Upper/Lower/Full Body Split (3x/Week Program)

Are you busy, new to the gym, or simply looking for a less demanding and effective workout approach that leaves you time and energy to do other things? If so, read on to learn about upper/lower/full body and why it might be the ideal split for you.

Key Takeaways

1. Upper/lower/full-body is a 3-day split consisting of three distinct workouts.
   
   
2. This split is ideal for beginners and busy intermediates who can only work out three times per week and want scheduling flexibility.
   
   
3. You can start your week with the full-body workouts and do upper/lower afterward, or vice versa. If needed, you can do the upper and lower workouts back-to-back days.
   
   
4. Despite being relatively low frequency, this split allows you to train all major muscle groups the recommended two times per week.
   
   
5. The split is suitable for muscle gain, strength development, and fat loss.
   
   
6. Get the most out of this split by tracking workouts in Hevy. Log all important training details, track your progress, and make sure you’re creating the necessary progressive overload.

What is the Upper/Lower/Full Body 3-Day Split?

This split combines the traditional upper lower split with full-body training. With it, you do three distinct workouts (upper, lower, and full body) each week. The split allows you to train each body part twice per week, recover well between sessions, and do enough productive sets to gain muscle.

Here’s a look at each workout:

• Upper workout – train the muscles in your upper body (chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, abs, and obliques).
  
  
• Lower workout – train your legs (glutes, hamstrings, calves, adductors, and abductors).
  
  
• Full body workout – train all the major muscle groups in your body directly and indirectly.

You can program each workout in various ways to put more or less emphasis on specific muscles. For example, you can include more direct arm exercises on upper and full body workouts, and more quad or glute emphasis on lower and full body workouts. You can also focus on compound movements if you’re pressed for time, or include isolation exercises if you want extra training volume.

We’ll go over plenty of modifications and examples in the following two sections.

Sample Upper/Lower/Full Body 3-Day Split for Muscle Growth

The following is a complete upper/lower/full body 3-day workout split. You can follow it as-is or make any adjustments you want to fit your needs.

Day 1: Upper Body

• Bench Press (Barbell) – 3 sets, 8-10 reps
• Bent Over Row (Barbell) – 3 sets, 8-10 reps
• Shoulder Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets, 10-12 reps
• Seated Cable Row – 3 sets, 10-12 reps
• Lateral Raise (Dumbbell) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps

Day 2: Lower Body

• Leg Press (Machine) – 3 sets, 8-10 reps
• Glute Ham Raise – 3 sets, 8-12 reps (weighted if necessary)
• Leg Extension (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps
• Seated Leg Curl (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps
• Standing Calf Raise (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps

Day 3: Full Body

• Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets, 10-12 reps
• Bulgarian Split Squat – 3 sets, 10-12 reps (per leg)
• Lat Pulldown (Cable) – 3 sets, 10-12 reps
• Triceps Rope Pushdown – 3 sets, 12-15 reps
• EZ Bar Biceps Curl – 3 sets, 12-15 reps

Save this split and log it in Hevy. With the app installed, click this link and tap the blue Save Folder button. Navigate to Hevy’s Workout tab, and you’ll find the program ready to use in your profile.

Upper Lower Full Body Split Modifications (With Sample Workouts)

1. Exercise Selection and Order

You can modify any of the above workouts. For instance, the upper-body workout starts with a barbell bench press, but you can begin with shoulders or back instead––for example, overhead presses or pull ups.

Bench Press (Barbell) – 3 sets, 8-10 reps	⇒	Pull Up – 3 sets, 6-15 reps
Bent Over Row (Barbell) – 3 sets, 8-10 reps	⇒	Shoulder Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets, 10-12 reps
Shoulder Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets, 10-12 reps	⇒	Bench Press (Barbell) – 3 sets, 8-10 reps
Seated Cable Row – 3 sets, 10-12 reps	=	Seated Cable Row – 3 sets, 10-12 reps
Lateral Raise (Dumbbell) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps	=	Lateral Raise (Dumbbell) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps

Here, you only replace one exercise (pull ups instead of bent-over rows) and rearrange the first three movements. This is a good option if you want to start with the upper back or improve your pull-ups.

