Haven’t hit the weight room this summer? Don’t worry, it’s still not too late to build muscle for your fall sport’s upcoming tryouts, practices and scrimmages.
A good muscle-building plan must include:
1. Short and Intense Workouts. Perform three or four short and intense full-body weight training sessions per week, on non-consecutive days.
2. Compound Multi-Joint Upper- and Lower-Body Exercises. Use compound exercises because they produce more muscle-building results in less time. Engage several muscle groups instead of doing time-consuming sets of single-joint exercises. Imagine finishing each workout in less than 30 minutes!
3. Nutrition and Sleep. Your pre- and post-workout diet must consist of healthy options. And be sure to regularly log eight or nine hours of sleep each night.
Here are three fast, efficient muscle-building sample workouts. Always start with a dynamic mobility warm-up and end with cooldown involving upper- and lower-body static stretches.

Workout #1 (5 x 5 of 1RM)

• Step-Ups and DB Upright Rows
• Squats and Barbell Overhead Presses
• Side Lunges and Medicine Ball Press-Outs

Workout #2 (4 x 8 of 1 RM)

• Squat Thrusts and Push-Ups
• Forward Lunges and Barbell Upright Rows
• One-Legged Squats and DB Overhead Presses

Workout #3 (4 x 10 of 1 RM)

• One-Legged Squats and Bent-Over DB Rows
• Step-Ups and DB Overhead Presses
• Reverse Lunges and DB Upright Rows