Doing anything randomly in the gym won’t help you gain muscle mass and improve muscular size. All types of exercises and workout plans might help you gain muscles in the initial phase when you are enjoying the beginner gains, but even that won’t last more than a few weeks.
If your main or even secondary aim is to grow muscle mass or tone them, then you have to look out for the workout routine that can trigger muscle hypertrophy.
A workout program designed aiming for muscle hypertrophy usually includes high-rep sets and allows sufficient rest time for recovery to trigger the growth efficiently and effectively. A hypertrophy workout is different than a strength training workout or powerlifting workout in terms of reps per set, weights used, frequency, and the accessories selection. Thus, you can’t select any program and expect it to work for muscle gain.
You need to extend the sets beyond five repetitions, you should use moderate but challenging weights, there should be an optimum rest period between two workout sessions for the same muscle group. These are just some of the principles used in the development of hypertrophy specific workout programs.
There might be questions on your mind like, how to identify that a training program is hypertrophy triggering or not? Or, how to pick the right hypertrophy training program for me? If you have these questions, you have reached the right page. Here we have provided the best hypertrophy workout programs.
Mike Mentzer’s Workout Routine & Diet Plan
Aesthetic Workout Routine and Diet Plan (with PDF)
V Taper Workout Program (with PDF)
5 Day Workout Split for Women (with PDF)
Vince Gironda 8×8 Workout Routine
Women’s 3 Day Glute Building Workout Plan (with PDF)
5 Day Unilateral Workout Program (with PDF)
6 Day High Volume Workout Routine (with PDF)
Antagonistic Superset Workout Program (with PDF)
Each of these training routines is designed to trigger muscle hypertrophy and has proven effective for many users in the past.
We have chosen these programs on the basis of effectiveness, flexibility, efficiency, and safety. There are different routines for different target muscle groups, for different fitness levels, and there are equipment specific programs. You can choose the one that suits the resources you have, your fitness level, that targets the muscle group you want to work on.
The programs describe main exercises, accessories, and warm-up moves along with sets, reps, and weight information. There is a well-planned schedule in each program that optimizes the frequency of workouts with the rest period needed for recovery.
Almost all the programs listed above have a link to the spreadsheet included in it. This spreadsheet can help you follow the program schedule to the T, it can also help you track your progress and make the adjustments accordingly.
All the workout programs that made this list have gone through a thorough check. These are developed by renowned trainers and bodybuilders. These routines have been followed by thousands in the past and they have achieved the results.
You can start working on improving muscle size at any fitness level. You just need to develop enough strength to perform every exercise in the correct form first. Once you achieve that, you can start hypertrophy training and work towards developing the toned, muscular body shape that you always dreamt of. So, what are you waiting for? select a suitable routine and start working now.