1. Type of Split

A lot of beginners jump straight into "body part" splits, which are often less than ideal when you're starting out. There's no single split that's perfect for everyone, so it's important to find what works for you. This guide is a great resource for selecting the best workout split based on evidence. Keep in mind that trying to train six days a week on a body part split as a beginner is a good way to get injured.

2. Your Program's Foundation

Your program has to be built on the research-validated principles of Volume, Intensity, and Frequency. You can learn exactly what this means by reading the Hypertrophy Blueprint.

Okay, so that tells you what to do, but how do you measure it? For that, you can use the Hypertrophy Report tool, which will calculate your volume, frequency, and intensity for you.

3. Exercise Selection and Order

Does your routine include both compound and isolation exercises for every muscle? A 2019 study from Schoenfeld et al. confirms that this combination is crucial for ensuring full muscle activation and balanced development.

Limit to 1-3 exercises/muscle (mid-range compound + stretch + contracted, e.g., bench + pec deck + cable flyes). Strict form ensures tension on target muscles—cue mind-muscle connection (e.g., "pull humerus across body" on bench).

Heavy compounds first (e.g., deadlifts for back size); minor form loosening only on final reps if it keeps tension. No cheating that shifts load elsewhere.

See: Muscle Explorer for high quality Exercises.

4. Push vs. Pull Balance

Is your routine balanced? You should aim for a 1:1 ratio between your push and pull movements. This just means that for every push exercise you do (like a bench press or shoulder press), you should also do a pull exercise (like rows or pull-ups). This ensures your muscles develop evenly.

5. Progression

You must consistently find ways to do more over time, whether that means increasing the weight, reps, or sets. Tracking your progress from week to week is essential for maintaining long-term gains.

Muscle size will increase as you become "stronger" in moderate rep ranges. For example, if you used to do 10 reps of 50 kg on the bench press and by the end of the year you can do 100 kg for 10 reps, your chest size will increase.

If you are lifting 20kg for 10 reps today and 20kg for 10 reps by the end of the year, you've made no progress, you'll see no muscle growth. You may have got leaner and see some definition but actual muscle size would have not changed!

When should you add reps or weight to the bar? Every session? Every week? Or every month? Well, the goal isn’t to add something to the bar every week. Add weight or reps when you become comfortable with the load and it no longer serves as a "stimulus." You'll become comfortable with a load as adaptation occurs.

Suppose you're bench pressing 60kg for 6–10 reps, stopping 2 reps shy of failure (2 RIR) each set. Over time, as you adapt, that same weight starts feeling easier. By the time you hit 10 reps, you're now 4 reps shy of failure (4 RIR)—well beyond the recommended proximity to failure. The guideline calls for staying within 0–3 RIR to ensure sufficient stimulus for growth. At 4 RIR, the set loses its effectiveness. And since you're already at the top of your rep range (10 reps), you can't just add more reps. Instead, it's time to bump up the weight on the bar to restore that challenging edge. But if you were doing 9 sets at 4 RIR you'll respond by adding 1 more rep, making it 10 reps. This is basically "double progression", where you first add reps untill you reach the top of the recommended rep range, after that you add weight but only when the current set stops being sufficient training stimulus.

As you progress and grow stronger, you may only be able to add weight to the bar every few weeks or months. The goal is to become stronger over time in moderate rep ranges, and muscle size increase will come as a result of this.

1. Linear Progression (Gradual Increase)

How It Works: Add small, consistent increments to your weight or reps every workout or every week.

Example: If you're bench pressing 100 lbs for 3 sets of 8 reps, aim to increase the weight by 2.5–5 lbs every week, or add 1–2 reps per set.

1. Double Progression (Weight and Reps Combo)

How It Works: Focus on achieving a specific rep range before increasing the weight. Once you can perform the target rep range (e.g., 8-12 reps) with good form, increase the weight and drop back to the lower end of the rep range.

Example: If your goal is to do 8–12 reps for squats, you'll first work on increasing your reps within that range. Once you can do 12 reps comfortably, increase the weight and go back to 8 reps.

Double progression is pretty easy to understand, so that's what you should use to progress in strength.

6. Tracking Your Progress

You have to be tracking your workouts. If you don't log your progress, you won't be able to progress optimally because you might forget what weights you lifted last week and end up repeating the same session.

tldr; if you think someone else will put all this work to make your workout plan better, you'll be wrong is most cases. Reviewing/optimizing workout plan takes considerable effort when done right.

See: Progress Tracking for more info.

Want to avoid all this work?

Run proven programs matched to your experience level. A good workout plan is much more than just a list of "good exercises." Your progress hinges on critical variables like progression, intensity, and volume. If these aren't carefully balanced with frequency, fatigue management, and a smart selection of exercises from different angles, you'll just stall. Unless you're a seasoned coach yourself, you're better off trusting a program built by 1.

For beginners, full body training 3 times a week or an upper lower split 4 times a week is the way to go. Why? Because when you're new to lifting, hitting each muscle group at least twice a week maximizes muscle protein synthesis and gets you better results. This isn't just an opinion it's backed by the Schoenfeld et al. study, "Effects of resistance training frequency on measures of muscle hypertrophy - A systematic review and meta analysis" from Sports Medicine in 2019.

Either setup helps you build a solid base by letting you practice key lifts more often. If you can hit the gym 4 days a week, the upper lower split is a fantastic choice. It lets you train both your upper and lower body twice a week while giving you plenty of time to recover and grow.

If you're working with limited equipment or from home, this free beginner program list is your starting point. It's flexible, with options for minimal gear or even workouts using only your bodyweight.

If you scroll to the bottom of beginner program list you'll find intermediate list, and if you scroll the bottom of that you'll find advanced list.

For those with a full gym membership, start with these Optimal Hypertrophy Programs for Beginners.