Workout highlights

Muscles only grow seriously when you work them at least 2 times a week. This schedule focuses on the upper body and you will see the results at the end of week 6.

Featured exercises

In this serious muscle building program, we choose big exercises, complemented with essential isolation exercises, to achieve as much muscle growth as possible. Below are two highlighted exercises, the rest you will of course find in the app.

Basic principles of your workout plan: Muscle Building

Your body won't change until you seriously challenge it. This workout schedule certainly does that, but only if you commit to it. All you need to do is commit to the following three things:

1. Try to perform the exercises to the best of your ability. Technique is more important than weight.

2. Unless another weight is indicated, choose a weight that allows you to finish the number of repetitions prescribed. Moreover, make sure you can do every final repetition safely on your own. Does it say 10 reps and you find that you can only do 8, or go as high as 12? Then do 8 or 12 reps and adjust the weight for the next set. This sounds trickier than it is. You’ll have found the right weight after a few tries and after that, the app will remember it for you.

3. As your muscle mass grows, you'll be able to lift more weight. In order to keep challenging your muscles, the goal throughout the schedule is to continue to (slightly) increase the weight of the exercises.

Just to eliminate any doubt; when doing exercises with your own body weight, just do the number of reps indicated. Do you see 'max reps'? Then that literally means as many reps as you can do.

How serious are you really?

Let’s be serious. Muscles don't grow without a strong nutrition plan. If you want to get seriously muscular, you will have to eat a little more than your body requires. Although there is no best ‘diet’ for everyone, the basics are usually the same:

• Create a small calorie surplus (10-20% above maintenance). This means that, if your weight is stable at the moment, you're going to increase each meal by 10 to 20%. Just keep in mind: your muscle will not necessarily grow faster if you eat even more than that!

• Try to consume about 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight each day. Spread this out across at least 4 meals.

• Experiment with different ratios of fats and carbohydrates. The ratio doesn't need to be super accurate, it's okay if it varies daily. Easy peasy.

• Focus on natural nutrients rich in vitamins, minerals and fibre.

• We know this is a toughie but, avoid high-calorie, ultra-processed foods whenever you can. These include candy, cookies, savoury snacks, chips, pizza, chocolate, pastries, sweet dairy drinks, sodas, and sweet breakfast cereals.

• Drink plenty of water, black and green tea and reduce your coffee intake.

• Make sure that you are able to stick to your diet!

For specific questions, or to create a personal nutrition plan, we always recommend that you contact a qualified (sports) dietitian. Never change your entire nutrition plan by yourself. Seriously.