It starts with the most common question that I get when someone new to training and that’s what does the workout look like? Basically this comes down to what split should they be following. This is dependent on what the available time someone has to actually train. I can give a split that builds muscle whether it’s two days a week and all the way up to 6 days a week. This can come in the form of total body, upper / lower, push / pull / legs, or even an educated bro split.

Next, it comes down to exercise selection. When it comes to build muscle 100% naturally, you need to avoid exerphobia, or the fear of a particular exercise. This usually comes in the form of avoiding compound lifts. However, there are 6 exercises that I think are a staple of every program and are based on Arnold’s golden six. These exercises include weight chin-ups / pull-ups, barbell curls, squats, bench press, deadlift, and overhead press. These are the biggest bang-for-you-buck exercises that will help to build strength and size at the same time.

One thing that you want to avoid when it comes to your workouts and building muscle naturally is the use of correctives. These are designed to help fortify your body against injury and breakdown, helping for training longevity. Remember, it doesn’t matter what the next week, month, or year looks like – rather, I’m looking to see how your perform 10 years down the road, and whether your body stays healthy and operational over the long term. Some correctives that you likely want to include in your workout program include face pulls, reverse hypers, hip band mini ladders, band pull apart, angels and devils, and clam shells.

What about “other” exercises? These include accessories and exercises designed for nothing but building muscle. I recommend you find complimentary exercises that based on available equipment and natural athleticism.

It also comes down to the plane of motion, performing exercises in a vertical and horizontal fashion, separately. These exercise choices will lead to greater hypertrophic benefits and keep you moving through different planes of motion. You also want to focus on muscle function bias, as many muscle groups have multiple functions – think of the chest! You not only have the action of pressing, but also adduction. Training each function will help to lead to growing more muscle.

You can also address muscle weak points. If you have a weak or underdeveloped upper chest, you will want to include upper chest dedicated exercises. This can be in the form of one function if you have available time or even an exercise that combines functions, like the low-to-high crossover which follows the direction of the upper chest fibers and also includes adduction. Exercise variety also can be a method of keeping interest in a workout program as performing the same exercises day in and day out can get boring and lead to a disinterest in continuing training.

Now, when it comes to building muscle 100% naturally, you have to include muscle building techniques as well. For example, training to failure is extremely important to build muscle. There is also the newfound craze of training in the stretch position with partial repetitions. I think this is a problem for building resilient muscles as they don’t take the muscle through its full range of motion. Not only that, but the extra gains that are achieved through this technique is negligible.

Watch to the end of the video to see what other concepts are important to building muscle naturally.

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1:10 Training Frequency.
5:45 Exercise selection.
10:25 Structure for exercises
10:50 Overcoming strength plateaus
12:20 Fortifying the foundations
13:40 avoiding exercises
14:40 corrective exercises
19:30 Complimentary exercises
23:00 Weak points
23:30 Variety
24:40 Sets
27:15 Load and Intensity
30:30 Training to failure
33:45 Thoughts on lengthened training
36:30 Different techniques/ Mike Mentzer approach
37:45 effective reps
38:40 How often to train to failure
39:39 Cardio and conditioning
41:10 Sleep, hydration and stress
42:40 Motivation
43:50 Nutrition