“Hey Nate, I want to get serious about working out. What workout plan should I use??”
This is one of most common questions I get. Much of Pointman thus far has been an exploration and debate of this challenge. I remember arguing this question with my lifter bros back in college when were just silly noobs. That was more than 15 years ago! In the years since I’ve spent an unreasonable amount of time looking for better insights.
Though I never started out with a destination in mind, I think I’ve finally arrived. This is my final answer to the most common question in fitness.
The workout
“Ultimate simplicity leads to purity” - Jiro Dreams of Sushi
The fundamentals of building a great body are not complicated. The 80/20 solution here is actually quite elegant and simple. This section is the workout plan itself, which is everything you need to be successful. The days of the week are intentional and I think optimal, but you can mix and match based on your schedule and requirements. You can add cardio and conditioning after any workout, which is often most convenient. If you want to understand more about the reasoning and science, read the next section as well.
Beginner/Intermediate @ 3x per week:
Tuesday: Full body strength
Thursday: Full body strength
Saturday: Full body strength + sprints
Cardio/conditioning whenever possible
Intermediate @ 4x per week:
Monday: Upper body strength
Tuesday: Lower body strength
Thursday: Upper body strength
Friday: Lower body strength
Saturday: Sprints
Cardio/conditioning whenever possible
Advanced @ 3x per week:
(This is literally my own workout plan right now)
Tuesday: Upper body strength + lower body conditioning
Thursday: Lower body strength + upper body conditioning
Saturday: Full body workout + sprints
Cardio/conditioning whenever possible
Advanced @ 4x per week:
Monday: Upper body strength 1
Tuesday: Lower body strength 1
Thursday: Upper body strength 2
Friday: Lower body strength 2
Saturday: Sprints
Cardio/conditioning whenever possible
The science
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” - Richard Feynman
As it turns out, most guys aren’t trying to be a competitive bodybuilder, or competitive marathon runner, or a competitive football player etc etc. If you want to compete in a sport, you definitely need to use a sports specific workout plan to accomplish that goal. But most aren’t. You need a workout that suits where you are at now, and the goals you are trying to achieve.
The unlimited volumes of junk content on the internet makes this problem worse. If you google for terms like “best workout plan”, it’s a terrifying minefield of bad information. Most of this content is biased due to financial or cultural incentives. You must not fool yourself.
It’s my observation that most guys just want to stand out from the crowd and be a top dude in the community. The good news is, with the huge decline of modern physical standards, it’s pretty easy to dominate.
Here are the facts:
Building muscle makes your life better and longer. Literally everyone benefits from this. Do it!
Building muscle requires volume and frequency, but also rest and recovery. Both sides of the equation are necessary. Too much of either side will hurt the gains. Balancing this is what makes a great workout plan.
The sweet spot for most people is working out 3x days per week. It’s very flexible and hard to mess up.
4x days per week definitely works too, but you need more time commitment and schedule intelligence to be productive.
2x days per week is good too, and better than 0 or 1, but you are likely leaving gains on the table.
Building your heart with cardio also makes your life better and longer. Literally everyone benefits from this. Do it!
There doesn’t seem to be diminishing benefits on low impact low intensity cardio. For example: brisk walking, casual cycling, stairs, treadmill, hiking, rucking etc. You can do this as much as possible, and it is effective for both heart health and fat loss. The snazzy term for this nowadays is “Zone 2 cardio” but, whatever.
It’s hugely beneficial to go very hard with high intensity cardio movement like sprints 1x a week. You can bring this to 2-3x per week if you have training and can handle it, lots of factors there. You have to know what you are doing if you want to sprint frequently.
Playing sports and doing rigorous physical activities you enjoy count as cardio. Do the things you love to do!
The vast majority of beginner and intermediate trainees will benefit most from a full body workout. Workout “splits” are only needed for more serious lifters.
This is the foundation for the workout plans above. To reiterate, these are general guidelines and general recommendations. If If you have limitations or injuries, hire a coach and customize this for you. If you have specific goals, hire a coach and customize this for you.
More resources
This goal of this article is to deliver to you the most flexible and robust workout plan, likely the only one you ever need. I intentionally did not include recommendations for exercise selection, sets, reps, pace, loads etc etc, because this is meant to be a general assessment. I’ve written many articles about specific recommendations before and have included them below. As always, I recommend you hire a coach and customize this material for you.
Please share this article with people in need.