Beginner Gym Workout Plan: Your First 12 Weeks
By CoachAk · · 8 min read
A good beginner gym workout plan is simpler than you might expect: three full-body sessions a week, alternating two workouts, built on a handful of basic exercises that you get a little better at each time. Below is a complete 12-week plan, with the sets, reps and rest for every exercise and what changes each month as you get stronger.
The short answer
- Train three days a week, with a rest day between sessions, alternating Workout A and Workout B.
- Do 2 working sets of each exercise in month one, then 3 sets on the main exercises from month two.
- Use 8 to 12 reps for most exercises, and 10 to 15 for the leg curl and small exercises such as lateral raises and curls.
- Add a rep or a little weight whenever you can, and write every session down.
- In month three, either stay on three days and keep pushing your numbers up, or move to four days a week if your week allows it.
- Eat enough protein, about 1.6 to 2.2 g per kg of body weight a day, and sleep well.
If you have a health condition or an injury, are pregnant, or have not been active for a long time, speak to your doctor or GP before you start.
Why full body, three days a week
For people new to lifting, the American College of Sports Medicine's 2009 position stand on resistance training (Ratamess and colleagues, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise) recommends training 2 to 3 days a week, with loads you can lift about 8 to 12 times, and doing bigger, multi-joint exercises before smaller ones. The NHS advises all adults to do muscle-strengthening activity that works all the major muscle groups on at least 2 days a week.
Full-body sessions fit both. Your main muscle groups are trained in every session, sessions stay short, and a missed day does not leave a muscle untouched for a week. If you can only manage two days, do Workout A and Workout B once each: it is less work, but it still counts. The best workout split explains why the total amount of hard work in your week matters more than how you divide it up.
The beginner gym workout plan: two workouts
Alternate the two workouts. In week 1 you do A, B, A; in week 2, B, A, B; and so on. Monday, Wednesday and Friday works, as do any three days with a rest day between them.
Workout A
| Exercise | Sets (month 1 / from month 2) | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leg press | 2 / 3 | 8 to 12 | About 2 min |
| Machine chest press or dumbbell bench press | 2 / 3 | 8 to 12 | About 2 min |
| Seated cable row | 2 / 3 | 8 to 12 | About 2 min |
| Dumbbell Romanian deadlift | 2 / 3 | 8 to 12 | About 2 min |
| Dumbbell lateral raise | 2 / 2 | 10 to 15 | About 1 min |
| Plank | 2 / 2 | Hold 20 to 40 seconds | About 1 min |
Workout B
| Exercise | Sets (month 1 / from month 2) | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goblet squat | 2 / 3 | 8 to 12 | About 2 min |
| Lat pull-down | 2 / 3 | 8 to 12 | About 2 min |
| Incline dumbbell press | 2 / 3 | 8 to 12 | About 2 min |
| Seated or lying leg curl | 2 / 3 | 10 to 15 | About 1 to 2 min |
| Dumbbell curl | 2 / 2 | 10 to 15 | About 1 min |
| Cable triceps pushdown | 2 / 2 | 10 to 15 | About 1 min |
The rest times sit within the 1 to 2 minutes between sets that the ACSM position stand suggests for building muscle. Before each workout, do five minutes of easy cardio, then one or two light warm-up sets of the first exercise. Warm-up sets do not count towards the numbers above.
Swapping exercises. Machines and dumbbells are easier to learn than barbells, which is why the plan leans on them. If your gym lacks a machine, or an exercise hurts, swap it for one that trains the same muscles: a hack squat for the leg press, press-ups for the chest press, a dumbbell row for the cable row. Then keep the swap for the rest of the plan, so you can see your progress. If something keeps hurting, see your GP or a physiotherapist.
How hard each set should be
Weeks 1 and 2: learn the movements and find your weights. End each set when the reps start to slow down or your form starts to change, well short of your limit. Start lighter than you think you need to.
From week 3: finish most sets with about 1 to 3 good reps left in the tank. That is close enough to failure to build muscle without the extra fatigue of going all the way. If you could have done ten more reps, the weight is too light; if your form breaks down, it is too heavy. Training to failure explains how to judge it.
How to progress: add reps, then weight
This plan uses double progression, the simplest way to keep getting stronger:
- Start with a weight you can lift for about 8 good reps (10 where the range is 10 to 15) with 2 or 3 left in the tank.
