With a full-body workout plan, there’s no guesswork—you’re hitting every major muscle group in one session: chest, back, shoulders, arms, and legs. This approach ensures balanced training and prevents neglecting or overworking any area.
By training each muscle group around 2–3 times per week, you maximize strength and hypertrophy gains, as supported by research. The structure allows for a natural cycle of stimulus, recovery, and growth.
And because you're only doing a few exercises per muscle group each day, you’ll still get ample recovery time between sessions—making it an efficient and sustainable way to train.
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 are taken care of, I added isolation exercises, each of which target a few specific muscle groups per training session.
- Session One: Accessories target the shoulders, chest, and back
- Session Two: Accessories target the legs
- Session Three: Accessories target 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 7-8 times, but don't actually squat 8 times. Squat five times.
Don’t worry about going too light as you’ll progressive 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 Use 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 example, pretend you’re doing squats with a 5X5 rep scheme
- Week 1: 5X5 @ 225lbs
- Week 2: 5X5 @ 230lbs
- Week 3: 5X5 @ 235lbs
For Your Accessory Exercises- These are those prescribed a range such as 3x12-15. Use a weight that allows you to work somewhere between the given range. Then add reps until you get to the higher end. Add weight and then start at the bottom of the reps again. For example, pretend you’re using a 3X8-10 rep scheme.
- Week 1: 3X8 @ 60lbs
- Week 2: 3X9 @ 60lbs
- Week 3: 3X10 @ 60lbs
- Week 4: 3X8 @ 65lbs
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 3 days a week would likely yield superior results.
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 due to lack of recovery.
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:
A full-body workout plan takes the guesswork out of training—you gotta hit everything in one session: chest, back, shoulders, arms, and legs.
By working all major muscle groups together, you're less likely to overtrain or neglect any areas while allowing high intensity each session.
This style of training typically hits each muscle group 2–3 times per week, a frequency shown to be ideal for strength and hypertrophy gains.¹ The structure creates a natural cycle of stimulus, recovery, and growth.
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, the majority of people going to the gym are just trying to be healthy and look pretty good, probably don’t.
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 lets you crush every session—because you're hitting the gym after a rest day, not in a fatigued state.
Too often, people try to “go hard” every day, but that’s tough unless your programming is dialed in. Even then, training multiple days in a row makes it hard to give 100%.
Mentally, it can wear you down, too. Ideally, you want to walk into each workout feeling fresh and hungry to lift heavy. This is crucial as intensity is essential for continual progressive overload and growth,²
While training 4–5 days per week works great for volume, managing fatigue becomes more important to avoid burnout—especially if you're just starting out.
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
-
Currier BS, Mcleod JC, Banfield L, et al. Resistance training prescription for muscle strength and hypertrophy in healthy adults: a systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med. 2023;57(18):1211-1220. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2023-106807 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10579494/
Garett Reid
Author