The leg workout targets most of the lower body, but you can modify it to emphasize the posterior chain or quadriceps and train the other leg muscles during the full-body session:

Leg Press (Machine) – 3 sets, 8-10 reps	⇒	Hip Thrust (Machine) – 3 sets, 8-10 reps
Glute Ham Raise – 3 sets, 8-12 reps (weighted if necessary)	=	Glute Ham Raise – 3 sets, 8-12 reps (weighted if necessary)
Leg Extension (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps	⇒	Glute Kickback (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps (per side)
Seated Leg Curl (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps	=	Seated Leg Curl (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps
Standing Calf Raise (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps	=	Standing Calf Raise (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps

Here, you replace the two quadricep exercises with movements that target the glutes and hamstrings.

Lastly, you can also modify the full-body workout to start with the preferred muscle group, be it the chest, back, or quadriceps:

Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets, 10-12 reps Bulgarian Split Squat – 3 sets, 10-12 reps (per leg) Lat Pulldown (Cable) – 3 sets, 10-12 reps Triceps Rope Pushdown – 3 sets, 12-15 reps EZ Bar Biceps Curl – 3 sets, 12-15 reps

Lat Pulldown (Cable) – 3 sets, 10-12 reps Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets, 10-12 reps Bulgarian Split Squat – 3 sets, 10-12 reps (per leg) Triceps Rope Pushdown – 3 sets, 12-15 reps EZ Bar Biceps Curl – 3 sets, 12-15 reps

Bulgarian Split Squat – 3 sets, 10-12 reps (per leg) Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets, 10-12 reps Lat Pulldown (Cable) – 3 sets, 10-12 reps Triceps Rope Pushdown – 3 sets, 12-15 reps EZ Bar Biceps Curl – 3 sets, 12-15 reps

(You can rearrange the three compound exercises in any way you like.)

Also, feel free to swap any exercises in any workout. The movements listed above work well together, but you can pick different ones if you have preferences or limitations, like not having the equipment for an exercise.

We’ll discuss exercise rotation and replacements more in-depth below.

2. Load, Reps & Rest Times

There isn’t a magical rep range that leads to more muscle growth or fat loss. You can adjust the target ranges based on your preferences, concrete goal, and even the specific exercise you’re doing. 

For example, let’s say you’re doing the barbell bench press during the upper body workout and the incline dumbbell press during the full-body workout. Because of the setup, the barbell press typically allows you to train with heavier weights more safely, so maybe you choose to train in the 5-8 rep range. (Of course, we always recommend asking someone to spot you when pushing close to your limits.)

However, since the incline dumbbell press is trickier to set up with heavier weights, you may choose to do 8-12 reps per set.

The same goes for isolation movements like the bicep curl and lateral raise. You may prefer to do heavier curls, so you choose to train in the 10-12 rep range. But for lateral raises, you notice that using heavier weights leads to poor form, with your traps getting most of the tension. In that case, you may decide to use a lighter weight than usual and do higher reps, even 15-20, to better target the side delts.

Since you have complete freedom to pick and swap exercises, consider what weights feel best for you. Rep ranges are not set in stone.

Now, since rest times are closely linked to the weight and number of reps you do, it makes sense to adjust them as well. Here are some general guidelines:

• Heavy sets (3-6 reps): up to 5 minutes of rest
• Moderate sets (6-12 reps): 2-3 minutes of rest
• Lighter sets (12-20 reps): 1.5 to 2 minutes of rest

3. Workout Duration & Training Volume

The sample split’s workouts consist of five exercises for three sets each. This means you’re doing 15 working sets per session. With a normal tempo, average rest times, and a 5-minute warm-up at the start (and warm-up sets), you should be able to do each workout in 50-55 minutes.

