3-Day Workout Program: A Complete Full-Body Gym Routine

The 3-Day Full-Body Program

The program comes down to three full-body workouts, each one training the whole body. You do A, B and C in that order, for example on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If your schedule leaves you no choice, you can also do two workouts on back-to-back days. It’s a good setup when you’re starting out at the gym, or simply when you train three times a week.

Workout A

Exercise	Sets	Rest
Barbell squat	3 × 8–10	2–3 min
Barbell bench press	3 × 8–10	2–3 min
Seated cable row	3 × 8–12	2–3 min
Leg curl	3 × 10–15	1–2 min
Lateral raise	3 × 10–15	1–2 min
Triceps pushdown	3 × 10–15	1–2 min

Workout B

Exercise	Sets	Rest
Romanian deadlift	3 × 8–10	2–3 min
Incline dumbbell press	3 × 8–12	2–3 min
Lat pulldown	3 × 8–12	2–3 min
Leg press	3 × 8–12	2–3 min
Lateral raise	3 × 10–15	1–2 min
Dumbbell curl	3 × 10–15	1–2 min

Workout C

Exercise	Sets	Rest
Barbell squat	3 × 8–10	2–3 min
Barbell bench press	3 × 8–10	2–3 min
Lat pulldown	3 × 8–12	2–3 min
Leg curl	3 × 10–15	1–2 min
Overhead press	3 × 8–10	2–3 min
Dumbbell curl	3 × 10–15	1–2 min

Print the program

“3 × 8–10” means three sets of 8 to 10 reps. That rep range helps you pick your weight, then tells you when to increase it.

The Rest column gives the rest between two sets of the same exercise. It’s longer on compound exercises, the ones that work several muscles at once like the squat, than on isolation exercises like the curl. The article on how long to rest between sets explains where these times come from. Between two exercises, the time it takes to move to the next station is enough.

Each workout starts with compound exercises because strength improves most on what you do first. That’s the position of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in its 2026 recommendations, drawn from 137 research reviews.

The three sets in the table are working sets. Before the first two exercises of the workout, do one or two lighter sets of the same exercise. A 2021 review on short workouts recommends keeping your warm-up to those sets.

What Weight to Start With in Week 1

For each exercise, find the weight that lets you hit the bottom of the range with 2 to 3 reps in reserve. On an exercise set at 8 to 10 reps, you stop at 8 feeling you could have done 10 or 11.

The first week is for finding those weights. If at 8 you feel you still have five or six more in you, the weight is too light, so go up on the very next set. If you can’t get to 8, go down.

That effort is enough to make progress. According to the ACSM, you don’t need to go to failure, the last rep you could do. The RPE calculator helps you estimate those reps in reserve.

When to Increase the Weight

Increase the weight when all three of your sets reach the top of the range, and by the smallest step you can: 2.5 kg on a barbell, one plate on a machine, the next dumbbell up. You then start again from the bottom of the range.

Until then, keep the same weight and try to get one more rep than in the previous workout. This rule is called double progression.

Take the seated cable row from workout A, set at 8 to 12 reps, and say you start at 40 kg.

In week 4, two sets out of three are at 12 and you still stay at 40 kg, because the third isn’t there yet. In week 5, all three are, so you move to the next plate and start again from 8 reps.

Six exercises come up twice a week, like the squat or the lat pulldown. For those, the previous workout is the last time you did the exercise, whether that was in A, B or C.

Each exercise moves at its own pace, and you may well go up on the row the same week you keep the same bar on the squat. To know what to beat, you need your reps from last time, so log every set with its weight.

How Long a Workout Takes

A workout takes a little under an hour: 54 minutes for workout A if you take the middle of each rest range.

Workouts B and C have four compound exercises instead of three, so two more minutes of rest. The 40 seconds per set and the 2 minutes per station change are rough figures, and a packed gym stretches them fast.

