Anything Athlean-X does must be perfect, right? Well, that depends. No one is perfect — except for CBum, of course.
Athlean-X is renowned for helping beginners and experienced athletes alike grow and reach new heights in their physical health journey. Apparently, he even makes videos, like his Athlean-X “PERFECT” Beginner Workout program.
Let’s see if it’ll really stack up against other muscle-building programs on the market and help you decide whether it’s the best program for you.
The PERFECT Beginner Workout (Sets and Reps Included)
This is the video in question:
One thing we have to understand from the get-go is that a beginner trains vastly differently from someone who’s more experienced. The training routines you find online of pro bodybuilders or athletes were designed for, well, pros.
As hard as it is to acknowledge, you ain’t a pro yet. You can’t recover like a pro, you don’t eat like a pro, and you shouldn’t be following the same workout routine as a pro, either. Why? Well, you need to learn movement patterns, good form, progressive overload, etc.
Jeff Cavaliere (or Athlean X) is one of the most famous YouTubers in the fitness industry, with more than 13.3M subscribers and thousands that sing him praise for being one of the best. Jeff is also well-known for designing a ton of workouts that beginners would need to succeed, such as AX1 and TNT.
He’s also well-known for videos suggesting that what you’re doing might be “killing your gains.”
Furthermore, Jeff’s programs are usually focused on building muscle while losing body fat. This isn’t always technically possible, but Jeff is at least honest enough to admit when things seem just too good to be true.
In this Athlean X Beginner Workout Review, we’ll be looking at ‘The PERFECT Beginner Workout (Sets and Reps Included)’ — a video he posted roughly two years ago (as of 5/28/2023) and has stacked up more than 4.9M views.
Some of the important things to know:
- Duration: 3 months
- Time Per Session: 45 – 70 minutes
- Goal: Build muscle
- Workouts Per Week: 5 workouts per week
- Split: Full-body training program
With that said, let’s take a look at what Athlean-X has prepared for us.
The ‘Bulk’ of the Program
Let’s start at the beginning with an overview of the workout program.
10 Movement Patterns
We kick off with Jeff’s intro, which leads to the idea of mastering 10 movement patterns rather than mastering certain moves (like an incline bench press).
The movement patterns are as follows:
- Squat
- Hinge
- Vertical Push
- Vertical Pull
- Horizontal Push
- Horizontal Pull
- Static Lunge
- Dynamic Lunge
- Core Flexion
- Carry
Some of these words might be too large or complex for a complete beginner to understand, but Jeff (as always) does a great job of explaining how everything works.
The idea is that by building strength over time with a certain movement pattern rather than a single move, you not only learn how to move with a load but also build some muscle.
This is very much in line with strength training, as the goal is to build strength while also building muscle. For instance, rather than doing a leg extension, you’ll do a squat and a hinge movement — allowing you to maximize muscle growth while also learning how to move with the load.
Throughout the workout program, you’ll do different exercises in each movement pattern, meaning you’ll at least get something new every now and then (nice!).
Making Things Harder…
Ever met that person who’s the same size as they were three years ago?
“I’m bulking, but super lean, bro!”
Unfortunately, the body only really reacts to real change. This is not only true when it comes to calories but also when it comes to your workout program. If you move 100 pounds for 10 today, and you only move it for 10 six months later, you haven’t developed an inch.
For instance, weight training is pretty straightforward. You use x amount of load this week and then slightly increase the hardness next week by adding more load or by increasing the number of reps you’re doing — simple. This is the basic principle behind progressive overload of how to build muscle.
Jeff has made it easier to understand by implementing ‘levels’ of hardness that’ll help you reach muscle failure and, eventually, muscle growth.
For instance, let’s look at how he’s designed progressive overload with upper-body movements:
- Level 1: Push-ups are level one since they’re the easiest but also teach you a ton about moving your body while controlling your weight.
- Level 2: The dumbbell bench press is second because it elevates the complexity of the movement. You need to focus on contracting the right muscles, and more strain is placed on fewer muscles.
- Level 3: The barbell bench press is the final level because it’s also the hardest. This will take far more focus and drive than the former two and is one of the best compound exercises you can do for the chest.
We’ll get into the sets and reps later on, but this principle is rather brilliant. As a beginner, you won’t be able to bench press (trust me), and you could just stand to hurt yourself. This program allows you to learn how your muscles ‘feel’ as well as how the movements move your body.
Each builds on the previous one and trains similar muscle groups. Depending on the training volume and how he advocates progression, this is looking to be one great workout program.
The Schedule
To develop strength and muscle growth, you need to have a schedule.
Whether you like 3 days on, 1 day off, or 1 on, 1 off, they all have their own drawbacks and benefits. As beginners, we sometimes forget just how important it is to rest, so when your training schedules ask you to rest — actually rest!
The workout program designed by Jeff, here, might suffer from too much volume, seeing as the program looks like this:
- Monday: Full-Body Workout A
- Tuesday: Grip and Core Workout
- Wednesday: Full-Body Workout B
- Thursday: Grip and Core Workout
- Friday: Full-Body Workout A
* On alternative weeks, you would do BCACB, etc.
Quite a lot, isn’t it? There’s no doubt that training for five days on end will leave you destroyed, but seeing as you may be doing ‘beginner’ level movements, you might be okay — more on that later.
The workout routine (full-body) might look something like this:
- DB Drop Squat – 3 x 12-15 FF
- 1-Arm DB Press – 3 x 12-15 FF each arm
- Chest-Supported Row – 3 x 12-15 FF
- Bodyweight Split Squats – 3 x FF on each leg
(FF – Form Failure, meaning you stop when your form goes to sh*t.)
