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3 Day Workout Plans

3 day workout programs tend to utilize full body workouts during a training week, each multiple muscle groups per workout. They are a great way to organize strength training programs focused on linear progression, as well as many beginner routines for getting stronger and building muscle.

Best 3 Day Workout Programs

  1. Greg Nuckols 28 Programs (All Levels, Powerlifting)
  2. Ivysaur 4-4-8 (Beginner Strength/Powerlifting)
  3. SPF (Intermediate, Powerbuilding)
  4. Korte 3x3 (Intermediate/Advanced Powerlifting)
  5. Russian Power Routine (Intermediate/Advanced, Powerlifting)
  6. Building the Monolith (Intermediate/Advanced Strength/Powerlifting)
  7. GZCLP (Beginner/Intermediate, Powerlifting, Hypertrophy)
  8. 5/3/1 for Beginners (Beginner, Strength)
  9. Schwarzenegger Golden Six (Beginner, Bodybuilding)
  10. Frank Zane Workout (Intermediate, Bodybuilding)

The latest 3 day workouts are available below.

Mountain Dog PPL Workout Spreadsheet (John Meadows)

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Mountain Dog PPL is a push, pull, legs program you run every other day. You rotate three sessions, train a day, rest a day, then move to the next workout, and you keep that cycle going for four to six weeks. Each session is built around one big lift plus pump and heavy waves and a finisher, so push day leads with decline dumbbell press and leg day opens with leg curls before the spider bar squats.

The program comes from the late John Meadows, the bodybuilding coach behind Mountain Dog Training, and Muscle & Strength published it for free. It carries his style: heavy triples and back-off work paired with brutal pump sets and sets taken to failure. Think of it as a bodybuilding take on push, pull, legs that runs by feel instead of percentages, which is why people who want size and a hard pump run it.

It’s a good fit for intermediate and advanced lifters who recover well, since you can push it to four or five days a week by dropping the rest days. Skip it if you want percentage-based strength work, because there are no percentages here. And if you can’t handle high-failure volume like double drop sets and dips to failure, this one will bury you.

[Read more…]

8 Week Beginner Strongman Program Spreadsheet (Cerberus)

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Strongman is one of the most fun ways to get strong, but most beginner plans either skip the events or assume you already own a full strongman gym. This one does neither. It’s a free 8 week beginner strongman program from Cerberus Strength, the brand built around 10x World’s Strongest Man competitor Laurence “Big Loz” Shahlaei.

You train 3 days a week. Two gym days build your press, pull, and squat, and the third day is events, where you pick a couple of strongman movements and learn to handle them. The main lifts run on percentages of your one-rep max, so the weight climbs in a planned way across the 8 weeks.

We turned the free PDF into an interactive spreadsheet. Enter your maxes once and every working weight for all 8 weeks fills in for you, so you can skip the math and just lift.

[Read more…]

AlphaDestiny Novice-Intermediate Hybrid Program Spreadsheet

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The AlphaDestiny Novice/Intermediate Hybrid Program is a free routine from Alex Leonidas (AlphaDestiny) for lifters caught in the middle: intermediate on some lifts but still novice on others. It bridges the gap between his beginner novice program and a full intermediate program like the Texas Method.

It runs three days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) as an A/B/C week, and comes in two versions depending on where you’re ahead. Your stronger lifts progress weekly, your weaker lifts keep progressing every session like a novice.

This is the natural next step once your linear progress stalls on one end. If you’re earlier than that and want a simple beginner template, our GZCLP program is a good starting point.

[Read more…]

AlphaDestiny Novice Program Spreadsheet

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The AlphaDestiny Novice Program is a free full-body routine from Alex Leonidas (AlphaDestiny) built to add the most muscle and strength possible in your first year of lifting. It runs two workouts, A and B, three days a week.

You alternate the workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and add weight to the bar almost every session. The big lifts use a flexible 3-or-5 set scheme, so you can scale the volume to how well you recover.

