If looking like The Hulk, Wolverine, or Batman is your primary goal, then a training program with a bodybuilding focus is what you need.
If you have been struggling to grow, this program may help by giving some balance to your routine.
Don’t make the mistake of training your chest, arms, and abs each day, neglecting the majority of the musculature in your body.
To have a thick chest, you need to have a well developed back. To have big legs, you need to train your hamstrings. To have shredded abs, you need to have enough muscle mass to make getting lean worth it.
In this article, I introduce the sample Novice Bodybuilding Program from our book. I’ll show you how to choose exercises and adjust things for the areas where you are more advanced.
If you’re unsure whether you should choose this, the intermediate program, or our powerlifting programs, consider reading: How to Choose The Right Training Program For You.
The Beginner Bodybuilding Sample Workout Overview
The Novice Bodybuilding Program, unlike the Novice Powerlifting Program, is a four-day program. It has more exercises to ensure all muscle groups are adequately trained and has a higher total volume.
We have two ‘strength’ days and two ‘volume’ days. Strength development complements the accumulation of training volume and aids hypertrophy (muscle growth) by allowing heavier loads to be used over time.
Because skill development is not as important to a bodybuilder as it is to a powerlifter, and because greater volumes are performed on each day, a lower/upper split is used to balance out fatigue and recovery across the week.
Exercise preferences, limitations, and equipment availability differ from person to person, so I’ve written more details on how to choose below.
Spread your workouts out across the week and try to have no more than two sessions back to back. This is better for recovery.
How The Novice Bodybuilding Sample Program Looks (Be Sure To Check Out The Linked Videos If You Are Unsure)
Take a look at the program, and then I’ll explain the meaning of the ‘%1RM’ and ‘1st Set RPE’ notation and how to use it.
| Day 1 – Lower Body (Strength) | |||
| Exercise | Sets x Reps | %1RM | 1st Set RPE |
| Squat Variant
variations» »Barbell Back Squats (either low or high bar position), Front Squats, or Safety-bar Barbell Squatsclose | 3 x 5 | 82.5% | NA |
| Deadlift Variant
variations» »Conventional, Sumo, Trap Bar, Romanian, Good Morningsclose | 3 x 5 | 82.5% | NA |
| Single-Leg Variant
variations» »Bulgarian Split Squats, Lunges, or Single-leg Squats with a Kettlebell or Dumbbell (also known as Pistol Squats)close | 3 x 8 | NA | 8 |
| Standing Calf Raises
variations» »Smith machine, Leg Pressclose | 4 x 8 | NA | 8 |
| Day 2 – Upper Body (Strength) | |||
| Exercise | Sets x Reps | %1RM | 1st Set RPE |
| Horizontal Push
variations» »Bench Press, Dumbbell Pressclose | 3 x 5 | 82.5% | NA |
| Horizontal Pull
variations» »Seated Cable Rows, Dumbbell Rows, Seal Rows, Machine Rows, TRX Rowsclose | 3 x 5 | NA | 8 |
| Vertical Push
variations» »Overhead Barbell Press or Dumbbell Press (standing or seated), Landmine Pressclose | 2 x 8 | 72.5% | NA |
| Vertical Pull
variations» »Chin-ups or Pull-ups (Use bands to assist you if too hard to reach the required number of reps, add weight if they are too easy), Lat-pull Downclose | 2 x 8 | NA | 8 |
| Flys
| 2 x 15 | NA | 8 |
| Day 3 – Lower Body (Volume) | |||
| Exercise | Sets x Reps | %1RM | 1st Set RPE |
| Hip Hinge Variant
variations» »Barbell Hip Thrusts, Barbell Glute Bridges, Cable Pull Throughsclose | 3 x 8 | NA | 8 |
| Leg Press Variant
variations» »Seated Leg Press, 45° Leg Press, Hack Squatclose | 3 x 8 | NA | 8 |
| Leg Extension | 3 x 12 | NA | 8 |
| Leg Curl | 3 x 12 | NA | 8 |
| Seated Calf Raise | 4 x 15 | NA | 8 |
| Day 4 – Upper Body (Volume) | |||
| Exercise | Sets x Reps | %1RM | 1st Set RPE |
| Horizontal Push | 3 x 10 | 67.5% | NA |
| Horizontal Pull | 3 x 10 | NA | 8 |
| Incline Push
variations» »Can be dumbbell, barbell, or machineclose | 2 x 12 | NA | 8 |
| Vertical Pull | 2 x 12 | NA | 8 |
| Triceps Isolation
variations» »Cable, machine or free weightclose | 2 x 12 | NA | 8 |
| Biceps Isolation
variations» »Cable, machine or dumbbellclose | 2 x 12 | NA | 8 |
*NA = not applicable for that exercise.
