Exercise Selection, Sets & Target Rep Ranges

In our last post, we tackled the question of which training split is best based on how many days a week you can commit to the gym. But what comes next? How do you take that plan and make it effective? It’s time to dive into how to pick the right exercises, sets, and reps to optimize your progress. Let’s break it down.

Full Body Workouts: A Smart Strategy
For this example, let’s assume you’ve chosen to train three days a week with a rest day in between each session—think Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. With this schedule, we’ll focus on a full-body workout for each session, making sure we target the major muscle groups efficiently. But first, let’s talk about compound movements—those multi-joint exercises that engage multiple muscle groups at once. These are the backbone of any solid workout plan.

Here’s a quick list of the essential compound movements we’ll focus on:

- Squat/Leg Press
- Chest Press
- Shoulder Press
- Vertical Pull (Pull-ups or Lat Pulldowns)
- Horizontal Pull (Rows)
- Pull from the Floor (Deadlifts)

These six movement patterns cover almost every major muscle group, ensuring you’re hitting your body’s key areas. Once we’ve incorporated these compounds, we can supplement with isolation exercises that target single muscles.

Here are a few common options:

- Leg extensions/curls
- Bicep curls
- Tricep extensions/pushdowns
- Lateral raises
- Shrugs
- Ab crunches
- Calf raises

Each of these isolation exercises allows for more focused work on specific muscle groups. And remember, there are tons of variations of each of these exercises, so you’ve got plenty of options to mix things up!

Spice Things Up: Exercise Rotations
Variety is the spice of life—and the same goes for your workouts. To avoid getting bored or hitting a plateau, rotating exercises is key.
For example:

Chest press could change from an incline barbell press one day to a flat dumbbell press the next. Squats could be replaced with leg presses or lunges on alternate days. Switching up the order of exercises is another great way to keep things fresh. One day, start with legs, followed by a pull movement, and finish with a pressing movement. The next session, you might begin with pulling, then pressing, and wrap up with legs.

How Many Sets Should You Do?
A solid rule of thumb is to aim for 2-4 sets per exercise, depending on the workout intensity and your goals. On average, a full-body session will consist of around 5-8 different exercises, which adds up to 15-20 working sets for the whole session. Of course, this can vary based on how much time you have to train, your experience level, and how well your body recovers between sessions.

Reps: Finding Your Sweet Spot
When it comes to reps, the numbers you choose depend largely on your goals:

*1-5 reps: Best for building strength and power—think powerlifters.
*5-30 reps: Ideal for muscle growth (hypertrophy), which is the sweet spot for most gym-goers.
*Over 30 reps: Great for muscular endurance

To get more specific, you can break those ranges down further—6-10, 10-15, 15-20 and 20-30. Compound exercises generally work well with lower reps (since you’re lifting heavier), while isolation exercises can be performed in higher rep ranges, especially since you’re typically using lighter weights for smaller muscle groups.

Putting It All Together: A Sample Full Body Plan
Now, let’s combine everything into a sample full-body workout plan for someone training three days per week. This example will hit all muscle groups, with a total of 18 sets per session and reps ranging from 6-20, depending on the exercise.

For legs, we’ll opt for a higher rep range since the quads are more endurance-oriented and can handle higher reps safely. This also helps you avoid lifting excessively heavy weights and reduces the risk of injury.

The workout plan will look something like this: