A simple muscle building hack: 

You don’t need to do a dozen different exercises per workout, minimize between-set rest periods, or use “fancy” training techniques like reverse pyramid training, pre-exhaustion, drop sets, negatives, etc. 

Rather, a few “straight sets” of a few foundational exercises taken close to muscular failure (the point where you can’t perform another rep) with a couple of minutes of rest in between each set is a simple recipe for a highly effective strength training session.

Some more pointers for you to mull:

  1. A workout split (how you arrange your weekly workouts, usually by body part, body region, or movement pattern) doesn’t drive muscle growth. Your biceps don’t care if you do an “arms,” “pull,” or “upper-body” workout. Your muscles will grow when you do the right number of sets of the right exercises at the right level of intensity and frequency.
  2. Training isn’t a hot dog eating contest. How much you do in the gym doesn’t matter nearly as much as how well you do it. One high-quality workout is worth a bunch of low-quality ones.
  3. When you work out is far less important than how and how often you work out. So train at the times that work best for you.
  4. Do workouts that you generally look forward to and enjoy. Don’t force yourself to follow a workout routine that you don’t like, no matter how “scientifically optimal” it might be. Stale training is like stale food. Edible but dreary. Find something that makes you fizz so you’ll a) keep showing up and b) keep working hard.
  5. Speaking of working hard, if you’ve never peed or sharted even a little while squatting or deadlifting, you’re probably not training hard enough. No stain no gain, bro.