Written by Garett Reid | NSCA, CSCS, CISSN, M.S.E.S.S
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
If you’re aiming to see real gains in strength and muscle, it’s crucial to train not just hard, but smart. This means walking into the gym with a clear plan every time.
But guess what? You don’t need to hammer just one or two muscle groups per workout, nor do you need to hit the gym every single day. In fact, a 3-day workout week is plenty.
An excellent choice for anyone, whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned lifter, is a full-body workout plan. This method works all your major muscle groups in each session, and yes, it’s a powerhouse approach for building both strength and muscle.
I’ve put together a solid 3-day full-body workout program that’s effective, efficient, and sure to fit into your busy life. Ready to get started? Let’s dive in!
3-Day Full Body Workout Plan for Strength & Mass Gains
This is a 3-day full-body workout plan to use at the gym. Make sure you separate each training session with at least one rest day. This routine will work every major muscle group each session and is designed to improve your strength and build muscle mass.
Session 1:
|
Exercise |
Sets x Reps |
|
Squat |
5 sets x 5 reps |
|
Bent Over Row |
4 sets x 6 reps |
|
Romanian Deadlift |
3 sets x 8 reps |
|
Dips |
3 sets x 2 RIR |
|
Lateral Raise |
2 sets x 12-15 reps |
|
Face Pull |
2 sets x 12-15 reps |
|
Rope High Pull |
2 sets x 12-15 reps |
Session 2:
|
Exercise |
Sets x Reps |
|
Bench Press |
5 sets x 5 reps |
|
Chin Ups (weighted if needed) |
4 sets x 6 reps |
|
Leg Press |
3 sets x 8 reps |
|
Seated DB Overhead Press |
3 sets x 8-10 reps |
|
Walking Lunges |
1-3 sets x 100 steps (50/leg) |
|
Leg Extension |
2 sets x 12-15 reps |
|
Leg Curl |
2 sets x 12-15 reps |
|
Calf Raise |
2 sets x 12-15 reps |
Session 3:
|
Exercise |
Sets x Reps |
|
Deadlift |
5 sets x 5 reps |
|
Military Press |
3 sets x 8 reps |
|
Seated Row |
3 sets x 8 reps |
|
Hip Thrust |
3 sets x 8 reps |
|
Skull Crusher |
3 sets x 8-10 reps |
|
Hammer Curl |
3 sets x 8-10 reps |
|
Tricep Extension |
2 sets x 12-15 reps |
|
Preacher Curl |
2 sets x 12-15 reps |
Workout Details:
I used major compound lifts that are best for improving strength and building muscle. In addition, I've incorporated at least one exercise from each major movement pattern.
The largest compound lifts and movement patterns include:
- Squat
- Hip-Hinge
- Lunge
- Vertical Pushing
- Horizontal Pushing
- Vertical Pulling
- Horizontal Pulling
After the big guns were taken care of, I added isolation exercises, each of which target a few specific muscle groups per training session. Session one's accessory lifts target the shoulders, chest, and back, session two's moves are geared toward the legs, and session three's accessory lifts work on the arms.
What Weight To Use
When getting started with this program, find a weight that's challenging but doable. For example, if you look at the rep schemes, you'll follow a 5x5 for the squat. Pick a weight that enables you to squat closer to 8 times before completely fatiguing, but don't actually squat 8 times. Squat five times.
Don’t worry about going too light as you’ll progressively overload every week. One of the worst things you can do is start too heavy as this will stunt your progress and cause you to miss reps. Each workout starts with the larger compound lifts, and these are the exercises you want to lift heavy with if you want to gain muscular strength.
The exercises that come after these moves are the accessory movements that will help generate more volume, supporting building muscle mass. This is how you set up a workout that enables you to improve muscular strength and mass simultaneously.
How To Progressive Overload
For your strength exercises that are at the beginning of your workout that follow a lower rep scheme at heavier loads, try to increase the weight every session.
For the exercises that I've assigned a 3x12-15 rep scheme, use a weight that allows you to work somewhere between the given range. Once you can perform the sets on the higher end, like 15 reps, for example, you will add weight. Keep in mind that your performance on these will vary as they are toward the end of the workout.
If you can put more weight on all of your bigger lifts, you may not be able to add weight to the exercises toward the end. You may even lift less. This is perfectly fine as long as you are pushing it to failure.
Expected Results From This Full Body Workout Plan
This full-body workout program will lead to:
- Muscular Strength Gains
- Muscle Hypertrophy & Building Muscle Mass
Who Is This Routine Best For?
Full body routines are the best training routine for you if:
- You don't want to spend more than 3 days in the gym per week.
- You're a beginner who wants to see significant growth for each major muscle group.
- You're an intermediate or advanced lifter who wants to address strength gains and building muscle mass.
- You want a training program that has more recovery time built in.
- You want to burn more calories per training session (the more muscle groups worked, the higher your calorie burn will be).
Alternatively, if you want to lift more than three times weekly or are an advanced lifter who wants to focus on specific muscle groups for growth, a full body routine may not be the best option for you. In this case, check out the SFS Hypertrophy Program that will help you pack on pounds of muscle in 90 days.
