What’s the best workout plan for 1-3 times a week?
If you're only making it to the gym or working out from home a few times per week, you might be wondering:
Am I doing enough?
Am I making real progress?
What’s the best program for me?
Here’s the good news: You absolutely can make progress—even with just 2-3 sessions per week—if you're training smart. And one of the smartest ways to train? Full-body workouts.
Whether you're a former client, current client, or longtime follower, you already know this—I prescribe it often and use it myself. I even shared a full-body circuit workout setup in my article “Full-Body Circuit Workout: Your No More Guesswork Guide”.
Now, let’s talk about why this approach works so well.
Why Full-Body Training Works for Most People
✅ More Bang for Your Buck – Instead of dedicating an entire session to one muscle group, full-body training ensures all major muscle groups get trained multiple times per week, leading to better strength gains, muscle development, and calorie burn.
✅ Higher Frequency = More Progress – Hitting muscle groups multiple times per week stimulates them more effectively than body-part splits, where each muscle is worked only once per week.
✅ Increased Metabolic Effect – Full-body movements (squats, deadlifts, presses, rows) recruit multiple muscles at once, meaning more calories burned and better functional strength in less time.
✅ Less Recovery Time Needed – Work is spread across the body, preventing over-fatigue in one area and making it easier to recover and stay consistent.
Who Benefits Most from Full-Body Training?
Busy professionals who don’t have time for 5+ gym sessions per week.
Parents balancing work, family, and fitness.
Runners & endurance athletes looking to complement their training without overtraining.
Anyone looking for efficient workouts without spending hours in the gym.
But What If You’re Not Seeing Progress?
Full-body training is highly effective, but there are reasons you might not be getting the results you want. Here are a few common mistakes:
🚫 Not Reaching the Right Intensity—If you’re finishing your sets with plenty of energy left (i.e., you can do 5-15+ more repetitions than prescribed or you can go right back into the set without needing 60-90+ seconds of rest between sets), you’re not pushing your muscles hard enough. Try aiming for 1-3 reps left in the tank (this is called Reps in Reserve or RIR).
🚫 Not Progressing Your Weights or Reps—Strength and muscle development come from progressive overload. If you've been lifting the same weights for weeks, try increasing the weight, reps, sets, or time under tension (i.e., the time it takes you to perform a repetition).
💡 Example: If you perform a squat with a 3-second lower, 1-second pause at the bottom and a 1-second lift, your muscles are under tension for 5 seconds per rep. If you do 10 reps, that’s 50 seconds of TUT for that set—which can influence muscle growth and endurance.
🚫 Skipping Compound Movements – Full-body training works best when built around squats, deadlifts, presses, and rows. If your workouts are mostly isolation exercises, you might not be maximizing results.
🚫 Not Fueling or Recovering Properly—Sleep, nutrition, and recovery are just as important as your workouts. Make sure you’re eating enough protein and total calories, prioritizing sleep, and managing stress.
Even if you’re a true beginner, easing back into a program after time off or just short on time, performing just one of the full-body supersets from any of these workouts can still move you toward progress. Consistency is key, and even small efforts add up over time. The goal is to build momentum, not perfection. Start where you are, do what you can, and keep pushing forward.
Want Full-Body Workout Examples?
Instead of making you guess what an effective session looks like, I’ve put together a sample full-body dumbbell training structure to guide you. You can: