Beginners: 2 to 3 sessions a week
Two to three sessions are enough to get properly started. When everything is new, you need less training than someone who has been lifting for years. It also leaves days for rest and for the rest of your life.
It's better to start with two sessions you actually have time for than five sessions that last three weeks. Only add a session once your first plan feels settled and you're recovering well.
Each muscle about twice a week
A common recommendation is to train each muscle group about twice a week. The advantage is that you spread your sets out. Instead of ten sets of chest on one day, you do five on Monday and five on Thursday. That way you have the energy to do every set properly. How many sets we're talking about is covered in the guide to sets and reps.
Once a week works too, especially when time is short. What matters is that the total amount across the week is reasonable.
How your split relates to the number of days
How many days you train decides which split fits. The most common ones:
- Full body, 2 to 3 days. Every session trains the whole body, so with three sessions each muscle gets three goes a week. A good first split for most people. See full body 3 days.
- Upper and lower, 4 days. Two upper-body sessions and two leg sessions, so each muscle is trained twice. See upper and lower body.
- Push, pull and legs, 3 or 6 days. One session for pushing, one for pulling and one for legs. With three days each muscle is trained once a week, with six days twice. See push, pull, legs.
If you train at home, the same principles apply, see at home without equipment. All the splits are collected under training programmes.
Recovery is part of training
The session is the signal. It's while you recover that your body adapts. That's why what you do between sessions matters.
- Sleep. If you're going to prioritise one thing for the sake of your training, make it proper sleep.
- Time between hard sessions for the same muscle. As a rule of thumb, the same muscle usually gets a day or two between hard sessions. That's why full body on Monday, Wednesday and Friday works so well.
- Food. Eat enough. It's hard to recover on too little energy.
Muscle soreness is common at the start and doesn't say much about how good the session was. Pain is something else. If something hurts, especially if it's sharp or in a joint, stop and get it looked at by a doctor or physiotherapist.
After several weeks of hard training, a lighter week can help you shake off the fatigue. Read more about deloading.
What to do on rest days
Rest doesn't mean lying still all day. Light movement is good:
- a brisk walk
- an easy bike ride
- some mobility work or stretching
Keep it light enough that you feel fresher afterwards, not more tired. A rest day should make your next session better.
Consistency beats the perfect plan
A perfectly decent programme you follow for six months gives you more than a perfect one you drop after a month. It's lots of ordinary weeks in a row that make the difference, not one great session.
A few things that help:
- Pick fixed days and treat them like an appointment.
- Choose a number of sessions you can manage even in a hard week.
- Log every session so you can see that you're getting stronger. That's the basis of progressive overload.
When life gets busy
Not every week goes to plan. When it doesn't, the goal is to keep the habit, not to get through the whole programme.
- Shorten your sessions. Do the main lifts and skip the rest.
- Fewer exercises and fewer sets. Two sets instead of three is fine for a while.
- Fewer sessions. One session a week keeps the habit alive.
- Train at home. A short session at home counts too.
When things calm down, go back to your usual split. One tough week doesn't wipe out what you've built.
Cardio alongside strength
Cardio and strength training go well together. Light cardio, such as walking or easy cycling, can be done almost any time. You can put harder cardio sessions on different days from heavy leg sessions. If you do both on the same day and strength matters most to you, do the strength work first.
Common mistakes
- Training the same muscle hard every day as a beginner. Your muscles don't get time to recover, and you risk getting more tired instead of stronger.
- Going from zero to six sessions a week. It rarely lasts. Start with two or three and build from there.
- Changing your split every week. You can't tell whether you're getting stronger.
- Treating a missed week as a failure and stopping altogether.
- Thinking more sessions are always better. More sessions need more recovery.
- Training through pain instead of getting it looked at.
Find your number of days
Start with the number of sessions you actually have time for, and let the split follow from that. BIP builds a weekly programme from your goal, equipment, experience, how many days you have and how long each session can be, and in advanced mode you can choose the split yourself in the generator. The first week is free. You log every set in the training log, where the log and your records are free.