Every muscle,
twice a week.
Push / Pull / Legs, run twice per week, plus a dedicated Arms & Core day. Every major muscle is trained 2× per week — arms and traps land 3×, and a short core finisher now closes out every session — the proven range for growth. Seven focused sessions, with full rest taken as needed, programmed for a clean lean bulk.
Fuel the
build.
5′7″ (170 cm) · 137 lbs (62 kg) — a lean build with plenty of room to add quality muscle. The plan below is a lean bulk: a modest calorie surplus to grow with minimal fat gain.
| Macro | Target | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | ~2,700 kcal | Slight surplus over an active-day maintenance to fuel growth |
| Protein | ~180 g | Generous — supports muscle repair and growth |
| Carbs | ~315 g | Fuels 6 hard sessions a week + recovery |
| Fat | ~65 g | Hormonal health and satiety |
• Flat after 2 weeks? Add ~200 kcal (½ cup rice or a second shake).
• Gaining faster than ~0.75 lb/week? Trim ~200 kcal.
Built for 137 lb. If your weight differs, set it here for a starting estimate.
Estimates assume hard training at the selected frequency. Your age and sex shift these, so treat the number as a starting point — the scale is the real test. The meal plan below is built for 137 lb at ~2,700 kcal. The plan runs protein deliberately above the calculated range (~180 g) because that's great for growth.
Protein lands on the generous side, which is great for growth. If you'd rather free up room for more training energy, drop the chicken to 150 g per meal and add ½ cup of rice — results won't suffer as long as you stay above ~100 g protein (1.6 g/kg).
Creatine Monohydrate
The most researched and most reliably effective supplement for strength and muscle. There is no better-value addition.
- 5 g every single day — including rest days. Daily consistency matters far more than timing, so just attach it to your post-workout shake.
- Optional faster saturation: 20 g/day (split into 4 doses) for the first 5–7 days, then drop to 5 g/day.
- Drink plenty of water. Expect 2–4 lb of scale weight in the first couple weeks from water drawn into the muscle — that's normal and a good sign, not fat.
Whey Protein Powder
A convenient tool to hit your protein number, not a magic ingredient.
- 1–2 scoops/day to fill gaps — the post-workout shake uses 1; add a second between meals on any day you're falling short.
- Keep whole-food protein — chicken, eggs, Greek yogurt — as the majority of your intake.
- Batch cook. Make a big tray of chicken and run the rice cooker 2–3× per week. Prepped food is what makes eating for 6 training days actually sustainable.
- Rotate seasonings, sauces (watch the sugar/oil), and vegetables so you don't burn out on the same plate.
- Jasmine, basmati, or brown rice all work — pick the one you'll genuinely eat. Brown adds fiber; white digests easier around training.
- Hydration: 3–4 L of water per day, more on training days (especially with creatine).
- This is general guidance based on your stats and goal. If you have any medical conditions, allergies, or specific dietary needs, run it past a doctor or registered dietitian first.
Log the
work.
Record the weight, sets, and reps you actually hit on each lift, and log your bodyweight to watch the scale trend right alongside your strength. Open any training day and tap Log sets to start — everything saves automatically.
The fine
print.
Everything around the lifts that decides whether 40 days actually moves the needle — progression, recovery, honest expectations, and why the program is built the way it is.
Double Progression
This is the part that actually drives growth.
- Pick a weight where you hit the bottom of the rep range with ~2–3 reps left in the tank.
- Each session, add reps until you reach the top of the range for all sets.
- Once you can, add weight (~2.5–5%) and drop back to the bottom of the range. Repeat.
This makes or breaks results.
- Protein: 1.6–2.2 g per kg of bodyweight daily (~0.7–1 g per lb). This is the biggest dietary lever for muscle growth.
- Calories: A slight surplus (+200–400/day) to build muscle, or maintenance if you also want to lean out (recomposition — works well if you're newer or carrying some fat).
- Sleep: 7–9 hours. The vast majority of recovery and muscle repair happens here.
- Hydration & consistency: Show up for all 6 sessions. Adaptation comes from the trend, not any single workout.
Forty days is one full training block — a real, legitimate mesocycle. Here's what to genuinely expect:
- Strength: Noticeable jumps, often 10–20%+ on your main lifts (a lot of it neural in the early weeks).
- Look / feel: Fuller, tighter, more "pumped" muscle bellies; sharper mind-muscle connection; better posture from the back/rear-delt work.
- Visible new muscle: Modest but real — beginners see the most (newbie gains, often alongside fat loss). Intermediates see smaller but meaningful changes. Dramatic size is a months-to-years game; this block builds the foundation and momentum.
The design choices behind the split.
- Glutes and core get the most volume because they respond best to high frequency. Glutes anchor both leg days, and core is now trained in every single session — the two leg days and the Arms & Core day carry the heaviest, loaded ab work, while each push and pull day ends with a short bodyweight core finisher. Abs recover within a day and thrive on this kind of frequency, so daily work is genuinely productive here rather than overkill.
- The core work leans aesthetic. It's built around the rectus (the visible "six-pack") and lower abs, with rotation and anti-rotation for the obliques — deliberately skipping heavy loaded side-bends, which can thicken the waist and work against the lean, tapered look.
- Shoulders were already a headline focus — delts get hit from every angle (pressing, side-raise width, and rear-delt work across multiple days) for that capped, 3D look. So this round rounds them out with a wide-grip upright row rather than piling more volume onto a joint that's already working hard.
- Traps now get direct work — heavy barbell shrugs on Pull B, dumbbell shrugs on Pull A, and the upright row on Push B (which also hammers the side delts). That's direct trap training roughly 3× per week, on top of the heavy isometric load they already get from rows and deadlifts.
- Dedicated Arms & Core day (Day 7). On top of the indirect work arms get from all the pressing and pulling, Day 7 adds direct biceps and triceps volume — bringing each to ~3× per week — plus a complete core block: flexion (cable crunch), anti-extension (ab wheel), lower abs, and rotation. Your forearms still get direct work twice a week too.
- Day 7 is the lightest day by design, so if recovery dips it's the first one to drop for a full rest day.
- A handful of ★ key movements carry the most growth per set — the barbell hip thrust, low-to-high cable fly, cable lateral raise, hanging leg raise, incline dumbbell curl, ab-wheel rollout, and barbell shrug. Prioritize nailing these.
- Upper chest is real — it's the clavicular head of the pec major, and incline pressing / low-to-high flyes genuinely bias it. That's why it gets a dedicated dose on both push days.
- Lower chest is the sternocostal (lower) portion of the pec major. Forward-lean dips, decline pressing, and high-to-low flyes all line the resistance up with those lower fibers — so it's hit directly on both push days too.
- "Lower abs" aren't a separate muscle — the rectus abdominis is one continuous sheet. But leg-raise–style movements (lifting the legs + curling the pelvis) emphasize the lower portion more than crunches do, which is why hanging leg raises and reverse crunches are in here.