Exercise Scientist Details 2-hr/Per Week Workout Routine That Helps You Retain Muscle and Lose Fat

Exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel is sharing how you can make significant gains with only two hours of training per week. On February 24, 2025, he unveiled his four-day workout regimen that targets all of the major muscle groups. 

“You want to train to get more muscle and less fat but you don’t have the time to do it. Well, good news, I have invented a way of working out, really I didn’t invent it I’m just communicating it to you on how to get a ton of muscle growth stimulus in a very short time per week.” 

Dr. Mike Israetel’s workouts are backed up by scientific research and raw data. His growing YouTube channel of over 3.32 million subscribers is a haven for gym enthusiasts and hardcore lifters. He remains dedicated to providing his followers with actionable advice they can take to build muscle and improve body composition. 

Exercise Scientist Shares ‘Huge Gains’ Workout Routine That Only Takes 2 Hours Per Week 

These are the principles Dr. Israetel is implementing in his workout routine for rapid gains. 

• Distributed Compound Exercises
• 10-20 Rep Range
• Unrelated Muscle Supersets
• High Failure Proximity

Workout (Day 1)

• Dumbbell Incline Press (Superset A) 
• Underhand Lat Pulldown (Superset B) 
• Cable Pushdown (Superset A) 
• Standing Dumbbell Curl (Superset B) 
• Super ROM Lateral Raise (Myo-rep set) 

Dr. Israetel laid out how his first superset targeted the chest and back. 

“The first exercise we have is a dumbbell incline press. It hits a bunch of the pushing muscles, chest, shoulders, triceps, then we need something for the back so we’re going to pair it to an underhand pulldown and that’s a superset.” 

Then, for his second superset, he utilized cable pushdowns and standing dumbbell curls for the biceps and triceps. He capped off this workout with super ROM lateral raises to stimulate the shoulders. 

“Then we have a cable pushdown and you can use a rope, you can use whatever you like in your own availability or whatever to preference, superset into the standing dumbbell curl. And lastly, we’re going to do just one myo-rep set, which is doing three or four mini-sets with five to 10 seconds in between with the first set getting us like 15-20 reps, that’s going to be with super ROM lateral raises.” 

Workout (Day 2)

• Dumbbell Lunge (Superset A)
• Single-Leg Calf Raise (Superset B)
• Seated Leg Curls (Superset C)

He explained how to approach day 2’s workout, which focuses on glutes, hamstrings, and calves.

“We’ll start with a dumbbell lunge. We’ll go to calves after that, I believe dumbbell single-leg calf raise, and then after that seated leg curls, which is hamstrings. So the three-way superset is gnarly. Get ready to breathe heavy a lot,” he shared. 

Workout (Day 3) 

• Deficit Push-Ups (Superset A)
• Dumbbell Two-Arm Bent Over Row (Superset B)
• Cable Curl (Superset A) 
• Dumbbell Skullcrusher (Superset B) 

For the third workout, he focused on the arms, back, and chest, but rearranged the order for arms, so biceps first, then triceps. 

“Deficit push-ups to superset to dumbbell two-arm bent row, and then next up we have a cable curl supsetted to a dumbbell skull crusher, triceps. Notice, Monday was triceps then biceps, this is biceps then triceps.” 

Workout (Day 4)

• Bodyweight squats
• Dumbbell Double-Leg Calf Raise 
• Stiff-Legged Deadlift 

His last routine focused on building the quads and calves. 

“Bodyweight squats, we’re going to start with quads but only going up two-thirds of the way down and bend back down after that and back up. It’s brutal, brutal, brutal. Then, it’s going to be a dumbbell double-leg calf raise.” 

“After that, it is going to be hamstrings, it’s a dumbbell stiff-legged deadlift.” 

Results to Expect 

Israetel shared that if you already have a muscular build, this routine will help you retain 95 percent of your size. 

“If you’re already pretty jacked, this routine with just two hours a week of training can maintain something like 95 percent of your current size indefinitely.” 

Conversely, if you’re newer to training, he said this workout could help you put on 10 or more pounds of muscle in as little as one or two years. 

“If you are newer to training or newer to hard training, this program can help you gain something like 10 or more pounds of muscle in about 1-2 years of time if you do it consistently.” 

If you’re short on time, Dr. Israetel’s four-part training routine could be the solution for ensuring muscle growth and losing fat consistently over time. He believes these workouts can be performed Monday through Friday, but encouraged his audience to modify and adjust the routine to match their time constraints. 

RELATED: Exercise Scientist Critiques Workout Style and Diet of Mass Monster Markus Ruhl

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