Pick how many days a week you can realistically train, and get a week you can walk in and run.
Estimates are for general guidance only and are not medical advice. For a personalised plan, book a free guided tour at RPM Gym.
Two or three days gets you full-body sessions; four or five gets upper/lower. That's not a compromise for beginners — it's the better structure. Training a movement two or three times a week beats hammering it once, because in your first year you're learning the lifts as much as building anything.
Every session follows the same shape: something you squat, something you hinge at the hip, something you push, something you pull, and something for the trunk. Five or six exercises, three sets each, 8-12 reps, about 90 seconds between sets. Forty to fifty minutes, warm-up included.
The rep range is wide on purpose. Start at eight, add reps week by week, and when every set hits twelve, put the weight up and drop back to eight. That single rule is progressive overload, and it's most of what makes the first year work.
2-3 days → full body, alternating session A and B 4-5 days → upper / lower, alternating Every session: 5-6 exercises · 3 sets · 8-12 reps · ~90 s rest · 40-50 min Progression: add a rep before you add weight
Someone starting out who can train three days a week.
Three sessions, roughly 45 minutes each, with every major movement trained three times a fortnight. Keep these exercises for at least six weeks — swapping them every session makes progress impossible to see.
Three is the sweet spot for most people. Two works and produces real progress; four is fine if the schedule genuinely allows it. Pick the number you can repeat every week for three months, not the number that sounds serious.
Full body, almost always. It trains each movement two or three times a week, which is what you want when learning the lifts is half the job. Body-part splits make sense later, once technique is settled and you need more volume per muscle than one session can hold.
Light enough that the last rep of a set of twelve still looks like the first. If you're not sure, start with the empty bar or the lightest dumbbells and add from there. Nobody's first month is limited by the weight being too light.
Strength moves within two to four weeks, mostly through learning the movement rather than new muscle. Visible changes usually take two to three months, and they follow food as much as training.
No. Protein powder is convenient if you're struggling to eat enough protein, and creatine is well-evidenced and cheap. Neither is required, and nothing else on the shelf will matter as much as showing up three times a week for six months.
Some, yes. Two easy sessions a week is plenty alongside this, and it's better for general health than for fat loss. Keep it away from your heaviest lower-body day if you can.
That one builds a week around any goal and experience level. This is the beginner version specifically: fewer decisions, named exercises rather than a structure to fill in, and a progression rule simple enough to follow without a coach standing next to you.
A free guided tour at RPM Gym in Al Manhal includes a walk through the equipment and a starting point for your weights, which is the bit no plan can give you.