Buff Dudes 12 Week Plan

Remember to check back here often as we’ll be constantly updating this page with a F.A.Q., weekly videos and more as we go through the 12 Week Program ourselves!

Downloadable 12 Week .PDF

(Alternate 12 Week Program .pdf with custom checklist available here: Weeks 1-3, Weeks 4-6, Weeks 7-9, Weeks 10-12)

Before You Begin…

There’s a few important things to take care of before beginning your 12 Week Program.

Progress Pictures

“Hudson shows you one weird trick to get fat!” (Eat lots of bad food & quit exercising!)

In order to track your progress, it’s essential that you begin the program by taking three pictures of yourself from three different angles: front, side & back. Take them in a well lit room first thing in the morning where your whole body is visible and try to stand upright. Don’t bother sticking your gut out and slouching like you typically see in supplement advertising; you’re going to want to look how you normally look day to day when taking the pictures. These pictures are going to be very important because they will serve as inspiration and also give you a good idea of where you started out at.

Eating Plan

Sure, you could do our 12 week program and see decent results while not tracking your daily eating, but by taking the time to get your food schedule in order you will see amazing results by the end of the 12 weeks. For an idea of what we typically consume, check out our Eating on a Budget videos.
In order to save ourselves lots of time, we usually take a few hours every Sunday to do our shopping and prepare our food for the week. Some essential items are a Slow Cooker or cheap BBQ and plenty of storage containers for your pre-cooked food. This will make your life a lot easier when your in the middle of a busy week and your food is already prepared and good to go. For us, it’s invaluable.

Also, if you’re not sure of how much calories you should be consuming, please check out these two links:

BMR Calculator – http://www.exercise4weightloss.com/bmr-calculator.html

Macro Nutrient Calculator – http://www.freedieting.com/tools/nutrient_calculator.htm

To give you an example; we are both 6’2″ inches tall and between 210-220 pounds. We typically consume around 2,500-3,000 calories a day in order to maintain our physiques. Here is a sample of what our daily eating routine looks like and here is a sample of our bulking diet. In instances when we’ve gotten busy and fallen off the wagon a bit, we jumped right back into the 2,500-3,000 calorie range and were up and running again in no time. Everyone is slightly different so use those two calculators above and take a look at your current eating schedule to get a good idea of what tweaks you can make; you don’t need to follow our maintaining and bulking plans exactly as they’re written; feel free to modify them as you see fit. Remember: eat more calories, gain weight. Eat less calories, lose weight.

Cardio Routine

Depending on your current physique, you may not require cardio, but if you do, here is our typical cardio routine: we usually do between 30-45 minutes on the treadmill immediately following the workout. Incline is at elevation 10 and speed is at 3.5mph. If that’s not possible, we do 30 minutes of light cardio first thing in the morning upon waking up. This is not only a good way to get your cardio out of the way, but also to jumpstart your day and have a little time to yourself.

Consistency

There are no shortcuts. Don’t count on creatine, glutamine or the latest fad supplement to get you through this. At the end of the day you’re going to get in shape from busting your ass consistently day in and day out. Will it be hard? Yes. Will it also be rewarding? Hell yes. Try and surround yourself with positive people and if that’s not possible, then rely on yourself for a strong positive mindset. The reason we’re doing this is not only for us, but for you as well. At the end of the day what most people lack is the proper motivation. Hopefully watching us do this right along with you will help.

About the 12 Week Program

A lot of the exercises (mainly the major compound exercises) will stay the same throughout the program because of not only the great advantages these certain exercises will have in many different ways (inside and outside of the gym) but also it’s a great way to track your progression in gaining foundational strength. The main changes in the program will be the amount of exercises, sets, reps, and also weight in the changing weeks. You’ll notice that every major compound movement will work in a pyramid scheme, going up in weight as you decrease the reps; this will promote not only the amount of muscle fibers that are involved in the lift but also you will reap the benefits of gaining strength due to the constant increase in weight. Also in the program you will notice that almost every isolation exercise will stay with the same rep range throughout the 3 – 4 sets. The reason we keep higher repetitions in the isolation exercises is that we want to promote not only hypertrophy but also endurance in the smaller muscle groups (or isolated muscle group). Our hypothesis is that when dealing with compound exercises, you don’t want the smaller (secondary) muscles to burn out and hold you back from lifting heavy and concentrating on the major muscles involved in the lift.
You will notice at the end of the program the pyramiding scheme will decrease as the supersets are introduced. The reason behind this is that we want to concentrate on muscle strength, density, and endurance in the beginning and at the end we will concentrate on drawing out the definition and striations of the fibers.

