5-Day Workout Routine Exercises

One of the most common five-day workout routines among many bodybuilders is to focus on one body part per workout, according to the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Performing several exercises for one body part in a single workout allows the volume and intensity of your training to increase. This can result in significant muscle size and strength gains because your body gets adequate recovery time before the next workout.

A man is doing high intensity training in a gym. (Image: monkeybusinessimages/iStock/Getty Images)

Chest

Work your chest with both compound and isolation exercises on the first day of your five-day routine. Compound movements for your chest include the traditional flat bench, incline and decline press. Use a barbell or dumbbells for any of these exercises. Perform one or two isolation exercises, such as a chest fly, cable fly or pectoral machine after the compound movements. For added intensity, do pushups to finish your chest workout.

Back

For the second day, perform compound exercises for your back, such as a lat pulldown followed by a bent-over or seated row with a barbell or dumbbells. Try shrugs and reverse flyes to create definition in your back. Add assisted or traditional pullups for increased muscular strength and endurance. Include back extensions from a prone or standing position to work the lower part of your back.

Legs

Squats are a traditional exercise you could perform on the third day of your routine to develop your leg muscles and lower-body strength. Deadlifts, leg presses and lunges are additional compound exercises you might use in a leg workout. Perform leg extensions, leg curls, lateral cable abductor and adductor raises to define your front, back, outer and inner thigh muscles. Include standing and seated calf raises to complete your leg training.

Shoulders

Your shoulders are important accessory muscles to the chest, back and arms. On day four of your five-day routine, do a seated shoulder press exercise using a machine, barbell or dumbbells. Perform upright rows with a barbell and lateral shoulder raises with dumbbells or a cable machine. To further strengthen your shoulders, add front and rear deltoid raises. You might also consider doing rotation exercises using light dumbbells to strengthen your rotator cuff muscles.

Arms

You can work your arms, specifically your biceps and triceps, on the last day of your five-day routine. Perform traditional arm curls using a barbell, dumbbells or machine to train your biceps. Concentration, hammer and reverse curls add variation to standard biceps curls. Standing pressdowns and overhead presses work your triceps. Close grip bench presses, pushups with the hands just below the chest and kickbacks also are good triceps exercises.

Recommendations

Warm up before each workout and stretch the muscles worked at the end of your training sessions. Heavier loads are most effective, according to the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Gradually increase the weight or repetitions for each exercise and use good form to avoid injury and over-training. Consume a sufficient amount of lean protein, complex carbohydrates, healthful fats and water to provide the energy you need for training and recovery.