much time being saved at first. Before I trained about 10 hours in total per week and now it's about 7 hours. That's only 3 hours of time saved per week. But of course I also save the time for changing clothes and the trip to the gym. So I can easily save a total of 6 hours per week, during which I can do more work on the app.

Training plan

What does my training plan look like now? On the one hand, I want to train each muscle group fairly frequently. On the other hand, I don't want to do too few sets per session per muscle group.

If you listen to our podcast, you've probably heard us mention in our interviews that we suspect there is a Minimal Effective Volume that you have to exceed per workout in order to see any results at all. This Minimal Effective Volume gets higher as you get more advanced.

There are no studies to back this up, but we still suspect there is something to it. That's why I do a few more sets per session for most muscle groups and then do them a little less often. Oh, and of course because I don't want to waste too much time on warm-up sets!

Specifically, this means that I train my quads, chest, and back with 2 exercises of 3-4 sets per workout. But then I don't train them every training day, but only every other training day (i.e. every 4th day, because I always take a rest day between the workouts).

It's best if I tell you briefly which muscles I train on which day and with how many sets, after which we can go into detail about the individual training days.

Training day 1

Quadriceps: 8 sets

Chest: 8 sets

Posterior deltoids: 4 sets

Lateral deltoids: 4 sets

Biceps: 3 sets

Training day 2

Quadriceps: 3 sets

Lats: 3 sets

Upper back: 3 sets

Anterior deltoids: 3 sets

Lateral deltoids: 4 sets

Triceps: 3 sets

Calves: 4 sets

Training day 3

Chest: 8 sets

Quadriceps: 8 sets

Posterior deltoids: 4 sets

Lateral deltoids: 4 sets

Biceps: 3 sets

Training day 4

Glutes: 3 sets

Quadriceps: 2 sets

Anterior deltoids: 3 sets

Lats: 3 sets

Upper back: 3 sets

Triceps: 3 sets

Lateral deltoids: 4 sets

Calves: 4 sets

As a little additional info: I am a member at both McFit and FitX so that I have access to a large selection of good machines. Some good machines are only available at McFit and some only at FitX.

Training day 1

Let's start with the first day of training. This is the only day where I train at McFit. The other 3 I do at FitX. The day starts with training the quads.

I start with the most strenuous exercise: 4 sets of hack squats with 8 reps each. This is my absolute favorite exercise for the quads, because you can just go SO low, and the exercise is very stable and targets the quads really well.

I turn on "Feuer frei!" by Rammstein, rewind to 35 sec., and start at the exact moment when Till (the lead singer) sings "Ein heißer Schrei, Feuer frei!" I slowly lower the sled part of the machine until I hit full depth. Deeper and deeper and deeper. At some point I think to myself "ok, it doesn't really go any deeper", but it goes deeper and deeper and deeper.

At some point it feels like my quads are tearing apart (well, in a good way), but it still goes lower and lower and lower - until at some point I've pressed my hamstrings down so hard on my calves that there's absolutely not a millimeter further I can go.

Then, hopefully, there will be another "Feuer frei!" cry from Till and I will go up again with all my might. Yes, and then of course 7x until no more reps (or almost no more) can be done.

With this exercise I can push myself very close to my limits, because I can't fall over like with the classic barbell squat. By the way, this is one reason why I haven't done classic squats for over 2 years now. That's not to say that classic squats are a bad exercise.

For MY quad growth, however, hack squats have done a lot more. Therefore, I will not switch back to the classic squat in the foreseeable future.

By the way, not every hack squat machine is as great as my Gym80 machine. I've tested some machines where you can't go NEARLY as low. If I didn't have such a great machine available, I would probably do the squats on the multi-press with my feet in front. The exercise is similar, just not quite as stable.

After the 4 sets on the hack squat machine, we move on to the single-leg leg extension. 4 sets of 12 reps are on the agenda. For the hack squats, the focus was on the quads.

For the leg extension, the focus is on the end contraction. There is hardly any tension at this point in the range of motion for a squat or leg press variation like the hack squat, because almost no weight acts on the quads in this portion.

The great thing about the Gym80 machine at McFit is that I can even adjust the machine so that I still have quite a good load in the stretch when I slide my glutes forward a bit.

Sure, the focus here is definitely still on the final contraction, but it doesn't hurt to have a bit of a stretch as well.