However, you can modify the workout duration:

• Increase duration – this is a good option if you’re past the beginner stage and can only make it to the gym three times per week, but can work out for 60+ minutes
  
  
• Decrease duration – this is useful for beginners and people who only have 30-40 minutes to train

Some options for decreasing workout duration include:

• Do fewer sets per exercise (say, going from 3 to 2 sets per exercise)
• Rest slightly less between sets (say, removing 15 seconds from each rest period)
• Remove one or two exercises (preferably isolation movements)
• Replace exercises that are harder to set up (for example, doing a machine chest press instead of a barbell bench press)
• Include drop sets (more suitable for intermediate or advanced lifters)
• Pair some exercises into supersets

Do fewer sets per exercise	Removing one or two exercises	Pairing some exercises into supersets
Bench Press (Barbell) – 3 sets ⇒ 2 sets Bent Over Row (Barbell) – 3 sets ⇒ 2 sets Shoulder Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets ⇒ 2 sets Seated Cable Row – 3 sets ⇒ 2 sets Lateral Raise (Dumbbell) – 3 sets ⇒ 2 sets	Leg Press (Machine) – 3 sets, 8-10 reps Glute Ham Raise – 3 sets, 8-12 reps (weighted if necessary) Leg Extension (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps Seated Leg Curl (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps Standing Calf Raise (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps	Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets, 10-12 reps Bulgarian Split Squat – 3 sets, 10-12 reps (per leg) Lat Pulldown (Cable) – 3 sets, 10-12 reps Triceps Rope Pushdown – 3 sets, 12-15 reps superset w/ EZ Bar Biceps Curl – 3 sets, 12-15 reps

Some options for productively increasing workout duration include:

• Doing more sets per exercise (say, going from 3 to 4 or 5)
• Adding more exercises (for instance, adding more direct work for the arms, shoulders, back, or quads)
• Include more unilateral exercises to reduce the risk of muscle imbalances (say, doing Bulgarian split squats instead of hack squats or leg presses)
• Spend more time warming up if you feel stiff on some exercises

Doing more sets per exercise	Adding more exercises	Include more unilateral exercises
Bench Press (Barbell) – 3 sets ⇒ 5 sets Bent Over Row (Barbell) – 3 sets ⇒ 5 sets Shoulder Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets ⇒ 5 sets Seated Cable Row – 3 sets ⇒ 4 sets Lateral Raise (Dumbbell) – 3 sets ⇒ 4 sets	Bench Press (Barbell) – 3 sets Bent Over Row (Barbell) – 3 sets Shoulder Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets Seated Cable Row – 3 sets Lateral Raise (Dumbbell) – 3 sets Bicep Curl (Cable) – 3 sets Skullcrusher (Dumbbell) – 3 sets	Leg Press (Machine) – 3 sets, 8-10 reps ⇒ Bulgarian Split Squat Glute Ham Raise – 3 sets, 8-12 reps ⇒ Single Leg Romanian Deadlift Leg Extension (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps Seated Leg Curl (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps ⇒ Standing Leg Curl Standing Calf Raise (Machine) – 3 sets, 12-15 reps

What Are the Upper/Lower/Full Body Split Scheduling Options?

The standard version of this workout routine is to train on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday:

• Monday – Upper Body
• Tuesday – Off
• Wednesday – Lower Body
• Thursday – Off
• Friday – Full Body
• Saturday & Sunday – Off

You can also train on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays:

• Monday – Off
• Tuesday – Upper Body
• Wednesday – Off
• Thursday – Lower Body
• Friday – Off
• Saturday – Full Body
• Sunday – Off

And Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays:

• Monday – Off
• Tuesday – Upper Body
• Wednesday – Off
• Thursday – Lower Body
• Friday – Off
• Saturday – Off
• Sunday – Full Body

You can also do the upper and lower body workouts back to back, giving you even more scheduling options:

