It's about time to pack up your tank tops and bust out your sweatshirts. Be sure you get swole and appear huge in your sweatshirt by doing this workout!
Workout Summary
  • Main Goal
    Build Muscle
  • Workout Type
    Split
  • Training Level
    Intermediate
  • Program Duration12 weeks
  • Days Per Week
    4
  • Time Per Workout75-90 minutes
  • Equipment Required
    Barbell, Bodyweight, Cables, Dumbbells
  • Target Gender Male & Female
  • Workout PDF Download Workout

Workout Description

Winter is coming.

The sun is setting earlier and long gone are the days of shirtless outdoor workouts and the luxury of wearing a tank top to show off your hard earned gainz.

While many lifters look at this time of year as an excuse to eat bad and hibernate under an additional layer of body fat, I always enter the colder months with the goal of adding minimal body fat while still trying to bulk up.

Since I’m not going to be masquerading around shirtless I am less concerned with how my abs look, but I don’t necessarily want them to disappear altogether either.

If I can still hover close to the 10% body fat mark (I generally stay around 7% in the summer months) and still put on enough size to look swole in a sweatshirt, then I’m doing something right.

Today, I am going to teach you a great 4 day workout split that I use in the fall and winter to increase strength and pack on some much needed size.

But the real key to putting on quality mass - and not just getting fatter this winter - is eating enough without letting your appetite get out of control.

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The Sweatshirt Swole Nutrition Plan

Here are my top 5 tips for gaining weight the right way:

1. Post workout: 10gr BCAA + 5 gr Glutamine

I put this one first only because recovery truly is the most important factor for growth. Taking 10 grams of Branched Chain Aminos and 5 grams of Glutamine after every workout should be as much of a habit as breathing with every rep.

The Sweatshirt Swole Plan is 4 heavy days in a row, so make sure your body has the raw ingredients it needs to repair and rebuild.

2. Breakfast - 6 eggs + turkey sausage and avocado

During the spring and summer I practice Coconut Cardio to keep my metabolism roaring.

Once I’m ready to bulk up a little, I ditch the cardio first thing (although I still keep the coconut oil in my coffee) in the morning and make sure I start out with a hearty breakfast high in protein and healthy fats.

3. Before Bed Snack: Peanut Butter & Jelly Crackers

Before bed it is a great time to get a large amount of calories in your gut. One of the easiest - and tastiest - ways to do this is to snack on peanut butter and jelly, using wheat thins to eat the PB&J like you would a bowl of salsa or guac.

Related: 5 Muscle Building Meals To Eat Before You Go To Sleep

If you prefer to keep your sugar intake low, I recommend 2 scrambled eggs with a side of cottage cheese for a double dose of slow digesting proteins.

4. Snack on almonds/walnuts/cashews throughout the day

Another key to weight gain is keeping a steady stream of calories available throughout the day.  An easy way to accomplish this is to keep a bag of roasted nuts on hand to snack on in between meals.

A small handful of almonds or cashews here and there adds up after a while and can pay dividends when done consistently.

5. Limit sugary foods and low-value carbs

The biggest mistake weightlifters make when trying to bulk up is going nuts on the junk food and what I call “low-value” carbohydrates. Donuts. Candy. Dinner Rolls. While eating mass amounts of sugar and bread is sure to make the needle jump on the scale, the bulk of those gains will be purely body fat.

If you are filling up on French fries and donuts, those calories are taking the place of more nutrient dense and higher protein food options. Grab fresh fruit instead of candy. The goal is looking Swole…not bloated.

Sweatshirt Swole Athlete Performing Bicep Curls

the Sweatshirt Swole workout plan

Day 1 consists of heavy pulling movements and kicks off with heavy deadlifts. The saying goes “weak back, weak body”, and we could get a little more specific and say “weak posterior chain, weak body”, which is why we make the deadlift the focus exercise of not just this workout but also the entire program.

Start with a warm up set of 5 before moving into a couple triples. It’s important to not move up to fast, get your body used to the increasing weight and take a few extra warm up sets if necessary before building to a double and 3 heavy singles.

The rest on the heavy singles should be 2-3 minutes between each, where as in the rest of the workout rest should be kept at 60 seconds or less between all sets and supersets. The first superset is 5 reps of weighted pull ups and 5 hamstring bridges on each leg.

