Best Workout Plans For Skinny Guys

There are endless articles and videos online about how to craft the "optimal" workout routine/plan/program. The truth is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution as each person has different goals and abilities. However, if you're a skinny guy who wants to gain weight fast, there are a couple ways to organize your schedule so that you can put on muscle mass as efficiently as possible.

No Silver Bullets

If you read our last article, Best Exercises For Skinny Guys Who Want To Gain Weight, you have a good idea of what to do in the gym. However, there is nothing special about those specific exercises that will make you jacked—what really matters is the muscle group(s) that each exercise targets. You can swap out any of those exercises for another exercise that you prefer, as long as it still targets the same muscle group(s).

To recap, here's a list of the exercises we listed in the previous article and the main muscle group(s) they target:

• Flat bench press - chest, triceps, front delts
• Incline bench press - chest (upper pec bias), triceps, front delts
• Cable rows - back, biceps, rear delts
• Lat pulldowns - back (lat bias), biceps, rear delts
• Squat - quads, glutes
• Leg press - quads
• RDLs - hamstrings, glutes
• Hamstring curl - hamstrings
• Leg extensions - quads
• Calf raises - calves
• Bicep curl - biceps
• Tricep pushdown - triceps
• Lateral raise - side delts

So for example, if you don't like the way cable rows feel, you can swap them out for machine rows, T-bar rows, bent over rows, dumbbell rows, or any other exercise that targets the back, biceps, and rear delts. However, the exercises listed here above are pretty vanilla and easy to perform, so don't feel that you need to go and research all the different exercises out there—these exercises are staples in the fitness community for a reason and have gotten many guys jacked over the decades. Now that you know there's no "silver bullet" exercise, let's build a workout plan.

Requirements For Your Workout Plan

In order to build an effective workout plan, there are some requirements it needs to satisfy for it to be a well-rounded, effective plan:

• Must be balanced (e.g. shouldn't work your chest way more than your back)
  
• Must be able to be completed within a reasonable time frame (45-60 mins)
• Must not include too much or too little volume (volume = exercises x sets x reps)
• Must include strategic rest

Thankfully there are some plans out there that meet these requirements, so we don't have to start from scratch. Some examples of popular workout plans (AKA workout "splits") are:

• The upper/lower split
• The push/pull/legs split
• The full body split

For skinny guys who have been lifting for less than a year or two, the typical guidance is to do the upper/lower split or the full body split. This will ensure you're hitting all of your major muscle groups multiple times per week without getting burnt out.

Why not the push/pull/legs ("PPL") split?

The PPL split is popular on social media but not ideal because if you choose to train 3 days a week, let's say Monday: push, Wednesday: pull, Friday: legs, then you're only hitting each muscle group once per week.

If you choose to train 6 days a week, let's say Monday: push, Tuesday: pull, Wednesday: legs, Thursday: push, Friday: pull, Saturday: legs, you're hitting each muscle group twice per week which is great, but you're only giving yourself one day of rest (Sunday) before starting over again on Monday. This is a quick way to burn out, and your lifts will start to suffer even if you grit your teeth through it.

You could opt to add in a rest day on Thursday and doing push on Friday, pull on Saturday, and legs on Sunday, and rest again on Monday, and so on, but an 8 day split can feel awkward, and most people like the consistency of a 7 day (weekly) split. With that said, let's take a look at the upper/lower split, which allows you to hit each muscle group 2x per week with adequate rest in between.

Upper/Lower Split

Here's an example upper/lower split:

• Monday: Upper A
  • flat bench press
  • cable rows
  • cable lateral raises
  • cable tricep pushdowns
  • cable bicep curls
• Tuesday: Lower A
  • squats
    
  • hamstring curls
  • leg extensions
  • calf raises
• Wednesday: Rest
• Thursday: Upper B
  • incline bench press
  • lat pulldowns
  • dumbbell lateral raises
  • overhead triceps extension
  • dumbbell bicep curls
• Friday: Lower B
  
  • leg press
    
  • RDLs
  • leg extensions
  • calf raises
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest

Notice that with this split, you're working each muscle group 2x per week, which is great. There are also 3 rest days in this split, which makes it easy for you to recover and stick with the plan without getting burnt out. 

Each workout day is made up of 4-5 exercises, which should be very manageable. Just remember to follow the principle of progressive overload so that you're always challenging yourself to do more weight or more reps each time.

Full Body Split

Here's an example full body split:

• Monday: Full body A
  • flat bench press
  • cable rows
  • squats
  • hamstring curls
  • bicep curls
  • cable lateral raises
  • calf raises
• Tuesday: Rest
• Wednesday: Full body B
  • incline bench press
  • lat pulldowns
  • leg extensions
  • calf raises
  • tricep pushdowns
  • dumbbell lateral raises
    
• Thursday: Rest
• Friday: Full body C
  • chest press machine
  • machine rows
  • leg press
  • RDLs
    
  • cable lateral raises
  • bicep curls
  • tricep pushdowns
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest

Notice that with this split, you're working each muscle group  2-3x per week, which is really great. There are also 4 rest days in this split, which makes it easy for you to recover and stick with the plan without getting burnt out.

One thing to note with the full body split is that on the days that you do work out, it can be pretty intense, as you'll be doing 6-7 exercises with 2-4 of them being compound exercises. However, since there is very little muscle overlap between the exercises, each muscle group will be fresh and ready to go for each exercise.

Sets And Reps

You're probably wondering, "how many sets and reps should I do for each exercise?" Just like with choosing exercises, there is no "silver bullet" number of sets and reps that will magically make you jacked, but the typical guidance is to do 3 sets per exercise, with each set having between 8 and 12 reps if you have less than 2 years of experience working out. Any less than 8 reps, and the weight increase can be challenging for your joints (low reps, high weight), and any more than 12 reps and you start to tax your cardiovascular system rather than your muscles (high reps, low weight).

If you're more experienced or just want to challenge yourself with heavier weights, you could even go down to 5 reps per set on some exercises; studies show that you can build muscle even with as little as 5 reps per set. Of course this means you'll have to increase the weight you're lifting quite a bit so that you're still challenging yourself. This brings up a good question: how do you know you're challenging yourself?

Intensity

You've probably heard the phrase "going to failure" before. This just means doing as many reps as you can possibly do before your muscles cannot physically exert enough force to lift the weight, even if there was a gun to your head. Going to failure certainly provides enough stimulus to trigger muscle growth, but you don't need to (nor should you) go to failure for each set—that would be very taxing on your central nervous system.

The science shows that leaving 2 reps in the tank (or 2 "reps in reserve" or "2 RIR") is enough to build muscle. So when you're doing bench press for example, pick a certain weight that feels challenging that you feel you can do 8-12 reps with. Keep doing reps until you feel like you're at the edge of failure, and then stop. You should feel like you could still do another two reps if someone had a gun pointed to your head, but they would be all out grind reps. This is how you know you're at 2RIR. And this is how each working set should feel if you want to build muscle as quickly as possible.

If you leave 3 or more reps in reserve, you can still grow, but you won't be providing your muscles with enough stimulus for them to grow as quickly as possible. And the more advanced you get, the more important it is to train with intensity, or near 2 RIR.

Conclusion

The best workout plans for skinny guys are ones that allow each muscle group to get hit multiple times a week while maintaining a good amount of rest days. The upper/lower and full body splits provide this for skinny guys. Use either of the plans above as a blueprint for your workouts, and substitute exercises depending on the equipment your gym has, or what feels comfortable for you. And remember to train with intensity, leaving only 2 reps in reserve for each set if you want to grow as quickly as possible.

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