It’s no secret that exercising is crucial for optimal health. Everyone knows it’s good for you, even if you don’t have a specific fitness goal in mind.
Exercise not only can help you stay in shape physically, but it’s good for internal organs like your heart and brain, too. However, many people are more motivated by how it can make them look.
There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s what got me so interested in exercising in the first place. I wanted to lose some weight, and then after that, I became solely focused on building more muscle.
A lot of people get confused and overwhelmed when trying to figure out what to do for their workout routine.
So, what’s the best workout routine to help you get in the shape you want? Is there a better workout routine for losing body fat than others?
To be blunt, the best workout routine is the one you can stick to. It doesn’t have to be the same as anyone else’s.
In This Article:
• What’s the Best Workout Routine For You?
• Customizing Your Workout Routine
• What Rep Range Should I Use?
• Getting the Most out of Your Workout Routine
What’s the Best Workout Routine For You?
As I stated in the last section, the best workout routine for you is one that works for you. Your schedule isn’t the same as anyone else’s.
Your goals might not be the exact same either. If you choose a workout routine that you don’t like, you probably won’t keep doing it.
The important thing is to find a workout routine that you actually enjoy and can continue doing long term.
The best workout routine depends on three key factors:
1. Your Schedule
• Determine available training days (3-6 days per week)
• Consider work and life commitments
• Choose consistent training times
2. Your Fitness Goals
• Weight loss
• Muscle building
• Strength gains
• Athletic performance
• General health
3. Your Preferences
• Exercise types you enjoy
• Available equipment
• Training environment (home/gym)
Overall, the most effective workout routine is one that:
• Fits your schedule consistently
• Aligns with your specific fitness goals
• Includes exercises you enjoy doing
• Allows for progressive overload
• Provides adequate rest between sessions
Schedule
If you have a busy schedule, you have to figure out how many days you can train. Not only that, but also which days you can work out consistently.
So, maybe you work long, 16-hour days 4 days per week. In this case, maybe a 3-day workout routine would be best for you. You can always go on walks on other days to help you burn some extra calories. Again, it’s what works for you.
If you have a pretty open schedule, then it all comes down to how many days you want to commit to. That could still be 3 days per week, but it could also be 5-6 days. Just keep in mind that regardless of how many days you can commit to, training each muscle group 2-3 days per week tends to produce the best results.
If you work out 5-6 days per week, you have a lot of freedom in how you design your workout routine. The fewer days you train, the more you’ll have to pair up muscle groups.
If your workout routine is a 3-day routine, you’ll probably want to do full-body workouts. If you do 6 days per week like me, you can split things up a little more.
6-Day Workout Routine Example:
| Day | Routine |
| Monday | Chest, shoulders, and triceps |
| Tuesday | Back and biceps |
| Wednesday | Legs and abs |
| Thursday | Rest |
| Friday | Chest, shoulders, and triceps |
| Saturday | Back and biceps |
| Sunday | Legs and abs |
You can mix and match what works for you. This is just an example of one way you could design a 6-day workout routine.
The key is to figure out your schedule and choose a plan that you like. If you like it, you’re more likely to stick to it.
Fitness Goals
Your goals matter too. Although if you want to lift weights, then it may not make a huge difference in your workout routine.
Resistance training with weights will help any and all fitness goals. Whether you want to build muscle or lose body fat, weight lifting is an optimal choice.
Even if you want to be a better swimmer, the right training program in the gym can be extremely helpful. I should know … I used to be a strength and conditioning coach, and swimmers were one type of athlete I trained.
Where the difference might come in is if muscle growth is your main goal. Let’s take bodybuilding for example.
To be a competitive bodybuilder, muscle growth is one of the biggest aspects. For them, they have to train almost every day.
Getting more volume each week (Sets x Reps x Weight) is optimal for muscle growth. So, this may help dictate the type of workout routine they choose.
These athletes would likely choose a 5-7 day workout routine. That allows them to break up their muscle groups and get optimal rest for each muscle group.
That may not be your goal, but it’s an option. If your goal was fat loss, that training program would still help you.
You see, to lose body fat, you just have to burn more calories than you consume. By having more muscle, your body can burn more calories at rest.
Preference
This is a huge piece of the puzzle. Not only should your workout routine be determined by your schedule and goals, but also by what you like.
If you don't like working out every day, but know you need to do it, you might not stick with a 6-day program. Plus, if you don’t like splitting up your muscle groups, it likely wouldn't be the workout routine for you.
