Bodybuilding Machine Workout Routine, 5x/Week

StrengthLog’s Bodybuilding Machine Workout Routine is a 5-day progressive training program for intermediate-level bodybuilders and above, designed to build muscle with machines only.

In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the workout plan: if it’s for you, what the program looks like, how to get started, and more.

This is a premium program in our workout tracker app, StrengthLog. When you follow it in-app, you can easily keep track of the weights you use, how many reps you do, and see your gains as they happen.

Download StrengthLog to get started:

Or click here to go directly to the workout routine in the app.

Why Machines?

Why? Because machines are awesome.

Machines let you push to failure safely and without a spotter. They let you establish a mind-muscle connection that’s hard to get when you’re also trying to keep a barbell steady. And they give you that unmatched stability bodybuilders desire.

A muscle doesn’t know if it’s lifting a dumbbell or a selectorized stack. It just knows tension and effort. And you can provide it with both at least as well with machines as with free weights.

Current exercise science also supports machines as being as good as any barbell or dumbbell for building muscle.

A 2023 meta-analysis looking at all the available evidence found no significant difference between training with free weights and training with machines.¹ Both methods led to similar muscle gains.

The authors speculated that the very best approach to “maximize total muscle growth” might be to use a combination of both free weights and machines. But if you want to stick with either one exclusively, you’re good. There is zero problem with using only machines as a bodybuilder.

What Is the Bodybuilding Machine Workout Routine?

With the above in mind, if you want to build muscle like a bodybuilder but without free weights, this is the workout plan for you.

Over five weeks, you’ll gradually increase your training volume and intensity, training five days per week and hitting each major muscle group twice weekly.

You’ll get stronger, but most importantly, you’ll build muscle. And you’ll do it with machine-only training: gym machines, cables, and the Smith machine.

How the Bodybuilding Machine Workout Routine Is Structured

This workout routine follows a 5-day plan. Here’s what you’ll be training each day:

• Day 1: Push (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps)
• Day 2: Pull (Back, Rear Delts, Biceps)
• Day 3: Legs (Quad Focus), Abs
• Day 4: Rest
• Day 5: Upper Body
• Day 6: Lower Body (Glute & Hamstring Focus), Abs
• Day 7: Rest

You’re free to shift the rest days around to fit your life and schedule. For example, you could train five days in a row, followed by the weekend off.

Exercise Selection, Sets, & Rep Ranges

The Bodybuilding Machine Workout Routine combines compound exercises for medium reps (8–12) and higher-rep isolation movements, so you’ll hit all muscle fibers from every angle.

You will not be doing any super-heavy powerlifting-style training, so don’t expect low-rep, grinding sets. You’re training like a bodybuilder, chasing the pump through volume and metabolic stress.

The workout plan starts with a conservative training volume, building to 15+ weekly sets for the big muscle groups. At all times, you’ll do a minimum of 10 sets per muscle group, often considered the breaking point to reach for optimal hypertrophy.²

Note: The Bodybuilding Machine Workout Routine is not a beginner program.

It is best suited for intermediate to advanced lifters. You want to be able to recover from training five days per week, and you can autoregulate (adjusting your training variables depending on how you’re performing and feeling on a given day).

If you’re just starting out, the volume and intensity might be a bit much. Our beginner machine programs will be a much better fit for you at this point:

• Beginner Machine Program
• Bodybuilding for Beginners: Machine Version

The Bodybuilding Machine Workout Routine Day-By-Day

Here’s a sneak peek at what the first week of the Bodybuilding Machine Workout Routine looks like in StrengthLog. With a premium subscription, you get built-in progression week by week.

You can view it more as a template than a program set in stone. Feel free to swap exercises for ones that you prefer or that work better for your body and the equipment your gym has to offer.

For example, you might do machine hack squats instead of Smith machine squats or switch out reverse machine flyes for the cable version. Just two examples.

Day 1: Push Day

You start the training week with a classic Push/Pull/Legs (PPL) split, the first workout being chest, shoulders, and triceps day.