Ready, Dudes? Here we go.

WEEKS 1 – 3 (Prep Phase)

Monday – Chest & Triceps

Incline Barbell Press 4 sets x 15,12,10,8
Barbell Flat Bench 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Incline Dumbbell Fly 4 sets x 10
Chest Dips (body weight) 4 sets x 15 reps
Standing French Press 4 sets x 12 reps
Dumbbell Kickbacks 3 sets x 10 reps

Tuesday – Back & Biceps

Deadlift 4 sets x 20,15,12,10
Pull-Ups 4 sets x 12 reps
Single Arm Dumbbell Row 4 sets x 10 reps
Underhand Barbell Row 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Incline Dumbbell Curl 3 sets x 10 reps
Preacher Curl 3 sets x 10 reps

Wednesday – Legs & Calves

Squats 4 sets x 15,12,10,8
Walking Lunges 3 x 10 steps (each way)
Leg Press 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Standing Leg Curls (machine) 4 sets x 12 reps
Seated Calf Raise 5 sets x 15 reps

Thursday – Shoulders & Trapezius

Overhead Press 4 sets x 15,12,10,8
Upright Row 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Dumbbell Lateral Raise 4 x 10 reps
Face Pulls (rope) 4 sets x 12 reps
Barbell Shrugs 5 sets x 12 reps

WEEKS 4 – 6

 
Note: These weeks will be concentrating on bringing the lower body up by working it out twice a week and letting the upper body get more rest in between workouts.

Monday – Legs & Calves

Squats 5 sets x 20,12,10,8,6
Romanian Dead Lifts 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Walking Lunges 4 sets x 10 steps (each way)
Legs Extensions 3 sets x 12 reps
Standing Hamstring Curls 3 sets x 12 reps
Seated Calf Raises 5 sets x 15 reps

Tuesday – Chest & Back

Dead Lift 5 sets x 15,12,10,8,6
Incline Barbell Press 4 sets x 15,12,10,8
Pull-Ups 4 sets x 15 reps
Barbell Bench Press 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Straight Arm Pull Down 4 sets x 12 reps
Cable Cross Over 4 sets x 12 reps
T-Bar Row 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Incline Dumbbell Fly w/ Close Press 4 sets x 10 reps (each)

Wednesday – Shoulders & Trapezius

Bradford Press (warm up) 2 sets x 20 reps
Standing Arnold Press 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Single Cable Lateral Raise (behind back) 4 x 12 reps
Face Pulls (rope) 4 sets x 12 reps
Barbell Front Raise 4 sets x 10 reps
Dumbbell Shrugs 5 sets x 12 reps

Thursday – Triceps & Biceps

Barbell Skull Crusher 4 sets x 15,12,10,8
Barbell Curls 4 sets x 15,12,10,8
Rope Extensions 4 sets x 12 reps
Dumbbell Bi-Lateral Hammer Curls 4 sets x 12 reps
Triceps Dips (lockout) 4 sets x 15
Concentration Curls 4 sets x 10 reps

Friday – Legs & Calves

Leg Press 5 sets x 20,12,10,8,6
Hip Extensions (lifts) 4 sets x 12 reps
Front Squats 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Single Leg Romanian Dead Lift 4 sets x 12 reps
Donkey Calf Raises 4 sets x 15 reps

WEEKS 7 – 8

Note: At this point in the program the body is increasing in strength and size. It will take more stress to continue to progress in results and this is the reason we want to workout the major muscles twice a week in different combinations. Switching things up in the program will not only keep the body guessing but will also keep your mind stimulated through a brutal 12-week program.

Monday – Chest & Back

Pull-Ups 4 sets x 20 reps
Incline Barbell Press 4 sets x 15,12,10,8
Bent Over T-Bar Row 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Flat Dumbbell Press 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Dumbbell Pull Overs 4 sets x 10 reps
Landmine Press 4 sets x 10 reps
Single Arm Dumbbell Row (Chainsaws) 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Chest Dips (weighted) 4 sets x 12,10,8,8

Tuesday – Legs

Squats 5 sets x 20,12,10,8,4 reps
Romanian Deadlifts 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Walking Lunges 4 sets x 10 steps each way
Hack Squats 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Seated Hamstring Curls 3 sets x 12 reps
Leg Extensions 3 sets x 12 reps
Seated Calf Raises 5 sets x 20,15,12,10,8

Wednesday – Shoulders & Trapezius

Overhead Press 5 sets x 15,12,10,8,6
Dumbbell Lateral Raise 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Upright Rows (wide grip) 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Bent Over Dumbbell Reverse Fly 4 sets x 10 reps
Reverse Upright Row 4 sets x 10 reps
Alternating Dumbbell Front Raise 4 sets x 10 reps
Barbell Shrugs 5 sets x 15,12,10,8,8

