// Gym & Plan Calculators

Gym Workout Plan Builder

Tell it your goal, how many days you can train and how long you have been training. It returns a week you can walk in and follow.

Your details

Your result

Your week
4 days · standard structure
Day 1
Upper A
Day 2
Lower A
Day 3
Upper B
Day 4
Lower B
Sets per exercise
3
Rep range
8–12
Rest between sets
60–90 s
Cardio
2–3 finishers + daily steps
Session length
50–70 min
  • Pick 5–6 exercises per session, compounds first, and keep the same exercises for 4–6 weeks so progress is measurable.
  • Add a small amount of weight or one rep when you hit the top of the rep range on every set.

Estimates are for general guidance only and are not medical advice. For a personalised plan, book a free guided tour at RPM Gym.

What your result means

The output is a week, not a recommendation. Each training day is named, so Day 1 is a session you can actually run rather than a label to interpret, and the prescription underneath tells you how to run it.

Three inputs drive it and each changes a different thing. Days available decides the structure. You can't run a six-way split on three days without training everything too rarely. Goal sets the sets, reps and rest, because strength and fat loss demand genuinely different work. Experience decides between whole-body frequency and a body-part split.

That last one is where most plans go wrong. Newer lifters improve fastest on frequency, hitting each movement two or three times a week, which is why this returns full-body and upper/lower structures for beginners even at five or six days, rather than the split an experienced lifter would run.

How it is calculated

Structured programme selection, not a formula

Structure = f(days available, experience) beginner 2–3 days → full body · 4–6 days → upper/lower with full-body inserts intermediate+ 3 days → push/pull/legs · 4 days → upper/lower ×2 · 6 days → PPL ×2 Prescription = f(goal) strength 4–5 × 3–6 reps, 2–4 min rest · muscle 3–4 × 6–12, 90–120 s fat loss 3 × 8–12, 60–90 s · general health 2–3 × 10–15, 60 s

What it assumes

  • Training days are assumed to be genuinely available and repeatable. A plan built on five days that you run three times is worse than a plan built on three.
  • Each session is assumed to be 5–6 exercises, compounds first. The structure is chosen on that basis.
  • Set and rep prescriptions are conventional ranges from resistance-training guidelines, not personalised loads. What weight to use is a coaching question.
  • Cardio is prescribed alongside, not instead of, resistance training, including for fat loss.

Units and rounding

  • Days per week is a whole number between 2 and 6; values outside that are clamped rather than rejected.
  • Rest is given in seconds or minutes, sets and reps as ranges.
  • Session length is an estimate covering warm-up plus working sets at the prescribed rest.

Worked example

Four days a week, goal is building muscle, training consistently for over a year.

  1. Days 4 + intermediate → Upper A · Lower A · Upper B · Lower B
  2. Goal muscle → 3–4 sets per exercise, 6–12 reps, 90–120 s rest
  3. Cardio → 1–2 easy sessions, kept clear of the heavy lower days
  4. Session length → about 50–70 minutes

Each muscle group trained twice a week across four sessions, the frequency most of the hypertrophy literature converges on, with roughly an hour per session.

Limitations

  • A plan is a structure, not a programme. It tells you what to train and how hard; it doesn't choose your exercises, your starting weights or your technique, and those are where most beginners actually need help.
  • It assumes you're healthy and training without restriction. An injury, a recent surgery or a medical condition changes what belongs in a session, and that's a conversation with a physiotherapist or doctor rather than a generator.
  • The structures are conventional rather than optimal for you. Individual response to frequency and volume varies enough that the first four weeks should be treated as information gathering.
  • It doesn't periodise. Running the same prescription indefinitely stops working; expect to change something meaningful every four to six weeks.
  • Fat loss is decided in the kitchen far more than in this plan. Training protects muscle and builds capacity while a calorie deficit does the fat loss.

What to do next

  • Keep the same exercises for four to six weeks. Progress is only visible if the test doesn't change every session.
  • Add load or a rep when you hit the top of the prescribed range on every set. That's progressive overload in practice, and it's the whole mechanism.
  • Log the plan somewhere you will actually look at mid-session. A plan you remember badly is a different plan.
  • If you can only reliably train three days, build on three. Consistency at a lower frequency beats an ambitious structure you abandon.
  • Once you know which split you're running, the dedicated split pages go deeper on how to fill each session.

Sources

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// Frequently Asked

Questions, answered.

How many days a week should I go to the gym?

Three or four covers most goals well, and the difference between four and five is smaller than the difference between two and three. Pick the number you can repeat every week for two months, not the number that looks best on paper.

What is the best gym workout plan for building muscle?

One that trains each muscle group about twice a week, keeps most sets in the 6–12 rep range, and gets progressively harder. Structure matters less than the fact that the weight on the bar goes up over time.

Should a beginner follow a split routine?

Usually not at first. Full-body or upper/lower sessions give more practice per movement per week, and early progress is largely about learning the lifts. Body-part splits make more sense once technique is settled and you need more volume per session.

How is this different from the workout split calculator?

The split calculator answers one narrow question: which split suits the number of days you have. This builds the whole week around it: named sessions, sets, reps, rest, cardio and session length, adjusted for your goal and experience.

How long should each gym session be?

Most of these plans land between 45 and 70 minutes. Strength work runs longer because the rest periods are longer, not because there's more work in the session.

Can I do cardio on the same day as weights?

Yes. If you care most about the strength work, do it first, or separate them by a few hours. For fat loss the plan puts cardio alongside lifting rather than in place of it, because the lifting is what protects muscle while you're in a deficit.

When should I change my plan?

When progress stalls for two or three consecutive weeks despite good sleep and food, or after about six weeks, whichever comes first. Change one variable, usually volume or exercise selection — rather than rebuilding everything at once.

A plan gets you through the door. A coach fixes what the plan can't see.

Bring this week to RPM Gym in Al Manhal and have a coach set your starting loads and check the lifts. Book a free guided tour.

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