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Incline Machine Chest Press	3	10
Machine Chest Press	3	10
Machine Chest Fly	2	12
Machine Shoulder Press	3	10
Cable Lateral Raise	3	12
Overhead Cable Triceps Extension	3	10
Tricep Pushdown	2	12

Day 2: Pull Day

Day two is all about your pulling muscles: back and biceps. And you’re training your rear delts with your back, too.

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Machine Lat Pulldown	3	10
Cable Seated Row	3	10
Seated Machine Row	2	12
Straight Arm Lat Pulldown	2	12
Reverse Machine Fly	2	12
Machine Biceps Curl	3	10
Cable Curl With Rope	2	12

Day 3: Leg Day (Quad Focus) + Abs

This is the third and last workout of the PPL days, and L stands for Legs. You’re focusing on your quads here, with some ab work for good measure.

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Smith Machine Squat	3	8
Leg Press	3	12
Leg Extension	2	12
Smith Machine Bulgarian Split Squat	2	10
Seated Leg Curl	3	12
Machine Crunch	4	12

Day 4: Rest

Time to rest up and prepare for the last two training days of the week. You can also continue training and do five days in a row, resting on the weekend instead, if you prefer. But this is how the training plan is programmed by default.

Day 5: Upper Body

On the fifth day, you train your entire upper body: chest, back, shoulders, and arms.

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Smith Machine Incline Bench Press	3	8
Lat Pulldown	3	8
Seated Machine Row	2	10
Standing Cable Chest Fly	2	12
Machine Lateral Raise	3	12
Machine Biceps Curl	3	12
Machine Triceps Press	3	12

Day 6: Legs (Glute & Hamstring Focus) + Abs

Last workout of the week, and it’s back to legs. You did quads before, so now it’s time for mostly glutes and hamstrings. And abs, focusing on rotation this time.

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Seated Leg Press	3	8
Smith Machine Romanian Deadlift	3	8
Seated Leg Curl	3	10
Hip Thrust Machine	3	8
Smith Machine Lunge	2	8
Horizontal Wood Chop with Cable	4	12

Day 7: Rest

Wee-hoo! It’s another day of well-deserved rest before it’s time for Day 1 and back to the grind.

Remember that you can choose other, similar exercises you like better. StrengthLog even has a built-in function that suggests alternative exercises, so if the default selection isn’t your cup of whey, feel free to change things up.

When you follow the program in the app, you get clear instructions on how to progress, with rep and volume changes clearly outlined from week to week.

Warm-Up & Prep for the Bodybuilding Machine Workout Routine (Fast, Effective Template)

Don’t forget to warm up before loading up the full stack of the machine. You’ll improve performance and might reduce the risk of injury. Warming up is most important early in the workout.

Try this short and sweet routine before your workouts:

• General: 5–8 minutes of easy cardio + 2–3 dynamic drills for the day’s joints (e.g., high knees, hip openers, scapular pull-ups).
• Specific: Do one or two light warm-up sets of your first exercise, then go. One warm-up set is likely enough for later compound lifts, and you might not need any at all before isolation exercises for the same muscles you’ve just trained with compounds.

Bodybuilding Machine Workout Routine Progression: How to Keep Building Muscle

The secret to building muscle is not very secret at all. It’s about putting in the work and getting better over time.

That brings us to the golden rule of strength training (any training, actually): progressive overload.

It sounds way more complicated than it is. All it means is that to continue building muscle (or getting stronger, running faster, jumping higher—you name it) over time, you have to give your body a reason to adapt.

You can’t just lift the same 150 lb for 8 reps forever and expect to look different.

And that means doing one more rep here, adding a set there, and moving the pin down the weight stack and lifting heavier.