Why do I do my leg extensions with one leg? There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the weight stack is not sufficient if I do it with both legs, and secondly, my nervous system, which is already well pre-fatigued by the hack squat, is less stressed if I first do a set with one leg and then a set with the other leg.

After 4 sets of hack squats and 4 sets of leg extensions, the quads are definitely going to be fatigued. The next time it will be trained is two training sessions from now - so in 4 days.

Now it's time for chest training. I first do 4 sets of 10 reps on the incline chest press. Why a machine? The main reason is that I'm already pretty tired out and I don't need great coordination skills on the incline chest press.

I first tried doing a barbell or dumbbell exercise for the chest after the leg workout. However, that absolutely didn't work because at the end of the set, it wasn't the chest that was the limiting factor (as it should be), but my coordination ability. Therefore: Machine.

After the chest press, it's on to the wide-grip flys on the machine (4 sets of 12 reps). The Gym80 fly machine at McFit is absolutely awesome because it just has a perfect resistance curve. You start in the stretch (REALLY good feeling!) and bring your hands together, and it always feels good. There is no "gap" in the resistance curve.

There is about an equal chance of reaching muscular failure ANYWHERE in the movement. This is a good sign. If it were the case that you always reach muscular failure in the lowest position, for example, then the resistance curve would not be perfectly matched to the strength curve of the muscle.

This is my absolute favorite fly machine. It also feels much better than the Technogym butterfly machine that we have at FitX. By the way, this is not meant to be a McFit or Gym80 advertisement. There are also some machines at FitX that are better than the ones at McFit.

So, after 8 sets of quads and 8 sets of chest, the pump in these two "show" muscles is naturally in good supply and we move on to the smaller muscles. Why small muscles? Because I'm already pretty tired out and couldn't do any more super strenuous exercises very well.

So now I do 4 sets of reverse butterflies with a wide grip on the machine for 15 reps to hit the posterior delts. I do these with one arm and sit sideways on the machine so that I get into the maximum stretch on the delts. This works pretty well on this Gym80 machine.

Yes I know, explaining exotic exercise executions is verbally difficult... I frequently upload Instagram Stories where you can see me performing this exercise.

Continue with 4 sets of seated lateral raises with dumbbells with 12 reps for the lateral delts. The focus here is on the final contraction.

In the lowest position you have almost no tension on the lateral delts, because the dumbbells are in line under the shoulder joint and you therefore have no or only a very short lever. I usually do 2 drop sets here to get everything out. The pump afterwards is of course awesome.

However, I always have to be careful not to swing too much. This happens pretty quickly when doing dumbbell lateral raises. If you swing just a little bit, you immediately can manage 5 kg more.

The next time the lateral delts will be trained again is in only 2 days. I train them on every training day, because I want to focus on them. Since I don't have wide shoulders in terms of bone structure, I have to compensate for this by having the largest possible lateral delts.

At the end of the first training day I do 3 sets of preacher curls on the machine with 12 reps for the biceps. The biceps (and also the triceps) I tend to neglect, because my arms are one of my strong points. That's why I train the biceps only at the very end of the workout and only every 4th day.

I also really notice that when I do curls, I'm already pretty weak and can perform much less than I would if I did them earlier in the workout. But I put up with this problem. That is just the disadvantage of few and long training sessions.

That was the first day of training. After that I go home and eat. I don't want my food to go bad!

The next day is then a rest day, followed by a second training day.

Training day 2

The second day of training starts with the Romanian deadlift with the barbell for the hamstrings (3 sets of 8 reps). Since this is quite a big and strenuous exercise, I do it right at the beginning of the workout.

I put on a belt and do the Valsalva maneuver to increase core stability (i.e., inhale air into the abdomen, push the abdomen against the belt, hold my breath, and only exhale and inhale again when one rep is complete).

I also use pulling aids so that grip strength is not the limiting factor. If you are not a powerlifter, then by all means use pulling aids such as wrist straps during the exercise to optimally stimulate the target muscles.

Sure, you can also use the cross grip or the super awkward hook grip (that's the grip where you sort of pinch your thumb with your other fingers), but with that you're just simulating wrist straps and could also use wrist straps directly.

I go relatively far down on my knees when doing Romanian deadlifts. The hamstrings definitely remain the limiting factor, but the glutes are stimulated a little more this way.

I only do that because the glutes are still a weak point for me compared to the hamstrings. For most people, however, I recommend that they bend their knees less.