It’s aimed at true beginners who can train the main barbell lifts with decent form. If you’d rather have a more guided linear-progression template, our GZCLP beginner program is a good alternative.

[Read more…]

Dan John Mass Made Simple Spreadsheet

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Mass Made Simple is a focused 6-week mass program from Dan John. You run a one-week break-in, then five weeks of three rotating workouts, training three days a week.

There are only seven or eight movements in the whole program, and the back squat does the heavy lifting. The sets of 10 climb toward your bodyweight and past it as the weeks go on, which is where the size comes from.

It is a great fit if you want a short, no-nonsense block to add weight and you are willing to eat. If you would rather have a longer, more varied hypertrophy plan, our 7 Week Hypertrophy Program is worth a look.

[Read more…]

Doggcrapp (DC) Training Spreadsheet

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Doggcrapp (DC) training is a high-intensity, low-volume system from Dante Trudel. You hit each body part with one brutal rest-pause set, rotate your exercises, and try to add weight to the bar every single session.

It is built around short, hard workouts and a blast-and-cruise structure, so you push all-out for a stretch and then back off to recover. Trudel shared the whole thing for free on the IntenseMuscle forums years ago, and it built a cult following for good reason.

This one is for intermediate and advanced lifters with solid technique, not beginners. The intensity only pays off if your form holds up when you are deep into a set. If you want a more measured hypertrophy approach, our HST program is a gentler option.

[Read more…]

Super Squats Program Spreadsheet (20-Rep Squats)

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Super Squats is a 6-week, full-body program built around one savage set of 20-rep breathing squats. It comes from Randall Strossen’s classic book of the same name, and lifters have used it to add serious size for decades.

The idea is simple and a little scary. You load your 10-rep max, then squat it for 20 reps, sucking in big breaths between the hard ones near the end. You do that three days a week, add 5 lb every session, and eat like you mean it.

It works best if you can already squat with solid form and you want fast size more than a polished physique. If you want a gentler place to start, our 7 Week Hypertrophy Program is an easier on-ramp.

[Read more…]

Stronger By Science (SBS) Program Bundle by Greg Nuckols

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The Stronger By Science (SBS) Program Bundle is a collection of six autoregulated training programs from Greg Nuckols. It’s free with an email signup on the Stronger By Science website, and it comes as a Google Sheets workbook.

The bundle covers six 21-week programs across different goals and experience levels. There’s also a standalone Program Builder that lets you customize almost everything. Getting autoregulation and periodization wired together like this is rare for a free resource.

There’s a catch worth knowing before you start. The spreadsheet automates so much of the programming that there’s a real learning curve. Spend 20-30 minutes with the included PDF instructions before your first session, and don’t skip that step.

If you’re already familiar with Greg Nuckols’ work, you might know his popular 28 Programs (also available here on Lift Vault). The SBS Program Bundle is a more recent and more sophisticated set of programs. Think of the 28 Programs as individual single-lift routines you mix and match yourself. The SBS Bundle is a full training system with built-in autoregulation and multi-lift programming already wired together.

[Read more…]

Askold Surovetsky 16-Week Powerlifting Program Spreadsheet

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Askold Surovetsky’s 16-week powerlifting program is a percentage-based system that programs squat, deadlift, and bench press across 8 microcycles. It was designed by Surovetsky – an Honorary Coach of Russia, CMS in powerlifting, and European Powerlifting champion – and has been tested over 3 years with lifters at different levels. The program runs 3 days per week. Squat-focused and deadlift-focused weeks alternate, and bench press is trained every session using one of two bench systems.

What I like about this program is how structured and self-contained it is. You plug in your maxes, and every set, rep, and percentage is laid out for you across all 16 weeks. No guesswork. Intensities ramp from about 74% up to 88% on working sets, with max-out sessions built into weeks 7 and 8. It’s a style of programming you’ll see in other popular Russian systems like Sheiko, but the structure here is more rigid and less customizable.