You have to find what works for you and find a workout routine that you actually enjoy. There are so many ways to do it.
If it helps, you can throw other forms of exercise into your workout routine too.
For instance, if you want to lose body fat and like playing basketball, throw some pick-up basketball games into your routine. If you like swimming, rowing, or cycling, then throw that in too.
You may not like some forms of exercise at first, but over time, you may learn to love them. That’s true for lifting weights for a lot of people.
Once you start getting stronger and seeing progress, it can become addicting - in a good way! So play around with your workout routine, and sooner or later you’ll find one you like that you can stick with!
Customizing Your Workout Routine
Like I said before, there are so many ways to do this. For the rest of this article, I’m going to focus on resistance training, though. I believe everyone should be doing some form of resistance training, no matter their goal.
So let's dive into some examples.
Full Body Workout Routine
When doing a full-body routine, you most likely won’t be training more than 3 days per week. If that’s all you have in your schedule, then this is for you!
You could throw in 1-2 exercises per muscle group, and get an awesome workout in. If you want to throw some forms of cardio in there, a full-body workout is perfect for that!
Here’s an example:
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Barbell Back Squat | 3 | 10 |
| Bench Press | 3 | 10 |
| Pull-Up | 3 | To Failure |
| Plank | 2 | To Failure or 60 Seconds |
| Romanian Deadlift | 3 | 10 |
| Dumbbell Shoulder Press | 3 | 10 |
| Bent Over Row | 3 | 10 |
| Band Pull-Apart | 2 | 12-15 |
That’s just one example. Maybe for the second and third workout of the week, you throw in variations of those exercises. Instead of back squats, you could do lunges or sled pushes. Instead of the bench press, you could do dumbbell incline press.
There are too many ways to adjust this for me to even count them. YOU can switch these up however YOU want.
Body Part Split Workout Routine
I covered this a good amount earlier, but we can dive a little deeper here.
When doing body part splits, you don’t have to be a bodybuilder. It is a great workout routine if you have at least 4-5 days per week to train.
These types of workout routines are designed for maximum volume with optimal recovery. You can train each muscle group with more exercises and sets to add extra volume.
You can’t really do that as effectively with a full-body routine. I, myself, prefer body part split training because I’ve had a lot of injuries.
Having the extra recovery time can help prevent overuse injuries if you do them right. Here’s an example of a 5-day body part split workout routine:
| Day | Routine |
| Monday |
Chest |
| Tuesday |
Legs and abs |
| Wednesday |
Back |
| Thursday |
Rest |
| Friday |
Shoulders |
| Saturday |
Arms |
| Sunday | Rest |
Each workout, you can do 16-24 sets for each muscle pairing. That’s quite a bit more than you’d get with 3-6 sets per workout in a full-body routine.
Here’s an example of a back and biceps workout you could do with this workout routine:
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|
Wide Grip Pull-Up |
3 | To Failure |
|
Shrugs |
3 | 10 |
|
Bent Over Row |
3 | 10 |
|
Neutral Grip Lat Pulldown |
3 | 10 |
|
Incline Dumbbell Curls |
3 | 10 |
|
Straight-Arm Pulldown |
3 | 10 |
|
EZ Bar Reverse Curls |
3 | 10 |
Again, this is just an example. There are too many exercises to count that you could throw in here.
Exercise-Focused Split Workout Routine
This is a common workout routine for many people, including power lifters. Rather than focusing on specific muscle groups, you’d be focusing on a main exercise each workout.
This is typically a 4-day workout routine. The most common 4 exercises to focus on are:
• Bench Press
• Back Squat
• Barbell Overhead Press
• Deadlift
So if you want to do this workout routine, you’d do your main lift, and then focus on accessory exercises.
Accessory exercises train the muscles/movements that can make your main lift stronger. So on your deadlift day, maybe your accessory exercises would be:
• Romanian Deadlift
• Rack Pulls
• Leg Press
• Weighted Glute Bridge
• Glute-Ham Raise
These are all exercises that either train the movement of the deadlift or the same muscle groups. You could also throw an ab exercise or two in there.
Here’s an example putting it all together:
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|
Deadlift |
5 | 5 |
|
Romanian Deadlift |
3 | 10 |
|
Rack Pulls |
3 | 10 |
|
Leg Press |
3 | 10 |
|
Weighted Glute Bridge |
3 | 10 |
|
Glute-Ham Raise |
2 | 12-15 |
|
Side Plank |
3 | 30-60 Seconds (Each Side) |
What Rep Range Should I Use?
