By Will Duru, BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science, Award-winning Personal Trainer with over 10 years of experience in strength training and optimising recovery.
If you’re a beginner looking to pack on 10kg of lean muscle in the next 12 months, you’ve come to the right place. The key to achieving this goal is a combination of a structured training plan, progressive overload, proper nutrition, and adequate recovery. This article will provide you with a comprehensive 6-day strength training split and a 12-month program to help you build muscle, get stronger, and achieve your physique goals. The main purpose of this push/pull/legs program is to help you build muscle and have structure. Let’s talk about the training split.
Why is a Training Split Important?
A training split is a schedule that divides your workouts by muscle group or movement pattern. Instead of working your entire body in every session, a split allows you to focus on specific muscles, giving them adequate stimulus for growth and enough time to recover. This is crucial for preventing overtraining, reducing injury risk, and ensuring consistent progress. By dedicating specific days to certain muscle groups, you can increase your training volume and intensity, which are key drivers of muscle hypertrophy (growth).
The Power of Progressive Overload
To continuously build muscle and strength, you must consistently challenge your body. This is the principle of progressive overload. It means gradually increasing the demands on your musculoskeletal system over time. Without it, your body will adapt and your progress will plateau. Here’s how to implement progressive overload:
- Increase the Weight: This is the most common method. Once you can comfortably complete your target number of repetitions for a given exercise, it’s time to increase the weight. Aim for a 5-10% increase.
- Increase the Reps: If you’re not ready to increase the weight, try adding more repetitions to your sets.
- Increase the Sets: You can also increase the total volume of your workout by adding another set to your exercises.
- Decrease Rest Time: Reducing the rest time between sets will increase the intensity of your workout.
Progressive overload is the cornerstone of any successful strength training program. By consistently making your workouts more challenging, you’ll force your muscles to adapt and grow.
The Importance of Sleep and Recovery
Your muscles don’t grow in the gym; they grow when you’re resting. Sleep is when your body repairs the muscle tissue that was broken down during your workout. During deep sleep, your body releases growth hormone, which is essential for muscle repair and growth. Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night to optimise your recovery and muscle-building potential.
Recovery also includes rest days. Your 6-day split includes a rest day, which is crucial for allowing your body to recover and adapt to the training stimulus. Overtraining can lead to decreased performance, increased injury risk, and a weakened immune system.
Nutrition for Muscle Gain
Nutrition plays a massive role in building lean muscle mass while keeping body fat low. To build muscle, you need to be in a slight caloric surplus, meaning you’re consuming more calories than you’re burning. However, the quality of those calories is just as important as the quantity.
Here’s a breakdown of the macronutrients you need:
- Protein: The building block of muscle. Aim for 1.6-2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. For an 80kg individual, this would be 128-176 grams of protein per day.
- Carbohydrates: Your body’s primary source of energy. They fuel your workouts and replenish your glycogen stores after training. Aim for 4-7 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight.
- Fats: Essential for hormone production, including testosterone, which is crucial for muscle growth. Aim for around 20-30% of your total daily calories from healthy fats.
For an 80kg person looking to gain muscle, a sample daily intake might look like this:
- Calories: ~3000-3200 kcal
- Protein: 160g
- Carbohydrates: 400g
- Fats: 100g
The 12-Month Strength Training Program
This program is designed to be followed for 12 months, with progressive overload being the key to long-term success. It utilises a variety of equipment to keep your workouts interesting and effective.
Warm-up and Mobility
Begin each workout with a 10-minute warm-up. This could be an incline walk on the treadmill or 10 minutes on the rowing machine. After your warm-up, perform the following mobility stretches:
Stretch | Sets | Reps/Duration |
Cat-Cow | 2 | 10 reps |
World’s Greatest Stretch | 2 | 5 per side |
Hamstring Stretch | 2 | 30 sec per side |
The 6-Day Workout Split
Here is your 6-day workout split. Each workout consists of 5-6 exercises, with 3-4 sets per exercise. The first set of each exercise should be a warm-up set with a lighter weight.
