Who it suits
- Beginners learning the main movement patterns.
- People who can train only two or three days a week.
- Anyone returning after a break who wants frequent practice with moderate volume per session.
How it works
Pick one exercise per pattern for each session: a press, a pull, a squat or lunge, and a hinge, plus optional extra work. Rotate the variations across the week: for pressing, for example, a barbell bench press on Monday, push-ups on Wednesday and a dumbbell bench press on Friday. Guidelines for healthy adults suggest two to three whole-body sessions a week for people new to training [1].
How to progress
- Add load or reps to each exercise when every set reaches your target with good form.
- Keep most sets a few reps short of failure while you learn the movements, then train closer to failure as your technique settles.
- Track weekly sets per muscle: as you advance, about 10 or more hard sets a week per muscle group is a reasonable growth target [2], and that is when many people move to an upper/lower split.
Isn’t one exercise per muscle too little?
Not when you train the same muscles two or three times a week. The weekly total is what adds up.
Other splits
- Push / Pull / Legs: 3 or 6 days a week
- Upper / Lower: 4 days a week
- Body-Part Split: 5 days a week
Sources
- Ratamess NA, Alvar BA, Evetoch TK, Housh TJ, Kibler WB, Kraemer WJ, Triplett NT. American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009;41(3):687–708. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181915670Verified · checked 22 Oct 2026
- Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Sports Sci. 2017;35(11):1073–1082. Verified · checked 22 Oct 2026