Sweatshirt Swole: A definitive Building Workout Plan

Workout Description

Winter is coming.

The sun is setting earlier and long gone are the days of shirtless outdoor workouts and the luxury of wearing a tank top to show off your hard earned gainz.

While many lifters look at this time of year as an excuse to eat bad and hibernate under an additional layer of body fat, I always enter the colder months with the goal of adding minimal body fat while still trying to bulk up.

Since I’m not going to be masquerading around shirtless I am less concerned with how my abs look, but I don’t necessarily want them to disappear altogether either.

If I can still hover close to the 10% body fat mark (I generally stay around 7% in the summer months) and still put on enough size to look swole in a sweatshirt, then I’m doing something right.

Today, I am going to teach you a great 4 day workout split that I use in the fall and winter to increase strength and pack on some much needed size.

But the real key to putting on quality mass - and not just getting fatter this winter - is eating enough without letting your appetite get out of control.

Related: Complete Guide To Increasing Workout Recovery

Following the squat, transition into 2 single leg variations - the split squat and the step up, going as heavy as possible for 5 reps of each movement on each leg. After 4 rounds of the single leg superset, hit the glute ham raise for 3 sets of 5 reps, adding weight on the last 2 sets if possible.

End with 50 total reps on the reverse hyper. If your gym does not have a reverse hyper, you can substitute regular low back hyperextensions or lay across a Swiss ball and hang on to a rack to perform bodyweight reverse hyper extensions.

Now day 4 is where this routine really earns the title “Sweatshirt Swole”. What muscles are usually noticeable when wearing a hoodie or crew neck? The traps and upper back.

This shoulder and arm workout puts a special emphasis on the traps, by including heavy barbell shrugs and then pairing high volume dumbbell shrugs with both of the arm supersets. A good rule of thumb on the volume shrug sets is to grab a pair of dumbbells that when combined equal your body weight (If you weigh 180, use 90lb DBs).

Day 5 is a rest day. Sleep. Eat. Grow. Get prepared, because tomorrow starts back over with day 1.