Workout 1: Chest, Biceps & Triceps
Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
Barbell Bench Press | 5 | 8-12 | 60-90 sec |
Incline Dumbbell Press | 4 | 8-12 | 60-90 sec |
Dumbbell Bicep Curl | 4 | 10-15 | 60 sec |
TRX Bicep Curl | 3 | 10-15 | 60 sec |
Tricep Pushdown (Machine) | 5 | 10-15 | 60 sec |
Overhead Tricep Extension | 5 | 10-15 | 60 sec |
Workout 2: Leg Day (Hamstrings, Glutes & Quads)
Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
Barbell Squat | 5 | 8-12 | 90-120 sec |
Leg Press (Machine) | 6 | 10-15 | 90 sec |
Romanian Deadlift | 5 | 8-12 | 90 sec |
Glute Bridge (with weight) | 5 | 12-15 | 60 sec |
Leg Extension (Machine) | 5 | 12-15 | 60 sec |
Hamstring Curl (Machine) | 5 | 12-15 | 60 sec |
Workout 3: Shoulders & Back
Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
Overhead Press (Barbell) | 4 | 8-12 | 90 sec |
Lat Pulldown (Machine) | 5 | 8-12 | 60-90 sec |
Seated Cable Row | 5 | 8-12 | 60-90 sec |
Dumbbell Lateral Raise | 5 | 12-15 | 60 sec |
Face Pulls | 5 | 15-20 | 60 sec |
Medicine ball slams | 4 | 10-12 | 60 sec |
Workout 4: Interval Cardio & Core
- Cardio: Choose one of the following:
- Treadmill: 5-minute warm-up, then 10 rounds of 30 seconds sprint / 60 seconds walk, followed by a 5-minute cool-down.
- Running Outside: 5-minute warm-up jog, then 10 rounds of 1-minute hard run / 2-minutes easy jog, followed by a 5-minute cool-down walk.
- Wattbike: 5-minute warm-up, then 15 rounds of 20 seconds max effort / 40 seconds easy spin, followed by a 5-minute cool-down.
- Core Finisher: (see below)
Workout 5: Back, Triceps & Glutes
|
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
Rest |
|
Deadlift (Barbell) |
5 |
5-8 |
120-180 sec |
|
Pull-Ups (or Assisted) |
5 |
AMRAP |
90 sec |
Close-Grip Bench Press |
4 |
8-12 |
60-90 sec |
|
Hip Thrusts (Barbell) |
5 |
10-15 |
90 sec |
|
Tricep Dips (or Bench Dips) |
4 |
10-15 |
60 sec |
|
Kettlebell Swings |
4 |
15-20 |
60 sec |
Workout 6: Interval Cardio & Core
- Cardio: Choose a different option from Workout 4.
- Core Finisher: (see below)
Core Finisher
Perform the following exercises at the end of your cardio and core days. These exercises are designed to build core strength without straining your lower back.
Cool-down
After each workout, perform a 10-minute cool-down. This can be a light walk on the treadmill or 10 minutes on the Stairmaster.
|
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps/Duration |
|
Plank |
3 |
45 seconds |
|
Flutter Kicks |
3 |
45 seconds |
|
Decline Sit-ups |
3 |
10 reps |
Track Your Progress with the 12Reps App
To ensure you’re consistently applying progressive overload and staying on track with your goals, it’s essential to log your workouts. The 12Reps app is the perfect tool for this. You can build this entire routine in the app by navigating to ‘Build Your Routine’ and selecting the exercises from this program. The app’s built-in stopwatch will help you monitor your rest periods, and you can easily track your weights, reps, and sets to ensure you’re getting stronger over time.
With over 1,500 exercise demos from certified personal trainers, you can be sure you’re performing each movement with proper form. Plus, you can pre-plan your workouts, save them for later, and even share your personal bests on social media.
Ready to take your training to the next level? Download the 12Reps app for a free trial and get access to personalised, smart-driven workouts, comprehensive progress tracking, and expert-designed routines. It’s the ultimate workout tracker for anyone serious about strength training and muscle building.
Download Link: https://12reps.onelink.me/jRI3/m8094fvi
References
- National Academy of Sports Medicine. (2022). Progressive Overload Explained: Grow Muscle & Strength Today. https://blog.nasm.org/progressive-overload-explained
- Medical News Today. (2022). How much protein do you need to build muscle?. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-much-protein-do-you-need-to-build-muscle
- Fuel Meals. (2024). Best Macros to Gain Muscle. https://www.fuelmeals.com/blogs/table-talk/best-macros-to-gain-muscle