Related: Gameday Jersey Swole - The Perfect Workout for the Super Fan

During the weighted pull ups, never come all the way to a dead hang or “unpacked” position to avoid stressing the rotator cuffs. Use the hamstring bridge as your “active rest” in between sets of pull ups, and make sure to pause at the top of each rep for 3 seconds, squeezing your glutes and hamstring as hard as possible at the top.

After completing 5 rounds, move to a superset of T-bar row and lat pull downs before finishing out the back exercises with 1 arm dumbbell rows. Do each arm back to back before resting and moving up in weight for the next set.

After completing a heavy double on the last set of rows, load up an Olympic bar with 20+ more pounds than you would normally use for a set of curls. Perform “cheat curls” - use your hips slightly to swing the weight up, then control the weight down for a 5 second negative. Day 1 ends with 10 minutes of continuous bodyweight lunges.

Exercise Sets Reps
1. Deadlift 7 5, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1
2a. Weighted Pullups 5 5
2b. Hamstring Bridge 5 5 each leg
3a. T-bar Row 4 5
3b. Lat Pulldown 4 8
4. Dumbbell Rows 5 10, 8, 6, 4, 2
5. Heavy Cheat Curl Negatives 5 5, 3, 3, 2, 1
6. Walking Lunges 1 10 mins

Day 2 is a pushing workout. In order to look swole in that sweatshirt we need to target the upper chest, so start things off with heavy dumbbell incline chest press, working up to a heavy triple. Next move onto the flat bench for close grip (just inside shoulder width) bench press. Make sure to keep your lats engaged and do not flare your elbows out.

Sweatshirt Swole Athlete Performing Dips

After a heavy single on close grip, hit one warm up set of dips before doing 4 sets of weighted dips, with the goal of increasing the load each set. After the heavy triple, take off the weight vest or belt and perform a final body weight set for max reps.

Closing things out are two of my favorite compound core movements that also build the triceps, lats and serratus in addition to the abs. For both the Chinese push ups and the ab wheel, make sure to keep the abs engaged and your back in a convex position.

Exercise Sets Reps
1. Dumbbell Incline Bench 6 10, 8, 5, 5, 5, 3
2. Close Grip Bench Press 4 5, 3, 2, 1
3. Weighted Dips 5 10, 5, 5, 3, 1 set of bodyweight for failure
4. Chinese Pushups 1 50 total reps
5. Ab Wheel 2 12-15

Hopefully your legs have recovered enough from the deadlifts and lunges on day 1, because day 3 is all lower body. Start by working up to a few heavy singles on the back squat, making sure to take adequate rest between the heavy max effort reps.

Related: Complete Guide To Increasing Workout Recovery

Following the squat, transition into 2 single leg variations - the split squat and the step up, going as heavy as possible for 5 reps of each movement on each leg. After 4 rounds of the single leg superset, hit the glute ham raise for 3 sets of 5 reps, adding weight on the last 2 sets if possible.

End with 50 total reps on the reverse hyper. If your gym does not have a reverse hyper, you can substitute regular low back hyperextensions or lay across a Swiss ball and hang on to a rack to perform bodyweight reverse hyper extensions.

Exercise Sets Reps
1. Squat 7 5, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1
2a. Split Squat 4 5 each leg
2b. Dumbbell Step Up 4 5 each leg
3. Glute Ham Raises 3 5
4. Reverse Hyper Extension 1 50 reps total

Now day 4 is where this routine really earns the title “Sweatshirt Swole”. What muscles are usually noticeable when wearing a hoodie or crew neck? The traps and upper back.

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This shoulder and arm workout puts a special emphasis on the traps, by including heavy barbell shrugs and then pairing high volume dumbbell shrugs with both of the arm supersets. A good rule of thumb on the volume shrug sets is to grab a pair of dumbbells that when combined equal your body weight (If you weigh 180, use 90lb DBs).