Thursday – Back & Biceps

Dead Lift 5 sets x 12,10,8,6,2
Seated Cable Rows 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Straight Arm Pull Downs 4 sets x 10 reps
Under Hand Pull Downs 4 sets x 10 reps
Barbell Curls 4 sets x 12,10,8,6
Alternating Dumbbell Hammer Curls 3 sets x 10 reps
Preacher Bench Concentration Curls 3 sets x 10 reps

Friday – Chest & Triceps

Incline Dumbbell Fly to Close Press 4 sets x 10 reps
Flat Barbell Bench Press 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Underhand Cable Fly 4 sets x 12 reps
Decline Dumbbell Press 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
EZ-bar Skull Crusher 4 sets x 12,10,8,6
Rope Extensions 3 sets x 10 reps
Cross Bench Dips (weighted) 3 sets x 10 reps

Saturday – Legs & Calves

Leg Press 5 sets x 20,12,10,8,6
Step Ups (weighted) 4 sets x 10 reps
Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts 4 sets x 10 reps
Single Leg Extensions 3 sets x 12 reps
Lying Leg Curls 3 sets x 12 reps
Standing Calf Raises 5 sets x 15,12,10,8,8

Weeks 9 – 12

Note: In weeks 9 – 12 our goal is to be increasing not only the amount of weight per exercise but also the intensity per workout as well. This will be accomplished by introducing super sets, drop sets, forced reps, negatives, and so on, trying to involve as much muscle fiber as possible while feeding them the proper nutrition and promoting new growth that might not have been realized before.

Monday – Legs

Squats 5 sets 20,12,10,8,4
Romanian Dead Lifts 4 sets x 10 reps*
Single Leg Hip Lifts 4 sets x 10 reps*
Walking Lunges 4 sets x 10 steps (each way)
Leg Extensions 4 sets x 12 reps**
Leg Curls 4 sets x 12 reps**
Standing Calf Raises 5 sets x 10 reps***

*(*) Superset
***After 10 full reps finish with partial reps till failure

Tuesday – Chest & Back

Straight Arm Pull Down 4 sets x 12 reps (pre – exhaust)*
Pull-Ups 4 sets x 12 reps*
Incline Barbell Press 4 sets x 10 reps**
Incline Dumbbell Fly 4 sets x 10 reps**
Bent Over Dumbbell Row (Bi-Lateral) 4 sets x 10 reps***
Flat Bench Dumbbell Press 4 sets x 10 reps***
Dumbbell Pull-Over 4 sets x 10 reps****
Dips (weighted) 4 sets x 10 reps****

*Superset

Wednesday – Shoulders & Trapezius

Lateral Raise (pre-exhaust) 4 sets x 12 reps
Overhead Press 4 sets x 12,10,8,8
Bent Over Reverse Dumbbell Fly 4 sets x 12 reps*
Cable Front Raise (rope) 4 sets x 12 reps*
Upright Row 4 sets x 12 reps**
Reverse Upright Row 4 sets x 12 reps**
Seated Dumbbell Shrugs 4 sets x 10 reps
Standing Behind the Back Barbell Shrugs 4 sets x 10 reps

Thursday – Triceps & Biceps

EZ – Bar Skull Crusher 4 sets x 10 reps*
EZ – Bar Close Grip Press 4 sets x 10 reps*
Barbell Curls (5 reps wide, mid, and then close grip) 4 sets x 15 reps
*Giant Set – 4 sets x 10 reps each: Pronated Triceps Extension / Supinated Triceps Extension / Rope Triceps Extension
Dumbbell Hammer Curls (bi-lateral) 4 sets x 10 reps
Concentration Curls 3 sets x 12 reps

Friday – Legs

Leg Press 10 sets x 15,12,10,8,6 – Drop set 5 times on last set
Hack Squats 5 sets x 12,10,8,8,6
Standing Leg Curls 3 sets x 20 reps
Single Seated Calf Raise 3 sets x 20 reps
Standing Calf Raise 3 sets x 10 reps

Saturday – Chest & Back

Bent Over Row 4 sets x 12,10,8,8*
Flat Barbell Bench Press 4 sets x 12,10,8,8*
Seated Low Row (cable) 4 sets x 10 reps**
Machine Fly 4 sets x 10 reps**
Underhand Pull Downs 4 sets x 12,10,8,8***
Underhand Dumbbell Fly 4 sets x 12 reps***