Here’s a compact version on my Instagram profile you can easily take a screenshot of to keep on your phone.
HOW TO USE THE BEGINNER BODYBUILDING PROGRAM
WARMING UP
Warm-up before you train so that your core temperature is raised, you’re ready to lift heavy, and less likely to cause yourself an injury. Here’s my guide to warming up.
REST PERIODS
Rest for ~2–3 minutes for the main exercises. (Enough so that you’re recovered and ready to go again.) You’ll need just 60–90 seconds for the smaller isolation exercises like the bicep curls.
FORM
It should go without saying that the key to lifting a ton of weight is learning how to do so in a way that suits the mechanics of your body.
Working with world-class experts, co-author Andy and his team spent 3 years developing a 46-lesson curriculum to teach you how to master the Squat, Bench Press, and Deadlift. Here are our three free mega-guides created from that video series:
- 🏋🏻♂️ How To Low Bar Squat: The Definitive Form Guide
- 🏋🏽♂️ How To Bench Press: The Definitive Form Guide
- 🏋🏿♂️ How To Deadlift Properly: The Definitive Form Guide
MODIFICATIONS
If you have considerably more experience with the one lift than the others, you might consider adding an additional set to that exercise from the start. So, let’s say you’re fairly new to the squat and deadlift for example, but have a lot of experience bench pressing, (pretty much describes every dude on the planet when they start lifting seriously) perhaps start with four bench press sets for your horizontal push exercises instead of three.
Savvy readers may notice that this program has changed a little since the program in the first edition of the book. This is because newer meta-analyses have been released about training volume, and there were instances where we decided to reduce it as the first edition programs had volume that was too high based on current evidence. More on this in the FAQ.
HOW TO CHOOSE EXERCISES
Choose an exercise option that you can perform confidently with good form, pain-free, with a full range of motion. My bigger guide to exercise selection is here, but below are the crib notes relevant to this program.
Squat Variants
This could be a high-bar, low-bar, front, or safety-bar barbell squats.
Select the variant that is pain-free, a low injury risk, one that you enjoy, that you are confident that you can master, and that suits your biomechanics. For example, if you find that you are very bent over when you perform a low-bar squat to full depth, you may wish to choose one of the other variations that allow for a more upright body position to ensure more even lower-body development.
If an injury prevents you from performing a barbell based squat of any type, a leg press variant can be used in the place of a squat variant.
Hip Hinge Variants
Hip hinge variants include movements such as a barbell hip thrusts or glute bridges. Cable or machine hinges can also be used.
Single-Leg Squat Variants
Bulgarian split squats, lunges, or single-leg squats with a kettlebell or dumbbell on the floor or off a plyo-box (also known as pistol squats). These are primarily in place to ensure equal development across legs, and to ensure adequate coordination and even contribution of force when performing bipedal exercises such as squats or leg press to reduce the risk of injury. You can select a machine based movement such as a single-leg leg-press, but this will only help you ensure equal force production between legs, and not necessarily coordination and balance. Thus, the injury prevention effect will be reduced.