Monday – Upper Body Tuesday – Lower Body Wednesday – Off Thursday – Full Body Friday – Off Saturday – Off Sunday – Off	Monday – Upper Body Tuesday – Lower Body Wednesday – Off Thursday – Off Friday – Full Body Saturday – Off Sunday – Off	Monday – Off Tuesday – Upper Body Wednesday – Lower Body Thursday – Off Friday – Full Body Saturday – Off Sunday – Off
Monday – Off Tuesday – Upper Body Wednesday – Lower Body Thursday – Off Friday – Off Saturday – Full Body Sunday – Off	Monday – Off Tuesday – Off Wednesday – Upper Body Thursday – Lower Body Friday – Off Saturday – Full Body Sunday – Off	Monday – Off Tuesday – Off Wednesday – Off Thursday – Upper Body Friday – Lower Body Saturday – Off Sunday – Full Body

You can also start each week with a full-body workout if that’s your most demanding session, and then do the upper and lower body workouts.

How to Design Workouts For Yourself (Programming DIY)

The following is an outline you can follow to build a 3-day upper/lower/full body workout routine for yourself. Feel free to rearrange exercises to some degree, but always do compound (multi-joint) exercises first, followed by isolation (single-joint) movements.

Upper Workouts

• Chest: one compound exercise
• Upper back/lats (horizontal pull): one compound exercise
• Upper back/lats (vertical pull): one compound exercise
• Shoulders: one compound or isolation exercise

Optional:

• Biceps: one isolation exercise
• Triceps: one isolation exercise
• Rear deltoids (shoulders): one isolation exercise
• Abs/obliques: one isolation exercise

Lower Workouts

• Quadriceps: one compound and one isolation exercise
• Hamstrings: one compound and one isolation exercise
• Calves: one isolation exercise

Optional:

• Quadriceps: two compounds + one isolation exercise
• Glutes: one compound or isolation exercise
• Adductors & abductors: one isolation exercise for each

Full Body Workouts

• Chest: one compound and/or one isolation exercise
• Upper back/lats: one compound exercise
• Quadriceps: one compound exercise (preferably a lunge or split squat for better glute emphasis)
• Biceps: one isolation exercise
• Triceps: one isolation exercise

Optional:

• Hamstrings: one compound or isolation exercise
• Shoulders: one compound or isolation exercise
• Abs/obliques: one isolation exercise

Building effective training plans takes some practice, so don’t worry if you don’t love every workout you make. As you experiment and learn what works, you’ll get better at programming and will find it easier to put all the puzzle pieces in the right spots.

Rotating Exercises on This (Any Any Other) Split

Rotating exercises every so often is a good way to keep your workouts more engaging, reduce the risk of overuse injuries, and potentially grow better in the long run by keeping yourself from becoming fully adapted to a given workout stimulus.

Changing exercises or variations can also help you target different regions of the same muscle, leading to more balanced development, and give you more experience with a variety of movements, which can help you truly understand which activities work best for you, and which don’t.

That said, there’s a right way to go about it, and it’s not by changing exercises every couple of weeks. While that approach can keep your workouts feeling fresher, it can also create some issues that outweigh any potential benefits:

• It disrupts momentum. When you do the same exercise for multiple weeks in a row, you get better at it and learn to judge your effort more effectively. This means you train with better form, get closer to failure safely, and can make steady progress.
  
  However, by swapping movements often, you’re always in this “feeling out and learning” phase where you’re still trying to figure out how to do the exercise, how to push hard enough safely, and how much weight to use.
  
  
• It makes progress tracking harder. The more workout details you can standardize, including the specific exercise and variation you’re doing, the easier it is to notice and log progress.
  
  For example, if you always squat in the same rack, with the same bar position, to the same depth, and with the same rep speed, any performance improvements (be it lifting more weight or doing more reps) are clear and undeniable.
  
  However, when you constantly change workout details, such as by changing exercises, it’s hard to compare and tell if you’re actually improving in the long run.

