Guide · training splits
Full body workout, three days a week: plan and track it
A three-day full body plan trains every major muscle in each session, three times a week, with a day of rest between. It is the plan most coaches hand to a beginner, and for good reason: the sessions are short, every movement gets practised often, and progress is easy to see from week to week.
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Key takeaways
- Three sessions a week, each with a leg exercise, a press, a pull and a little isolation work.
- Three different days (A, B, C) so no exercise is repeated more than once a week.
- Every muscle is trained three times a week, which suits beginners and people short on time.
- Compare each day with the same day last week; add weight when you reach the top of the rep range.
What a full body split is
Most training splits divide the body across the week: push and pull, upper and lower, one muscle a day. A full body plan does the opposite. Every session covers the whole body with one or two exercises per area, and you repeat that three times a week. Each session does a little for every muscle instead of a lot for a few.
That is why it works so well early on. Strength in the first year comes largely from learning the movements, and practising a press three times a week teaches it faster than once. It also keeps the stakes low: skip Wednesday and you have still trained everything twice.
What goes on each day
IronBuddy's Full Body 3× preset uses three different days so the week stays varied: a leg press, a goblet squat and a hack squat each get a day, as do three different rows and pulldowns. Every day has seven exercises and takes about 45 to 60 minutes.
| Day | Exercises (sets × reps) |
|---|---|
| Full Body ALegs, chest, back, shoulders, arms | Leg Press 3×10–12 · Machine Chest Press 3×10–12 · Lat Pulldown 3×10–12 · Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift 2×10–12 · Dumbbell Lateral Raise 2×12–15 · Cable Triceps Pushdown 2×12–15 · Dumbbell Biceps Curl 2×12–15 |
| Full Body BLegs, chest, back, shoulders, core | Goblet Squat 3×10–12 · Incline Dumbbell Bench Press 3×10–12 · Seated Cable Row 3×10–12 · Seated Leg Curl 3×12–15 · Machine Shoulder Press 2×10–12 · Standing Calf Raise 2×12–15 · Cable Crunch 2×12–15 |
| Full Body CLegs, glutes, chest, back, arms | Hack Squat 3×10–12 · Machine Chest Press 3×10–12 · Chest-Supported Row 3×10–12 · Hip Thrust 2×10–12 · Reverse Pec Deck 2×12–15 · EZ-Bar Curl 2×12–15 · Rope Triceps Pushdown 2×12–15 |
Rest about 2 minutes after the leg and chest work, 90 seconds after rows and pulldowns, and a minute after the small stuff. If an exercise is not available, swap it for the same movement with different equipment: a dumbbell press for the machine press, a leg curl machine of any kind for the seated one.
How to lay out the week
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Week: A, rest, B, rest, C, rest, rest
Suits: The classic layout. A day of rest between every session and the weekend off.
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
Week: rest, A, rest, B, rest, C, rest
Suits: The same spacing shifted a day, for people whose Mondays never work out.
Twice a week
Week: A, rest, rest, B, rest, rest, rest, then C, A, B the next weeks
Suits: The minimum that still makes progress. The three days rotate, so each comes round every ten days or so.
Keep at least one rest day between sessions. Two full body days back to back means training legs on tired legs, and the second session suffers for it.
Who it suits
- Beginners. It is the simplest plan to follow and the one that teaches the lifts fastest.
- People with two or three days. Nothing else trains everything on so few days.
- Anyone coming back. After a break, three moderate sessions rebuild the habit without the soreness of a dedicated leg day.
- Less suited to: lifters who need a lot of sets for one muscle. Seven exercises across the whole body leaves two or three sets per muscle per session. When that stops being enough, an Upper Lower split is the natural next step.
How to track a full body plan
- Same day, last week. Day A this Monday against Day A last Monday. With three different days, that is the only comparison that lines up, and IronBuddy makes it for every exercise when you open the summary.
- One number at a time. On a 10–12 rep range, get all sets to 12, then add the smallest weight your gym allows and drop back to 10. Read how to track progressive overload for the full method.
- Watch weekly sets, not daily ones. Two sets of curls on a day looks like nothing; six a week across three days is a fair amount for a beginner. Muscle Balance on IronBuddy's Home adds them up by body area.
- Write down what you changed. Seat positions, a swapped exercise, a short night. The note explains the number a month later.
Running Full Body 3× in IronBuddy
IronBuddy includes Full Body 3× as one of its ten preset splits, with the exercises above, a rep range and a rest time on every exercise. It is listed as Beginner and set to Monday, Wednesday and Friday; move the days with Edit Week.
- Open Splits, filter the presets if you like, and open Full Body 3×.
- Tap Set active. Home shows this week's days with their status, and Edit Week puts each day on the weekday you train.
- Swap any exercise for one your gym has. The first time you edit a preset, IronBuddy saves your version under My splits and leaves the preset as it was.
- Open each day from Home, enter reps and weight (and any drop sets or supersets), then tap Log workout. The summary compares every exercise with last time.
- Check Progress for best weight, estimated 1RM and volume per exercise, and Muscle Balance on Home for your weekly sets per muscle group.
The 7-day free trial includes the whole workout tracker: workout logging, progress charts, body metrics, the full library of 800+ exercises, every split and your own custom splits. Buying IronBuddy for €6.99 keeps everything unlocked after the trial, and adds export and import of your data, a local copy of your data kept on your phone, share cards, a customizable Home and accent colors. In both the trial and the full version, Android's own backup protects your data if Google backup is turned on. See training splits in IronBuddy for screenshots of the presets, filters and week editor.
Full body workout questions
Is a full body workout the best way to start?
For most beginners, yes. Every muscle gets practised three times a week, which is what learning a movement needs, the sessions are short enough to finish, and a missed day costs you a third of a week instead of a whole muscle group. IronBuddy lists its Full Body 3× preset as Beginner.
How long should I stay on full body?
As long as the numbers keep going up. Many people run it for six months to a year. When adding weight stalls on most lifts, or you want more sets for a particular muscle than a full body day can fit, move to an Upper Lower split, which keeps the same twice-a-week frequency over four days.
Does the exercise order matter?
Start with the biggest lift while you are fresh, usually the leg exercise, then the press and the pull, then the smaller isolation work. If your legs are the priority, keep that order; if an upper-body lift is the one you most want to progress, put it first on that day.
A note on safety
This guide is general training information, not medical advice. Choose loads and a weekly layout that suit your experience and recovery, and speak to a qualified professional if you have an injury or a health condition.
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