If you don’t have much time to spend in the gym every day but still want to build muscle as efficiently as possible, Bodybuilding Blitz is the training program you need. It is available in StrengthLog, which you can download for free using the buttons below.
This article outlines the training split: the workout plan, the exercises, tips regarding progression, and what you can expect when you hit the gym for the first workout.
What Is Bodybuilding Blitz?
Bodybuilding Blitz is a 5-day workout split that combines training for muscle growth and strength. Your training sessions last no longer than 30–40 minutes, but during that time, you’ll perform the best compound exercises for both your large and smaller muscle groups. Better results in less time.
The program is perfect if you want to train almost every day but can only dedicate a limited amount of time to each workout. For example, you could sneak away during lunch, get a workout every workday, and have the weekend off for other activities.
If you’re not interested in lunch break training, the program works great for a fast and effective daily workout any other time, too.
Who Is Bodybuilding Blitz For?
Bodybuilding Blitz is designed for everyone from intermediate to advanced lifters who wants to build muscle like a bodybuilder with short and effective workouts. Advanced bodybuilders with a schedule that doesn’t allow for a high-volume bro split also benefit from Bodybuilding Blitz.
As a bonus, you’ll get stronger in the three powerlifting lifts, the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift. Don’t mistake Bodybuilding Blitz for a dedicated powerlifting program, though. It’s a bodybuilding program for muscle gains, first and foremost.
Presenting Bodybuilding Blitz
Bodybuilding Blitz is a 5-day split consisting of two training blocks back to back: a three-day push/pull/leg-variant and an upper/lower combo.
You start with a leg workout on the first day, then train your back and biceps on the second day, finishing off the first block with chest, shoulders, and triceps on the third day. A classic push/pull/legs training program, in other words, but with a reversed order of the workouts to take your recovery and the second training block of the week into account.
This is classic bodybuilding-style training with a rep range of 10–12, focusing on mind-muscle connection and letting the right muscles do the job.
The second training block consists of two training days and follows directly on the first. It is an upper/lower block where you train the lower body the first day and the upper body the second. Here, you focus on large muscle groups, use heavier weights, and basic exercises.
In summary, building muscle is the name of the game for the first three days of the week. The two final sessions are dedicated to free weights and the best exercises for gaining mass and strength. Of course, things overlap, but the focus is on hypertrophy in the first block and strength + hypertrophy in the other. You train your entire body with isolation and compound exercises to hit all your muscle fibers for the best results in the shortest amount of time.
Read more:
>> The 10 Best Bodybuilding Splits: a Complete Guide
Bodybuilding Blitz: The Workouts
An overview of the different days of Bodybuilding Blitz looks like this:
- Day 1: Quads and Hamstrings
- Day 2: Back and Biceps
- Day 3: Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps
- Day 4: Lower Body
- Day 5: Upper Body
- Day 6: Rest
- Day 7: Rest
Here is an outline of a week of training.
Download the StrengthLog app to see the % of 1RM, number of sets, and reps.
Workout 1 – Quads and Hamstrings
Workout 2 – Back and Biceps
Workout 3 – Chest, Shoulder, and Triceps
Workout 4 – Lower Body
Workout 5 – Upper Body
As you can see, you train each major muscle group twice per week. Research shows that you make similar gains in muscle mass regardless of weekly frequency: training each body part two, five, or six times doesn’t matter much.1
However, keeping your workouts short ensures you’re able to give them your all and stimulate muscle protein synthesis to the last set. Each training session of Bodybuilding Blitz is short, sweet, and high-quality.
Bodybuilding Blitz Progression Model
If you don’t consistently challenge your muscles, they get lazy and stop growing. You keep them on their toes by slowly but surely doing a little more and lifting a little heavier—the best way to force them to adapt to the stress and grow bigger and stronger.
Your two crucial variables for building muscle are training volume and intensity.
Training Volume
Finding the optimal training volume to build muscle can be tricky. More is usually better, but only up to a certain point. Once you reach it, adding even more sets and reps leads to diminishing returns or possibly even overtraining, which makes your gains grind to a halt.
You want a high volume, but not too high.
According to up-to-date scientific evidence, you need at least ten weekly sets per muscle group to optimize muscle hypertrophy.2 Even though you’re not spending hours at the gym, Bodybuilding Blitz has you covered. You hit your major muscle groups with at least ten sets per week, and compound movements for your back, chest, and shoulders also target your smaller biceps and triceps muscles.
Training Intensity
Progressive overload is a fundamental principle of resistance training, including bodybuilding. By increasing the weights when you can, you force your muscles to grow.