Exercise Sets Reps
1. Standing Dumbbell Press 6 10, 6, 5, 5, 3, 3
2a. Heavy Dumbbell Front Raise 4 5 each side
2b. Lateral Raise 4 5
2c. Bent Over Lateral Raise 4 10
3. Barbell Shrugs 4 10, 10, 5, 5
4a. Dumbbell Curls 5 5 each arm
4b. Dumbbell Skullcrushers 5 5 each arm
4c. Dumbbell Shrugs 5 15
5a. Preacher Curls 3 8
5b. Tricep Press Downs 3 20
5c. Dumbell Shrugs 3 10

Day 5 is a rest day. Sleep. Eat. Grow. Get prepared, because tomorrow starts back over with day 1.

39 Comments
JoJo
Posted on: Sun, 11/12/2023 - 05:06

Hiya

In the middle of doing this program and really enjoying it. I'm still looking to bulk some more after the end of this program can you recommend or have a suggestion for a suitable and good follow up? Much appreciated. Thank you for the great routines and contents. :)

Kind regards.

Joe

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Roger
Posted on: Sun, 11/26/2023 - 19:47

We got you, Joe! Check out this link with many options to consider based on where you are after this program. Thanks for reading M&S!

Roman
Posted on: Sat, 01/23/2021 - 06:15

Hello, I see that on day one you put cheat curl negatives which is biceps workout, which is one biceps workout for that whole day, and then the next two biceps workouts are on day four, this doesn’t make sense.

Nebil
Posted on: Mon, 11/16/2020 - 04:50

so are you sure about this workout program for bulking so fast with the proper nutrition?

Paul
Posted on: Sun, 10/04/2020 - 20:44

Day one is a 36 set workout and day 4 is a 46 set workout are you out of your F-ing mind will take 3 hours to do

Jackson
Posted on: Sun, 03/01/2020 - 15:19

Does this workout include any forearm

Joe
Posted on: Sun, 10/20/2019 - 15:37

Can this programme be used to burn fat as well as build strength?

Atkn
Posted on: Mon, 07/01/2019 - 14:52

Is the program ideal for muscle development?

Connor
Posted on: Fri, 06/21/2019 - 09:22

Can I do flat barbell bench on the chest day

Atakan
Posted on: Sun, 06/09/2019 - 20:08

can we naturally get good results?

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JoshEngland
Posted on: Mon, 06/10/2019 - 09:59

Hi Atakan,

Yes, absolutely.

Atakan
Posted on: Sun, 05/19/2019 - 16:29

what do the numbers at the beginning of the exercises mean, what is 2a 2b 2c?

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JoshEngland
Posted on: Tue, 05/28/2019 - 15:14

Hi Atakan,

They represent supersets, trisets, and circuits.

Max
Posted on: Sat, 11/24/2018 - 17:41

How many rest days should I be taking as it says “day 5 is rest day, start again tomorrow” but at the top it says 4 days a week training. Is it 4 days on 3 days resting or is it 4 days on and 1 day resting? Thanks

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JoshEngland
Posted on: Mon, 11/26/2018 - 10:13

Hi Max,

Perform 4 days on 1 day off - we don't have a field to put 4-6 days per week.

Gavin
Posted on: Fri, 11/16/2018 - 16:57

The rest period for most of these rep range doesn't make sense. When we're doing rep of 5 and less its strength training and we're only supposed to take 1 min for everything except deadlift. Can you explain the logic please? I've always seen 2-3 min rest for that rep range.

Sahil
Posted on: Fri, 10/12/2018 - 10:21

Hi JoshEngland, Each set with Heavy weight or Low weight? Or Changing weight on each set ( Increase or Decrease? ) or Same weight on each sets?

Example:- Dead lift day one Reps are 5 (heavy), 3(decrease weight), 2(decrease weight), 2, 1, 1, 1(low weight) ? or 5,2,2,1,1(same weight)
Tell me with full info

Gus
Posted on: Mon, 10/08/2018 - 07:52

What's the best alternate to the weighted pull ups?

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JoshEngland
Posted on: Mon, 10/08/2018 - 12:54

Hi Gus,

I'd suggest any pull up variation you're capable of performing - whether that's bodyweight, eccentric only, band assisted, or a concentric hold.

Hope this helps!

Jade
Posted on: Mon, 05/02/2022 - 03:57

Try a heavy lay pull down . Or perfect your body weight pull ups and progress to getting into the weighted version

dylan
Posted on: Fri, 09/28/2018 - 20:07

Is this good for strenght also because im hoping to increase my strenght more befor the army

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JoshEngland
Posted on: Mon, 10/01/2018 - 10:16

Hi Dylan,

This program is good for building strength.

