The Blueprint to Mass: 8-Week Old-School Muscle-Building Program

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If you want to build muscle the way it was perfected by the legends of the sport, you're in the right place. This is the ultimate golden-age gains plan! The Blueprint to Mass is one of the most popular programs in the history of Bodybuilding.com—and many people follow it over and over again. It's been a favorite of aspiring transformation contest winners, but also just men (and yes, women) who want to see what their muscular potential truly is and aren't afraid to work hard and eat big to find it.

If you're one of the millions of people who have already followed this program and just want to dive back in, you can follow the full Blueprint to Mass in BodyFit Elite. Not only can you track your workouts, weights, and rest periods, you can also swap out lifts to match your equipment, and even watch demonstration videos of every movement in every workout from BodyFit's new and improved exercise database.

This eight-week program exists for just one reason: building quality mass and aesthetics without complication. It's steeped in the fundamentals and old-school exercises that should be at the heart of every lifter's program, with time-tested intensity techniques to help shock your body into growth from head to toe. It's a surefire road to growth, but you'll earn that growth with pain and struggle.

Old school as it is, this definitely isn't a "the barbell and nothing but the barbell" plan. You'll use each tool for what it's best at. That includes barbells, dumbbells, cables, body weight, and a few choice machines. And you'll do them for both high reps and low because your body needs both to get optimal results. Get back to your bodybuilding roots and experience unbelievable growth.

Each week, you'll follow this split:

Day 1: Chest and Back
Day 2: Shoulders and Arms
Day 3: Legs
Day 4: Chest and Back
Day 5: Shoulders and Arms
Day 6: Legs
Day 7: Rest

Yes, that's only one rest day a week and two leg days a week, so this split won't work for everyone's schedule and recovery abilities. On the other hand, it's a classic approach that helped build some of history's great physiques.

It can work for you, but only if you truly love lifting and are willing to prioritize it highly in your life. That means your training has to determine how you approach your nutrition, sleep, any supplements you take, and how you schedule your day for the next eight weeks. If you can't fit in your workout in the morning, you may have to do two-a-days. That's an approach that worked for many of the great bodybuilders that only need one name: Franco, Frank, Dave, and of course, Arnold.

If you're not ready to commit, there's no shame. It simply means another plan is probably a better fit.

But if you're ready to do the work, make tough choices, and eat and sleep like an old-school bodybuilder, then this could be the plan that changes everything. Dive in and start The Blueprint to Mass today.

Add Size, Then Cut to Reveal Your Gains

You'll likely notice dramatic gains after this program, but they won't happen overnight. Many people find they need to repeat the program twice to see its full benefits. Be patient, eat big, sleep hard, and keep training like an animal, and the mass will come.

Then, after you've achieved your initial bulking goals, it's time to carve some detail. At that point, begin The Blueprint to Mass' companion program, The Blueprint to Cut, to reveal and define the muscle you've worked so hard to create.