NOTICE: THIS ROUTINE ASSUMES AT LEAST 6 MONTHS OF BREAK IN TRAINING FOR BEGINNERS.
THIS ROUTINE IS INTENDED FOR THE NATURAL TRAINER ONLY
How many days a week? I've seen the best results with natural bodybuilders in a bulking phase on 3 days a week, training each exercise once a week. I know almost every program in the magazines you guys read will say 4 days a week, training each muscle twice a week, but my experience with hundreds of guys is that guys that train 4 days a week never make the same gains as the ones that train 3 days a week. If you train a muscle hard enough, you just can't recover in less than 6-7 days. Just because the soreness is gone doesn't mean that the muscle is recovered. 4 and 5 day splits are fine for cutting phases but not for bulking.
How to split things up? Push, pull, and legs seems to be the best split for most guys. Working shoulders with legs doesn't yield good growth in the shoulders because they end up overtrained. On push shoulders get hammered, on pull shoulders get hammered, and even working legs shoulders get hit. Forget about skulls. I don't know what you mean by "skulls", but I assume they are for triceps. Heavy benches and overhead presses are all you need for huge triceps. After two chest movements and one shoulder movement, your triceps should be so wasted that you couldn't do a triceps exercise even if you wanted to.
Sets and reps? Like I said before, if you want to gain mass you need to stay around 5-6 reps. 4x6 or 5x5 are both good combinations. In my experience the guys that make better gains on 8-12 reps are advanced bodybuilders or are on drugs. I don't care if you feel a pump or a burn or whatever. That has nothing to do with size or strength, only momentarily pumping blood into a muscle.
Increasing your weights? You need to add weights to the bar every workout if you can. Going up in 2 ? or 5 pound increments is great. You won't be able to add more weight each week, but that needs to be your mentality. Don't think about anything else but adding weight.
Note:You should rest between 2 and 5 minutes but it depends. You should rest long enough until you are physically and mentally ready for the next set. Don't be one of these guys with a stopwatch who does each set after exactly so many minutes. Focus on what's important - doing the next set. As far as sets and reps go, just like I said - 5x5 or 4x6. Or if you're a hard, hard gainer, 5x3.
I like to train abs just as hard as any other muscle once a week for around 10-12 reps. Working abs 3x a week isn't necessary. Don't forget that your abs get hit when you squat and deadlift, even if you don't feel it.
In a bulking phase, you don't want to work abs too much though because they will grow. But you need them to be strong enough so as not to be a weak point for squatting and deadlifting. What makes your abs more defined is of course lowering your bodyfat through diet and cardio.
How long to stay on a routine? My experience is that around 8-12 weeks is best. Some guys say that after 6-8 weeks they've hit a plateau and need to change their routine. That's hogwash. Most of the time they've hit a plateau because they're not training hard enough or because they've added in more exercises than what's in my program and hinder their recovery.
After 12 weeks, take one week off. Continue doing cardio but don't touch a weight. Your body needs the time to completely recuperate. Your body needs the time to completely recuperate.
Then, begin your next 12 week cycle. If you did deadlifts in cycle 1, do powercleans in cycle 2. If you did flat barbell bench, do incline barbell bench. If you did back squats, do front squats. If you did barbell overhead presses, then do dumbbell overhead presses. The idea is to stick with heavy compounds. DO NOT SUBSTITUTE OR ADD IN ANY ISOLATION MOVEMENTS. DO NOT INCREASE REPS OR SETS.
Natural bodybuilders need to stay on a bulking program like this for about 4 or 5 years before they should even think about a cutting cycle or competing.
DAY 1 ? PULL
Deadlifts or Power Cleans
Bent Over Barbell Rows, Dumbbell Rows, or Wide Grip Chins
Barbell Curls, Close Grip Underhand Chins, or Hammer Curls
DAY 2 ? PUSH
Incline or Flat Barbell or Dumbbell Bench Press
Barbell or Dumbbell Shoulder Presses
Tricep Dips or Close Grip Bench Press
DAY 3 ? LEGS
Front or Back Squats
Barbell or Dumbbell Stiff Leg Deadlifts
Calf Raises (3x12) - only if a seriously lagging bodypart
Weighted Crunches or Weighted Hanging Leg Raises (3x12)
Note:do 5 minutes of warmup cardio at a moderate pace. Break a slight sweat and get your heart rate up a little.
Then, stretch for about 10 minutes. Stretch your legs, groin, back, and upper body. Even if it's PUSH day, stretch your lower back and legs as you'll use them both with overhead presses.
Now, you're ready to hit the weights. For each exercise do one warmup set with 50% of your work set weight for 5 reps and a second warmup set with 75% of your work set weight for 5 reps. Next, do your five work sets. Two warmup sets at 50% work weight aren't enough. You need the warmup set at 75%.
It is a total misconception that warmup sets should be in the 12-15 rep range. Warmup sets that light don't do anything other than burn up energy and don't help you with injury prevention.
You need a day between each workout to recuperate. Sometimes you'll even need to have 2 days off between workouts to recuperate. Plus you should be so sore that you couldn't workout if you wanted to, even though you'd be working different muscles.
you always want to put PUSH day in the middle of PULL and LEGS. You can do M:Pull, W:Push, F:Legs OR M:Legs, W:Push, F:Pull. If you have PULL and LEGS one right after the other, then you're working your lower back after only 48 hours rest, not enough time. | 
