The Best 5 Day Workout Routine for Lean Muscle

The 5 Day workout routine is the most popular form of split followed in the gyms across the world. It is the traditional form of workout split. You would find as many as haters of the 5 Day workout routine as there are advocates. The traditional workout routine is accused of being an inefficient way of training or leading you to overtrain. Here is what you guys need to understand, any workout can be inefficient or can subject you to overtrain. The structure of the workout actually determines whether it will fetch results or is an ineffective mess.

There are a lot of good reasons why you can follow the 5 Day workout routine. It promotes recovery, it is highly customizable, allow you to focus and the biggest reason it works. In the 5 Day workout routine, you annihilate each body part once per week. In this article, I'm going to share with you the best 5 Day workout routine that will help you stack lean muscle to your frame There are certain aspects you need to understand about the workout plan so the most out of it. Let's discuss that first 

5 Day Workout Routine | Training Frequency 

As the name suggests this is a 5-day workout routine split training where we will annihilate each body part once a week. You have to train for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Wednesday and Sunday are rest days for your central nervous system (CNS) to recover from the high volume heavy load workout. Training for straight 5 days will fatigue your CNS and will hinder your workout intensity

5 Day Workout Routine | Exercise selection

The exercises in the 5 Day Workout routine will be a mixture of compound lifts and isolation work. A compound exercise is a multi-joint movement that works on several muscle groups at the same time. Isolation exercise work for only one muscle group at a time. Performing compound exercises are the best way to work out as it burns more calories, stimulate real-world activities, improves coordination and balance. Isolation exercises are added to compensate for the parts which are not effectively trained in the compound lifts.

5 Day Workout Routine | Workout Split

This workout split is designed in such a fashion that it allows for a longer period of rest. Training in this sequence will allow maximum rest and recuperation periods for each body part after being subjected to high volume and intensity. The workout split is as follow

Monday      - Chest
Tuesday      - Back
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday    - Arms
Friday         - Shoulders
Saturday     - Legs
Sunday        - Rest

5 Day Workout Routine | Static Loading

Here in India, we follow a pyramid loading across the sets. This means we start with the lighter load and increase the load with the sets. In my opinion, this is not the best way to load. The problem here is before reaching the final set you have already fatigued your muscle to some extent and you will not be at our best at the final set. For the 5 Day Workout routine, I want you guys to use static loading across the sets. This way you would have a better understanding of your maximum lift and it is easier to progress.

5 Day Workout Routine | Sets and Reps

In the 5 Day Workout routine, we will be performing different combination for reps and sets for exercises to keep the workout intensity high. For compound lifts, there will be more sets and lower reps and for isolation work, it will be more reps and fewer sets.

5 Day Workout Routine | Weight selection

Like sets and reps, the weight selection will also vary from exercise to exercise. You will be using a medium to heavy load as per the exercises. Performing medium reps and medium load also induce muscle hypertrophy as performing heavy weight and low reps. This will ensure that we are using all the drivers for muscle growth. The weight selection will come with trial and error while selecting weight also keep 1 rep in spare for compound lifts to avoid injury.

5 Day Workout Routine | Progressive Overload

Progressive overload is one of the most important aspects of resistance training when it comes to gaining strength. In this workout plan, you need to progressively overload the muscle. This means you need to increase the load over time. Suppose you benched 100 kg for 8 reps in the first week, on the next week you should aim to bench 105 kg for 5 reps or 100 kg for 10 reps. Once you get accustomed to the current load, you need to gradually increase the load to keep the workout intense and challenging. You can increase the load according to your strength gain for some it would be every week for some it could be more than that.

5 Day Workout Routine

Monday - Chest:-

Flat bench press (3 sets x 8 Reps) 

Flat dumbbell fly (3 sets x 12 reps) 

Flat dumbbell press (6 sets x 6 reps)

Incline bench press (6 sets x 6 reps)

Incline dumbbell fly (3 sets x 12 reps)

Peck Deck Fly (4 sets x 10 reps)

Tuesday - Back:-

Pull-Ups (4 sets x 10 reps)

Lat pulldown (3 sets x 12 reps)

Lat pulldown reverse grip (3 sets x 12 reps)

Reverse barbell rows (8 sets x 8 reps) 

Seated rows (6 sets x 8 reps)

Dumbbell pullover (2 sets x 10 reps) 

Wednesday - Rest

Thursday - Arms:-

Skull crushers (4 sets x 12 reps)

Tricep pushdown (4 sets x 15 reps)

Weighted bench dips (6 sets x 12 reps)

One arm tricep extension (4 sets x 12 reps)

Bicep curls 21's (3 sets x 7/7/7 reps)

Hammer curls 21's (3 sets x 7/7/7 reps)

Preacher curls (6 sets x 8 reps)

Friday - Shoulders:-

Barbell Overhead press (6 sets x 8 reps)

Arnold press (3 sets x 15 reps)

Lateral raises (3 sets x 15 reps)

Face pulls (4 sets x 12 reps)

Bent over delt fly (3 sets x 15 reps)

Dumbbell shrugs 3 secs hold (4 sets x 12 reps)

Upright rows (4 sets x 10 reps)

Saturday - Legs:- 

Bodyweight squats (2 sets x 25 reps)

Barbell squats (6 sets x 8 reps)

Dumbbell weighted walking lunges (6 sets x 12 reps)

Leg press (6 sets x 10 reps)

Leg extension (3 sets x 12 reps)

Lying reverse leg curls (4 sets x 12 reps)

Standing calves raise (4 sets x 50 reps)

Sunday - Rest

Abs:-

Perform the abs workout in a circuit as below for 3 - 4 sets twice a week

Hanging leg raises (15 reps)

Reverse crunches (15 reps)

V sit hold (30 secs hold)

Curl ups (15 reps)

Plank (45 secs hold)

Make sure to warm up properly before the exercise session to avoid injury. Proper rest and proper diet along with this workout will give you crazy pumps and growth. This is an old school bodybuilding split followed by old school bodybuilders and it is quite evident that it worked for them. Follow this workout for 6-8 weeks to see some remarkable changes in your body.

If you are looking for a science and evidence-based coach who can design a customised diet and workout plan for your fitness goal, Drop an email to romiey@getsetgo.fitness.

Also, check

The Best German Volume Training Plan for Lean Muscle
The Best Upper Lower Workout Split for Lean Muscle
The Best Push Pull Legs Routine for Lean Muscle
The Best Workout Plan for Lean Muscle | 3 Days a week workout