By the way, because the question always comes up of whether you need to feel the target muscles when doing big exercises like the Romanian deadlift: If your technique is good and you perform taxing sets, then you don't need to feel the target muscles.

For me, it's usually the case that I don't feel the target muscles during the exercise. I only notice that my hamstrings have been properly stressed because of the soreness in the days afterwards.

By the way, the Romanian deadlift is the only hamstring exercise I perform on this training day.

This is because I find them very effective and from experience I don't need many sets for my hamstrings to grow anyway. On top of that, my hamstrings are already quite well developed and I don't want to focus on them.

The next time I'll train the hamstrings will be in 4 days. I also need the recovery time so that the muscle soreness is gone again during the next day I train this muscle.

Now it's time for the back. There are 3 sets of close-grip lat pulldowns with 10 reps for the lat in my plan. I only do 3 sets because the back is not my focus. By the way, I also do all of my back exercises with pulling aids.

On the one hand, this helps me to make sure that my grip strength does not limit the movement, and on the other hand, it helps me to pull more from my back and less from my biceps.

The latter in particular is hard for me because my biceps are pretty strong and I tend to pull with them. With the close-grip lat pulldown, this coaching cue also helps me: pull the elbows back instead of pulling the cable down.

After the 3 sets for the lats, I do 3 sets of wide rows with chest support for the upper back, with 15 reps per set. I do the rows with chest support because my lower back is already properly pre-fatigued by the Romanian deadlift and I do not want the lower back to be the limiting factor.

15 reps may sound like a relatively large amount for rows, but especially for wide-grip rows, it feels pretty good to me.

I set the seat position of the Hammer Strength rowing machine as low as possible so that I can move my upper arms backwards, as far away from the torso as possible. After all, I want to hit the upper back and not the lats. The tighter you hold your upper arms to your body, the more the lats will feel the movement.

For this exercise, also make sure that you bend your upper back in the front position, so that you can fully stretch the rhomboids and the middle part of the neck. Unfortunately, very few people do this.

That was 6 sets for the back. Now I do 3 sets of the narrow grip shoulder press on the machine for the anterior delts for 15 reps. I do narrow grip and medium grip shoulder presses once each during the training week.

The set with a narrow grip stimulates the anterior delts a bit more and the one with a normal grip still heavily stimulates on the anterior delts, but also does a little for the lateral delts.

Since I'm already at the maximum weight for this Technogym shoulder press in the 10-12 rep range, I do the exercise with 15 reps instead.

As far as technique goes, I slide my glutes slightly forward so I'm kind of doing a mix of a pretty steep incline bench press and a more traditional shoulder press. That feels better to me than sitting completely upright.

I don't do front raises, by the way. I also don't think that they're necessary for most people. The anterior delts are actually stimulated enough by chest press exercises and shoulder press variations. Too much anterior delts, by the way, also makes the chest look smaller, and who wants that?

Now it's back to the small stuff that I can still do reasonably well in a fatigued state.

The plan has 4 sets for the lateral delts. The last time, when I did lateral raises with dumbbells, my focus was on the final contraction.

Now I perform cable lateral raises for sets of 12 reps. Here the focus is on the stretch. The cable also puts the lateral delts under tension when the arm is already completely down. The exercise is therefore great in addition to the dumbbell lateral raise.

The next time the lateral delts will be trained again is in another 2 days.

This is followed by 3 sets of the overhead triceps press with dumbbells for 12 reps. Since I don't focus on the triceps as much as I do the biceps, I only do 3 sets and only train them every 4th day.

I do the overhead press because it works the inner head of the triceps and pre-exhausts it. This allows it to work better and puts more strain on it. When I train the triceps again in 4 days, I will do an exercise that focuses more on the middle and outer head of the triceps.

For the last exercise on this second day of training, I do 4 sets of calf raises on the leg press for 10 reps with the knees extended to put the gastrocnemius muscles under tension and work them harder. The gastrocnemius is that knobby calf muscle that you see the most.

We also have a really good calf machine where you can do standing calf raises, but unfortunately the weight available is not enough for me. (It's always a great feeling when you can say you're stronger than the machine).

The machine doesn't really feel good when you do the movement one-legged. That's why I do calf raises on the leg press. I'm nowhere near my maximum weight there. That's also impossible to achieve.

I go all the way down and pause there for a second (while tensing the calves, of course) so as not to bounce. The Achilles tendon can store a lot of energy. If you lower the weight quickly and then go right back up, chances are your Achilles tendon will have done more work than your calf muscles.