One thing to know going in: this program doesn’t include any accessory work. It programs only the three competition lifts, and bench is trained at all three weekly sessions, so pressing volume is already high. If you’re someone who needs a lot of variety or accessory volume, this might feel limited. But if you want a focused, no-nonsense peaking program for the big three, it does the job well.

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Ben Pollack Free Powerbuilding Program Spreadsheet

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Ben Pollack’s free powerbuilding program is a 7-week training plan built for lifters who want to get both stronger and bigger but don’t have the recovery capacity (or schedule) for 5-6 days in the gym. It runs 3 days per week, alternating between push/pull/legs weeks and full body weeks. If you’ve got more bandwidth, you can also run it on a rolling 4-day schedule and finish in about 5 weeks.

The program comes from Ben Pollack (a.k.a. PHDeadlift), who held the all-time world record raw total of 2,039 lbs at 198 lbs and later earned his IFBB Pro card in bodybuilding. The guy has a PhD in the history of strength from the University of Texas, too. So yeah, he’s qualified.

What I like about this program is that it’s built for real-life constraints. A lot of “powerbuilding” programs are really just bodybuilding with squats and deadlifts bolted on. This one programs heavy competition-style lifts next to real hypertrophy work (myo-reps, AMRAP sets, brutal 20-rep high bar squats, dead-stop deadlifts), and the blend is well thought out.

The instructions on Ben’s Substack are dense. He writes out exercise-by-exercise coaching cues for every session, which is great for learning but a lot to parse on your first read. The spreadsheet handles tracking, but read the write-up first so the “why” behind each workout makes sense.

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Dumbbell PPL Program (Push Pull Legs) from r/Fitness

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The Dumbbell PPL (Push Pull Legs) program from r/Fitness is a dumbbell-only hypertrophy routine created by Reddit user u/gregariousHermit. It’s built for lifters who train at home with limited equipment or travel frequently and get stuck in small hotel gyms.

You only need adjustable dumbbells, a bench, and a pull-up bar. The program runs as a 3-day or 6-day cycle, uses double progression (work up to 12 reps, then add weight), and covers all the major muscle groups across push, pull, and leg days.

I’d recommend this for beginners or early intermediates who genuinely don’t have access to a barbell setup. It’s a well-organized program with a clear progression scheme.

I’ll be honest: dumbbells alone won’t let you load heavy compound movements like squats and deadlifts the way a barbell will. If you have access to a barbell, you’re better off running the barbell Reddit PPL instead. But if dumbbells are what you’ve got, this is one of the better options out there.

[Read more…]

Arnold Schwarzenegger Home Workout Routine Spreadsheet

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Arnold Schwarzenegger took to Instagram yesterday to share an old home bodyweight workout of his, which he also shared on Reddit. The workout consists of push ups, sit ups, bent over twists, bent leg raises, squats (aka knee bends), calf raises, and chin ups.

Each bodyweight exercise is performed for a different number of reps depending on the individuals strength level: beginner or advanced.

A full break down of each exercise and its different rep ranges is below, along with highlights from Schwarzenegger’s Reddit post.

[Read more…]

5/3/1 for Beginners Spreadsheet & Tips

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5/3/1 is one of the most popular strength training programs ever, influencing other programs like GZCL and nSuns along the way. Its popularity has stemmed from its simplicity, flexibility, and ability to be run over and over for long periods of time. It favors slow, steady, repeatable progression over the long term instead of programs that pile on the weight for a few weeks or months before progress grinds to a halt.

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Empire Barbell High Frequency Bench Press Program Spreadsheet

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This is a high frequency, up to 5 training days per week, daily undulating bench press program shared by Empire Barbell. It is a peaking program for the bench press that aims for the athlete to achieve a new one rep max in 5 weeks.

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Golden Six Arnold Schwarzenegger Workout Routine

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Arnold Schwarzenegger’s workout routine known as “Golden Six” is a 3 day beginner bodybuilding routine that can be run indefinitely. It was used in the early days of Schwarzenegger’s training before he started higher volume training programs.

[Read more…]

The 5 Best Upper/Lower Split Programs

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Are you just looking for great upper/lower split workout programs to run?

