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5 Day Workout Plans

5 day workout plans are an effective way to organize higher frequency training. This provides enough training sessions per week to focus on a few muscle groups per session while still hitting each muscle group multiple times each week.

Best 5 Day Workout Plans

  1. GZCL Method
  2. PHAT
  3. nSuns LP
  4. Candito 6 Week Program
  5. Brazos Valley 8 Week Intermediate Program
  6. Greg Nuckols High Frequency
  7. Brendan Tietz Submax DUP Powerlifting
  8. Intermediate Bodybuilding Routine (Ripped Body)
  9. Ivysaur 3 Week Aesthetic Routine
  10. Bulgarian Method

Dan John 40 Day Program Spreadsheet (Even Easier Strength)

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The Dan John 40 Day Program runs for 40 workouts, ideally five days a week, so about eight weeks start to finish. You do the same five movements every session: a push, a pull, a hinge, a squat, and a loaded carry. Most days are just two easy sets of five, and only a handful of wave days mix in a 5-3-2, six singles, or a light set of ten.

This is Dan John’s Even Easier Strength, his free write-up of the Easy Strength method he built with Pavel Tsatsouline. The idea is to treat strength like a skill: train it often, keep the weights light, never miss a rep, and never grind. You add load only when the bar starts to feel light, so you finish each session feeling better than when you walked in.

It’s a good fit if you’re busy or in-season and want to hold or slowly build strength without the fatigue of a hard program. If you’re after size or a peak for a meet, skip it and run something like Dan John’s Mass Made Simple instead. The light, never-grind setup here is built for clean practice, not max effort.

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Power Muscle Burn 5-Day Powerbuilding Split Spreadsheet

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Power Muscle Burn is a 5-day powerbuilding split that trains each muscle group three ways in a single session. You open with heavy power sets in the 3 to 5 range, drop to moderate muscle sets of 6 to 12, then close with a high-rep burn set taken to about 40 reps. The split runs chest and triceps, back and traps, quads and calves, shoulders and biceps, then deadlift and hamstrings.

Powerbuilding means you chase strength and size in the same block instead of picking one. That’s the whole point of the Power, Muscle, Burn method from Steve Shaw of Muscle & Strength. The heavy work keeps you strong, the moderate work adds muscle, and the burn set squeezes out the last bit of growth. You run it when you want to get bigger and stronger at once without switching programs.

It’s a good fit for intermediate lifters who want both strength and size and can commit to five training days a week. You don’t need a max or any percentages to start. Skip it if you want a pure strength or pure hypertrophy focus, or if you can’t train five days a week.

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Brian DeGennaro 16-Week Olympic Weightlifting Program Spreadsheet

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The Brian DeGennaro 16-Week Olympic Weightlifting Program, also called his Team Program, is a long peaking block for the snatch and the clean and jerk. You train five days a week, Sunday through Thursday, across two phases that build strength first and then sharpen the lifts for a meet.

It’s an advanced, competitive program. It’s built for lifters who already compete or are training toward a meet, not for someone still learning the lifts.

DeGennaro shared this as a free program, but his original weightlifting-forum post is offline now, so the spreadsheet is the easiest way to run it. Enter your maxes and the loads fill in for every day across both phases.

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Chad Vaughn 4 Weeks to Bigger Lifts Weightlifting Program Spreadsheet

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4 Weeks to Bigger Lifts is a short Olympic weightlifting program from Chad Vaughn, a two-time Olympic weightlifter. It runs five days a week for a month and works the snatch, the clean and jerk, and supporting squat and pull work.

While the name sounds like a peaking cycle, this is really a technique and position primer. The reps stay low, and the point is cleaning up how the lifts feel so they hold up when you go heavy again.

It’s a good fit if you can already do the lifts and want a month to fix your positions and make them feel automatic. Vaughn first shared it as a free Breaking Muscle program. If you’re after a peaking block or a way to push your total, this isn’t it, so come in expecting cleaner lifts rather than bigger numbers.

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Mike Burgener 23-Day Bulgarian Weightlifting Program Spreadsheet

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The 23-Day Bulgarian Program is a short, high-frequency Olympic weightlifting cycle from coach Mike Burgener (Coach B). You train five days a week and hit the snatch and the clean and jerk almost every day, with front and back squats rotating in. It runs about five weeks and 23 sessions in total.

It’s built for advanced lifters who are comfortable training the classic lifts often. The volume on the snatch and clean and jerk is heavy and constant, so it isn’t where you learn the lifts. If you want a longer build first, Burgener’s 12-week cycle is the slower option.