How Many Days Should You Train A Full Body Workout Program?
Because you’re training every muscle group every training session, full body workout programs should be performed 3 days a week. You could also train two days a week using a full-body workout program if you were really limited on time, but if you're focusing on the ideal full body workout plan for strength and mass gains, train 3 days a week.
If you're looking for a lifting program that has 4 to 5 training sessions a week, a full-body plan isn't what you're looking for, unless you're using bodyweight only. You can't train your entire body 4 or 5 days a week in an effective manner without your body burning out quickly due to limited rest.
If you plan on training more than 3 days a week, choose a different workout split. There are plenty of excellent 4-day, 5-day, 6 day (and even 7 day) splits; they’re just not full body.
What To Do On Rest Days?
So you have four days to do nothing, right? Nope!
Just because you have “rest” days doesn’t mean you don’t do anything. In fact, this is the time to get things done that you’ve been putting off. This can include things such as working on your mobility work or getting in some of that cardio you keep promising you’re going to do, or you could even throw in some core work at your house.
Regardless, make the most of this time off. Perhaps doing nothing would be okay for one day (make it a beach day!), but get out and move on the other three days! Staying active will only help improve your results.
Why You Should Do This Plan: Benefits of Full Body Workouts
Using a full body workout is a highly efficient way to train, but that’s not its only benefit. Here are the top benefits of using a full body workout training program.
1. You Know You Train Every Muscle With The Right Frequency:
With a full body workout plan, you know exactly what you’re doing that day…everything! A little bit of chest, back, shoulders, arms, and legs! It leaves the guesswork out of it. Every muscle group should be fatigued when you're done with a full-body routine.
This simplicity makes it impossible to train a body part too little or too much, and it also ensures that you hit the muscle at least 2x a week. Studies have shown that training a muscle group with this frequency tends to elicit the most significant benefits in terms of strength and hypertrophy1. This allows the muscle to be trained, recover, and then be trained again in a cyclical pattern.
While you’re training every muscle group 3x a week, you will still have enough recovery time between sessions as you’ll only perform a few exercises per muscle group per day.
2. Extremely Time Efficient:
I love full body workouts because every exercise counts, leading to a training program where every single exercise is of utmost importance.
3. Ensures Plenty Of Rest And Recovery:
A full body workout plan only has you train 3 days a week, which means there are another 4 days to rest and recover. Unless you try to purposely mess up your training, you’re going to have adequate time to fully recover between sessions.
Ideally, you separate each training day by one recovery day with one two-day recovery break (generally the weekend).
The most common full body training schedule looks like this:
- Monday: Full Body Workout
- Tuesday: Recover
- Wednesday: Full Body Workout
- Thursday: Recover
- Friday: Full Body Workout
- Saturday: Recover
- Sunday: Recover
Recovery is one of the most essential parts of an effective program, and a full body workout plan ensures you don't overtrain.
4. Allows Plenty Of Time For Other Sports Or Activities:
Believe it or not, not everyone wants to be in the gym every day. In fact, I’d guess the majority of people going to the gym are just trying to be healthy and look pretty good, and that’s perfectly ok.
Or, perhaps some are involved in other sports such as cycling, running, or dancing. These gym goers want to stay in shape or help strengthen their bodies for their sport. A full body split allows this as the training days are either 2 or 3 days. This leaves the other 4 or 5 days wide open to pursue your other hobbies.
5. Allows You To Workout Out With Intensity Every Session:
Running a full body split will enable you to completely crush every single session. This is because you should be coming off a rest day before every single workout! Too often, trainees try to go to the gym and kill it every workout.
This is difficult to do unless your programming is on point, and even still, it’s still hard on the body. Going to the gym for two or three days in a row can make it very challenging to give 100% effort as you’re still likely fatigued from the last session, even if you don’t feel like it.
Plus, going to the gym too often can become tough mentally for a variety of reasons. In a perfect world, you want to be hungry for that next session and enter the gym ready to move a lot of weight around.
To be clear, training for 4 or 5 days per week is still extremely effective as it allows you to get in more work volume. However, fatigue management becomes a bit more important as it’s easier to burn out, especially for beginners.
Full Body Split: Gain Strength & Mass Efficiently
The biggest hindrance many people have in achieving a high level of fitness is a belief that you need to train often to see good gains.
This three full-day plan allows you to push hard, each workout, as it gives you plenty of rest time between sessions. Three effective workouts per week goes a lot further in boosting fitness goals than five to six mediocre workouts.
And that's the beauty of the full-body routine.
Looking for another plan?
Check out the classic Upper Lower Workout Split OR learn about the Best Workout Splits.
Prepare to maximize your gains with our exclusive 12-week hypertrophy training program. Choose between a 4 or 5 day training split and gain 2-12 pounds of muscle over 90 days...
Prepare to maximize your strength with our exclusive 13-week strength training program. 3, 4, and 5 day per week programming options.
References:
- Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine. 2016. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8
Garett Reid
Author