Beginner full-body workout plan: 3 days a week for 12 weeks

Weeks 1–4 add reps, not weight. Every lift starts at the bottom of its range with a weight you could lift about three more times. Each hard week the target rises by one rep at the same weight: 12–15 in week 1, 13–15 in week 2, 14–15 in week 3. Week 3 also adds a set to every exercise after the first, apart from the carry. When every set reaches 15 at 3 in reserve, the weight goes up next session.

Weeks 5–12 add weight. From week 5 the reps stay put and the weight follows your estimated max: Coachh works out each main lift's one-rep max from your best recent set and how hard it felt, then loads today's sets for the target reps and reps in reserve. It never asks for more than 10% over your heaviest set last time. Smaller exercises go up the old-fashioned way: stay at a weight until every set reaches the top of the range, then add one step.

How big is a step? 10 lb on the back squat, leg press and Romanian deadlift, where 5 lb barely registers; 5 lb on everything else. With light dumbbells, where 15 to 20 lb is a third more, Coachh asks for two reps past the top of the range first.

Your first month is when a bad night feels biggest and matters least, because the weights are light on purpose. Tell Coachh in the morning check-in ("slept badly, maybe 5 hours") and today's session is adjusted before you start, with the reason on the plan.

Being sore after week 1 is normal: split squats and Romanian deadlifts do it to almost everyone. Say "my hamstrings are sore" and Coachh goes easy on them today, without changing the program. If Wednesday's soreness is still there on Friday, that's a sign the weight jumped too fast, not that you need a day off from everything.

Missed Monday? Don't double up. Coachh moves Monday's session to today, one session only, and the rest days stay rest days. Most people miss a week somewhere in these 12; the plan doesn't restart, it eases you back in.

A rough night after time off counts once: Coachh takes the more cautious of the two changes, never both.

Why full body, three times a week?

Because it's the simplest way to train every muscle often without long sessions. The American College of Sports Medicine's position stand on progression recommends 2 to 3 training days a week for novices, with loads you can lift about 8 to 12 times (ACSM, 2009). In a meta-analysis of 10 studies, training a muscle twice a week grew it more than once a week when the total work was the same (Schoenfeld and colleagues, 2016). Three full-body days trains each muscle three times, so no single session has to do much.

It also fits the basic guideline: the CDC asks adults for muscle-strengthening work on at least 2 days a week, plus 150 minutes of moderate activity like brisk walking (CDC). Three lifting days and three walking days cover both.

Why start lighter than the usual 8 to 12 reps?

The first four weeks are for learning. Sets of 12 to 15 with a 3-second lowering give you more practice reps at a weight you control, and soreness stays manageable while your joints and tendons catch up. Light loads can build muscle too: across 21 studies in which every set was taken to failure, muscle growth was similar with light and heavy loads, though heavy loads built more maximal strength (Schoenfeld and colleagues, 2017). These first sets stop well short of failure on purpose, so they're mostly practice; the plan moves to heavier sets of 6 to 8 on the main lifts by week 9, once the movements are solid.

Why stop with reps left?

Every set ends with two or three good reps still in you. The reps-in-reserve scale lets you set effort set by set, and it adjusts the load to how you are that day (Helms and colleagues, 2016). Beginners tend to misjudge it at first; it gets more accurate with practice, which is one more reason the early weeks stay well short of failure.

Why is every fourth week lighter?

Planned lighter weeks are standard practice, but most of the evidence is coaches' experience rather than trials. In a survey of 246 competitive lifters, deloads came about every 5 to 6 weeks and lasted about a week (Rogerson and colleagues, 2024). For a beginner the lighter week does a second job: it's the check that the movements still look right before the next phase gets heavier.

After week 12 most people either move to four days (the upper/lower plan) or stay on three full-body days in a strength phase, with the main lifts at 3 to 6 reps and longer rests. In Coachh the last phase carries on until you ask for the next one, and the new phase starts from the estimated maxes you've built, not from scratch.