If so, check out these links for spreadsheets and additional info.

  1. nSuns 4 Day LP
  2. SPF Powerbuilding
  3. Brogains Powerbuilding
  4. 5/3/1 365
  5. PHUL

What’s the best workout split for building muscle and gaining strength?

This question is a commonly asked question by many lifters. While several splits are effective, such as the bro split, push/pull split, full body workout split, and push/pull/legs, the upper/lower split is arguably the most popular.

An upper/lower workout split can be used whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced trainee. If you have at least 3-4 days per week to train, you can effectively hit each major muscle group twice per week, which is often considered to be the optimal training frequency for muscle growth.

The increased training frequency also improves your skill and technique in the big three (squat, bench press, and deadlift). An upper/lower split can also be utilized if you prefer training 5 or even 6 days per week.

Better yet, an upper/lower split benefits anyone wanting to lose fat, build muscle, and gain strength without living in the gym. Since this split is so popular, numerous upper/lower split workout programs are available!

Below you will find the five best upper/lower split workout programs and a link to their respective spreadsheets so you can download a copy for free!

[Read more…]

Tactical Barbell Program Templates (Operator, Zulu, Mass, and More)

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This is a collection of templates for the Tactical Barbell program. Included are the operator, zulu, fighter, gladiator, mass, and grey man programs – all in the same spreadsheet.

[Read more…]

6 Week Russian Bench Press Peaking Program (3 Day)

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The 6 Week Russian Bench Press Peaking Program is a free, percentage-based bench press cycle that runs 3 days per week for 6 weeks. It’s modeled directly after the Russian Squat Routine — the same high-frequency grid structure, just applied to bench. You enter your current 1RM, and the spreadsheet calculates every working weight for all 18 sessions. The cycle ends with a single at 105% of your starting max.

The idea behind the program is simple: spend 3 weeks piling up volume at 80% to 85%, then taper into progressively heavier singles as you peak. Week 6 Day 3 is your test — 1 rep at 105%. The approach is nothing flashy, but the accumulated work in weeks 1 through 3 is what makes the peak possible. It’s a bench-specific adaptation of a Soviet-era training method that’s been used successfully for decades.

This program is best for intermediate or advanced lifters who already know their bench 1RM and want to peak it — whether for a meet or just a personal best. It’s not a general strength program, and it’s not for beginners. If you’re newer to bench training, you’ll get more out of a program like the KIZEN 6 Week Bench Peaking Program first.

[Read more…]

Thinner Leaner Stronger Workout Program Spreadsheets

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Thinner Leaner Stronger is Michael Matthews’ strength and physique program for women, and the female counterpart to Bigger Leaner Stronger. It runs on 3-day or 4-day splits built around heavy compound work in the 4-6 rep range, with accessories in the 8-12 rep range. The training is organized into 8-week phases followed by a deload week, and the cycle repeats indefinitely as you progress.

The program’s core idea is that women build strength and shape the same way men do: progressive overload on the big lifts. Matthews pushes back on the “light weights for toning” myth. Each session starts with a primary compound lift (squat, deadlift, bench, overhead press, or hip thrust depending on the day), then moves into 3-4 accessory exercises. The 3-day version runs a push/pull/legs structure; the 4-day version splits into chest and triceps, back and biceps and glutes, shoulders, and legs.

TLS is a good fit for beginner to early intermediate women who want to get stronger and change their body composition. You do need access to a barbell and a rack. If you’re looking for a program that doesn’t require a full gym setup, Strong Curves is worth a look since it works well with dumbbells and a hip thrust setup. The full TLS book and bonus materials (including official Excel and Google Sheets versions) are available at legionathletics.com via Michael Matthews and Legion Athletics.

[Read more…]

3 Day 20 Week Powerlifting Program by Powerlifting Academy

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This is a 20 week powerlifting program with 3 training days per week. It was originally published by Powerlifting Academy, a German coaching group. There is also a 16 week version available. [Read more…]