Doing 12 sets to failure is not the easiest approach for a beginner. Sure, you can gain muscle doing this, and sure, you’ll also gain strength. However, you’ll also suffer from a lot of muscle fatigue, seeing as there are no rest days from Monday to Friday.
Personally, I would’ve opted for a 2-1-3-1 split. This allows for recovery from sessions and splits the training volume more evenly throughout the week.
Beginners will lose fat and build muscle regardless of how low volume the training is, and I’m a huge fan of doing as much as needed but also as little as possible.
Athlean-X’s programs are known for being higher volume, so I’m not entirely surprised, but you could get away with two sets of failure for the first few weeks. That said, most beginners don’t know what failure is, so maybe Jeff is correct…
Jeff advises that in month 2, you shift to level 2 of the movement patterns. This means each month, everything gets harder and forces your body to change and adapt or, in other words, grow. As mentioned, the body reacts to stress, and by making movements harder, you’ll stress the muscles more, which will lead to more lean muscle mass.
Another factor that isn’t discussed very well (IMO) is the fact that you can alter the program…
Be Your Own Personal Trainer
You design a Workout A and B based on the movement patterns addressed earlier.
You don’t need to do the workout Jeff advises you to do, and you can use other movements in the same program. He doesn’t really go too deep into this, but this option gives you the freedom to design your workout based on your needs and what equipment you have!
As I just mentioned, you can design your own workout. You should still stick with the movement patterns he advises, and reluctantly, I agree that you can follow his volume approach as well.
That said, here are some tips to keep in mind when making your own workout:
Start With Your Needs
Start the workout on the movements you find hardest or you need the most muscle growth with. The more energy and focus you can apply, the greater chance you have of muscle growth!
(I Think) You Should Add Rest Days
A rest day after day three would be perfect and will also allow you to actually stick to the plan far better. You’ll have less fatigue and, I believe, better growth as well.
Don’t Increase Everything At Once
Let me be honest: I’m a hefty boy. Pull-ups are hard because pulling 270 pounds of dead weight is hard. If I were to increase the difficulty of all my movements at once, I might run into issues of muscle fatigue and even injuries.
I would dial up the hardness of the movement patterns I’m focused on while keeping those I’m already great at the same level
The Pros & Cons
Just like drinking Monster Energy Drink, there are pros and cons to everything in life.
Pro: It’s actually a great-tasting drink. Con: You look like you punch dry walls.
The same can be said of this weight training program. There are some pros and cons we need to discuss before you make the choice to follow this plan.
Pros
The Plan Is Extremely Simple
Have you ever read a plan that was designed to incorporate supersets along with set extenders as well as specific rest times? It’s a nightmare.
As far as training routines go, this one is pretty simple. You start at the easiest level, and you work your way up. Every workout is either a full-body or core-grip workout, meaning you never have to be afraid of leg workouts, either.
This is a huge benefit to beginners who should be focusing on the movement pattern rather than the set intensity, rest time, or something that isn’t as important.
Freedom to Design
Again, Jeff doesn’t really go into this at all, but you do have the ability to design your own workouts. If you don’t have the equipment or if you wish to focus on a certain movement pattern, you can easily change or shift the movement to something more appropriate.
This might seem a tad intimidating to a beginner, but simply ask yourself, “What’s the most important to me?” and then act accordingly.
The Athlean-X Program is good, don’t get me wrong. I just believe it could be better if you throw a bit of yourself in there.
Progression
This will be a pro and con, but the reason it’s a pro is because he uses progression in a way we don’t often see — making movements harder. Typically, we only see adding weight or volume as a means of progression.
However, as a beginner, you could make the movement pattern harder. A rather brilliant idea by Jeff, and one he executes beautifully. That said, it’s not perfect, but more on that later.
All Basics Are Covered
To end off the pros, we have the best of them all — it really is a beginner’s program. There’s nothing to hide behind, no gimmicks, and no promises of being life-changing. The program is simply made to help you get from a beginner to an intermediate as fast as possible.
You start with bodyweight exercises and progress slowly to use free weights. What could be more simple?
Cons
Perhaps Too Much Volume?…
While a certain amount of volume is needed to induce muscle growth, that ‘amount’ is so low for beginners that it’s unreal. I’ve seen beginners react to 3 to 4 sets per muscle per week! You might not even need this many sets per week, and you could be shooting yourself in the foot.
Personally, I would start with two sets per exercise (to failure) rather than three.
Perhaps Not Enough Rest Days?…
I’ve mentioned this before, but training five days on end is not going to work. You, as a beginner, need rest to grow. You simply won’t rest if you’re training that many days on end, and you’ll be shooting yourself in the foot. Take a rest day after three days, IMHO…
Progression
Sure, the movements get harder, but Jeff fails to get into how to make the movement harder with the load. I believe in the month period, you should be adding load every now and then to make the muscle growth even better.
Perhaps this is why volume is higher? Due to lower/constant load? It could be, and that could work, but it’s not the way most ‘big’ people train. And while you shouldn’t train identically to them, 80% of the world can’t be wrong, right?
Diet Plan?
There’s no mention of a diet plan. For a program that’s advertised as one that’ll be the best for beginners, I certainly expected a bunch of info on what to eat. I’m quite disappointed, though you’ll be able to find information in Athlean-X’s other videos.
Is This Really the Best Program for Beginners?
I believe it’s one of the best.
Claiming to be the best is a very bold claim. How does one even measure bestness? Growth? Ability to stay on the program? How about levels of enjoyment?
All of these are factors that do play a role, but what measures bestness?
The program is good. But make no mistake, it’s hardly perfect, and there’s a lot that could be improved.
However, overall, you should be able to make cracking progress with it. I would alter a few things (see the cons section) to make it better for myself, and I would also do more research on building a program rather than just following one blindly created by someone I’ll never even meet.
That said, it’s pretty solid. Dece.