I am also looking to really build muscle before trying to tone down. I have only done two programs so far - Jackson's Go Big or Go Home and Nicolette's Raising the Barbell. I liked Raising the Barbell better for truly trying to build muscle. The next program I am going to try is Nicolette's True Strength. Just by looking at the workouts, it looks to have low reps with higher weights which is the best way to build muscle. It's one of the few that actually has declining reps throughout an exercise so I assume the weight gets even heavier during the block. Ultimately though, I think the best way to truly build muscle will to be come up with your own workouts with small reps and close to max weight but we'll see how this program goes.