Workout Routine for Men: The 5 Day Muscle and Strength Plan
Five training days, two rest days, built around the compound lifts that actually build size and strength. Full exercises, sets, reps and a progression rule you can run for six months.
The week at a glance
| Day | Focus | Main lifts |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | Push | Bench press · Overhead press · Incline dumbbell press · Triceps pushdown |
| Tue | Pull | Pull-up · Barbell row · Face pull · Barbell curl |
| Wed | Legs | Back squat · Romanian deadlift · Leg press · Standing calf raise |
| Thu | Rest | Walk, stretch, sleep. No lifting. |
| Fri | Upper | Incline barbell press · Weighted dip · Lat pulldown · Lateral raise |
| Sat | Lower & core | Deadlift · Front squat · Leg curl · Hanging leg raise |
| Sun | Rest | Sleep and eat. Recovery is where growth happens. |
First lift of each day: 4 sets of 5–8. Secondary compounds: 3 sets of 6–10. Isolation: 3 sets of 10–15. Rest 2–3 minutes on heavy compounds, 60–90 seconds on everything else.
The plan assumes you can already lift
This is a five-day routine aimed at men who have at least six months of consistent training behind them and know how to squat, bench, deadlift and row without their lower back rounding. If you are just starting out, the honest advice is that three full-body days will build more muscle in your first six months than five days of this split, because your technique and your connective tissue need time, not volume. Come back to this page when three days a week starts feeling too easy and your main lifts stop moving.
Why this split is organised this way
Push, pull and legs groups muscles by movement pattern: everything that presses on the same day, everything that pulls on the next, legs on the third. That arrangement gives each muscle group about 72 hours before it works hard again, which is close to the window where training the same muscle twice a week produces more growth than once. Day four and day five then add a second dose of upper and lower work with different exercises — incline pressing instead of flat, deadlifts instead of back squats — so you are not repeating a session your muscles are still recovering from. The rest day sits in the middle on purpose: Thursday breaks the week into two and two, rather than leaving you to train five days straight and then crash.
Day by day
Monday — Push
Chest, shoulders and triceps. Open with barbell bench press while you are freshest, then a standing overhead press, an incline dumbbell press for upper chest, and one triceps movement. Keep total working sets near 14. If your shoulders feel beat up at the end, drop the incline press rather than the overhead press — vertical pressing is what most men skip and most need.
Tuesday — Pull
Back, biceps and rear delts. Start with pull-ups (add weight once you can do ten clean reps), follow with a barbell row, then a face pull to balance the shoulder joint after Monday's pressing, and finish with curls. Pull volume should roughly match your push volume across the week — an imbalance in favour of pressing is the most common reason for shoulder pain in men who train five days a week.
Wednesday — Legs
Back squat as the main lift, Romanian deadlift for the hamstrings, leg press for extra quad volume, and calves. Legs get their own day here rather than being tacked onto the end of an upper day, which is the single biggest difference between a routine that builds a physique and one that builds a chest and a pair of jeans that still fit the same way.
Friday — Upper
The second upper day, angled differently: incline barbell press, weighted dips, lat pulldown and lateral raises. Dips and incline pressing hit the chest and triceps from angles the flat bench does not, and lateral raises are the most direct way to add shoulder width. Keep this session a little lighter in absolute load than Monday — it is volume, not a second max-out day.
Saturday — Lower and core
Deadlift, front squat, leg curl and a core movement. Conventional deadlifts plus front squats is a demanding combination, so do not chase a personal best on both — pick one to push and keep the other at a solid working weight. Direct ab work belongs here rather than every session; heavy squats and deadlifts already train the trunk hard under load.
How to progress without stalling
Double progression, applied to every lift: hold the load until you hit the top of the rep range on all sets, then add the smallest increment available and drop back to the bottom of the range. On a 5–8 lift, that is 5 lb (2.5 kg) once you get four sets of eight clean reps. Write every set down. With five sessions a week you are running roughly twenty working sets a day, and nobody remembers last week's numbers — a phone note or a paper log is enough, but you need one. Two weeks with no movement on a lift is a recovery signal, not a motivation problem: cut one accessory, add an hour of sleep, or take a lighter week before you change the programme.
Eating, cardio and recovery
Five lifting days means recovery is your ceiling, so food and sleep matter as much as the plan. Aim for roughly 1.6–2.2 g of protein per kg of body weight, eat enough carbohydrate to fuel the sessions — training heavy on low carbs feels like pushing a car uphill — and sleep seven to nine hours. For cardio, keep two or three easy 20–30 minute sessions, placed after lifting or on a rest day. Hard cardio before leg day is the fastest way to make your squats feel heavier than they are. Take a lighter week every six to eight weeks: same exercises, roughly 60% of the weight, and your joints will thank you by the end of the year.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good workout routine for men?
One built on compound lifts — squat, hinge, press, row — trained five days a week with progressive overload and a written record of every set.
How many days a week should a man work out?
Four to five sessions a week past the beginner stage. Three full-body days is a solid start; five days works once recovery allows it.
What is the best split for building muscle?
Any split that trains each muscle group twice a week with 8–20 hard sets a week. Push, pull, legs is the most common five or six day version.
Should I do cardio while building muscle?
Yes, but keep it easy and short — two or three 20–30 minute sessions, ideally after lifting or on a rest day.
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