As stated by Kassino and colleagues in a 2022 paper:

“…exercise variation should be approached systematically with a focus on applied anatomical and biomechanical constructs; on the contrary, employing different exercises that provide a redundant stimulus, as well as excessive rotation of different exercises (i.e., high frequency of change), may actually hinder muscular adaptations.”

It makes sense to rotate exercises, but you should do so after at least six weeks. That way, you can maximize the benefits of each movement and switch things up often enough to stay engaged.

Some ways to tell that it’s okay to swap an exercise include:

• You’ve done the movement for at least six weeks in a row
• Your progress on that exercise has stalled for three to four weeks
• The exercise doesn’t feel stable and comfortable
• You feel more tension in your joints and connective tissues than in the target muscles
• You get nagging aches during or after performing the exercise

However, if an exercise:

• Targets the correct muscles well
• Feels comfortable on your joints and connective tissues
• Offers plenty of progression potential
• Leads to steady performance improvements

Stick with it for a while longer until it becomes stale.

Workout Tips to Maximize Your Results

1. Push Hard on Every Set

Pushing near failure on each set is essential for creating the disruption needed to force growth and strength gains. The problem is that we are bad at estimating the effort we put into each set and often overestimate our rate of perceived exertion (RPE). Multiple studies show that, including Steele et al. (2017), Crawford et al. (2018), and Armes et al. (2020).

“…perceptions of effort during resistance training task performance may not be congruent with the actual effort required. This has implications for controlling, programming, and manipulating the actual effort in resistance training and potentially on the magnitude of desired adaptations such as improvements in muscular hypertrophy and strength.” (Armes et al. 2020)

There isn’t a trick to fix this; it comes down to pushing yourself hard on each set and logging your RPE. With Hevy, you can log RPE on each set and easily track your effort when reviewing your performance. 

Additionally, you can do the occasional AMRAP (as many reps as possible) set to see how many reps you can actually do and if your RPE tracking is accurate. It’s best to do AMRAPs with a spotter or on machines with safety latches. 

Lastly, research shows that RPE accuracy improves as we approach failure, which ties into the main idea of this section: you need to push hard on every set.

You don’t need to hit failure on each set (that would actually be counterproductive), but you should feel like you’ve worked hard: out of breath, red face, and feeling tension or a deep burn in the muscles you just trained.

2. Rest Long Enough Between Sets

A while back, while coaching a client through a workout, he asked me why I had him rest for two minutes between sets if he felt “ready” to go after just 45-60 seconds. Maybe you’re wondering the same thing, so let me explain.

The purpose of resting between sets is to recover so you can match your performance while training close to failure. This allows you to do enough quality, stimulative reps with good form and create the stimulus needed to promote muscle and strength gain (or, when in a calorie deficit, to maintain muscle).

Research also finds a strong correlation between longer rest periods and better muscle and strength development. 

In other words, if you can get 8 good reps with a given weight on set one, you should get close to that number on the last set.

Part of that comes from pushing hard but not to failure, since that generates a lot of fatigue and is hard to recover from. Also, it means you need to rest long enough between sets. You may feel ready to go after one minute because you’re not out of breath, but there’s more to recovery than that.

As mentioned earlier, the weights you use will determine how many reps you can do per set and how long you should rest. Here are the guidelines again, in case you missed them above:

• Heavy sets (3-6 reps): up to 5 minutes of rest
• Moderate sets (6-12 reps): 2-3 minutes of rest
• Lighter sets (12-20 reps): 1.5 to 2 minutes of rest

3. Aim for Steady Improvements

Progressive tension overload is the ultimate goal because it means your body is adapting and can handle more training stress over time. If you’re lifting 145 lbs for 8 reps today, you should ideally be lifting more weight for more reps months down the line.

People who do the same training month after month can only hope to maintain what they have, not make further progress. 

