How to build your workout routine

1. Decide the days you will actually keep

Not the days you would like to train: the ones you will train in a bad week. If it is three, the answer is full body. Four, upper/lower. Five or six, push pull legs. The structure falls out of the number of days, not the other way round.

• —2 days: full body A/B alternating.
• —3 days: full body A/B/C, a rest day between sessions.
• —4 days: upper, lower, upper, lower.
• —5–6 days: push, pull, legs repeated; the sixth day or rest closes the week.

2. Split the muscle groups

Every big group (chest, back, shoulders, quads, hamstrings and glutes) should work twice a week. With three full-body days you get there by touching everything each session with low volume; with four or more, by dedicating days. What does not work is one day per muscle: each is hit once and goes six days without a stimulus.

3. Pick the exercises

Five to seven per session. Start with one or two heavy compound lifts (squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, row, pull-ups) and fill in with accessories that cover what is missing: lateral raises for shoulders, leg curls for hamstrings, some biceps and triceps at the end. One exercise per pattern, not three variants of the same press.

Pick exercises your gym has and that do not hurt. A dumbbell press you do well is worth more than a barbell bench that bothers your shoulder.

4. Set sets and reps

• —Hypertrophy: 3–4 sets of 6–12 reps, close to failure (one or two reps in reserve). 10–20 sets per muscle group a week.
• —Strength: 3–5 sets of 3–6 reps on the basics, 2–3 minutes rest. Accessories stay at 8–12.
• —Coming back after a break: the same reps with one set fewer on everything for two weeks.

5. Decide how you will progress

A routine without a progression rule is a shopping list. The simplest rule is double progression: a fixed rep range, first fill the range on every set, then add weight. To apply it you need the log from the previous session, and that is what most people give up on.

Prup logs every set and reads the history of every exercise to prescribe the next one: weight, sets and reps. The coach applies the rule; you just train.