It takes a lot of effort to simultaneously lose fat and build muscle in pursuit of a lean, sculpted physique, but it doesn’t have to take months and months. As long as you have a few years of weights-room experience under your belt, you’ll see results from this challenging lean muscle workout plan after four weeks.
And if you have less experience in the gym? Then the muscle gains will probably come quicker if you follow a suitable beginner gym workout.
How To Follow This Lean Muscle Workout Plan
Each week on the plan you’ll be doing four workouts. Workouts 1 and 3 focus on your upper-body, while sessions 2 and 4 are full-body workouts. This means you’ll be hitting your upper body four times a week to help you bulk up, while also maximising fat loss with tough full-body sessions that fire up the biggest muscle groups in your lower body.
How To Do The Workouts
All four of the workouts are made up of five exercises, but the structure of the upper-body sessions is different from the full-body ones. In the full-body workouts you’ll be doing straight sets throughout, while in the upper-body workouts you begin with straight sets before tackling a tri-set to fatigue your muscles thoroughly.
Do the exercises in the order given below, sticking to the sets, reps, tempo and rest as described. Unless the guide says to use a light weight, use the heaviest one that allows you to complete the exercise with perfect form and aim to increase the weight slightly each week.
Sticking to the tempo given for each move is crucial to maximising the effects of these workouts. Our weightlifting tempo guide goes into greater depth, but essentially the four-digit code indicates how long to spend on each stage of an exercise. The first digit is how long you should take to lower the weight, the second is how long you pause at the bottom of the move, the third is how long for the lift, and then the fourth is how long you pause at the top. A number indicates the seconds you should take, while an X means to do that stage explosively.
Lean Muscle Workout 1: Upper Body 1
1 Bench press
Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec
Lie on a flat bench holding a barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, then lower the bar towards your chest. Press it back up to the start.
2 Chin-up
Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec
Hold a bar with an underhand grip. Brace your core, then pull yourself up until your chin is higher than the bar. Lower until your arms are straight again.
3A Incline dumbbell flye
Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 10sec
Lie on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand above your face, with your palms facing and a slight bend in your elbows. Lower them to the sides, then bring them back to the top.
3B Triceps extension
Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 10sec
Stand tall holding a dumbbell over your head with both hands, arms straight. Keeping your chest up, lower the weight behind your head, then raise it back to the start.
3C Lateral raise
Sets 2 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 60sec
Stand tall, holding a light dumbbell in each hand with palms facing. Keeping your chest up and a bend in your elbows, raise the weights to the sides until they reach shoulder height. Lower back to the start.
Lean Muscle Workout 2: Total Body 1
1 Squat
Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec
Stand tall with a bar across the back of your shoulders. Keeping your chest up and core braced, squat down as deep as you can. Drive back up through your heels to return to the start.
2 Bent-over row
Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2011 Rest 60sec
Hold a barbell with an overhand grip, hands just outside your legs. Bend your knees slightly, brace your core, then pull the bar up, leading with your elbows. Lower it back to the start.
3 Triceps dip
Sets 3 Reps 8-12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec
Grip rings or parallel bars with your arms straight. Keeping your chest up, bend your elbows to lower your body as far as your shoulders allow. Press back up powerfully to return to the start.
4 Good morning
Sets 3 Reps 8-12 Tempo 2110 Rest 60sec
Stand tall holding a light barbell across the back of your shoulders, feet shoulder-width apart. With your core braced, bend forwards slowly from the hips, as far as your hamstrings allow but not past horizontal. Return to the start.
5 Barbell roll-out
Sets 3 Reps 8-12 Tempo 4111 Rest 60sec
Kneel on the floor holding a barbell with both hands. Roll the bar forwards so you lower your torso, keeping your core braced. Then use your abs muscles to return to the start.
Lean Muscle Workout 3: Upper Body 2
1 Incline bench press
Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec
Lie on an incline bench holding a barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, then lower the bar towards your chest. Press it back up to the start.
2 Pull-up
Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec
Hold a pull-up bar using an overhand grip with hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, then pull yourself up until your lower chest touches the bar. Lower until your arms are straight again.
3A Seated overhead press
Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 10sec
Sit on an upright bench with a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder height. Keeping your chest up, press the weights directly overhead until your arms are straight, then lower them back to the start.
3B Standing biceps curl
Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2110 Rest 10sec
Stand with dumbbells by your sides, palms facing forwards. Keeping your elbows tucked in, curl the weights up, squeezing your biceps at the top. Lower them back to the start.
3C Reverse flye
Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 60sec
Bend forward from the hips with a light dumbbell in each hand with palms facing. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, raise the weights out to shoulder height, then lower back to the start.
Lean Muscle Workout 4: Total Body 2
1 Front squat
Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec
Stand tall with a bar across the front of your shoulders with elbows up. Keeping your core braced, squat down as deep as you can. Drive back up through your heels to return to the start.
2 Rack pull
Sets 5 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 60sec
Stand tall in front of a barbell resting on safety bars at knee height. Bend at the knees and hips, grasp the bar using an overhand grip and deadlift the bar up, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top.
3 Hip thrust
Sets 3 Reps 8-12 Tempo 2111 Rest 60sec
Sit with your upper back supported on a bench, holding a barbell across the tops of your thighs. Thrust your hips up and squeeze your glutes at the top. Then return to the start.
4 Overhead press
Sets 3 Reps 8-12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec
Hold a bar on the front of your shoulders with your hands just wider than shoulder-width apart. Keeping your chest up and core braced, press the bar overhead until your arms are straight. Lower it back to the start.
5 Barbell roll-out
Sets 3 Reps 8-12 Tempo 2111 Rest 60sec
Kneel on the floor holding a barbell with both hands. Roll the bar forwards so you lower your torso, keeping your core braced. Then use your abs muscles to return to the start.
