Both men and women can build muscle mass and gain weight by participating in a high-volume, full-body, weight training workout regimen. You can overload your muscles and cause a significant increase in size by working out four days a week. Dr. Joseph A. Chromiak of the National Strength and Conditioning Association recommends consuming 250 to 500 excess calories and 0.65 g to 0.80 g of protein per 1 lb. of body weight daily to fuel the muscle-building process.
Schedule
Work the major muscle groups of your chest, shoulders and back, and your triceps, biceps, quadriceps, gluteus maximus, hamstring and calf muscles. To complete enough exercises, sets and repetitions to overload your muscles and cause growth, split your muscle groups into separate workouts on different days. For instance, focus on your chest, shoulders and triceps on Mondays and Thursdays, and your back, biceps and legs on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Session Volume
Building muscle mass requires high-volume workouts. Perform each exercise for three to five sets of eight to 20 repetitions each, strength and conditioning specialist Dr. Lee E. Brown recommends. Your rest periods between sets and exercises should last from one to three minutes. Even with splitting your muscle groups into separate workouts, it's likely to take you 60 to 90 minutes to complete each workout.
Chest, Shoulders and Triceps
To develop muscle mass in your chest, shoulders and triceps, complete chest presses, incline chest presses, push-ups, upright rows, lateral raises, overhead triceps extensions and lying triceps extensions. Each of these exercises requires dumbbells.
For the chest press, lie on your back on a bench and start with the dumbbells level with your chest, palms facing forward. Push the weights upward. The incline chest press employs the same technique, but you lie on an incline bench.
Complete the upright row while standing. Let the dumbbells hang down in front of you with your palms facing your thighs. Pull them up toward your chin, allowing your elbows to flare out.
For a lateral raise, start with the dumbbells held down by your side and keep your arms straight as you raise them up and out to the side until they are parallel with the floor.
To perform an overhead triceps extension, stand with one dumbbell held with both hands and arms extended upward. Bend your elbows to enable the dumbbell to drop behind your head.
Do the lying triceps extension while lying on your back on a bench. Hold a single dumbbell up with your arms fully extended, then bend your elbows and lower the dumbbell toward your forehead.
Back, Biceps and Legs
For your back, biceps and legs workout, complete a lateral pull-down, rows, biceps curls, hammer curls, squats, lunges and dead lifts.
To complete a lat pull-down, sit at a lat pull-down pulley cable unit and grip the bar with wide hand positioning. Pull the bar down in front of your face.
For rows, sit tall at a rowing pulley cable unit. Pull the bar toward your chest, driving your elbows directly back.
To perform biceps curls, keep your elbows against your sides. Do hammer curls the same way, but rotate your wrists so that your palms remain facing each other.
To perform squats, stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width and push your buttocks back as you bend your knees to lower down into a squat.
For lunges, take a large step forward and then drop your back knee directly down toward the floor, maintaining an erect torso throughout the movement.
To perform dead lifts, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and let the dumbbells hang down in front of you. Bend forward at the waist, keeping the weights closer to your thighs and chins as you lower them to the floor.
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