Jake Sahm
Posted on: Mon, 08/13/2018 - 15:09

Do you recommend changing weight on each set or keeping the same weight for instance on Dead lift day one Reps are 5, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1?

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JoshEngland
Posted on: Tue, 08/14/2018 - 14:56

Hi Jake,

Yes, move up in weight as the reps decrease.

Hope this helps!

Clint Scollon
Posted on: Thu, 12/14/2017 - 22:35

What are "Weighted Pumps" as an exercise found in Day One (2A) of the "Ultimate Bulk Workout"? (on the previous computer page). I thought I knew all the terminology but this is a new one for me.

Derrick
Posted on: Wed, 04/12/2017 - 18:54

What are Chinese push-ups

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JoshEngland
Posted on: Thu, 04/13/2017 - 09:07

Hi Derrick,

Check out the video below. It has a pretty length explanation on what they are and how to do them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo2GhpmwUyw

Hope this helps!

Shane
Posted on: Mon, 01/30/2017 - 15:54

How many weeks should this program be used for?

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JoshEngland
Posted on: Mon, 01/30/2017 - 16:09

Hey Shane,

As long as you're progressing and enjoying the program, you can continue to use it for however long you like. With that said, it's wise to take a week to deload every 6-8 weeks.

Hope this helps!

Jeff
Posted on: Tue, 11/15/2016 - 20:06

What would you substitute for glute ham raises? And was there meant to be a 4th exercise on day 3 or is that simply a typo?

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JoshEngland
Posted on: Wed, 11/16/2016 - 09:21

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for catching that. There are 5 exercises on day 3, but two of them are supersetted.

You could replace Glute Hams with another hamstring exercise. I'd suggest either RDLs or a leg curl.

However, just because your gym doesn't have a GHR machine doesn't mean you can't perform GHR. Check out the alternatives below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xSDFVCg2DM

Izell
Posted on: Sun, 11/13/2016 - 13:08

Where can I find a video of the Chinese pushup? I've seen multiple variations but I wanna make sure I'm doing the right one!

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JoshEngland
Posted on: Mon, 11/14/2016 - 09:21

Hi Izell,

The article linked below does a good job explaining the motion and has an embed video for a visual reference.

https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/4-new-core-exercises

Hope this helps!

Nate
Posted on: Tue, 10/11/2016 - 09:57

I am confused with the day split. At the top it says four days a week, however reading the plan it seems to say to do the four workouts four days in a row, take one day off, and then repeat. What is the proper schedule for this program?

I am 5'9" and went from 200lbs to 160lbs within the last six months by lifting/dieting and would now like to put on muscle mass, thanks.

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JoshEngland
Posted on: Tue, 10/11/2016 - 10:03

Nate,

It is a 4 days on 1 day off split. So yes, it will be more than 4 days a week. However, it is still technically a 4 day split.

Hope this helps alleviate any confusion!

Bao
Posted on: Mon, 10/10/2016 - 22:07

There's barely any chest exercises...

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JoshEngland
Posted on: Tue, 10/11/2016 - 10:11

Bao,

While you do only have one direct chest exercise, you still work your pecs performing CG bench press and weighted dips. Combined, you work your pecs for 14 total sets, which is honestly plenty for muscle growth.

Plus, the way this program is written, you will hit that workout every 5 days to further that muscle growth.

However, if you feel you need extra chest work, feel free to add an additional exercise to Day 2 of the workout plan.

Brety
Posted on: Mon, 10/10/2016 - 20:30

Just to clarify , if I run days 1 and 2 on Monday and Tuesday, take Wednesday off, then days 3 and 4 on Thursday Friday and rest on Saturday . Do I restart on Sunday or Monday?

Thanks

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JoshEngland
Posted on: Tue, 10/11/2016 - 10:06

Brety,

That depends on your recovery time. Per the article you will want to do all 4 day before resting. However, you could set it up to have more than 1 rest if you feel you need the extra recovery time.

To best answer your question, you could do either or. If you want to emulate the program as much as possible, then restart on Sunday. If you'd like to make it an exact 4 day a week workout, then take the weekend off and resume Monday.

Hope this helps!