Charles Glass' "Beginner Essentials" Bodybuilding Workout

Charles Glass is a legend in the iron game.

His client list is a who’s who in the realm of bodybuilding and even branches over into other avenues such as Hollywood and professional sports.

If there’s anyone who knows how to carve a champion out of a beginner, it’s Charles Glass.

So, in this beginner bodybuilding workout, we’ve put together a training split inspired by Glass’s training philosophies and what he believes to be essential exercises for every bodybuilder to perform.

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Charles Glass’s Beginner Bodybuilding Workout

This workout was designed using the Charles Glass Training Fundamental series we filmed for the Muscle & Strength YouTube channel.

Each workout consists of all 3 of Charles Glass’s recommendations as well as some bonus accessory work to ensure you’re heading in the right direction to step on stage.

The workout is separated into a traditional bodybuilding split and each day will focus on targeting a different body part. An additional and optional core workout is included as well. This core workout can be performed up to 5 times per week.

You will perform the same workouts for 12 weeks, tracking the weight used along the way, and aiming to increase the weight you use during each exercise when able to do so.

Rest periods are simple, simply limit rest to 45 seconds between each set and limit the time per exercise to the amount of time it takes to move from one station to the next.

This workout can be used for either cutting or bulking depending on your diet at the time of performing the workout. With that being said, it is most beneficially used as a prep workout.

Day 1: Charles Glass’s Beginner Shoulder Workout

The first day of the workout will focus on building complete shoulders and targeting all 3 deltoid heads.

The first exercise of the workout is the side lateral raise. As a beginner, focus on performing these the traditional way. As you get more advanced, turn the dumbbells to the side to place all the tension on the medial delts.

You don’t have to go heavy on this exercise to make it effective. The purpose of the exercise is to establish a mind-muscle connection and warm-up the shoulder.

After finishing the side lateral raises, you’ll then move to the cable machine for rear delt cable flys. Set the pulleys at about eye level and grab the ends of the cables. To keep constant tension on the rear delts, stop just before the handles cross at the bottom of the movement.

Once you’ve finished the rear delt cable flys, move onto seated dumbbell presses. Stop the movement once your arms have reached parallel and press the weights back to the top.

For the final two movements outside of Glass’s recommendations, we’ve decided to add two more of Charles’s favorites in the upright barbell row and seated machine lateral raise. The upright row will be another heavier movement to target both the front and medial delts, while the machine lateral raise will be the perfect finisher exercise.

Day 2: Charles Glass’s Beginner Leg Workout

The second day of the workout will be your leg day. And you’ll kick start it with the leg press machine. The purpose of this exercise is to keep tension on the quads. Once you reach the bottom of the exercise, pause for a minute and then press back up.

After finishing with leg press, you’ll move on to the hack squat machine. When you push during this exercise, you want to focus on pushing through the heels.

To target the hamstrings, the next movement for the day will be elevated stiff-legged deadlifts. When performing the exercise, focus on stretching through the hamstrings and pulling all the way through the glutes.

The last two movements added to round out this day are the lying leg curl and the seated calf raise. The lying leg curl will provide another exercise to target the hamstrings, while the seated calf raise will allow you to build bigger calves.

Day 3: Charles Glass’s Beginner Chest Workout

Day three is focused on building an aesthetic chest. The first exercise is a bodybuilding classic - the barbell bench press. Charles recommends that you stop just below or towards the lower portion of your pecs.

After barbell bench press, the next movement is the incline bench press. This exercise is perfect for adding mass to your upper pecs. Stop slightly before touching your chest and press the weight back up.

The next lift on this day is the decline bench press. In Charles’s opinion, the decline bench press is the most complete chest exercise one can do.

The final two exercises you’ll do to round out this day are the incline dumbbell fly and the dumbbell pullover. The incline dumbbell fly will help target the upper pecs even more (because no one has ever been penalized for an overdeveloped upper chest) and the dumbbell fly will help provide that rib cage separation needed for pure aesthetics.

Day 4: Charles Glass’s Beginner Back Workout

For day 4, we’re going to focus on building a big and thick back. First up on back day is the behind the neck pulldown. Charles likes pulldowns behind the head because you get a lot more activation in the back muscles.

The main thing when performing pulldowns behind the head is you have to stop just below the ears.

After pulldowns, you’ll move onto the cable row machine to perform seated cable rows. Your size will dictate which cable attachment you should use for this exercise. Keep your chest up and shoulders back while you do this exercise and avoid becoming arm dominant.

The next exercise on back day is the deadlift. You want to make sure to keep your back straight when performing this exercise. You can also use a belt if you feel it is necessary.

For the remaining exercises on back day, you’ll perform Hammer Strength lat pulldowns and high cable face pulls. The Hammer Strength lat pulldown somewhat combines a pulldown with a row to completely activate the back. And the cable face pulls will work both the rear delts and traps.

Day 5: Charles Glass’s Beginner Arm Workout

For the fifth and final day of the week, you’ll be training arms. This day is the perfect way to close out the week with a fun workout and a nice arm pump.

The first exercise of the day is the tricep pushdown. Take a prone hand position on a straight bar and keeping your arms straight, push the weight from your forehead straight down. Keep the weight out in front and avoid bringing it all the way to the legs to keep tension off the shoulders.

From there, move on to alternating dumbbell curls. Turn the wrists throughout the movement to create greater tension on the biceps.

Then, you’ll utilize the barbell curl as your biggest movement of the day. For beginners, be sure to perform this exercise in the traditional way. For those of you who are more advanced, lean slightly forward and perform a modified and standing preacher curl.

Wrap up this workout with seated overhead tricep cable extensions, wrist curls, and reverse wrist curls. The overhead tricep cable extension will cap off the triceps after having been trained indirectly on shoulder and chest days. And the wrist curls will provide detail work to a much-needed muscle for aesthetics.

Optional Charles Glass Beginner Ab Workout

The following abdominal workout can be performed in conjunction with this workout and can be used anywhere between 3-5 times per week. It is recommended to perform it on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when beginning - and adding in extra days as you see fit.

Wrap Up

There you have it, Charles Glass’s fundamentals to bodybuilding workout split.

This workout is perfect for anyone who is looking to get started in bodybuilding.

If you have any questions that weren’t addressed in the article, please feel free to comment below.