How to Create a Training Plan: Step-by-Step Guide

A good training plan is not a collection of “optimal” exercises.

It is a system of decisions that has to achieve three things at once:

1. train your goal
2. fit into your week
3. be executable progressively across several weeks

If one of those is missing, the perfect set count will not save it.

So this guide shows not only which variables belong in a plan, but in what order you should think about them.

Why you do not need a pre-made plan

A proven pre-made plan can be very sensible, especially for beginners.

You then do not have to learn to squat, estimate your RPE and invent a complete programming system all at the same time.

The problem only starts when a template does not fit your conditions:

• you can only train three days instead of four
• you are missing a particular machine
• an exercise causes pain
• your main goal does not match the progression
• you need considerably more or less volume

So the better statement is not:

You do not need a pre-made plan.

It is:

You should understand why your plan is built the way it is, so you can adapt it sensibly.

The 5 variables of a training plan

For practical purposes, five major decisions are enough as a mental model.

1. Exercise selection

Choose exercises not by whether they are called “compound” or “isolation”, but by what job they do in the plan.

Multi-joint exercises are often efficient because they load several muscle groups at once. Isolation exercises, by contrast, can add volume very specifically and are often easier to recover from.

A fixed rule like 70–80 % compounds is not needed for this.

These questions are better:

• Which movements or muscle groups should get stronger?
• Can I perform the exercise reproducibly with good technique?
• Can I load it progressively across weeks?
• Does its fatigue fit the rest of the plan?
• Do I additionally need direct work for muscles that compound lifts only load indirectly?

For strength, specificity matters especially: if you want to get stronger at bench press, bench press or a very close variation should be in the plan regularly.

For hypertrophy you have more freedom. Machines, free weights, cables and bodyweight exercises can all be productive.

2. Volume (sets × reps)

For muscle growth, weekly volume is one of the most important controllable factors.

The current evidence supports a dose-response relationship: more relevant sets lead to more hypertrophy on average, though with diminishing additional returns.

Practical orientation per muscle group:

Important: a set of bench press does not load chest, triceps and front delts identically. Newer dose-response data argues for accounting for indirect work fractionally.

More on this: How many sets per muscle group?.

3. Intensity (load / RPE)

“Intensity” can mean two things in strength training:

• Load: percentage of your 1RM
• Effort: how close the set ends to failure

For maximal strength, heavy loads matter. The 2026 ACSM position sees advantages for strength development at loads from around 80 % 1RM.

For hypertrophy the usable load range is considerably wider. Both low and high loads can produce muscle growth, as long as the sets are demanding enough.

Which is why this simple practical division often makes sense:

• Compound lifts: moderate to heavy loads, so technique and rep duration stay controllable
• Isolation exercises: often higher rep counts, because joint loading and setup are simpler
• Hypertrophy sets: usually at high effort, often around 2–3 RIR as a good start

That is a heuristic, not a physiological requirement.

4. Frequency (how often per week)

For hypertrophy, frequency is mainly a distribution tool.

When weekly volume is comparable, current research shows no consistent muscle growth advantage purely from training a muscle more often.

Twice a week is nonetheless often very practical.

Practical recommendation:

That is an organisational aid, not a ranking.

For strength, higher exercise frequency can bring additional benefits, because you practise a specific movement more often.

5. Progression (how you increase)

A plan needs a rule for what happens when you get better.

Progression can mean:

• more weight
• more reps
• more sets
• a harder exercise variation
• the same performance at lower effort

The principle behind it is progressive overload.

The progression rule should suit the exercise.

Linear progression: sensible while you can still add weight often.

Double progression: very practical for many hypertrophy exercises — add reps within a range first, then weight.

Autoregulation / percentage models: sensible when your training experience and goal justify finer steering.

More on this: Double progression explained.

Step 1 — choose your split

The split is not a fundamental physiological decision.

It is the calendar view of your training plan.

Full body (FB)

In every session you train several major movement patterns.

Typical: two to three sessions per week.

Advantages:

• few training days needed
• exercises get repeated regularly
• good for beginners and people with tight schedules
• a missed day does not immediately erase a whole muscle group from the week

Disadvantages:

• at very high volume, sessions can get long
• specialising on individual muscles is harder

Upper/lower (U/L)

Upper and lower body are distributed across separate days.

Four days per week works particularly cleanly:

Upper – Lower – off – Upper – Lower

Advantages:

• a lot of volume per body region is possible
• sessions stay manageable
• good balance between frequency and recovery

Disadvantages:

• four fixed training days do not fit every week
• upper days can get long with a lot of arm/shoulder work

Push/pull/legs (PPL)

Push, pull and legs separate the work more strongly by movement pattern.

