12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program (Part 2): Even More Muscle [PDF]

If I haven’t scared you off with part one of the 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program, then part two might do it. This program is a continuation of this programming series where we are aiming at building pure muscle mass. This program is based off of the latest research, and it’s informed by my decades of experience in the gym. Fair warning, it’s a lot of work. Keep reading to see if this program is right for you.

As I alluded to above, this is the second part of the 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program. I highly recommend that you check out part one of this programming series before starting this portion. While this portion of the program keeps the same general pattern, it is both heavier, and higher volume than part one. Here is a quick overview of the goals for this program.

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12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program Goals

• Acclimatize your body to high volume training
• Build as much muscle mass as possible
• Avoid adding excess body fat
• Increase strength in the 6-8 rep range

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I do want to be clear. This is a pure bodybuilding program. There aren’t any WODs or metabolic conditioning sessions. If you want a functional fitness style program, that’s designed to build muscle mass, then you should check out my 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program.

The Science Behind Building Muscle

All good bodybuilding programs work for the same reasons. In fact, there are only three drivers of muscle hypertrophy. They are: mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and muscle damage. Check out this excerpt from a very comprehensive research review by Dr. Brad Schoenfeld.

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It has been shown that many factors mediate the hypertrophic process and that mechanical tension, muscle damage, and metabolic stress all can play a role in exercise-induced muscle growth.

The Mechanisms of Muscle Hypertrophy and Their Application to Resistance Training

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Muscle Damage

This is exactly what it sounds like. When you lift for enough reps, at reasonable weights, you will damage your muscle cells. This damage isn’t long term, but it does account for the soreness you feel after your workouts. This soreness is called delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMs.

While you don’t necessarily have to be sore to build muscle mass, it can be an indicator that your program is working. Part of the art of building a great bodybuilding program is to program enough work so that you’re sore, but not so sore that you can’t continue to train in following sessions.

Mechanical Tension

Mechanical tension can broadly be understood to mean the amount of tension your muscle fibers experience due to the load being lifted. As you might expect, lifting the heaviest loads, doesn’t guarantee that you’ll gain the most muscle mass.

You can think of mechanical tension as the most aggregate tension experienced by your muscle fibers. In fact, Dr. Brad Schoenfeld did another meta analysis examining the relationship between rep ranges and creating muscle mass.

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A total of 21 studies were ultimately included for analysis. Gains in 1RM strength were significantly greater in favor of high- vs. low-load training, whereas no significant differences were found for isometric strength between conditions. Changes in measures of muscle hypertrophy were similar between conditions. The findings indicate that maximal strength benefits are obtained from the use of heavy loads while muscle hypertrophy can be equally achieved across a spectrum of loading ranges

Strength and Hypertrophy Adaptations Between Low- vs. High-Load Resistance Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

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You can build muscle mass at various rep ranges. If you care more about strength than muscle mass, choose lower rep ranges, with higher loads. If you want to build muscle mass like us, then you should prioritize lower loading. Of course I’ve included a variety of rep ranges so you you can make gains in strength and muscle mass simultaneously.

Metabolic Stress

Lastly, metabolic stress will drive gains as well. When muscles work hard they produce waste products that are a byproduct of cellular work being done. All athletes experience some level of metabolic stress, but we need to experience enough stress to cause muscle mass to grow.

This is one area that is different in part two of this program, compared to part one. I’ve included several pieces that are max reps for time, or a certain number of reps on the minute. This style of training will cause metabolic stress, and ultimately build more muscle mass.

If you don’t want to miss out on the rest of this program sign up here and we’ll email them directly to you once they’re released. As a bonus, I’ll send you our strength training, and fat loss guides!

We’ve now covered the research on building muscle mass. Because I’ve focused on the three drivers of hypertrophy, I think I’ve created one of the best free bodybuilding programs out there. Let’s get into the meat of the program.

The 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program: Part 2

I’ve kept this program as a 5 day per week program. Most athletes will do this program five days in a row, however you don’t have to do that. You need to make sure that you get in all five sessions per week, but you can split it up as you like.

