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3 Different Workouts To Build Muscle
Joey Vaillancourt is a former skinny guy who struggled with genetics to gain weight. Today he is a fitness model champion and a great inspiration to anyone looking to gain weight and muscle and i am pleased to add him as a contribute to this home workout web site.

The Top Three Muscle Building Routines to Follow For Maximum Muscle Gains
There is often a lot of confusion about just what routine to follow when trying to build muscle. There are several options that people can choose from and just about all of them will work.
The real question is which one will work best for you and your starting point.
Let's cover the most common routines out there today and and describe the category requirements so that you can make an informed decision on which program would suit you best.
3 Day Full Body Muscle Building Routine:
This routine is a 3 day a week workout routine. Each workout day is followed by 1 rest day and the third workout is followed by 1 day or 2 days (as most people will take the weekend off entirely).
This routine is typically used by beginners and involved full body workouts.
It is one of the best workouts to build muscle for newbies because of many reasons:
a. It allows them to get familiar with the exercises by repeating them many times over the week.
b. Since most beginners do not possess the same strength levels as more advanced lifters, it is good to trigger the muscle more often because the amount of weight lifted is significantly lighter and they will not need as much time to recover and repair before their next workout.
c. As a beginner, your body will actually experience greater gains training less rather than training more. Take advantage of this time in your training as you will experience the 'beginner gains' that you may never experience again.
You need to allow your body to adapt to exercises and recover in order to grow. 3 days is a good start for beginners and it will allow them to eventually progress to more volume and more frequency if desired other workouts to build muscle.
4 Day Split For Building Muscle:
This is the next step from the 3 day full body workouts.
This routine is typically performed by intermediate trainers.
There are many variations that are floating around but the most common template to follow is performing upper body then lower body on the following day, then a rest day, then repeat (upper body/lower body).
As in the 3 day workout program, you have the choice to take two days off for the weekend or to continue after only 1 day of rest. The disadvantage to only taking one day instead of the two day weekend it that it throws you off schedule for your next week (if that is important to you).
The reason why this routine is categorized as intermediate is because now that you have been training longer and you have become stronger in your lifts, you will need more rest to allow proper recuperation between bodyparts you trained in your workouts. You will backoff the frequency you train each muscle but you will increase your training day by 1.
Once you have complete about 3-6 months of a 3 day routine, you can move up to other workouts to build muscle such as this split to start seeing more muscle gains.
5 Day Muscle Building Split:
The 5 day split is the most advanced routine that I would recommend for anyone.
Sure, there are routines that could make you train 7 days a week or even twice per day for a total of 14 workouts per week. But eventually the line has to be drawn and I draw it at 5 days per week for 99% of natural trainers.
After training for many years and developing your maximal strength and maximal growth, you may need to start to train using a 5 day split routine focusing on only 1-2 muscle groups per workout.
When you train for more than 2 years or so, the strength gains experienced in the beginning (due to an adaptation in your central nervous system) due not occur at the same rate. You will reach a point where it will be very tough to add more weight in your lifts and/or even grow additional muscle.
Its not to say that you can't, it just becomes a lot harder.
At this point, it is better to increase the volume trained on the muscle on the day you work it and allow a longer cycle for it to repair fully and to stimulate growth. This is one of the best workouts to build muscle and strength.
Starting Point Guidelines:
If you do not know what your starting point is, please refer to the guidelines below: Beginner: 6 months or less of weight training Intermediate: 6-18 months of weight training Advanced: 24 months or more of weight training consistently.
If you have trained on and off over many years but never consistently followed any program, then I would consider yourself to be intermediate, but you may even want to start as a beginner to condition your body for the higher volume training to come later on. Its your choice.
Decide what your training level is and then choose a routine that best suits your individual requirements.
Be patient and focus on one thing at a time and you should start to progress through each muscle building routine and see some very impressive gains.
About The Author

Joey Vaillancourt is author of the new 'Bones to Buff' transformation program which helps skinny guys build their first 10lbs or more of new lean muscle in just 5 weeks.
Joey is also a registered fitness trainer and won the FAME 2010 fitness model competition.
Download Bones To Buff Instantly
My 12 Week Transformation
You can follow my progress throughout my recent 12 week muscle building transformation challenge. In just 12 weeks and using limited equipment i was able to burn 28lbs of body fat and gain 9lbs of new muscle.

The picture on the left shows one of my before photos which was taken on 1st April.
Weight: 201.6lbs
Body Fat %: 23.86%
Fat Mass: 47.95lbs
Lean Body Mass: 152.05lbs
Waist: 38inches
See More Before Photos

The picture on the right shows one of my after photos which was taken on the 1st July.
Weight: 180.6lbs
Body Fat %: 10.59%
Fat Mass: 19.13lbs
Lean Body Mass: 161.47lbs
Waist: 33.5inches
See More After Photos
More Home Muscle Building Workouts
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You can new get access to the following FREE muscle building package to help you build your first 10lbs of lean muscle.
How to eat and train to gain 10 pounds of eye-popping and confidence-boosting muscle no matter what you've tried in the past (Get a complete beginner workout routine and meal plan)!
- The top 20 muscle building mistakes that are robbing you of 90% of the muscle and strength gains you should be getting! More weight gain tips.
- Weird muscle building tricks I used to gain 41 lbs of muscle in 24 weeks 100% drug free and how you can copy my success and get a body you can be proud of.
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