When and How to Increase Weights and Reps

Here’s your step-by-step plan:

1. Every exercise in this bodybuilding machine workout plan has a target repetition or a specified rep range. Let’s use 10 reps for your big leg day machine squat as an example.
2. You finally hit 3 sets of 10 reps (3×10) at 150 lb. And you did it with good form. Nicely done. Next workout, it’s time to add a small amount of weight, like 5 lb. Now the bar is 155 lb.
3. That new 155 lb is going to feel heavy. You might only get 3 sets of 8 (3×8). That’s part of the plan and expected.
4. Your new job is to conquer those 155 lb. Stick with that weight, and over the next few workouts, you’ll fight for an extra rep here and there. Maybe next week is 9, 9, 8. The week after, 10, 10, 9. You chip away at it until you’re back at 3 sets of 10.
5. Once you hit 3×10 at 155… you know the drill. It’s time to go to 160 lb and start the climb all over again.

The above goes for all exercises, from compound lifts that work many muscle groups to isolation movements that zero in on a smaller muscle like your biceps.

• Finally nailed all your sets of 12 on machine curls? Nudge the pin down one slot.
• Cruised through 10 clean reps on your incline Smith machine presses? Time to add 5 or so more lb.

If you’re new to strength training, you might be able to add weight every week or every other week, but if you’re already an advanced lifter, it can take some time. And that’s normal. Gains always slow down as you get more experienced.

Loading Recommendations

Here are general guidelines on how you can structure your progression:

• Big Lifts (Squats, Presses, Rows): Aim to add ~1–2.5 kg (2.5–5 lb) to upper-body lifts and ~2.5–5 kg (5–10 lb) to lower-body lifts whenever you hit the target reps for all sets for a given exercise (~1–2 reps in reserve (RIR) is OK).

• Accessory Lifts (Curls, Flyes, Lateral Raises, etc.): Increase the load by the smallest amount the machine allows when you can hit your target reps on all sets and 0–2 RIR.

But remember that this is bodybuilding. You want to stimulate growth, not lift as heavy as possible at all costs. Progression is key, but never at the expense of form. If the next step up in load is too far, try to do one more rep instead.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Bodybuilding Machine Workout Routine

Follow the Bodybuilding Machine Workout Routine in StrengthLog

What’s the best way to track the bodybuilding machine workout routine?

In StrengthLog, our workout log app. It’s one of our many bodybuilding programs and our first premium machine-only program.

That way, it’s super easy to keep track of your weights and reps and make sure you’re on the right path to tremendous gains.

StrengthLog remembers what weights you used in your last session, and automatically loads them into your next one. And trying to improve on your last workout is the key to improving and getting stronger over time.

Download it and start tracking your gains today!

Note that StrengthLog is free, but you’ll need a subscription to follow this program in-app. We offer a 14-day free trial (no strings attached and no funny business) that you can activate in the app, so you can check it out before making a decision.

Final Rep

And that’s a wrap! You’re now officially armed with our best bodybuilding machine workout routine that takes the guesswork out of your training.

This plan works if you work. The machines provide the path; you just have to provide the horsepower.

Now, stop scrolling, put your phone in your pocket (unless it’s to track your lifts in StrengthLog), and get to work.

More Bodybuilding

Want more bodybuilding? Check out our fantastic resources:

• Bodybuilding: The Ultimate Guide: Everything you need to know about bodybuilding, from workout routines to supplements to contest prep.
• Bodybuilding for Beginners: Learn the basics, the training, the nutrition, the supplements, and everything else to help you get started on your bodybuilding journey.
• Bodybuilding Statistics: Unleash your inner data nerd and find all the bodybuilding stats you can shake a stick at, whether out of personal interest or for a work or school project
• Best Bodybuilding Programs, Beginner to Advanced: Find the right bodybuilding routine for you. Fifteen of the best, all available in StrengthLog.
• The 8 Mandatory Bodybuilding Poses: A Complete Guide: Master the mandatory bodybuilding poses to showcase the physique you’ve worked so hard to build.

Or take a look at this list of all our bodybuilding programs and workouts.

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Last reviewed: 2026-01-15

References

1. BMC Sports Sci Med Rehabil. 2023 Aug 15;15(1):103. Effect of free-weight vs. machine-based strength training on maximal strength, hypertrophy and jump performance – a systematic review and meta-analysis.
2. J Sports Sci. 2017 Jun;35(11):1073-1082. Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass: A systematic review and meta-analysis.