Deadlift Variants
Conventional, sumo, or Romanian deadlifts, or good mornings. If you select a sumo stance deadlift, do not perform it ultra-wide if you only compete in bodybuilding, rather use a stance just slightly wider than your hand position. This can be a great position for a bodybuilder to perform a deadlift as it allows a straighter back, more upright torso, thereby reducing injury risk, while also mimicking the biomechanics of a conventional deadlift. The advantage of selecting a Romanian deadlift or a good morning is that the eccentric will be automatically controlled, however, these movements take more kinesthetic awareness and time to master and perform properly with heavy loads.
Vertical & Horizontal Pulls
For the horizontal row, choose an exercise that doesn’t fatigue your lower back. I would advise a cable, single-arm dumbbell, chest supported dumbbell, seal/bench, or machine row.
For vertical pulls, feel free to select what you would like, however, if you do choose to do chin-ups or pull-ups, make sure you can perform them with the right range of motion for the required number of reps. If not, try band-assisted pull-ups until you are strong enough. Then add weight when you need it.
Vertical & Horizontal Pushes
For horizontal pressing, you can use the bench press, a decline, or incline press. Just don’t use a very severe angle in either direction. For vertical pressing, feel free to do either standing or seated presses. Barbells or dumbbells can be used.
Isolation Exercises
Bicep curls, triceps extensions, leg extensions, leg curls and other single joint movements should be performed with a full range of motion and in a safe manner that is pain-free. Whether you use free weights, machines, cables or some other variation you would like to employ is entirely your choice, just ensure that you are able to perform it pain-free and with a full range of motion.
Flys can be performed with cables or dumbbells or machines and can be performed at incline or decline angles if preferred.
Standing calf raises don’t necessarily need to be standing, they just need to be straight legged (for example a calf raise on a leg press).
Shrugs and direct abdominal work are not included for reasons covered here.
HOW TO PROGRESS WITH THE BEGINNER’S BODYBUILDING PROGRAM
In it’s simplest form, you just need to choose a weight you can lift for the number of sets and reps written, add a little weight each of your workouts, and avoid training to failure.
(Failure is the point where you can no longer move the weight, or you suffer any break down in your form.)
The 1RM Notation Tells you the initial weight to lift with
The %1RM notation stands for the percentage of 1-rep maximum. It is a guideline for how much you should load the bar the first time you start the program (only), and we will use this with our main compound barbell competition lifts.
So, where you see Squat 3*5 (82.5%), this means you should put 82.5% of the weight of your maximum single-rep squat on the bar, and then perform 3 sets of 5 reps.
If you don’t know your 1RM you can use this 1RM calculator I created for our book readers.
If you don’t have a lot of experience with the lift, you are new to it, or you are coming back after time off, just warm up adding weight to the point where you can comfortably squat 3 sets of 5. Then for each successive session add a little weight each time while maintaining good form.
the 1st Set RPE Notation tells you how to load the bar from the first session onwards
‘RPE’ stands for Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) based on Reps in Reserve. It is a means of managing fatigue which can help recovery and growth, telling you how many reps, ideally, you will stay short of failure.
While you will aim to add load each session, on a scale of 1–10, a 8 means to stop the set when you could perform 2 more reps.
| RPE Number | Meaning |
| 10 | Could not do more reps or load without form failure |
| 9.5 | Could not do more reps, could do slightly more load |
| 9 | Could do 1 more rep |
| 8.5 | Could definitely do 1 more reps, chance at 2 |
| 8 | Could do 2 more reps |
| 7.5 | Could definitely do 2 more reps, chance at 3 |
| 7 | Could do 3 more reps |
| 5-6 | Could do 4-6 more reps |
| 1-4 | Very light to light effort |
You’ll notice the RPE values for this beginner program are “1st set RPE 8”. This means you should load the bar with a weight where you could two more than the number of prescribed reps for your first set.
If you do this right, though your subsequent sets will be harder, you should be able to use the same load for all your sets.
If you “miss reps” on subsequent sets at the same load (the RPE climbs past 10), you either started too heavy, didn’t rest long enough, or perhaps made a technical fault; all of which are learning experiences for your next session.