Advantages:

• clear focus per session
• plenty of room for exercise variation and additional volume
• particularly practical at high training frequency

Disadvantages:

• time-intensive as a rigid 6-day PPL
• on three days, PPL means only one exposure per muscle group; that can work, but at small weekly volumes it is not automatically the best organisation

The recommendation: First choose the number of days you can realistically train. Then take the simplest split that distributes your desired volume and exercises sensibly.

If you want to compare existing programs, Reddit training programs compared shows several proven structures.

Step 2 — assign exercises per muscle group

You do not strictly need a “compound exercise” for every muscle group.

You need exercises that together cover all the functions you want.

With the squat it is worth adapting technique to your individual anatomy — stance width, foot angle and depth are not universal. More on this: adapting squat technique individually.

A few stable exercises are a good start.

More variation is not automatically better. Switching too often even makes comparison harder, because you can no longer judge progression cleanly.

Step 3 — set your sets and reps

Rather than assigning rigid set ranges by years of training, build from your goal.

For hypertrophy:

• start with moderate weekly volume
• distribute it across exercises that hit the target muscle sensibly
• use a broad rep range you can train with clean technique
• train hard enough

For strength:

• prioritise the specific target exercise
• use a meaningful share of heavy work
• add volume without destroying the quality of the main work

A beginner usually needs less complexity, not more.

Three clean sets of an exercise with a clear progression rule are often worth more than six variations without a system.

Step 4 — determine your starting weight

If you know your maxes, the 1RM calculator can help with percentage programs.

For many exercises, an RIR-based selection is simpler.

Pick a weight at which you complete the target reps:

• with clean technique
• without grinding
• with roughly 2–3 reps in reserve

That is a starting point.

If the program explicitly prescribes something else — heavy percentage work or AMRAP sets, for instance — those obviously apply.

The more common mistake is not that your starting weight is 2.5 kg too light.

The more common mistake is starting so heavy that by week 1 there is no progression headroom left.

Step 5 — define your progression rule

Every main exercise needs a clear answer to:

What happens at the next session?

Examples:

Linear progression:

If all planned reps were completed with clean technique, increase by the smallest sensible load step next time.

Double progression:

Rep range 8–12. Add reps first. When every working set reaches the top of the range, raise the weight and start lower in the range again.

RPE/RIR-driven:

Choose the weight so the target reps stay within the prescribed effort range. Load rises when the same rep range becomes possible at lower effort.

A good rule also describes what happens when you stall.

Not every missed rep needs an immediate 10 % deload. Often it is enough to repeat the weight, use smaller load jumps or adjust the rep range.

More on this: Progressive overload explained and double progression.

Example: 3-day full body (beginner)

The Basic Beginner Routine is a deliberately simple A/B system:

The hitPR version uses fixed rep targets without AMRAP, deliberately adapting the progression of the r/Fitness template.

Its strength is not that these six exercises are physiologically perfect.

It is the simple structure:

• few exercises
• frequent repetition
• a clear performance marker
• traceable progression

The routine’s origins and how the hitPR adaptation differs from the Greyskull/Phrak logic are explained in Greyskull LP explained.

Example: 4-day upper/lower (intermediate)

For four training days, Upper / Lower offers a clear division into two upper and two lower body days.

That is particularly sensible when you want to fit in more exercise and muscle volume without lengthening every session.

If you also want to combine heavy and volume days, PHUL is worth a look. Its DUP-style structure shows well that a training plan does not have to maximise every quality in every session.

Conclusion

Creating a training plan does not mean finding the supposedly “optimal” number for every variable.

You need a system that:

• prioritises your goal clearly
• fits your real week
• contains enough productive volume
• steers load and effort sensibly
• keeps exercises stable long enough
• has a concrete progression rule

The current evidence makes planning easier rather than harder here: many different programs work when the fundamentals are right.

So the best self-made plan is not the most individual or most complex one. It is the simplest plan you can execute reliably, measure, and develop over time.

Sources

• Currier BS et al. (2026). American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand: Resistance Training Prescription for Muscle Function, Hypertrophy, and Physical Performance in Healthy Adults. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 58(4):851–872.
• Pelland JC et al. (2026). The Resistance Training Dose Response: Meta-Regressions Exploring the Effects of Weekly Volume and Frequency on Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Gains. Sports Medicine, 56(2):481–505.
• Robinson ZP et al. (2024). Exploring the Dose-Response Relationship Between Estimated Resistance Training Proximity to Failure, Strength Gain, and Muscle Hypertrophy. Sports Medicine, 54(9):2209–2231.
• Schoenfeld BJ et al. (2021). Loading Recommendations for Muscle Strength, Hypertrophy, and Local Endurance: A Re-Examination of the Repetition Continuum. Sports, 9(2):32.
• Plotkin DL et al. (2022). Progressive overload without progressing load? The effects of load or repetition progression on muscular adaptations. PeerJ, 10:e14142.
• Helms ER, Morgan A, Valdez A (2019). The Muscle and Strength Pyramids: Training. 2nd Edition.