Bodybuilding Blitz offers build-in progression in the form of percentage-based 1RM training in the bench press, the squat, the deadlift, and the overhead press.
Once you can lift the target number of reps for any given exercise in the program, you increase the amount of weight next week. Work your way up to the target number of reps again, then rinse and repeat.
If you’re unable to increase the weight, simply stay with that weight until you can. Only beginners can lift more every workout, and as long as you’re consistently pushing yourself, it’s all good.
Preparing for Bodybuilding Blitz
Your 1RM is your one-repetition maximum, the heaviest weight you can lift once with maximal effort. Before heading off to the gym for the first workout of Bodybuilding Blitz, it’s a good idea to establish your 1RM in the bench press, the squat, the deadlift, and the overhead press. Bodybuilding Blitz uses your estimated 1RM in those four lifts for automatic progression.
You’re good to go if you already know your 1RM in these exercises. If you don’t know it, and you don’t want to figure it out by doing heavy singles in the gym (you’re a bodybuilder, not a powerlifter, after all), you can use our handy calculator:
>> The Best 1RM Calculator: Calculate Your One Rep Max
It is based on one of the most accurate equations for predicting 1RM. While no 1RM equation is 100 % correct for everyone, it is plenty good enough for our purposes.
Workout Days and Rest Days
Bodybuilding Blitz allows you to structure your training week in several ways.
The default option entails training five days in a row, followed by two rest days. That’s the best option if you want the weekend free. The program ensures that any particular muscle group gets enough time to recover without any days off during the workday week.
You could also take a rest day after the three-day training block and another day off after the upper and lower split. For example, if Monday is your first training day, Thursday and Sunday will be your days off.
Rest Intervals
How long you want to rest between exercises is up to you. A rest period of two to three minutes is standard practice, but if you’re tight on time, you can reduce it to one minute, at least on less demanding isolation exercises.
If you have the time and prefer to rest longer between sets, go right ahead. You’ll be able to increase both your training intensity and volume. However, the drawback is that your workout session won’t be as short, which might be your main reason for following Bodybuilding Blitz.
The length of your inter-set rest periods won’t make or break your gains, so feel free to adjust them to your preferences.
Training to Failure
When you train to failure, you cannot complete another repetition without using momentum (“cheating”) or assistance. Current research suggests that training to failure is not necessary for strength gains or muscle hypertrophy.3 4
Training to failure is not detrimental in itself and might offer advanced trainees some benefits if used sparingly. However, repeatedly training to failure could impair recovery, stress your central nervous system, and increase muscle damage, possibly slowing your gains.
We suggest you terminate most of your sets one or two repetitions before reaching muscular failure. If you want to implement this advanced training technique, do so in isolation exercises where it’s easy to rack the weight when you fail.
Read more:
>> Training to Failure: Implications for Recovery, Strength and Muscle Gains
When You Reach the End of Bodybuilding Blitz
After three weeks, you have completed one round of Bodybuilding Blitz. Hopefully, you’re feeling pumped and ready for more.
If so, feel free to start the program over and jump back into week one. Keep at it, and the results will keep coming. You get a complete and time-efficient plan to get bigger and stronger, and you don’t have to spend several hours a day in the gym to reach your fitness goals.
Follow This Workout Routine in StrengthLog
Want to give Bodybuilding Blitz a go?
It’s available exclusively in our workout app StrengthLog.
While this program requires a premium subscription, StrengthLog itself is entirely free. You can download it and use it as a workout tracker and general strength training app – and all basic functionality is free forever.
It even has a bunch of free programs and workouts. However, our more advanced programs (such as this one) are for premium users only.
Want to give premium a shot? We offer all new users a free 14-day trial of premium, which you can activate in the app.
Download StrengthLog for free with the buttons below:
Good luck with your training, buddy!
>> Click here to return to our list of training programs.
For more bodybuilding, check out these great resources:
>> All our bodybuilding articles
- J Sports Sci. 2019 Jun;37(11):1286-1295. How many times per week should a muscle be trained to maximize muscle hypertrophy? A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies examining the effects of resistance training frequency.
- Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, June 2022. Resistance training variables for optimization of muscle hypertrophy: an umbrella review.
- J Sports Sci. 2022 Jun 5;1-23. Towards an improved understanding of proximity-to-failure in resistance training and its influence on skeletal muscle hypertrophy, neuromuscular fatigue, muscle damage, and perceived discomfort: A scoping review.
- Journal of Sport and Health Science, Volume 11, Issue 2, March 2022, Pages 202-211. Effects of resistance training performed to repetition failure or non-failure on muscular strength and hypertrophy: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
