Workout planner
A weekly template built from four choices. It sets how your strength days are split, how much cardio to add and where the rest days go, and it keeps every plan within the adult physical activity guidelines: at least two strength days and 150 or more minutes of moderate activity a week.
Your week
| Day | Session |
|---|
How the plan is built
The starting point is the U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (2nd edition, 2018), which match the World Health Organization's 2020 guidelines: adults should get 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity a week, or 75 to 150 vigorous, plus muscle-strengthening work for all major muscle groups on two or more days. Every plan here meets that floor, then shifts the balance toward your goal.
- Two or three days: full-body sessions, so each muscle group is trained two or three times a week.
- Four days: an upper/lower split, each half twice a week.
- Five or six days: push, pull and legs for muscle; more cardio days for fat loss and endurance.
New lifters start with fewer sets (two or three per exercise) and simple movements; experienced lifters get more volume. Equipment changes the exercises, not the structure.
Exercise picks
Each strength session lists a lower-body push (squat pattern), a hinge (deadlift or hip thrust pattern), an upper-body push, a pull and core work. With a gym that means barbell and machine options; with dumbbells, goblet squats, Romanian deadlifts, presses and rows; with no equipment, split squats, hip bridges, push-ups, inverted rows or towel rows, and planks.
Fitting it to your calories
Training changes your energy needs. Add the sessions in the TDEE calculator to see the effect, and use the MET calculator for anything that is not on the list. In a calorie deficit, keep the strength days: they are what tells your body to hold on to muscle while the scale goes down.
General guidance for healthy adults. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant or have not exercised in a long time, check with a clinician first.