Guide

A workout program for muscle gain

A muscle gain program isn't special exercises — it's enough hard sets for every muscle every week, getting heavier over time. Plus enough food to grow on.

Updated October 16, 2026

What builds muscle

Three things: volume — hard sets per muscle per week; proximity of those sets to failure; and progression — load that rises week to week. Specific exercises, their order and "secret" schemes matter far less.

Volume works dose-response: in the meta-analysis by Schoenfeld, Ogborn and Krieger (2017), each extra weekly set gave a little more growth on average, and the large analysis by Pelland and colleagues showed the returns diminish with volume. So you need enough, not endless amounts.

How many sets

Starting out — 8–12 hard sets per muscle per week.
Intermediate — 10–16.
Lagging muscles — up to 16–20 if you're recovering.

Count sets by muscle: a deadlift is half back and half hamstrings and glutes, a bench press is chest. How to count precisely and where these numbers come from is in the sets-per-week guide, and you can split your own plan with the volume calculator.

Reps and weight

A wide range works for size: muscle grew similarly with heavy and light loads in the meta-analysis by Schoenfeld, Grgic, Ogborn and Krieger (2017) — as long as sets went close to failure. In practice 6–10 on compounds and 10–15 on isolation is convenient: heavy sets of 3 need lots of rest, sets of 30 need patience.

More important than the rep count is the reserve: 0–3 reps short of failure. Details in the reps for muscle growth guide.

Which program to take

Any program that gives every muscle enough sets and that you'll actually do. Of the bot's ready-made programs, these suit size well:

"Upper / Lower" over 4 days — every muscle twice a week.
Push/pull/legs over 3 or 6 days — flexible around your schedule.
The 3-day split — lots of sets per group in one go.

For a beginner, full body three days is enough for size too. How many sets each gives per muscle is on the program pages and in splits.

Food and protein

Muscle is built from what you eat. Gaining needs a small calorie surplus — a bit more than you burn — and enough protein. A protein guideline is about 1.6 g per kg of bodyweight per day: past that the benefit barely grows (the Morton et al. 2018 meta-analysis).

A big surplus doesn't speed up muscle growth; it adds fat. Check your bodyweight once a week: when gaining it climbs slowly, usually by fractions of a kilo a week. The weight diary is in both the bot and the app.

How to tell you're growing

If the weight and reps on a muscle's exercises are rising, the muscle is growing. That's the best sign — better than the mirror: the mirror changes slowly, while the log shows every 2.5 kg. Once a month check the estimated max on two or three exercises for each major group.

If everything's been flat for a month, look at food and sleep first, then volume: add 2–3 weekly sets for what's lagging. If you're tired and the weights are falling, you need a deload, not more sets. Details in the plateau guide.

A sample week

"Upper / Lower" over four days: Monday upper, Tuesday lower, Thursday upper, Friday lower. Upper: bench 4×6–8, barbell row 4×6–10, seated dumbbell press 3×8–10, lat pulldown 3×8–12, biceps and triceps 3 sets each. Lower: squat 4×6–8, Romanian deadlift 3×8–10, leg press 3×10–12, leg curls 3×10–12, calves and abs.

Over the week the chest gets 8 sets, the back about 14 and the quads 14 — that's what the volume table on the program page shows. It's enough for an intermediate; if something specific lags, add 2–3 sets for that muscle, not for everything at once.

Common questions

Should I change programs every 4–6 weeks? No. Change when it stops working: the weights have stalled for a month while sleep and food are in order. Constant changes make progress hard to see.

How much can I gain in a year? There's no exact number: the pace depends on training age, age, sleep and food. Beginners grow fastest, then slower. What matters is that the weights and reps in your log keep rising.

Is gaining without fat possible? A small surplus and enough protein is the closest you'll get. If your bodyweight climbs faster than fractions of a kilo a week, the surplus is probably too big. The weight diary shows the trend if you weigh in under the same conditions.

Log your workouts — I'll count the weekly sets for each muscle and show where you're short.

Download on the App Store

Prefer Telegram? Open the bot — same diary.