My 5 Best Muscle Building Programs: Muscle Mass, and Functional Strength

It’s very clear that my muscle building programs are my most popular programs. In fact, my number one program has hundreds of thousands of views since it was released. Most athletes want to look muscular, and be functionally fit. In this article, I’m going to cover my 5 best muscle building programs, including a few that you may not have seen before. Keep reading for more.

First, I want to cover a few ground rules. Most of these programs will be aimed at functional fitness athletes, but not all of them. For building muscle, I like to write fairly hard programs that include a lot of lifting as well as WODs and metcons. In fact, there is some evidence that a well written WOD can actually create muscle mass just like traditional style lifting. If you review the height and weight of natural bodybuilders and top level Crossfit athletes, you’ll find that they carry almost the same amount of muscle.

However, I will include a few different styles of program because I understand that not everyone has the same goals. There will be one pure bodybuilding program, that has no conditioning component to it, and I will include some hybrid programs, that will build muscle mass, as well as strength.

This article will list each program with links to the first part of the program, if it is a multipart series. Almost all of my programs have PDFs or downloads that accompany them, so make sure that you follow the link to that specific program. I’ve also written much more thoroughly about the programs on each of their pages. You’ll find that all your questions should be answered there. Without further ado, let’s get into my best muscle building programs.

Here is a quick list of all the programs.

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• The 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program
• 6 Weeks of Muscular Growth for Functional Fitness Athletes Program
• 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program
• 10 Week Functional Power Building Program
• The 15 Week Lift Heavy Run Fast Program

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My Best Muscle Building Programs for Hypertrophy and Fitness

I’ve put these programs up front because they are by far my most popular programs. These two programs are ideal for intermediate to advanced athletes. There aren’t many advanced movements in them, but they do have a fair amount of volume, and wouldn’t be appropriate for complete beginners. As long as you have safe form on the basic lifts, and at least 6 months experience in the gym, you should be ok with these programs.

The 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program

The 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program is heavily biased towards building muscle mass. I’ve included a lot of compound lifts, prior to the WOD. It also increases in difficulty towards the end of the programming series. I’m going to show you the first 8 weeks here, but the full series is 24 weeks. Here is a sample week.

This program starts out with four days per week, and each day is a vertical column. I’ve utilized a push pull method of programming. This allows you to hit each muscle group twice per week, which research shows is ideal for building muscle mass. You can also see that I’ve included single joint accessory work, like bicep curls, because you can’t be jacked without big arms right?

If you want the premium version of this program, with all the coaches notes, warm ups, and more, get it here.

As I mentioned above, this is the first 8 weeks of the program, and it only gets harder from there. If you compare this program to a traditional volume based program, you’ll find that this is almost double what traditional programs have. It’s hard. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

6 Weeks of Muscular Growth for Functional Fitness Athletes Program

The 6 Weeks of Muscular Growth for Functional Fitness Program, is less intense than the previous program. If my hybrid program is 70% muscle building and 30% conditioning, this program is probably 60/40. It’s still about 30% more volume than most athletes are used to. Don’t underestimate it! Here is a sample week.

This program is 5 days per week, with one day of sprinting thrown in. All other sessions have two compound lifts, done with maximum intensity, and then a WOD. I recommend taking a quick break between the lifts and the WOD, otherwise you’ll find you have very little gas going into it.

More astute readers will notice that I often program my WODs with similar movements to the muscle building lifts. This is for a reason. Research has shown that you need at least 40-60 hard reps per session, per muscle group. The WOD helps to achieve this volume.

Moreover, most research indicates that you can build more muscle mass when your muscles experience higher mechanical tension. Said a little more plainly, lifting heavier weights will yield more muscle mass. Now, there are limits, but this program has you working with a moderately high volume, and heavy loads. This will provide a strong muscle building stimulus for your body.

If you want the premium version with the same advice I give my in person athletes get it here.

At this point, some of you will no doubt wonder if I have any programs for pure bodybuilding. The answer to that question is yes, I do. Let’s check it out.

My Best Muscle Building Programs for Pure Muscle Mass

This program is designed for those that don’t care about doing WODs or Metcons. It’s 12 weeks in length, which is an ideal length to build an appreciable amount of muscle. I generally tell folks that if they are training hard, and eating correctly, it’ll take about one month for others to start noticing a difference in your physique, and two months for you to notice big changes. After three months your body needs to rotate to a different program, and most likely needs at least a week of rest, depending on how hard you’ve been training.

12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program

The 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program is heavily influenced by muscle building research. I’ve taken a look at research summarizing hundreds of studies, to make sure that this program is well grounded in actual science, not bro science. Let’s take a look.

