A full-body split trains every major muscle in every session, usually on three non-consecutive days. Each workout is built around a squat or hinge, a push and a pull, with a little direct work for arms, shoulders or calves at the end.
It is the most forgiving way to organise a week. Miss a session and nothing goes untrained; you simply do the next workout. Each muscle is hit three times a week with modest volume per session, which happens to be a very effective way to get stronger while you are still learning the lifts.
Who it’s for
Beginners, first. Squatting, pressing and pulling three times a week is how you get good at them, and novice gains come quickly enough to add weight almost every session. Most well-known beginner programs are full body for this reason.
It also suits people who can only train two or three days, people coming back after a break, and anyone whose schedule changes week to week. Advanced lifters use it too, often with lighter and heavier days, but the sessions get long once you need more volume per muscle.
The week
| Day | Session | Main lifts |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Full body A | Squat, bench press, row |
| Tuesday | Rest | — |
| Wednesday | Full body B | Deadlift, overhead press, pull-ups |
| Thursday | Rest | — |
| Friday | Full body C | Front squat or leg press, incline press, pulldown |
| Saturday | Rest | — |
| Sunday | Rest | — |
A sample day
| Exercise | Sets × reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Back squat | 3 × 5 | 3 min |
| Barbell bench press | 3 × 5 | 3 min |
| Chest-supported dumbbell row | 3 × 8–10 | 2 min |
| Romanian deadlift | 2 × 8 | 2 min |
| Dumbbell lateral raise | 2 × 12–15 | 60 s |
| Dumbbell curl | 2 × 10–12 | 60 s |
Session B swaps in the deadlift (one heavy set of 5 after warm-ups is enough at first), overhead press, pull-ups or assisted pull-ups, walking lunges and triceps work. Session C uses lighter variations: leg press or front squat, incline press, lat pulldown and a hamstring curl.
The total is about 16 working sets in 50 to 60 minutes. Warm up properly on the first lift and use lighter ramp-up sets for the second; the warm-up calculator lays out the jumps.
How to progress
For the first few months, add weight to the main lifts every session you complete all your reps: 5 lb on squat and deadlift, 2.5–5 lb on bench and press. This is the fastest progress you will ever make. Do not skip it by starting too heavy; pick a weight you could lift for eight when the target is five.
When single-session jumps stop working, switch to weekly ones: hold the weight for the week and add it the following Monday. When that stalls too, it is time for a split with more volume per muscle, usually upper/lower.
For the accessories, use double progression: once every set reaches the top of the rep range, go up one step.
Mistakes that stall it
Doing too many exercises
Full body tempts you to train everything every time. Five or six exercises is the ceiling. Past that, the last ones get done badly and recovery suffers.
Training on back-to-back days
Three hard full-body days in a row means three days of sore legs and stalling lifts. Keep a day between sessions.
Squatting and deadlifting heavy in the same session
Pick one heavy lower-body lift per day and make the other a lighter accessory.
Never changing anything
After a few months, swap a variation or two: incline for flat bench, front squat for back squat. Same pattern, new stimulus.
Not writing it down
Session-to-session progression only works if you know exactly what you lifted on Monday.
Running it in Splyt
Set up Full body A, B and C as templates in Splyt. Each one carries forward the weights you lifted last time, so on Friday you are looking at Monday’s numbers and the target is obvious. Supersets work too, if you want to pair the arm work to save time.
Splyt’s per-muscle stats show whether your three sessions really cover everything, or whether your hamstrings are getting two sets a week.
Questions
Is a full body split good for building muscle?
Yes. Training each muscle three times a week at moderate volume is at least as effective as splitting the same volume over fewer sessions. The limit is time: once you need 15 or more sets per muscle, full-body sessions get very long.
Can I do full body workouts every day?
Not hard ones. Muscles need roughly 48 hours between demanding sessions. Daily full-body training only works with low volume and low intensity, and most people progress better on three days.
How many exercises should a full body workout have?
Four to six: a squat or hinge, a horizontal or vertical push, a pull, then one or two accessories. That fits in an hour.
Full body or upper lower for beginners?
Full body for the first six to twelve months. You practise each lift more often while technique is still settling. Switch when progress slows to weekly jumps or slower.
Is two days a week of full body enough?
It is enough to get stronger and maintain muscle, and far better than nothing. Make both sessions count: the main lifts, hard sets and the same exercises long enough to see progress.
Other splits
- 3 day workout split — 3 days
- Upper lower split — 4 days
- Push pull legs split — 3 or 6 days
- Every workout split, compared
Exercises by muscle
How to do every lift above, and the alternatives when a machine is taken: Chest · Shoulders · Triceps · Lats · Upper back · Biceps · Quads · Hamstrings · Glutes · Calves · Abs · The full exercise library
Ready-made workouts for each day
Sessions with sets, reps and rest you can drop into this split: Push day · Pull day · Leg day · Upper body · Lower body · Full body · At home · All workouts
Free tools for this split
- Workout split generator — Days, time and goal in; a week of training out.
- Warm-up set calculator — A ramp from the empty bar to your work set.
- One-rep max calculator — Your best set in, a max and every percentage out.
- Barbell plate calculator — The plates for any weight, in the colours on the rack.
Splyt is a workout tracker for iPhone and Apple Watch with templates that remember what you lifted. Get Splyt free on the App Store · How templates work