This is a loaded question. You can switch up your rep range based on the focus of your workout routine at that time. To understand what I mean by this, it's important to know that different rep ranges are recommended and can be more ideal for achieving specific goals.
For example, this is what the NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine) recommends:
• 1–5 reps = Strength and Power
• 6–12 reps = Muscle Growth (Hypertrophy)
• 12–20 reps = Endurance and Stability
You don’t have to have one single focus for your training all the time, either. For instance, if you want to be able to build muscle, both muscular strength and hypertrophy can help. Building muscle will still come from progressive overload.
Progressive overload is the principle of stressing your muscles more and more over time. This could be with adding more weight, doing more reps, doing more sets, shortening rest periods, and more.
As you build endurance, you can lift any given weight for more reps than you could before. As you build strength, you eventually will lift heavier weights for the same number of reps.
If you switch your training focus every 8-12 weeks, you’ll become a more well-rounded athlete. You’ll build muscle, strength, and endurance instead of just getting better in one area.
Reps for Building Strength
So, when you’re going for increased strength, how many reps should you do?
To build strength, you need to lift heavier weights. In order to lift heavier weights, you’ll have to choose weights you can only do lower reps with.
I’d recommend sticking in the 4-6 rep range mostly, and occasionally going heavier for 1-3 reps. You just don’t want to always go for max weights you can only do 1 rep with too often.
It may take a little longer to recover from those extremely heavy sets.
When I’m going for strength in my workout routine, I usually stick to 4-5 sets of 4-6 reps per exercise. Then, every 4 weeks in my training cycle, I’ll do a week of training with 1-3 reps.
Reps for Building Muscle
When it comes to building muscle, you can do this with lower and higher rep sets. You can build it effectively in the 6-12 rep range, but you can also build muscle in the 15-25 rep range.
They both lead to different types of muscle growth. One is called functional hypertrophy, and the other is non-functional hypertrophy.
Functional hypertrophy is what you’ll get in the 6-12 rep range. It leads to more actual muscle fiber growth and more strength gains.
Non-functional hypertrophy is what you’ll get in the higher rep range. It leads to growth in the fluid that surrounds the muscle. It still causes muscle growth, but won’t build your strength levels in the same way.
All great bodybuilders do a combination of both to grow their muscles. By doing this, they're just growing different parts of their muscles.
Whichever rep range you’re doing, if you continue lifting heavier weights over time, you will build muscle. You just have to keep being consistent with it!
Reps for Building Muscular Endurance
When it comes to muscular endurance, you’ll be building this with the more reps you do, and with shorter rest periods. It forces your body to become more efficient with its use of oxygen and energy production.
You can build endurance with anything over 12 reps, but typically I’d recommend doing at least 15 reps. It also helps to keep your rest periods shorter than 60 seconds to stress your body’s energy systems.
It helps to force your body to recover faster between sets. Over time, this will help you build more muscular endurance.
I know it sounds a lot like my recommendation for non-functional hypertrophy, and it is. Technically, it is, but it depends on the weights you’re using.
If you’re using lighter weights, it’ll be more endurance-focused. If your weights are still moderately heavy for that rep range, you may get some muscle growth out of it.
If your goal is muscular endurance, though, it may help to also throw in supersets and drop sets to really stress the energy systems in your body.
You can also throw in forms of cardio between exercises, like the ski erg, stationary bike, or rower. Trust me, you’ll get tired, and it will help with your cardiovascular fitness as well as endurance.
Are These Recommendations Just For Men?
No, these principles are the same for men and for women. A lot of people think men and women need to be trained differently, but it’s just not true.
Women who follow a gym workout routine similar to men will yield the same types of results. Women who use lower rep ranges build strength, and higher rep ranges build endurance.
They likely won’t be using the same weights, but it’s all relative. So if you’re a woman building your workout routine, you can follow all these same principles!
Getting the Most Out of Your Workout Routine
Your workout routine is something you can customize to your liking. So, make sure you tailor it to your schedule, goals, and preferences. Make your workout routine something you enjoy and something you can stick to. That’s really the most important thing!
Finding the right workout routine is one thing, but it takes more than that to see long-term progress. I wish it were that simple!
Your body is a master at adapting to everything you do. Over time, if you do the same workout routine, you’ll stop seeing progress.
We all know this as a plateau. It happens when your body is fully adapted to your training. It’s no longer a challenge, and your body knows exactly what it’s up against.
That’s why you have to keep progressing. You have to keep adding weight, playing around with your set and rep scheme, and changing up your exercises.
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