You can see that there are quite a few more blocks in this program than my others. That’s because I can’t use the WODs to help create the necessary volume per muscle group. This is both good and bad because one of the drivers of hypertrophy is metabolic stress, and WODs are very good at creating this. It’s good in that I can use more specific movements to target the right muscles for growth. It also allows me to program lifts that aren’t as common in the functional fitness community.

Each session is a vertical column, and the primary movements are in green and gray. Accessory movements are in blue, and secondary accessory movements are in dark grey. Most athletes will be doing this program 5 days in a row, but I’ve built in flexibility as needed. Check the link for all the details on this pure muscle building program.

My Best Muscle Building Programs for Strength and Hypertrophy

Most of my athletes aren’t just satisfied with building muscle, they want to be strong too. This is where this program comes in. It’s equal parts strength and power, with some emphasis on maintaining functional fitness as well. Let’s get into it.

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The 10 Week Functional Power Building Program

The 10 Week Functional Power Building Program is one of my favorite programs for athletes that need strength and muscle mass, but can’t afford to let their conditioning slack. I often recommend it for people like off season team sports athletes, police, and combat athletes, in their off seasons.

This program has specific percentage based work on all major compound movements. This type of periodization requires that you follow the percentages as best you can, otherwise you won’t gain as much strength as you might. It’s one of the biggest differences between a strength program and a pure bodybuilding program. If you just want muscle mass, you don’t have to worry as much about gaining strength.

If you want to build strength, you have to force your body to gradually adapt to heavier, and heavier loads, as this program does. I’ve also included accessory movements that will help build muscle mass in the same areas that the compound percentage based lifts cover. This will help you build muscle as well as strength.

My Best Muscle Building Programs for Endurance and Muscle Mass

Every now and again I have folks that want to build strength and muscle mass, but need to maintain conditioning as well. I’ve created this program for them. I often recommend it for folks in the military who need to be highly aerobically fit, and need maximal strength as well. While it may take longer to build mass and fitness, there’s nothing that says you can’t have both.

The 15 Week Lift Heavy Run Fast Program

The 15 Week Lift Heavy Run Fast Program is a functional fitness program that is evenly split between lifting, building muscle mass, and WODs. It’s fairly challenging and shouldn’t be done by athletes who are not experienced lifters, and runners as well. Here is a sample week.

It’s important to remember that while you can increase your running, muscle mass, and strength, you can’t do all three at once. There will be some interference effect. I would recommend this style of training after finishing a more traditional muscle mass program. This leads me to the next question I’m commonly asked. What order should you do my programs, if you wanted to do all of them?

In Which Order Should You Do My 5 Best Muscle Building Programs?

To best answer this question I’m going to assume that I’m recommending a programming series for an intermediate athlete who has done functional fitness style training before, and wants to build pure muscle mass as their primary goal. In that case, this is the order I would recommend.

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1. 6 Weeks of Muscular Growth for Functional Fitness Athletes Program
2. The 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program
3. 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program
4. The 15 Week Lift Heavy Run Fast Program
5. 10 Week Functional Power Building Program

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The 6 week program is two parts and will last for 12 total weeks. It’s a good intro into this style of high volume lifting. It will dovetail nicely with the 8 week hybrid program, which is 24 weeks in total. This will build to my highest volume program, which is the 12 week free bodybuilding program.

After that, you need to regain some conditioning and strength, which is why I placed the lift heavy run fast program next, followed by the functional power building program. If done in this order you’ll be able to build significant amounts of muscle mass and strength. This would also keep you occupied for a total of 73 weeks, or a year and a half of programming!

No matter how awesome these programs are, you won’t build any muscle mass if you don’t pay attention to your nutrition and recovery. Coincidentally, that’s what we’re going to talk about next.

How Should You Eat To Build Muscle Mass Without Unwanted Fat?

If I have one gripe with the fitness industry is it’s all or none mentality. You can find a million articles and Youtube videos telling you to workout all day, and eat 12,000 calories, and other nonsense. The fact is that you don’t need much of a caloric surplus to build muscle. As long as you eat adequate protein, and roughly the same amount of carbs, you’re going to be able to build muscle.

I highly recommend reading my Ultimate Nutrition Guide which covers the basics of eating like an athlete. You can also find some excellent resources on food selection and high protein recipes in this article about fat loss. Obviously you aren’t looking to lose fat, but the nutrition resources will be very valuable.

Final Thoughts

You have everything you need to make real changes in your physique, including building a lot of muscle. My advice to you is to make sure you’re doing the basics correctly. Eat enough, sleep 7-8 hours a night, and make sure you stay hydrated.

Muscle mass isn’t created by having the best muscle building programs. It requires day in and day out effort. After a few months, you should be seeing some awesome changes. Now get out there and get training! If you have any questions, put them in the comments below, and I’ll get you an answer.

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