Are you looking for a 3 day mass workout that doesn’t waste your time in the gym?
Goal Of This Workout
This workout routine runs for 12 weeks and is ideal for someone who really wants to build as much muscle as possible.
We’re going to utilize heavy compound lifts, a progression scheme that is easy to follow, and eat nutritious foods.
Diet and Nutrition Tips
You are going to gain some muscle, some fat, and a lot of strength during this routine all in the name of becoming a mass monster.
I would recommend going on a slow bulk for this routine to get the most out of it. It is easier to cut some fat afterwards than trying to make strength gains on a calorie deficit.
If you keep your weight consistent and need some tips to add calories into your diet, here are some of the best and healthiest ways to do so:
- Butter
- Cream cheese
- Sour cream
- Whole milk
- Heavy cream
- Cheese on everything
- Protein shakes
- Peanut butter
- Olive oil
- Extra dressing
These all add flavor and healthy fats to your diet. Personally, I prefer adding calories through this means instead of going to McDonalds and smashing a couple McDoubles.
You will feel better, have more energy, and your stomach will thank you.
Note: A little bit goes a long way, so be sure to know how many calories you are adding.
The real “trick” to this routine is not necessarily the training, but the recovery and eating that go along with it.
This routine is going to get you bulked up and you will need to do a small cut after running this routine for 12 weeks, but the strength and muscle you gain is worth it.
Eat More
This routine is going to require you to eat 400 calories over your maintenance calories. This means if you’ve been “stalled” and haven’t been making any gains, add 400 calories to your day every day and you are going to start getting much stronger and bigger.
The cardio and conditioning work is going to help keep fat gains to a minimum but if you want to really pack on some muscle and get jacked, you’re going to have to get your grub on.
Time to bust out some of your favorite foods; eating too clean will be hard to get another 400 calories out of your diet, so get a cheeseburger or two every now and again.
Rest More
You are going to have to get plenty of rest so your body can recover and build muscle.
More rest with the additional food is going to really make a huge difference in how your body responds to a workout so the more rest you can get, the better.
De-Stress More
Stress puts a strain on your body and nervous system and keeps you from recovering as quickly. De-stress as much as you can.
Things like getting a massage, meditation, hikes in the woods, listening to calming music, and just getting away from everything are great ways to help you de-stress.
Recommended Supplements
Without a good diet, supplementation is mostly a waste of money. I will be the first to tell you to spend money on some good meats than a jug of protein.
For those who have their diets in check, here are the supplements I would use with this routine.
Pre-Workout
Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Pre-Workout
Solid pre-workout from a well-known long-standing company. Great if you need a little more pep in your step.
Helps with getting a few more reps out and can help with focus as long as you don’t stare at your phone the whole time.
Protein
MTS Machine Whey Protein: 5lbs
This is in my opinion the best tasting protein on the market. Period.
Great blend with no secrets, no amino spiking, and it is some of the best in the industry.
So far I’ve had Red Velvet, Cookies and Cream, and Key Lime. All are A+.
BCAA
Marc Lobliner has his sweetening on point with these supplements.
I’ve used mixed berry and grape and I love them both.
Creatine
Check out our review on BodyTech Creatine Monohydrate.
It is a tried and true supplement and studies suggest it will help with performance and recovery.
I highly recommend this.
Cardio and Conditioning Schedule
For the cardio and conditioning I want you to choose at least two different cardio machines you will use at the gym at least one activity outside of the gym.
Conditioning is important to your overall health and the better condition you are in, the more work you can do in the gym and be able to fully recover.
Pre-Workout
For your pre-workout, I want you to use a warm up routine where you will use one cardio machine for a 10 minute session.
No need to spend a lot of energy here, your main goal is to raise your heart rate and your core body temperature so you can do your workouts injury free.
Post-Workout
Immediately after you are done training, I want you to hop on a different machine than the one you warmed up with.
You can switch which machines you use when as long as you use two different machines each day you train.
Hop on your machine and do 20-30 minutes of post-workout cardio.
You can use steady state or high intensity interval training for your cardio here.
I would recommend mixing it up and incorporating both into the mix.
This isn’t supposed to be a scientific approach, I just want you up and moving.