- Each session, try to add a rep to one or more of your sets.
- When you reach the top of the range on every set (12, or 15 where the range is 10 to 15), add the smallest weight jump available next time.
- Your reps drop back towards the bottom of the range. Build them up again.
The ACSM recommends increasing the load by about 2 to 10% once you can do one or two reps more than your target. In practice, use the smallest jump your gym allows, such as the next pin on a machine. On light dumbbells even the next pair up can be more than 10%, so your reps will drop further for a while.
Here is how it might look on the leg press:
| Session | Weight | Reps (3 sets) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 80 kg (176 lb) | 9, 8, 8 |
| 2 | 80 kg (176 lb) | 10, 9, 9 |
| 3 | 80 kg (176 lb) | 12, 11, 10 |
| 4 | 80 kg (176 lb) | 12, 12, 12 |
| 5 | 85 kg (187 lb) | 9, 9, 8 |
Write it all down: the exercise, weight, sets and reps, every session. Without a log you cannot tell whether you are progressing, and it is easy to lift the same weights for months without noticing.
Month by month: what changes
| Weeks | Focus | Sets | What to aim for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | Learn the lifts and find your weights | 2 per exercise | Smooth technique and a full log by the end of the month |
| 5 to 8 | Build | 3 on the main exercises, 2 on the small ones | More reps or weight on most exercises, most weeks |
| 9 to 12 | Keep going, or move to four days | As in month two | Steady progress, without changing what is working |
Month one is mostly practice. Expect some muscle soreness after the first few sessions; it usually fades as your body gets used to training. By week 3 or 4, your sets should feel genuinely hard.
Month two adds a third set to the main exercises. From week 5, each big muscle group gets about 9 hard sets a week (3 sets, in each of 3 sessions). A 2017 meta-analysis by Schoenfeld, Ogborn and Krieger (Journal of Sports Sciences) found a graded relationship between weekly sets and muscle growth: more sets went with more growth. Nine hard sets is a solid amount to start with. If you feel run down, check your sleep and food before you add anything.
Month three has two good options:
- Stay on three days, keep the same exercises and keep adding reps and weight. If it is still working, there is no need to change it.
- Move to four days with an upper/lower split, if your week has the time. The ACSM position stand suggests 3 to 4 days a week once you are past the beginner stage. The best workout split has a four-day example.
What not to do: change the whole plan every few weeks for variety. New exercises feel exciting, but they reset your numbers and make progress impossible to judge.
What to expect after 12 weeks
Strength comes first. In your first months, the weights you lift usually rise faster than your muscles visibly grow, because your body is also learning to perform each movement better.
Everyone responds differently. In a 2005 study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, Hubal and colleagues put 585 men and women through the same 12-week arm-training program. Changes in muscle size ranged from a 2% loss to a 59% gain, and gains in one-rep strength from 0 to 250%. Compare yourself with your own starting point, not with the person on the next bench.
Photos help. Take photos in the same light every four weeks. Visible change often takes a few months, and photos show what the mirror misses.
Food and sleep: the other half of the plan
- Protein: a 2018 meta-analysis by Morton and colleagues (British Journal of Sports Medicine) found gains in lean mass levelled off at about 1.6 g of protein per kg of body weight a day, with up to 2.2 g/kg covering nearly everyone. The free protein calculator works out your number.
- Calories: if you are slim, eat a little above your maintenance; if you carry a fair amount of fat, eat around maintenance. The free calorie and macro calculator gives you a starting point.
- Sleep: the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society recommend 7 or more hours a night for adults.
For the bigger picture of eating, recovery and what to expect over your first year, see how to start bodybuilding.
How coaching helps
A written plan gets you started. Knowing when to add weight, what to swap when something hurts, and whether your technique is right is where a coach helps. With one-to-one coaching from CoachAk, your program is written around your schedule, experience, equipment and injury history, with sets, reps, effort targets and rest times for every exercise. You log every session in the app, which records your personal bests, and your coach can comment on your workouts. You can send form-check videos while you learn the lifts and get a reply from your coach. Each week, a check-in of about three minutes covers your training, nutrition, sleep, energy and stress, and your coach replies with written feedback on what changes next and why.
If you want your first 12 weeks planned and checked for you, apply for coaching.
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