So, the first tip was to push hard on every set. The second tip was to rest long enough between sets so that you can perform at your best. As long as you do these two things, and handle recovery well outside the gym (good nutrition, hydration, and sleep), you should see steady performance improvements. 

That said, improving performance should go hand in hand with proper form. As mentioned above, standardizing as many things about your training as possible makes it easier to notice improvements.

In contrast, if you lift more weight or do more reps but your technique worsens, are you actually making progress, or are you just using compensatory motor patterns?

4. Track your Progress

Log your workouts and regularly review your performance to eliminate guesswork and ensure you’re on the right track. You can use a basic notebook, a note-taking app, or a workout-logger like Hevy, with all the tracking features you need.

In Hevy, you can log training sessions with all the relevant details, such as:

• Exercises (with custom notes if needed)
• Sets per exercise
• The type of each set (normal, warm-up, to failure, or drop set)
• The weight, reps, and RPE for each set

You can save workout plans as routines (reusable templates) in folders to access anytime, and easily log workouts, track rest times with an automatic timer, and more. The in-depth analytics section lets you monitor your sets per muscle, your performance compared to friends, your progress on individual lifts, and more.

What Are the Benefits of a 3-Day Upper/Lower/Full Body Split?

1. You Can Train Each Muscle Twice Per Week

Despite training only 3 times a week, each workout targets multiple muscle groups, making it easy to meet the recommended training frequency of 2x/week for each body part.

2. You Get Plenty of Recovery Time

Four off days per week give you plenty of time to recover, even between high-volume workouts. This means you can go into each workout feeling fresher and more motivated to work hard and create an overload to support muscle and strength gains.

3. It’s Flexible for Busy Individuals

Working out three times per week means you get four recovery days, which gives you plenty of room to maneuver when needed. For instance, you may want to train on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but might need to pick other days, even back-to-back. 

In contrast, higher-frequency splits, such as a bro split, are far more rigid because you don’t have that same freedom.

4. Good for Losing Fat and Building Muscle

This upper/lower/full-body split provides a good amount of direct training stimulus to the upper and lower body. So long as you push hard on each set and create an overload, you will build muscle.

Similarly, having three challenging workouts helps you maintain muscle and lose body fat without overtraining yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is upper/lower or push/pull/legs better?

Both splits are good and can work. An upper/lower split is typically better if you want to train two or four times per week, whereas push/pull/legs works well on a 3- and 6-day frequency. The upper/lower/full-body split is ideal if you want to train each muscle twice per week and work out 3 days a week.

2. Is upper/lower/full body good for a beginner?

Yes, the split is suitable for beginners because you only need to work out three times a week, which is sustainable. It also allows you to hit each muscle twice per week, train the entire lower body, gain muscle size, and lose fat. You can also learn about full body versus splits, and what to choose for yourself.

3. How do I fit arms and abs in an upper/lower/full body split?

The most straightforward way is to include some direct ab, bicep, and tricep exercises into the three workouts. For example, you can do ab work along with lower body exercises and arms on a full-body and upper day.

4. What about cardio or sports?

We recommend doing cardio and sports on days off from the gym to minimize the interference effect. If that’s not an option, do cardio/sports at least a few hours before or after gym training, or after you lift weights.

5. What other 3-day splits can I do?

Other 3-day split options include push/pull/legs, upper/lower/upper, and full-body. You can also try alternating upper/lower, where you do two upper and one lower workouts one week, and two lower and one upper workouts on week two. Read our ultimate guide on the 3-day split to learn more.

Conclusion

The 3-day upper/lower/full-body split is a less common programming approach that works well for beginners and intermediates. It’s ideal for busy people who crave flexibility, it is enough to maintain muscle during fat loss, and it helps you build muscle mass and strength while bulking. 

That said, this is a lower-volume approach compared to 4-, 5-, and 6-day splits. You need to push hard on each set, create an overload, and track your workouts diligently to make sure you’re moving forward.

Download Hevy and log your first workout today. With it, you can easily track your performance from week to week and see how you’re progressing on each movement in the long run.