That's it for the second training day, and another rest day follows.

Training day 3

The third workout day is my favorite because it starts with chest, and I enjoy chest workouts the most.

The first exercise is 4 sets of incline barbell bench press with for 6 reps. I start with an incline variation, because I want to focus somewhat on my upper chest.

By the way, I perform the exercise paused, similar to the calf raise: I lower the barbell until it touches my chest, pause for a second (with my chest tensed), and then press it back up explosively.

Since the barbell incline bench press is a pretty stable exercise and I already did 2 chest exercises in the higher rep range 4 days ago, I'm only doing 6 reps here. This feels really good.

As a second chest exercise, I do 4 sets of incline flys in a seated position using the cable machine cable for 12 reps. This is a perfect complement to the incline barbell bench press, because it works the chest very well in the final contraction and also in the stretched position.

This is exactly what comes up short in the incline barbell bench press. The chest limits the movement in the lower part, so you can't quite get into the stretched position. You also can't get into the final contraction because the hands can't be brought together.

After 8 sets for the chest, it is definitely well exhausted and can now have 4 days to recover.

Let's continue with the training for the quads. Maybe you remember: 4 days ago I trained first the quads and then the chest. Today it's the other way around: first the chest and now the quads.

Since I'm already a bit tired, there are no overly strenuous exercises for the quads on today's training day.

First on the schedule, there are 4 sets of single-leg leg extensions for 15 reps. Unfortunately, you can't stretch as far on the Technogym leg extension at FitX as you can on the Gym80 leg extension at McFit, but at least that's not too bad, because the focus of this exercise is definitely on the final contraction.

I do the exercise with one leg, so that it is not too strenuous for the nervous system and so that I can have enough weight at my disposal.

After those 4 sets, my quads are already feeling the pump in any case. Now follows a superset consisting of 4 sets of leg extensions with 15 reps and then 15 reps of narrow lunges with dumbbells.

I now do the leg extension with both legs, since I am no longer limited by the available weight due to the pre-fatigue from doing the earlier leg extensions with one leg.

The narrow lunges directly after the leg extensions are of course the real nightmare here. On the one hand, they hurt very badly locally in the quads (positive pain) and on the other hand, they are also very exhausting for your whole body.

By the way, here is my music recommendation to you: "Links 2,3,4" by Rammstein. It goes great with the lunges. Just please make sure that you don't use ONLY the left leg.

The pump in the quads is of course... out of this world. After 8 sets of chest and 8 sets of quads I am completely wiped out. Now comes the small stuff.

To begin with, there are 4 sets of dumbbell reverse flys on the incline bench for 12 reps for the posterior deltoids.

The last time I trained the posterior delts was 4 days ago on the butterfly reverse machine at McFit, where I sat slightly to the side to get a good stretch. Today's reverse flys on the incline bench with dumbbells are of course not about the stretch, but about the final contraction.

Followed by 4 sets of lateral raises on the machine with 15 reps per set.

The Technogym machine I use has a fairly balanced resistance curve, except for the load in the stretch, which is relatively low. But that's not a big deal, because that's what I'm doing the cable lateral raises for.

I usually do 2 more drop sets after the 4th normal set.

In 2 days the training of the lateral delts will start again.

As the last exercise on this third day of training, I perform 3 sets of dumbbell hammer curls for 10 reps to hit the biceps.

4 days ago I did preacher curls on the machine. There the focus was more on the inner head of the biceps.

With today's hammer curls, the focus is somewhat more on the outer head due to the position of the upper arm. In addition, the forearms and the brachial (or "upper arm muscle") located under the biceps are used a little more than with curls that use an underhand grip.

After 3 sets of hammer curls, the biceps again have 4 days to recover. They don't need that much recovery, of course, but I don't focus on them in my training either.

Training day 4

Let's move on to the fourth day of training. This is the day when I definitely have to watch some brutal Viking or Gladiator show during my pre-workout meal to get in the right mood.

In fact, the day starts with 2 sets of dumbbell Bulgarian split squats for 15 reps to work the glutes. This is an absolute nightmare. This is such an effective and brutally exhausting exercise. Music recommendation here is quite clear: "My heart burns" by Rammstein. That's what it does when I do this exercise. Everything just burns.

By the way: If you think you have reached your limit, do 10 reps more. Believe me... they are still in there if you pull yourself together. This is the exercise where most people train very far from muscular failure.