If you’re short on time, do the last two exercises as a superset: one set of the first, then one set of the second, before you rest. In all three workouts, those two exercises don’t work the same muscles, so they pair well, and you save about three minutes.

What to Replace an Exercise With

When a station is taken, do the same movement with different equipment, for example dumbbells instead of a barbell.

Switching equipment doesn’t cost you much. For strength, the ACSM finds no difference between machines and free weights, and for muscle growth there aren’t enough studies yet to say.

If the station is taken every time, switch to the variation for good rather than going back and forth. Two 24 kg dumbbells and a 60 kg barbell can’t be compared, and to tell whether you’ve made progress you need the same exercise from one workout to the next.

If You Miss a Workout

If you miss a workout, do it the next day and push the following ones back if you need to. Missed workout B on Wednesday? Do it on Thursday, then C on Friday or Saturday.

If the week ends before you’ve been able to make it up, start the next week with the workout you missed, to keep the A, B, C order.

Training two days in a row doesn’t seem to slow your progress. In a 2018 study, 30 young men followed the same program for 12 weeks, some on three days in a row, the others with one or two days between workouts. Both groups gained as much strength and as much lean mass, meaning body weight minus fat.

Full body limits the damage, because a missed workout takes away a third of each muscle’s sets. In a program where each muscle has its own day, it takes away all of the week’s sets for that day’s muscles.

How Many Sets per Muscle Group per Week

This program gives each muscle between 9 and 13.5 sets a week, so right around the ACSM benchmark for muscle growth, which is 10 or more sets.

A set counts in full for the muscle doing most of the work, and as half a set for the ones that help. So the shoulders get 9 full sets, from the lateral raise and the overhead press, plus half of the 9 sets of bench press and incline press, which makes 13.5. The article on how many sets per muscle group per week explains this way of counting in detail.

Five muscles out of eight stay at 9, one set under the benchmark. A fourth set on one exercise is enough to get the one that matters to you there: one more set of bench press in A and in C brings the chest to 11.

Full Body or Split on 3 Days a Week

On three days a week, full body and a split give the same results when the number of sets is the same. A split spreads the muscles over different days, for example chest, shoulders and triceps on Monday, legs and glutes on Wednesday, back and biceps on Friday.

A review of 14 studies published in 2024 compared the two. With the same number of sets, the gains in strength and muscle are similar, and its authors conclude that you can choose based on what you prefer. A review of 25 studies finds the same thing when it compares a muscle trained once a week with the same muscle trained several times, including in trained lifters. So full body isn’t just for beginners.

How Long to Stay on This Program

Stay on this program for as long as you train three times a week. Nothing says you have to change exercises every six weeks. According to the ACSM, as long as the weights keep going up, changing the settings on a set schedule, which is called periodization, does no better than keeping the program as it is.

When an exercise stalls for several weeks in a row, start by checking what has changed around it, like your rest or the order of the exercises. The article on progressive overload covers what to do when the reps stop going up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Lifting 3 Days a Week Enough?

Yes, three workouts a week are enough to build muscle and strength. This program brings each muscle to around 10 sets a week, the ACSM benchmark for muscle growth. For strength, the ACSM advises at least 2 workouts a week.

Should You Add Abs or Calves?

The program has no exercise that directly targets the abs or the calves. If you want to train them, add three sets at the end of the workout, for example cable crunches in A and standing calf raises in B. The workout gets about seven minutes longer.

Is This Program Suitable for Women?

Yes, this program works for women as well as men. The ACSM recommendations are for all healthy adults and don’t set out separate settings for women. Like anyone else, you can add a set for the muscles you most want to develop.

When Should You Move to 4 Workouts a Week?

Move to four workouts when you want to do more sets than a one-hour workout can hold. With the same number of sets, training more often doesn’t build more muscle. So a fourth day is for adding sets, or for making your workouts shorter. The 4-day workout program then alternates two workouts for the upper body and two for the lower body.