How many exercises you should do per muscle group depends on several factors, including your fitness level and goals. Here are healthy tips.
We know that strength training is good for you — great, actually.
From increased muscle mass and stronger bones to better balance and weight management, incorporating strength training into your exercise routine is a no-brainer.
What’s infinitely more confusing is figuring out the logistics of it all. Is there a magic number of days per week you should work out? Should you split upper and lower body? How many reps and sets?
There’s a lot of information available and many ways to approach training. In this article, we’ll explore the topic of how many exercises you should do per muscle group.
It varies depending on several factors, including your fitness level and goals.
For example,
In general, a range of 1 to 3 sets of an exercise can provide benefits based on your goals, and even just one exercise per muscle group can give you results.
To gain strength, it’s best to stick with a few foundational exercises and concentrate your reps and sets there. If size is your goal, you’ll want to vary your exercises more, spreading your reps and sets between them.
Should you think about exercises per muscle group in a weekly view, or per workout?
To understand this topic better, we should start with addressing training volume.
Training volume = reps x sets x weight.
The correct training volume for you will depend on several factors, including your fitness level and goals.
Training volume is best to approach as a weekly target, as it accounts for how many workouts per week you plan to train a specific muscle group.
Whether you’ll train each muscle group once per week or three times per week, your volume target will stay the same. You’ll just adjust your target number of reps and sets per workout.
It’s also important to think about your workouts in sets versus reps.
When thinking about your weekly training volume, the more reps you complete, the fewer number of sets you’ll need to do. This likely means a lower weight load.
On the flip side, the fewer reps you complete — most likely at a heavier weight — the more sets you’ll need to do.
Your goals come into play here:
- Lower rep ranges of 5 and under are best for strength gains.
- Moderate rep ranges of 6 to 12 are best for a combination of both strength and muscle size (hypertrophy).
- High rep ranges of 13 to 20 are most beneficial for muscular endurance.
Once you’ve identified your goals, you’ll know whether your workouts will be set-heavy or rep-heavy.
Another important consideration: whether you want to knock out your weekly training volume in one workout or spread it out across several.
The frequency of your muscle group training — or the number of sessions per week — can make a difference in your results.
Utilizing three to four sessions per week to hit your training volume will likely provide better results than doing it all at once because of one key factor: recovery.
You’ll be less fatigued and your muscles will be allowed to rest, allowing for better performance even at the end of your sets.
Instead of viewing all of your workouts through a “full body” lens, workout splits target individual muscle groups or regions during different workouts, looking at things from a weekly or even monthly perspective.
For instance, a very basic split routine would be upper body-lower body. Or you could even break it down further with a chest/triceps/abs day, a back/biceps day, a leg day, and a shoulder day each week.
The point of a workout split is to give specific muscle groups time to rest before challenging them again while still hitting the full body every week.
Recovery is an important part of seeing results — especially as your training volume increases — so these breaks are key.
Full body
A full-body split is just that: Your workout will hit all major muscle groups.
This approach is especially good for beginners or those who are strapped for time, as the training volume will be more manageable.
An example of a full-body split looks like this:
- Monday: full body
- Tuesday: rest
- Wednesday: full body
- Thursday: rest
- Friday: full body
- Saturday: rest
- Sunday: rest
Allowing your body at least 1 day to recover between each full-body workout is key, so three sessions per week is a good baseline to start with.
Within these workouts, you’ll choose one exercise for each muscle group — back, chest, shoulders, legs, core — and, as a beginner, aim for 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps.
Body part
A body-part split workout routine targets major muscle groups individually throughout the week.
While this method will surely increase muscle size and strength, it will have you training at least 5 days a week, which is a big commitment.
If you do have the time to adopt a body-part split routine, here’s a sample schedule:
- Monday: chest
- Tuesday: legs
- Wednesday: rest
- Thursday: back
- Friday: shoulders
- Saturday: abs
- Sunday: rest
For a body-part split — which is best for more advanced skill levels — you’ll concentrate on fewer reps and more sets. Choose five exercises per workout and utilize rep ranges of less than 12.
Upper-lower
In an upper body-lower body split, you’ll divide your workouts into upper and lower body days.
A 4-day weekly routine lends itself well here, with 2 upper body days and 2 lower body days.
Here’s an example:
- Monday: upper body
- Tuesday: lower body
- Wednesday: rest
- Thursday: upper body
- Friday: lower body
- Saturday: rest
- Sunday: rest
To start, choose two exercises per muscle group, aiming for 3 sets and 10 to 12 reps as a beginner.