Progression Rules
Add a little weight to each exercise every session whenever you are able to do so, then move onto my intermediate progression rules. You can see there in my guide, How To Progress Training Loads — Rules For Novice and Intermediate Trainees.
Note that if you choose to perform the same exercise on the strength and volume days (the bench press on both, for example), the load on the bar will be different. This is because the number of reps performed on each day is different. (You can bench more for 5 reps than you can for 10 reps, right?) So progress each day independently.
Though you will get stronger over time, your strength will fluctuate from session to session. This can happen if you didn’t sleep well, you are stressed, your diet wasn’t on point, you had 10 pints the night before, or it could just be some cumulative fatigue build up. So, keep in mind that you will be stronger on some days than others.
- Do not get frustrated with yourself and add weight to the bar when you shouldn’t.
- Don’t be afraid to lift a little less if you need to.
- Always lift with good form so that you stay safe.
- Do not go to form failure so that you don’t get injured.
Beginner Bodybuilding Program Q&A
The best beginner bodybuilding workout should be made up of primarily compound lifts, the exercise choice should be limited so you can learn good motor-patterns, it must allow for progression, and there needs to be sufficient practice. I recommend 4 days per week.
A beginner bodybuilder needs to eat enough calories to support muscle growth, carbs to support high training quality, and protein intake should be around 1 g per pound of body weight (or 1 g per cm of height, if you carry a lot of body fat).
You can add more exercises and sets to the program if you have good reason to believe that doing so will benefit you. It can be a mistake to add more training volume than necessary too early in a training career. If you don’t have training data showing you need more, I’d leave things as they are. Do as much as you need to progress, not as much as possible.
If your training progress has stalled, make sure you are following intelligent progression rules. Be sure to not train to failure all the time (keep to the first set RPEs to manage fatigue). If you are already doing that then you’ll find the solution in the following three articles:
• How to Break Training Plateaus
• How to Address Weak Points in Your Lifts
• What is Realistic Progress When Cutting?
Most people find lower body days to be more demanding, so we put those after a rest day when you’ll be freshest. Feel free to do the opposite if you prefer to do so and find performance isn’t affected.
An Important Concluding Note
This is just one example of many programs that will work for a novice bodybuilder. Individuality is key to long-term success, and just like it’s not a good idea to use someone else’s diet regardless of whether your maintenance calorie intake or initial body-fat percentage is similar to theirs or not, it’s also not a good idea to jump into a program regardless of how the volume, intensity, or frequency of the program compares to what you are currently adapted to.
If you have found this helpful, you might be pleased to know it is just a small section taken from my Muscle and Strength Training Pyramid book, written with my co-authors Eric Helms and Andrea Valdez. The second edition, along with the Nutrition companion book, was released last year.
Join 20,000 other readers, get your copies here.
Thank you for reading. Questions welcomed in the comments.
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Hello Andy,
I only have time to train three days, what would be the appropiete way to reorganize this training into 3 days? Would it be ok to do:
Day 1: Upper Body
Day 2: Lower Body (Doing the volume of the two lower days here)
Day 3: Upper Body
And also, I have weak abs, I’m at 11% bodyfat, but I just look skinny, my abs don’t even show a little and I’m bulking right now, so… Would it be a good idea to add crunches to day 1 and 3 and leg raises to day 2???
Thank you very much for your answers.
Hi Miguel, thank you for the questions.
1. This guide will take you through how to arrange training volume and frequency across the week, and my thoughts on how to build training programs.
2. You could, but your abs will develop over time as you train and gain muscle overall, so it’s not likely necessary.
Hi Andy
Over the last year I have started to get back to taking care of myself after a 10 year break from any kind of work in the gym. I have concentrated on learning about nutrition so far and your macro calculator and guide have been instrumental in allowing me to shed 42lbs whilst maintaining muscle. I’ve dusted off the power rack but only have dumbells and bands which have been great so far. I am interested in following your Big 3 lifting routine and need to get hold of some equipment, bar, plates etc. in terms of bar length, size, weight. Have you covered this, if so can you add the link please.