Most sessions should take around an hour. I expect that you’ll spend about 5 minutes with a general warm up, and then move into warm up sets for your first movement. I’ll share a little tip with you. As you’re working through the working sets on one movement, you can start warming up the next movement. The idea is that you start your first working set of the next movement after your last working set of the previous movement. I’ve found that this keeps a nice steady pace, and avoids wasting a bunch of time.

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DOWNLOAD THE PDF FOR THE 12 WEEK FREE BODYBUILDING PROGRAM PART 2

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The 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program Week 5

If you recall, we finished part one of the 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program with a small deload. This week we’ve moved back towards full volume training. I’ve also rotated many, but not all of the primary movements. The same muscle groups will be used, but you will experience different rep schemes, and intensities relative to your one rep max.

You should be able to do this part of the program in a well equipped home gym, or nearly any commercial gym. It’s ok if you have to make a few adjustments. I recommend checking out this article where I talk about how to modify workouts appropriately. It’s not as simple as you might think.

If you like building muscle mass but still want some WODs you should check this out!

The 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program Week 6

I also want to highlight that I’ve continued to use the term RIR to denote how heavy you should be lifting. Remember that RIR means reps in reserve. If you have a set of 10 to be done at 2 RIR, that means you could actually do 12 reps at max effort. Contrary to popular belief, you shouldn’t be taking every set to failure!

You’ll also note that I’ve kept many of the accessory movements that you did in part one. I’ve done this because accessory movements are designed to shore up weaknesses in your physique, and you need more than 4 weeks to make these changes. I have changed the loading scheme for these movement though. Many of these accessory movements are done for max reps, or for a specified time. This makes sure that your body doesn’t become too familiar with them.

The 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program Week 7

We’ve really started to increase loading this week. You’ll see AHAP on several primary movements. I expect you to go as heavy as you can on that day. You don’t need to set a new rep record, just push hard with good form. Everyone experiences daily swings in strength. It’s unreasonable to expect to PR every week.

By this portion of the program you will have gained strength. Don’t be afraid to push your accessory work harder too. You’ll be surprised at how strong you’ve become. Obviously you shouldn’t be sacrificing your form, but it’s always good to set a new rep record when you can!

The 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program Week 8

This is the last week for part two of the 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program. Just like week 4, this is a deload, but that doesn’t make it an easy week. In fact, you’ll be lifting heavier than last week on many of your lifts. You just won’t have the same amount of total lifting volume per muscle group.

Make sure you don’t add in any extra work this week. These recovery weeks are really important because this is when your body actually makes repairs and builds new tissues. Often times I try to use deload weeks as an opportunity to practice perfect form on my lifts. No one ever said their form was good enough!

If you want to focus on building muscle mass with more emphasis on functional fitness performance then this is for you!

Recovery and Nutrition for Bodybuilding

Rather than re-hashing my nutrition and recovery section, I’m just going to give you the quick highlights. First, you should read this nutrition article, and download this calculator. They will give you a great base to start from. The nutrition calculator will give you calorie recommendations, and macro splits. You still need to tailor these recommendations to your specific needs, but it will get you started.

Don’t overcomplicate your recovery. You don’t need to get exotic cryo treatments, and have some guy named Lenny put hot cups on you. There’s limited evidence that that works. Instead, end your workouts with 10min of easy walking or cycling. You can also wear compression tights to help reduce muscular soreness. I know, it sounds weird, but it actually works.

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed part two of the 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program. Make sure you sign up for our email list so you won’t miss part three when it’s released. Don’t sweat the details. You can make great improvements in your muscle mass, and overall physique, as long as you consistently put in the work. Adding in an extra rest day, or going a little lighter on a day that you slept like crap won’t matter in the long run.

If you’ve finished this part then go ahead and move on to part three of the 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program.

If you have any question you should put them in the comments section below, and I’ll get you an answer. Now get out there and hit the gym!

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