Bodyworks

A house goes up from the foundation, one brick at a time. “Bodyworks” lays its groundwork the same way: three workouts a week, legs, chest and back in every one, and machines and dumbbells for the first month. The first week is the lightest: use it to settle into the gym and lay the first row.

For those who are new to the gym and want to build muscle. 3 workouts a week, 6 exercises each, and every workout trains legs, chest and back. Two 4-week stages: Base and Build. In Base every weighted exercise is done for 12 reps, in Build for 10, and bodyweight abs for 15 in both stages. In Base every exercise has 2 sets; in Build some exercises get 3. Rest between sets is 2 minutes on presses, rows, pulldowns and squats and 75 seconds on everything else. In Base the load rises week by week; in Build week 3 is lighter than week 2. The next step after this program is “Ninth Wave”.

For the first 4 weeks every exercise is done on machines or with dumbbells: a machine guides the movement along a set path, so good form is easier to keep. From week 5, one exercise in each workout is done with a barbell: squats in the first workout of the week, incline bench press in the second, bent-over row in the third. The app calculates the weight for each set. The first week is the lightest. A set ends when you could still do 2 or more reps.

Method: Full body three times a week.
A beginner needs only moderate weights and frequent training, so legs, chest and back work in all three sessions. The load rises gradually: week by week in the first stage, in a wave in the second, with a lighter third week. The barbell comes in at the second stage, one exercise per workout, once the movements are familiar from the machines.

What studies found:

• In untrained lifters, the largest strength gains came from about 60% of max, three times a week per muscle (Rhea et al., 2003)
• Training a muscle twice a week produces more growth than once a week (Schoenfeld et al., 2016)
• Muscle growth does not require taking sets to failure (Refalo et al., 2023)
• The recommendation is to add weight once the target reps can be done with 1–2 reps to spare (ACSM, 2009)

The studies tested the principles; the program itself has not been tested in this form.