Outside Of The Gym
Once you are outside of the gym either on one of your rest days or a day that you trained, do some sort of activity. Find a sport you would like to play in, hike, go walking, ride a bike, or learn boxing. The possibilities are endless.
It makes no sense to only go to the gym and exercise when you can go outside of your house right now and enjoy your life. What good is having an athletic body or the ability to do amazing things when all we do is lift weights and then go sit at home?
Workout Schedule
- Monday – Chest, Triceps, Abs
- Tuesday – Off
- Wednesday – Back, Biceps, Traps
- Thursday – Off
- Friday – Legs, Shoulders, Abs
- Saturday – Off
- Sunday – Off
If your schedule doesn’t permit you to use this ideal schedule above, it is okay just go what days you can.
The benefit to this schedule is having a day of rest in between each training session and then 2 days in between the week.
Become A Mass Monster With This 3 Day Split
This 3 day split is pretty basic, there isn’t going to be anything special about this routine except that it uses the rep-goal system.
I’ve been having guys use this more often and have seen a lot of great results.
The best part about the rep-goal system is that it is auto-regulating and can achieve many different types of goals.
To make things simple; You have a set amount of reps you need to achieve and a certain amount of sets to get there.
For example if you have 5 sets to get 30 reps on bench; do not think of it as 5 sets of 6. Instead, go until you feel like you are about to fail each set until you reach 30.
My bench session sets today was: 12 reps, 10 reps, 6 reps, 2 reps. I’ve reached my rep goal of 30 and I got it within 5 sets.
I usually keep track in my head my next rep and start my second set with whatever the last set ended with.
Example: I finished my first set at 12, my second set I started at 13 and ended at 22, third set I started at 23 and ended at 28, fourth set I counted 29 and then 30.
| Chest, Triceps, and Abs | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Rep Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell Bench Press | 4 | 30 |
| Incline Dumbbell Bench Press | 5 | 35 |
| Hammer Bench Press Machine | 4 | 35 |
| Close Grip Bench | 3 | 25 |
| Tricep Extensions | 3 | 30 |
| Rope Crunches | 3 | 30 |
| Planks | 3 | ALAP |
| Back, Biceps, and Traps | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Rep Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Deadlifts | 4 | 20 |
| 1 Arm Dumbbell Row | 4 | 25 |
| Wide Grip Lat Pull Down | 4 | 25 |
| Barbell Preacher Curls | 3 | 30 |
| Hammer Curls | 3 | 30 |
| Face Pulls | 4 | 40 |
| Dumbbell Shrugs | 5 | 60 |
| Legs, Shoulders, and Abs | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Rep Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Squats | 4 | 20 |
| Leg Curls | 3 | 30 |
| Hack Squats | 4 | 25 |
| Military Press | 4 | 30 |
| Side Lateral Raise | 4 | 25 |
| Reverse Flys | 4 | 30 |
| Side Bends | 3 | 50 |
| Weighted Crunches | 3 | 50 |
Workout Tips
Deadlifts – Your rep goal is to hit 20 reps in 10 minutes. Treat each rep as a single and reset after each rep. Push yourself and work hard.
ALAP – As long as possible. Hold planks until absolute failure.
Rest Periods – Making the rest periods shorter is going to up the intensity and give you a massive pump. The goal is no longer than 45 seconds between sets, but if you are not ready after 45 seconds don’t push yourself to get injured.
Take these tips and run with them. If at the 12 weeks you are still making consistent gains, take a couple of weeks off and hit some more cardio and do a small calorie cut to get rid of some of the fat you gained this cycle.
You are going to be building a lot of strength and muscle and I’m confident you are going to like the results.
Sharing is caring, and as always leave any comments or questions below!
This looks like a great routine. As for the high reps, would you suggest moderate weight, light, or heavy, I’m just trying to rap my mind around the amount of reps per exercise
The easiest way to look at the rep goal system is to see how many sets and what your rep goal is. 3 sets with a rep goal of 30 is 3 sets of 10. Pick a weight you can do 3 sets of 10 with and work from there. Same as a 5 sets with a rep goal of 25.. 5×5 and then pick the weight that you can do a 5×5 of.
