This is the workout Tim Ferris references when discussing how to build muscle fast. As Tim explains, it was used during the Colorado Experiment in which Casey Viator gained 63 pounds of muscle in 28 days. He gained 45 pounds overall, while losing significant (18 lbs) body fat (resulting in the 63 pound lean-mass gain). There’s obviously a huge diet component that goes along with this workout routine – we’ll be posting a summary soon.
All exercises are done for just 1 set (except calf raises)
There is no rest between sets (unless specified)
The Entire Workout should take 30 minutes (but will likely be a little longer your first few times)
Should be done twice per week
Based on other advice in the 4 hour body, we recommend a 5/5 cadence (5 seconds to raise the weight, 5 seconds to lower)
Aim to be at complete failure on your last rep of each exercise
- Leg press × 20 reps
- Leg extension × 20 reps
- Squats × 20 reps
- (Two-minute rest)
- Leg curl × 12 reps
- Calf raises 3 × 15 reps
- Behind-neck let-pull-down × 10
- Row×10
- Behind-neck pull-down × 10 (I substituted straight-arm, lat-targeted push downs on the tricep extension cable machine)
- (Two-minute rest)
- Lateral raise × 8 (shoulders)
- Press behind-the-neck × 10 (shoulder press)
- (Two-minute rest)
- Bicep Curls × 8 reps
- Underhand chin plus weight for reps
- (Two-minute rest)
- Tricep extension × 22 reps
- Dips (body weight) × 22 reps
View Comments (5)
This is crazy, I wonder how long it would take to be able to do this in 30 minutes!
Any idea when you going to post the huge diet component?
This is stupid, this only works to maintain what you already have but you will not gain.
What if you can't do 22 reps? E.g. Say I can only do 11 dips, is it ok to take a 30 second rest and do the other 11?
You know, I calculated it out with the 5/5 rule for the workouts, and it would take at least 43 minutes. i'm getting the impression this workout plan is bs. I actually did some research on what this plan was based on, and the people who were involved were first off body builders who already had the muscle memory. second, the ones who actually had the muscle gains were later proven to have been doing steroids, as well as working out a lot more than just the workout in the experiment. I think this is just another gimmick.