Full body workout: 2, 3 and 4 days, gym or home

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In a full body routine every session trains the whole body. It pays off most when you train few days a week, because a muscle trained two or three times with moderate sets progresses more than one trained once with many. The engine assigns it when you train one or two days, and also on three days if you are a beginner: early on, repeating the basic patterns often teaches more than splitting them up.

Pick your goal and the days you can train. Each routine is generated with periodization, effort control (RIR) and automatic progression.

Choose your goal

Hypertrophy

• Hypertrophy · 2 days
• Hypertrophy · 3 days
• Hypertrophy · 4 days
• Hypertrophy · 5 days
• Hypertrophy · 6 days

Strength

• Strength · 2 days
• Strength · 3 days
• Strength · 4 days
• Strength · 5 days
• Strength · 6 days

Fat loss

• Fat loss · 2 days
• Fat loss · 3 days
• Fat loss · 4 days
• Fat loss · 5 days
• Fat loss · 6 days

Body recomposition

• Body recomposition · 2 days
• Body recomposition · 3 days
• Body recomposition · 4 days
• Body recomposition · 5 days
• Body recomposition · 6 days

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The 2-day full body routine the engine builds

With two days a week the generator alternates two full-body sessions, A and B, so each muscle is trained twice without repeating exactly the same exercises. This is the week it builds for hypertrophy in a gym:

Day 1 · Full Body A

Day 2 · Full Body B

A 4-day full body routine?

It is one of the most common searches, and it is worth knowing what the generator does: with four days it does not assign full body, but upper lower. The reason is practical. With four full-body sessions each muscle is trained four times a week, which forces very few sets per muscle in each session or piles up fatigue on joints that never get two days in a row off. Upper lower achieves the twice-a-week frequency you are after with fuller sessions and a rest day for each group.

If you still prefer four full-body days, for example because your sessions are short, alternate two different sessions and spread your weekly volume across all four:

Full body workout for women

The structure is the same for men and women. What changes in the generator is the emphasis: if the profile is a woman's, it automatically prioritizes glutes and hamstrings with more volume, without you having to ask. There is a full write-up in full body for women.

Full body at the gym, with machines or at home

At the gym, machines are a good base for a full body routine: they guide the movement and let you get close to failure safely, which helps when you train the whole body in one session. A machine full body can cover every pattern with the leg press, machine chest press, lat pulldown, machine row and leg curl. At home, the same scheme works with bodyweight, bands or dumbbells: see the home workout routines.

Full body or split routine? With the same volume, the result is the same

Few gym debates last as long as full body versus split routines by muscle group. There is enough data to stop arguing and decide on a different criterion.

Ramos-Campo, Benito-Peinado, Andreu-Caravaca, Rojo-Tirado and Rubio-Arias published a systematic review with meta-analysis of fourteen studies and 392 participants in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in 2024. With training volume equated, full body and split routines produced comparable strength gains in the bench press and the lower body, and equivalent increases in muscle mass, in arms, legs and total lean mass.

The authors' conclusion is exactly the useful one: the choice between full body and a split can be made according to each person's circumstances and preferences. And the circumstance that usually weighs most is the calendar. With two or three days a week, full body lets you train each muscle more than once; with four or more, splitting into upper/lower or push pull legs shortens sessions without losing anything.

The important condition is in the small print: "with volume equated". If a structure leads you to do fewer total sets, it is no longer the same comparison.

Other training setups

• Beginner gym workout routines
• Intermediate gym workout routines
• Advanced gym workout routines
• Home workout routines
• Dumbbell workout routines for home or gym
• Gym workout plans and routines
• Push pull legs (PPL) routine: 3, 5 and 6 days
• 4-day upper lower workout routine
• Gym workout routines for women
• Strength routines for adults over 55

Learn the theory

Full body routine: how to build one, with a 3-day example

Create my free routine