The cool thing about the rep goal for me personally is that I can turn an ordinary lift into something amazing. Sure I just hit 5 reps on a 5 sets with a goal of 25, but let me see if I can get 7… it’s a nice way to gauge your progress. If you didn’t hit your rep goal, next week you’ll see that you’re able to lift it and you picked up a rep in the second set. I plan on creating a huge article on it and I’ll go over different tips and tricks for it soon.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
Hi cutty,
Thank you for this workout. I’ll start this week.
Is 45 seconds rest between sets sufficient to gain strength?
The rest is also 45 seconds between sets?
Thanks!
Sebastien, if you need to take a little bit longer on big compound exercises, you can.. no need to go when you aren’t ready. I generally train in a 60-90 second rest for heavy compounds, but my conditioning isn’t as great as it could be.
Thank you for the answer. I did the first workout and I have one more question. When I finished the exercises for the pecs, my triceps are already very tired. It is possible to do a session “Chest + Biceps” and “Back + Triceps” instead? What do you think?
Switch up the exercises so that it serves you best. Put the exercises that take the most energy and do them first. Other than that, you can do them in whatever order you would like!
Hey Cutty,into third second week and I feel great!
Can I swap the incline dumbell press with incline bench press?
Thanks
I’m glad to hear it! I feel that incline dumbbell press helps with your stabilizer muscles, but you can swap it if you like that better.
Sounds like a good workout plan, excited to try it out!
I replaced some of the ab exercises and incorporated exercises like; starfish crunch, twisting pistons and variation of one up two down(legs).
Side note: How long does each workout usually take? can it be completed within an hour?
Thanks,
Thanks for the kind words! I appreciate it. Those exercises would be great to use instead. Whenever I have someone run them it seems to be about an hour depending on how much you hustle in between sets.
Let me know how it goes.
I usually rest about 45-60 seconds between sets. My previous program was taking way too long to complete haha. You can check it out if you wish, it’s called “bones to buff in 30 days” BB program.
I’ll have to check it out and maybe modify it to make it a little bit quicker to use. Thanks :)
Hey Cutty, great plan. I’ve had shoulder pain for about a year before I started this plan. With this plan the pain is less severe each week and now it’s almost gone, so thanks!
I have a question. Can I adapt a similar routine for hypertrophy training (3-4 sets, 8-12 reps)? Because the selection of exercises seems to be beneficial for my shoulder, but I’d like to mix it up after 3 months of doing this plan. I’d also like to add 1 more workout to the week, only for arms (having trouble getting those guns). Is that a good idea?
Gregor, I’m glad to hear your shoulder is healing up. I’ve had shoulder issues a few times and it’s not fun at all. Keep up with the good work. Any workout can work if you consistently stick to it and have a good choice of exercises. Changing up the intensity and volume works well and I think if you balance it right that you could certainly add in another day of training. Although, I will mention that your guns can come out much quicker by losing any excess body fat. I don’t remember what your weight is currently, but shredding some fat will definitely get the veins going and help improve the look of your arms. If you were to add another day in for arms, I would add in more core work and some sort of HIIT training for conditioning.
Hey Cutty!
If i want to train 4 days per week, would it be a problem to start over the routine after the 3rd day? (So on the 4th day of the week i will do again the first day i did that week)
For how this routine is designed, yes. If it as one of my 2 or 3 day alternating workout then it wouldn’t be an issue.. but this is built to give you enough volume and enough recovery time. You could throw in a few exercises you like but nothing super-taxing on your body.
Hey mate, how long should these workouts last ? And will this only work for beginners or can I continue to use this for as long as I want ?
If it works, run with it. For time, there’s really no set amount of time it takes, but around an hour would be my guess. It all depends on your conditioning and how focused you are.
Hi, I have comparatively smaller legs so do you think i should add more leg workouts to this schedule?
Your legs will grow with consistency. Go ahead and add a few reps to each set.
Thanks Cutty :)
Hey! My friend and I do this work out together and we’ve been arguing about the 1 arm DB rows. He thinks it’s 25 for both arms, where I think it’s 25 PER arm (so 50 together). Can you clear this for us, please? Thanks!
25 reps per arm :) Your friend owes you 10 push ups.