You think you're close to muscular failure, even though you still have 10 reps in the tank, because it just hurts like hell - locally in the glutes and quads, but also systematically. Oh yes, and you also have to stabilize yourself well so that you don't fall over.

I do this exercise right at the beginning of the workout, just to get it over with. I once tried to do it towards the end... It ruined the whole workout for me because I always had in the back of my mind "you're about to do the Bulgarian split squats."

I also do only 2 working sets, because even that already ensures that I will have soreness in my glutes for the next 3 days. The next time the glutes will be specifically stimulated again isn't for another 8 days. Before that they will be used secondarily for the hack squats, the Romanian deadlifts, and the narrow lunges.

But it's not a big deal if I still have some muscle soreness, because the glutes are not the limiting factor during these exercises. They are only the secondary muscle group being used.

After the Bulgarian split squats, I move very slowly to the next machine (to extend the break a bit and regain my composure). This is followed by a not so strenuous exercise, namely 2 sets of leg curls, done lying down, for 12 reps to work the hamstrings.

During the Romanian deadlifts 4 days ago, the focus was on the semimembranosus, the semitendinosus, and the long head of the hamstrings. These are the muscles of the back of the thigh that are used during hip extension.

Leg curls done while lying down stimulate the muscle that gets shortchanged in Romanian deadlifts - namely, the short head of the biceps femoris (hamstrings). This is the muscle that, when you look down at yourself, is on the outside of the back of the thigh.

Regarding whether you should bend or extend your feet: It's not that important. If you bend them, it goes a little more on the calves and you can manage a little more weight (but the movement is then less isolated).

When you extend them, it goes a little less on the calves and you manage a little less weight (because the calves can't help).

However, the calves will definitely not be the limiting factor here. The stress on the hamstrings is identical in both scenarios, as long as you get close to muscular failure and use a weight that is appropriate for the exercise.

I do the movement with my feet extended to make the exercise a little more isolated to my hamstrings and not too stressful for my central nervous system.

Now come 3 sets of the dumbbell shoulder press for 8 reps to stimulate the anterior deltoids. I do the dumbbell version of this exercise on this day instead of using a machine, because it still works for me in terms of my coordination.

Sure, the Bulgarian split squats were exhausting, but it was only 2 sets and the leg curls afterward weren't nearly as draining.

In 4 days, the anterior delts will again be primarily stressed. Before that, however, they will of course be stimulated again secondarily during chest training.

Now the back training begins. First, the plan calls for 3 sets of lat pulldown with a wide overhand grip on the cable pulley for 10 reps. 4 days ago I took the narrow grip and the focus was a little more on the lower part of the lats and on the biceps.

Now I grip "wide" and the focus is a little more on the upper part of the lats and less on the biceps. By "wide" I mean about 1.5 times shoulder width.

Then come 3 sets of close-grip rows with chest support for 12 reps to work the upper back. I have chosen a rowing variant with chest support because it is already the 5th exercise today and I can no longer stabilize all that well.

This exercise works mainly the upper back, but of course it is still good for the lats, because the upper arms are kept close to the torso. The lat is mainly stimulated in the final contraction. You don't really get into the stretch, because for that the arms would have to be brought all the way up - as with the lat pulldown.

Nonetheless, you can get a good stretch on the upper back by slightly arching the back forward again in the most forward position.

3 sets for the lats and 3 sets for the upper back... that's it for the back today. Now comes some small stuff again.

4 days ago I did the triceps press overhead. The focus was on the inner head of the triceps. Now - when doing the triceps pushdown with the rope - the focus is on the outer and middle heads of the triceps, because the inner head doesn't experience much tension due to the upper arms resting against the torso.

I usually do 2 more drop sets after the 3 regular sets.

This is followed by 4 sets of lateral raises on the cable machine for 10 reps to hit the lateral delts.

The last time I trained the lateral delts was 2 days ago, and I performed lateral raises on the cable pulley 4 days ago, but I find this exercise just great. That's why I'm doing it again - only not with 12 reps, but with 10 reps. In 2 days the lateral delts will be trained again.

The last exercise on this last training day is 4 sets of calf raises sitting on the machine for 15 reps. 4 days ago I did calf raises with the knees extended.

Now, though, the legs are bent and the focus is on the soleus muscle. This is the large calf muscle that lies under the knobby gastrocnemius muscle.

Here I also usually do 2 drop sets at the end. These usually burn quite a lot.