The Golden Six: The Ideal Muscle Building Workout

There are a thousand different workout routines out there, employed by a million different lifters. It can be difficult to find the one that is best for you, as the most effective routine is usually the one you’re not using! Here is a routine known as the Golden Six, a muscle building workout employed by many bodybuilding greats of the 1960s and 1970s to build a solid foundation of muscle.

• Squats: Three sets of 8 to 12 repetitions
• Bench press: Three sets of 8 to 12 repetitions
• Deadlift: Three sets of 8 to 12 repetitions
• Barbell Rowing: Three sets of 8 to 12 repetitions
• Military Press: Three sets of 8 to 12 repetitions
• Barbell Curls: Three sets of 8 to 12 repetitions

This workout will effectively stimulate every large group of muscle fibers in the body, several times over. You should complete this workout three times per week, usually on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday to avoid the crowds that tend to stick to the Mon-Wed-Fri routines. Once you complete three solid months of this routine, you will be ready to return to your most traditional “train each body part once a week” routine, carving some detail into the new slabs of muscle.

Remember that it is highly important to sleep adequately and consume plenty of protein when using this routine. This is a higher volume routine which will truly tax your recovery ability. If you are sore from the squats or deadlifts when the next workout arrives, you can use lighter weight – just enough to draw enough blood into the region to stimulate some growth and break up lactic acids. Overtraining is your enemy, but the body is remarkably able to adjust and adapt fairly easily to the demands you place upon it. So don’t hold back!

You can make adjustments to this muscle building workout to better suit your needs and abilities. If you are unable to recover adequately from these workouts, you should consider dropping the number of sets to two per exercise (making the routine 12 sets total, instead of 18). You can also use less weight, or even fewer repetitions. Make adjustments for the first several weeks until your body adjusts to what is a pretty tough workout!

Users of anabolic steroids in particular may find this kind of muscle building workout to be ideal. Slow or hard gainer bodybuilders might discover it’s just too much for their system, at which time they can move it to an “every three day” workout to allow for that extra day of recovery twice each week. You may be tempted to train more than once per day, as are many users of steroids, but this is typically not the best way to go! You can also create your own variations of the Golden Six as you work to find the ideal muscle building workout. Stick with compound movements, sets of 6 to 15 repetitions, and keep your total set count under 25. Good luck in your heavy training!