Keep up the great work
Hi Chris, excellent work so far!
I haven’t personally, but I’ve linked to a good video that a friend made about building a home gym. You’ll find it in the FAQ.
Hello Andy, do you have any suggestion of the pull exercises (vertical and horizontal) that targets more of the lower lats? Thank you.
Hi Wilson, nothing further than using a full range of motion.
Hi Andy, isn´t this to low of a volume for delts, just 2×8 of vertical push? *Sorry for the grammar, i´m brazilian.
Hi Gui, should be perfectly fine. The delts are trained indirectly in the horizontal pushing work and some other exercises too. More on this here: How Important Are Lateral Raises for Building Big Shoulders?
Hello Andy,
Thank you for so many articles to read. Currently, I’m doing the Body Building Novice. I understand the 4 Day Split Upper/ Lower.
Is it possible to run the program 3 Days a week.
Week 1: Day 1, Day2, Day3
Week 2: Day 4, Day 1, Day 2
Week 3: Day 3, Day 4, Day 1
Week4: Day 2, Day 3, Day 2
Is it best to run 4 days 1 week. Maybe M, Tu, Th, F?
or alternate days like M, W, F, S?
Which way would be more beneficial for growth and recovery?
Thank you for time. It’s greatly appreciated.
Hi Peter,
1. Yes. Split it however you wish across the week. This may be enough volume.
2. Most likely better to do four, as the weekly training volume will be as intended. This guide may be helpful if you are limited to three days and want to build yourself a program: A 6-Step Guide to Building Training Programs
Great! I’ll stick to the 4 Days per week than, so I can get the correct amount of volume.
Thank you very much.
Most welcome, Peter.
Hi Andy,
What do you think about this: supposing that nutrition and sleep aren’t an issue and I can no longer progress in the current exercises I’m doing, instead of increasing the volume or moving to an intermediate progression right away, would it be a good idea to stay in the same volume I’m doing and only change the exercises to a similar variant to milk the current volume with the novice linear progression or would I be just spinning my wheels?
E.g: bench press to close grip bench, back squat to front squat, good morning to RDL, DB row to machine row etc.
Hi Renato.
What’s your goal, growth (bulk), muscle preservation (cut), or learning new exercises?
If growth, probably spinning your wheels. — When you change a bunch of compound exercises like this, it takes a while to gain competency with your technique. You’ll progress with the new exercises but that won’t necessarily mean you are gaining muscle.
If you’re cutting, it could be detrimental. — You need to be able to train hard to signal to the body to hold onto muscle.
If learning new exercises, sure.
Change a couple of exercises if you would like to, but don’t change many at a time.
How many days should I rest between upper (strength) and upper (volume) ?
Hi Larry, if you’re spreading your workouts across the week as instructed, the upper sessions will have two and three days between them. That’s how I’d do it. It doesn’t matter which way around.
Hey Andy, I work with a lot of beginner teens ages 13-18. Can this program be used for them? What do you think?
Hi Steven, it’s not my place to speak for the appropriateness of this specific program for 13-18-year-olds, but to the general question of whether strength training can be useful for adolescents, the answer is yes.
Is reverse dieting in your book, how many weeks, when to add more calories etc. Thank you 🙏
Hi Ashley,
Yes, but you’ll see I’ve covered it here:
• The Reverse Dieting Myth
• How to Find Maintenance Calories After Dieting
hey andy!
I really don’t want huge looking legs so is it okay if i do 4 sets deadlifts and 2 sets squats on my heavy leg days? I want to build up my deadlift
Hi Bob, thank you for the question.
At the point your legs get too huge, feel free to dial back your training volume like that. But until then, it’s not something to worry about.
Muscle growth doesn’t happen quickly. If you have just started training and are feeling particularly sore (and perhaps noticed a change in leg size because your jeans fit more tightly), that’s just swelling from the initial “pump” not a sign of linear gains to come.
