The Ultimate Guide to Building Muscle: A Beginner’s Guide 2025

Introduction

All right what’s going on guys in this blog I am going to be taking you through some minimalistic workouts that will take you under 45 minutes per session that will really help you out in a gym so this is a 2-day per week routine however if you have more training days available than that I will also explain how you can modify these two workouts into a 3-day per week 4 day per week or 5 day per week schedule so everything you need to know to set up your own minimalistic training split will be laid out in this blog and throughout these workouts at gym we will be applying many of the fundamental minimalist training at gym which I will mention down in case you missed it all right let’s get started with full body day one.

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Full Body Day One

Gym Workout Minimalistic plan

So after 2 to 3 minutes of brisk walking on the treadmill at gym and a few dynamic stretches just a few arm swings and a few leg swings is fine we are kicking things off with two sets of flat dumbbell. First set will be a heavy set for four to six reps and the second set will be a lighter back off set for 8 to 10 reps. First dumbbells are generally more time efficient because you do not need to load and unload any plates which does chew up some time and second dumbbells allow for a greater range of motion than the barbell. A dumbbell press or a dip would probably be your best options now from a technique standpoint point, I recommend lowering the dumbbells down with a slight elbow tuck at around 30° to 45°.

Biceps Biomechanics At Gym

After that we are moving on to the dumbbell Romanian deadlift for two sets of 8 to 10 reps, Again you will be going for the dumbbells here mainly because they tend to be a bit more time efficient but the biomechanics of the exercise will be the same. Do not think about lowering the weight to touch the floor, simply set your hips back and let the dumbbells naturally lower in a straight line reversing the motion.

Once you feel a big stretch in your hamstrings without allowing your lower back to round you will like to maintain a nice smooth cadence on these where you do not fully lock out at the top. However if you did want to activate the glutes a bit more you could lock the hips at the top and squeeze your glutes together.

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Two Grip Lap Pull Down At Gym

Next we are doing a two grip lap pull down for two sets of 10 to 12 reps using a different grip for each set so for the first set we are doing a overhand middle grip to target the mid-back and the lats and then on the second set we are doing a underhand close grip to Target the biceps a bit more and to hit the lats from a slightly different angle then after the second set to get a little more bicep work. You can strip the weight back and do some overhead curls this way you will make sure the high threshold bicep fibers experience a high level of muscular tension as well.

Quad and Glute Focus Day At Gym

After that we are moving on to a single working set of 8 to 10 reps per leg on the dumbbell step up. This will be our main quad and glute Focus movement for the day. We want to be forcing our front leg to carry all the load so minimize cheating with your back leg as much as possible and remember that it’s just there for keeping balance.

You would prefer to work each leg one leg at a time because that way you are not losing tension in between reps which can really drag the set out another thing, you may notice is that you need to go heavier than you think most people stop well shy of failure on step-ups and lunges so to get to failure or at least within one rep of failure you will probably need heavier weights than you would normally use and again using straps is smart since they will prevent your grip strength from being a limiting factor. Now you will be going with an overhead triceps extension rather than a regular press down which will already be hit in a more neutral shoulder position with the flat dumbbell press.

Using Overhead Triceps At Gym

If you are limited on time and can only fit in one triceps isolation movement, you would favor a overhead triceps extension more than press Downs. So for these you want to lock your elbow in place with the cable just behind your head squeeze your triceps to move the weight and then lower the weight back down under control and try to feel a nice big stretch at the bottom. After that we have got one set of 12 to 15 reps plus another drop set on the machine.

People personally use this Atlantis standing lateral raise machine at gym mostly because we can get a much larger range of motion here while maintaining consistent tension on their side delts. However, even if you do not have this machine you can use a seated machine option or a cable machine or even dumbbells as long as you are taking the muscle to failure with good form the fibers will be maximally recruited.

Full Body Day Two

Let’s jump into full body day two on the second day we are kicking things off with the hack squat doing one heavy top set for four to six reps and then one lighter back off set for 8 to 10 reps. Now the reason you will be going for the hack squat is because on a minimalist routine you can often get away with less warm-up sets on machines than on free weight compound exercises.

For example with barbell back squats it will sometimes take you a half an hour just to get all your warm-up sets done whereas with the hack squat you will just hit two maybe three quick warm-up sets. You are thinking about driving through your heels while maintaining consistent pressure against the shoulder pads and after the first heavy set you will rest for about 3 minutes and then for the back off set you will drop the weight back and this time focus a little more on controlling the negative and feeling my quads working this is more of the hypertrophy set.

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Agnostics Superset At Gym

Okay after that we are doing an antagonistic super set for the chest and back. Now an antagonistic set is when you train two opposing muscle groups back to back without rest and I am a big fan of these because one muscle will be working while the other is resting so in this case we are doing two sets of a high incline Smith machine press to target the pecs shoulders and triceps and then we are super setting that with a tar row to hit the mid traps lats rear delts, you are doing that so the delts get more involved rather than doing both both a vertical press and a horizontal press.

The pecs and the shoulders with a single movement we are also taking a slightly closer grip so we can take the triceps through a greater range of motion and this will shift some of the emphasis to the upper pecs as well which is a weak point for most people then we are super setting this with 10 to 12 reps on the tar row. After that, You will rest for about 30 seconds to a minute in between the two exercises so just because you are super setting and you are going back and forth does not mean you need to go straight to the other exercise.

Conclusion

All right and to finish off the workout we are doing one set of cable crunches for 12 to 15 reps plus a double drop set so you will likely to do these kneeling with the Rope locked in over your head and then you will crunch down hard on your abs and allow your entire back to round including your lower back.

After reaching failure once you will drop the weight back by about 30% and then go to failure again and then to really finish things off you will do one more drop set this time so you will strip it back another 20 to 30% and then go to failure one last time. If you want to train three days a week than you will do the same full body workout number one and then split the second full body day up into a upper body day. Remember to follow proper diet plan, for which we would recommend a Paleo Diet. Check out our latest article on Importance of Paleo Diet Plan and which Foods to Consider.

FAQs

If you want to have all this work done for you, You can check out my new latest Essentials program which just launched this week over in my another Blog. If you guys have any questions you can reach me out through mail, and comment down about your queries. This one guys thank you so much for watching do not forget to leave me a thumbs up if you enjoyed the Blog, See my next blogs for health and related stuff!

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