About Workout Planner

Plan workout routines with exercises, sets, reps, and rest periods. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the Calculators collection.

Use Cases

• Design a 3-day or 4-day full-body or split routine for a specific training goal (strength, hypertrophy, endurance).
• Plan exercise selection to hit each major muscle group with appropriate frequency and volume.
• Build a home gym workout plan using bodyweight or minimal equipment with progressive overload.
• Structure a training block (mesocycle) of 4–8 weeks with planned progression and a deload week.

Tips

• Apply progressive overload weekly: increase either weight (2.5–5%), reps, or sets — training without progression plateaus within 4–6 weeks for most intermediate lifters.
• Include deload weeks every 4–8 weeks: reduce volume by 40–50% to allow recovery accumulation and prevent overtraining syndrome.
• Balance pushing, pulling, and hinge movements to prevent muscle imbalances — many popular programs over-emphasize pushing (chest, triceps) relative to pulling (back, biceps).

Fun Facts

• The modern barbell was standardized by Earle Liederman in the 1920s. Before standardized equipment, strength training was highly idiosyncratic — each gym had its own equipment with no consistency.
• Meta-analysis data (James Krieger, 2010) found that 2–3 sets per exercise produces significantly better hypertrophy than 1 set — but more than 5–6 sets per session showed diminishing returns for most muscle groups.
• Arthur Jones developed Nautilus machines and High Intensity Training (HIT) in the 1970s based on the idea that brief, intense workouts were superior to high-volume training — a debate that still divides the fitness community.

FAQ

How many days per week should I train?

For most goals, 3–4 days/week with 48+ hours between sessions for the same muscle group is optimal. Research shows frequency of 2x/week per muscle group produces more hypertrophy than 1x/week. More than 6 days requires careful volume management to avoid overtraining.

Should I train to failure?

For hypertrophy: train to 1–3 reps from failure (RIR 1–3) on most sets. Training to failure every set increases injury risk and requires more recovery without proportional additional gains. Reserve true failure for the last set of each exercise.