Thats actually exactly what i was worried about, jeans not fitting and such haha.
Also i read in numerous places that if you want a “Hollywood” type physique, the main focus should be more on incline bench, shoulders, and weighted pull ups… otherwise getting heavy on the regular bench might give you more of a “man boob” type of look. So i was wondering if it would be useful to replace the upper body strength (horizontal push) to incline instead of flat presses? would you recommend against that?
It’s just typical fitness industry bullshit.
Take a look at the results page. My clients train as you see on the site.
Hi Andy, could you please suggest some alternatives to leg press, leg extension, and leg curl on day 3 if training at home with only a barbell and dumbbells?
Hi Justin,
Consider front squats, Bulgarian split squats, and one or two-arm RDLs. More on this topic here: A Guide to Exercise Selection When You Don’t Have Access to a Coach
Hi Andy, I hope you are doing well – I see that COVID cases in Tokyo have hit a record since the beginning of the pandemic.
Occupationally, I am required to maintain a high level of aerobic fitness (e.g. beep test level 10 minimum). I am starting the novice bodybuilding program as of Monday, and wondering how I can incorporate my cardio training into it.
Would it be a bad idea to add sprinting or high intensity work outs on a treadmill at he end of the session 3 times a week?
Ideally I’d like to stick to the bodybuilding program only but I can’t because I must maintain a level of aerobic fitness.
Thanks.
Hi Sean, thank you for the question.
There can be an interference-effect. The dose makes the poison. In this case, the dose you probably need to achieve and maintain a level 10 isn’t high enough to poison your gym training efforts. But steady-state cardio (perhaps that you slowly ramp up one session a week) is going to be easier to recover from than HIIT, and the training more closely matches your test circumstances.
Could you replace the incline press with a vertical press in the upper volume days?
Sure.
Is the schedule day 1: lower day 2: upper rest day 3: lower day 4: upper ?
Hi John,
It’s a four-day per week program, meaning you have three rest days. You’re free to split this as you like, but I’d recommend having no more than two training days back to back.
Hey Andy, I was wondering how to do progressive overload on the likes of the lat pulldown and tricep rope push downs when the weight is in increments of 9kg and 4kg respectively? Any help would be much appreciated!
Joe
Hi Joe,
They will almost certainly be 10 and 20 lb increments, but they rounded the numbers when converting to kilos. You can use the same linear progression and linear periodization or double progression rules.
Thanks very much Andy! This will be so helpful!!
Hey Andy, hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I have been making really great progress on this lean bulk with your program. I just had two questions for clarification
In the book it says when stalling on a weight twice during the novice progression, “return to same progression pattern but increase load only half as much” (pg. 241)
For Chest Fly’s
Thank you!
Hi RJ,
For questions specifically on the book’s content, please see the support page we have created. You’ll see Eric and I have answered close to 1000 questions there.
Do you think rear delt isolation exercises like facepulls/reverse flys are necessary in this routine?
Hi Danny,
No. If we did, we’d have put them in.
What deadlift variant would you recommend for overall mass and strength?
Hard to beat the conventional or sumo barbell deadlift. Either one.
Hi Andy,
I have a question on deloads and one relating to front squats:
Kind regards,
Khalid
Hi Khalid, thank you for the questions.
1. When a full deload is programmed, have it across all exercises. When that is not the case and you struggle two weeks consecutively, take a deload for that exercise of 10% (lift 90% of the load you could previously get).
After the deload, if after warming up you feel you can lift the next incremental load (perhaps 103%, for example), please do so. If you need to stay at the same weight (100%), please do so. If you need to lift slightly less (97%), please do so. — Let first set RPE dictate the load selection.
So for example, if you did 3*8*100 on the squat row this week, next week do 2*8*90, and then if the RPE allows, progress to 3*8*102.5 after the deload week.
2. You can use a cross arm grip. I do this myself.
Thanks Andy!
How many weeks should I train this program?
Hi Aleksander, thank you for the question.
For as many as you continue to progress. 💪🏻