We rebuilt Coach B’s program as a clean Lift Vault spreadsheet. Enter your maxes once and every working weight for all 23 days fills in for you, so you can just train and log what you hit.

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Vince Gironda 10-8-6-15 Workout Spreadsheet

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Vince Gironda built some of the best physiques of the golden era, and the 10-8-6-15 system is one of his classic muscle-and-definition methods. Every exercise runs the same four-set wave: a lighter primer, two heavier sets, then a high-rep burnout.

The scheme is named after the reps. Set 1 is 10 reps at 50% of your 6-rep max, Set 2 is 8 reps at 75%, Set 3 is 6 reps at your full 6RM, and Set 4 is 15 reps at 35%. Slow, strict tempo and short rest do the rest.

We built a calculator so you enter your 6-rep max for each exercise once and all four working sets fill in for you.

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Simple & Sinister Kettlebell Program Spreadsheet (Pavel)

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Simple & Sinister is Pavel Tsatsouline’s minimalist kettlebell program, and it might be the most popular kettlebell routine ever written. Two movements, about 15 to 20 minutes, done most days of the week. It builds real strength, a bulletproof back, and serious work capacity.

The session never changes: 100 one-arm swings and 10 Turkish get-ups, both done by the clock. You run it as an ongoing practice and chase two goals, called Simple and then Sinister, by slowly moving up in kettlebell size.

We built a session log plus a standards table so you can track your weights and your times and see exactly when you’ve earned the next bell.

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Dan John 10,000 Swing Kettlebell Workout Spreadsheet

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The 10,000 Swing Kettlebell Workout is Dan John’s famous 4-5 week challenge. You do 10,000 kettlebell swings split across 20 workouts, which works out to 500 swings a session. It’s brutally simple, and it’s one of the best ways to lean out and build work capacity without losing strength.

Each workout is 500 two-hand swings done as 5 rounds of 10, 15, 25, and 50 reps. Between the swing sets you do one strength exercise on a short rep ladder, so you build a little pressing or pulling strength while you grind out the swings.

We built a tracker that does the counting for you. Log each workout and the sheet keeps your running total, so you always know how many swings you have left to hit 10,000.

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Caroline Girvan EPIC I & II Program Spreadsheet

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EPIC is a pair of free 10-week, 5-day-a-week follow-along programs from Caroline Girvan: EPIC I and EPIC II. Every workout is a free video on her YouTube channel, built around dumbbells and bodyweight.

The sessions are timer-based rather than rep-based. Most exercises run 30 seconds of work then 30 seconds of rest, so you push at your own pace with good form for 30 to 60 minutes a session.

EPIC is aimed at intermediate to advanced trainees who are comfortable with squats, lunges, planks, push ups, dumbbells, and HIIT. If you want a more traditional gym hypertrophy plan instead, take a look at our HST program.

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Stronger By Science (SBS) Program Bundle by Greg Nuckols

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The Stronger By Science (SBS) Program Bundle is a collection of six autoregulated training programs from Greg Nuckols. It’s free with an email signup on the Stronger By Science website, and it comes as a Google Sheets workbook.

The bundle covers six 21-week programs across different goals and experience levels. There’s also a standalone Program Builder that lets you customize almost everything. Getting autoregulation and periodization wired together like this is rare for a free resource.

There’s a catch worth knowing before you start. The spreadsheet automates so much of the programming that there’s a real learning curve. Spend 20-30 minutes with the included PDF instructions before your first session, and don’t skip that step.

If you’re already familiar with Greg Nuckols’ work, you might know his popular 28 Programs (also available here on Lift Vault). The SBS Program Bundle is a more recent and more sophisticated set of programs. Think of the 28 Programs as individual single-lift routines you mix and match yourself. The SBS Bundle is a full training system with built-in autoregulation and multi-lift programming already wired together.

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LSUS 10-5-3 Olympic Weightlifting Program Spreadsheet

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The LSUS 10-5-3 is a 10-week Olympic weightlifting program created by Dr. Kyle Pierce at Louisiana State University Shreveport. It’s built on block periodization – you spend 3 weeks doing sets of 10, then 3 weeks of sets of 5, then 3 weeks of sets of 3, followed by a 1-week taper into a max-out or competition. You’ll train 5 days per week with a mix of Olympic lifts, squats, presses, pulls, pull-ups, and accessories.

The progression is textbook linear periodization. You start with high-volume, lower-intensity work to build muscle and work capacity, then steadily drop volume while cranking up intensity. It works. The program has real pedigree, too. Dr. Pierce used it to develop three-time U.S. Olympian Kendrick Farris, he’s a 3x USOC Weightlifting Coach of the Year, and it’s based on published research by Stone, Pierce, and colleagues on periodized training for weightlifters.