Push-pull
In a push-pull workout split, you’ll focus on the “push” muscles in one workout — chest, triceps, shoulders, quads, and calves — and the “pull” muscles — back, biceps, and hamstrings — in another.
Four days per week also works well for a push-pull split, allowing for two push and two pull workouts.
A sample schedule could look like this:
- Monday: push
- Tuesday: pull
- Wednesday: rest
- Thursday: push
- Friday: rest
- Saturday: pull
- Sunday: rest
To start, choose one to two exercises per muscle group, aiming for 3 sets and 10 to 12 reps as a beginner.
No matter which routine you adopt, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
Rest periods
In general, a good rule of thumb is the more you’re lifting, the longer rest you should take between sets.
In lower rep ranges, aim for at least 2 minutes between sets. In higher rep ranges, aim for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Weight
Low-, moderate-, and high-rep ranges are predicated on the fact that you’re challenging yourself to the very last rep.
If the last rep isn’t hard to get through, you’re not lifting enough weight.
Recovery
Recovery doesn’t just refer to spacing workouts so you’ll have time to rest. Components like nutrition and sleep are important, too.
Make sure the whole package is there, including a well-balanced diet and plenty of Zzz’s to ensure you’re maximizing your results.
Although there are many ways to build muscle size, an upper-lower body split is a foolproof way to start.
Aim for a schedule of 4 days per week. Stick in the moderate rep range of 6 to 12 reps for 3 sets.
A sample routine could look like this:
Monday: Upper body
- bench press
- lat pulldown
- overhead shoulder press
- bent-over row
- tricep extensions
Tuesday: Lower body
- squat
- deadlift
- split squat
- bridge
- lateral lunge
Wednesday: Rest
Remember: Recovery is an important part of seeing results — especially as your training volume increases — so breaks like this are key.
Thursday: Upper body
- single-arm dumbbell row
- incline chest press
- bicep curls
- pushups
- lateral raise
Friday: Lower body
- squat (or leg press)
- deadlift
- Bulgarian split squat
- leg curl
- standing calf raises
Saturday and Sunday: Rest
Remember: Recovery is an important part of seeing results — especially as your training volume increases — so breaks like this are key.
To build strength, stick in the range of 1 to 5 reps and 4 to 5 sets. Truly challenge yourself with the load. If you feel as though you could continue, add some more weight in the next set.
A simple, no-frills approach is the best to build strength. Stick with these foundational exercises over 3 days per week to keep the concentration and effort on your load and form.
A sample routine could look like this:
Monday:
- squat
- bench press
- row
Tuesday: Rest
Remember: Recovery is an important part of seeing results — especially as your training volume increases — so breaks like this are key.
Wednesday:
- squat
- overhead press
- deadlift
Thursday: Rest
Remember: Recovery is an important part of seeing results — especially as your training volume increases — so breaks like this are key.
Friday:
- hip thrust
- row
- goblet squat
Saturday and Sunday: Rest
Remember: Recovery is an important part of seeing results — especially as your training volume increases — so breaks like this are key.
A full-body approach is great to build muscular endurance.
Scheduling three sessions a week and sticking in the high rep range in 3 sets will have you feeling like a superhero.
A sample routine could look like this:
Monday:
- squat
- bench press
- walking lunges
- pullups
- single-leg deadlift
- lateral raise
Tuesday: Rest
Remember: Recovery is an important part of seeing results — especially as your training volume increases — so breaks like this are key.
Wednesday:
- deadlift
- pushups
- goblet squat
- row
- lateral lunge
- tricep extension
Thursday: Rest
Remember: Recovery is an important part of seeing results — especially as your training volume increases — so breaks like this are key.
Friday:
- squat
- lat pulldown
- Bulgarian split squat
- pushups
- dead bug
- plank
Saturday and Sunday: Rest
Remember: Recovery is an important part of seeing results — especially as your training volume increases — so breaks like this are key.
Analyzing your fitness goals is the first step in figuring out how many exercises you should do per muscle group.
It doesn’t have to get complicated, however.
Nicole Davis is a writer based in Madison, Wisconsin, a personal trainer, and a group fitness instructor whose goal is to help women live stronger, healthier, happier lives. When she’s not working out with her husband or chasing around her young daughter, she’s watching crime TV shows or making sourdough bread from scratch. Find her on Instagram for fitness tidbits, #momlife, and more.