The caveat: this thing is a volume monster. You’re looking at roughly 75 working sets per week in the 10s phase, so if you’re not used to that kind of workload, you’ll need to ease into it or modify the volume down. I’d recommend this for intermediate to advanced Olympic weightlifters who have at least a year of consistent training under their belt and can handle 5 sessions per week.

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KONG: Savage Size in 12 Weeks Program Spreadsheet

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KONG: Savage Size in 12 Weeks is a hypertrophy program created by Alex Bromley of Empire Barbell. It’s a 5-day bodybuilding split that runs 12 weeks across three 4-week blocks, hitting each body part twice per week. It first appeared in Bromley’s book of the same name.

If you’re familiar with Bromley’s other work, like his Bullmastiff strength program, you know he programs in clear blocks and doesn’t waste your time. KONG takes a different angle: where Bullmastiff is strength-focused, KONG is built purely for size. Block 1 puts isolation exercises first, so you hit lagging body parts when you’re freshest. That’s backwards from how most people train, and it works.

I’d recommend it for intermediate lifters coming off a strength block who want a dedicated hypertrophy phase. The time cost is real at 5 days a week and 75 minutes a session, and some lifters needed extra rest days beyond the two off days, so keep that in mind if your recovery is limited.

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Dr. Swole’s PPLUL (Push Pull Legs Upper Lower) Program Spreadsheet

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Dr. Swole’s PPLUL (Push Pull Legs Upper Lower) is a 5-day hypertrophy program designed by Bill Wong, a medical doctor and WNBF pro natural men’s physique competitor. It runs 8 weeks at about 60 minutes per session, built for lifters with at least 2 years of training under their belt – late beginners, intermediates, and advanced lifters who want to maximize muscle growth.

What I like about PPLUL is how it solves a real problem with both PPL and Upper/Lower splits. A standard PPL split tends to skew toward upper body volume, while a standard Upper/Lower split can lean lower body–heavy. PPLUL combines the two so you hit every muscle group at least twice per week without the volume imbalance.

One thing to note: the Upper day in this program leans push-heavy. Some users have noted there’s less back work on that day than you’d expect, so if back development is a priority for you, consider adding a rowing movement or extra set of chin-ups on Upper day. A few reviewers over 40 also mentioned needing extra rest days beyond the two built-in ones.

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Jeff Seid Workout Routine Spreadsheet

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Jeff Seid’s workout routine is a 5 day or 6 day split program focused on hypertrophy and bodybuilding aesthetics. The routine hits most muscle groups once per week, but has an optional sixth day where you can work on any muscle groups you think need extra attention. [Read more…]

Lean Muscle Building Workout Plans

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Here are some of the best workout plans for building strong, lean muscle. These routines focus on high volume, which stimulates muscular hypertrophy in the athlete. Coupled with proper nutrition and recovery, these programs will help the athlete develop larger, stronger muscles.

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Joe Delaney 5 Day Full Body Split Spreadsheet

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Joe Delaney’s 5 day full body workout split is a bodybuilding workout routine focused on aesthetic goals and having fun in the gym. This workout was birthed from Joey D’s personal training experience with different workout splits and represents how he has been training as of January 2020.

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Omnidroid 12 Week Strength Program (5 Day)

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Omnidroid is a 5 day strength program Reddit user /u/benchpauper that runs for 12 weeks. It is structured a bit different than other programs and is definitely worth checking out if you’re a strength training enthusiast. It has a fair amount of heavy singles followed by back off volume and accessories. It looks like a lot of fun to run. [Read more…]

5 Day Body Part Split Workout (4 Week Mesocycle)

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Program Overview

This is a 5 day body part split focused on hypertrophy, not strength or powerlifting. It uses the principle of maximum adaptive volume (MAV) to help guide the number of sets each muscle group performs in a training week. This makes it somewhat similar to the hypertrophy workout program based on Mike Israetel’s training volume landmarks article. [Read more…]

Dorian Yates Workout Routine [1987-1992] Spreadsheet

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Dorian Yates workout routine from 1987 to 1992 is an advanced bodybuilder routine that he followed during the middle of his competitive bodybuilding career. [Read more…]

Empire Barbell High Frequency Bench Press Program Spreadsheet

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This is a high frequency, up to 5 training days per week, daily undulating bench press program shared by Empire Barbell. It is a peaking program for the bench press that aims for the athlete to achieve a new one rep max in 5 weeks.

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