DIY TRAINING PLANNER.
STEP 1 · TRAINING FREQUENCY.
How many days do you want to train? Pick what you can actually repeat, not what sounds impressive.
Choose your split.
Pick the structure you prefer. We will only show options that fit your training days.
Step 2 · Equipment
WHERE DO YOU TRAIN?
You’ll only see exercises that make sense for the setup you actually have.
Step 3 · Exercise preferences
PICK EXERCISES YOU ACTUALLY LIKE.
Choose by body part, not by movement pattern. The planner knows what each exercise covers and will check your movement balance afterwards.
Optional: athlete exercise picks
Recommendation lens
WHOSE PICKS DO YOU WANT TO SEE?
Toggle one or more names to highlight their picks. The full exercise library always stays visible.
How should we use your picks?
You decide whether the plan sticks to your list or uses a few extra exercises where needed.
Step 4 · Workout preferences
MAKE IT YOURS.
Choose your experience, working sets and optional speed or power work.
Your experience
The planner will adapt exercise complexity, workload and coaching notes.
Your working sets.
Choose a minimum and maximum number of working sets per exercise.
Optional speed and power
Skip this if you just want strength training.
Step 5 · Generated plan
YOUR TRAINING PLAN.
Your plan uses the split, exercises and set range you chose.
Still waiting for your email?
Movement patterns, training guidance and sources
Squats, hinges, lunges, pushes, pulls and carries describe useful movement types. You do not need every one in every routine, and a missing carry is not automatically a programming flaw.
Simple progression
When you can complete the prescribed reps with good technique and still have some reps in reserve, gradually increase the load, reps or difficulty next time. Change one thing at a time.
Training guide + safety
This planner is a general educational training guide designed to help you build a general training routine with exercise choices suited to your needs. It is not a substitute for an individual assessment or personalised training program.
Your ideal training program depends on your goals, training history, injuries, limitations, recovery, available equipment and individual circumstances. If you have a specific goal, injury, medical condition or complex training needs, working with a qualified fitness professional can help you build a program specifically for you.
Use good technique, choose appropriate loads and stop if an exercise causes pain or feels unsafe.
Sources
The athlete badges are a browsing aid, not a claim that one person’s exercise is universally “best”. “Recommended” here means the exercise was explicitly described as a favourite/recommendation, or is repeatedly featured in a published workout or science-based ranking from that person.
- Men’s Health — Arnold Schwarzenegger Shares His Favorite (and Most Hated) Workout Moves. Arnold names the clean and press as his all-time favourite.
- Men’s Health — Strong Talk interview. Arnold discusses shoulder pressing, squats, deadlifts, incline pressing, rows and foundational free-weight training.
- Muscle & Fitness — How Arnold Built His Arms. Covers barbell/dumbbell curls, close-grip bench presses, pushdowns and extensions.
- Muscle & Fitness — Ronnie Coleman’s 6 Favorite Mass-Building Exercises. Ronnie identifies bench press, squat, barbell row, seated military press, lying triceps extensions and preacher curls as key favourites, with related workout staples also listed.
- Generation Iron — Chris Bumstead profile and training routine. Lists his stated top picks as barbell squat, incline dumbbell press and bent-over barbell row, plus exercises repeatedly used in his training.
- Chris Bumstead — My Essential Chest and Back Workout on his verified YouTube channel.
- Generation Iron - Jay Cutler's Best Exercise for Each Body Part. Cutler specifically names standing calf raises, squats, stiff-leg deadlifts, pull-ups, shoulder presses and bench press as his top choices.
- Muscle & Fitness - Jay Cutler's Chest Workout for Massive Pecs. Covers bench press, incline dumbbell press, cable crossover and fly variations.
- Muscle & Fitness - Jay Cutler's Dynamic Leg Routine. Includes leg press, hack squat, front/back squat, lunges and leg extensions.
- Muscle & Fitness - Jay Cutler on Wide-Grip Seated Rows. Cutler describes the seated cable row as an important favourite during his Olympia years.
- Muscle & Fitness - Jay Cutler's Boulder Shoulders. Features lateral raises, dumbbell shoulder presses and dumbbell shrugs.
- BarBend - Jay Cutler's Guide to a Massive Back. Documents reverse/standard pulldowns, machine pullovers, T-bar rows, dumbbell rows, seated cable rows and deadlifts.
- Muscle & Fitness - Jay Cutler's Triceps Takedown. Cutler calls close-grip bench press his best triceps size exercise and lists pushdowns and lying triceps extensions in the routine.
- Muscle & Fitness - Jay Cutler on Biceps Peaks. Documents preacher curls among his favourite biceps choices.
- Muscle & Fitness - Dorian Yates: Man and Machine. Yates directly lists favourite free-weight exercises for chest, shoulders, back, traps, arms and hamstrings, including incline presses, dumbbell presses/raises, deadlifts, rows, shrugs, EZ-bar extensions/curls and stiff-leg deadlifts.
- Muscle & Fitness - Hardcore Routines: Dorian Yates, Back. Features pulldowns/pullovers, barbell rows, machine rows, cable rows, back extensions and deadlifts.
- BarBend - How Dorian Yates Changed Bodybuilding. Documents his leg extension, leg press, hack squat, leg curl, RDL and calf work.
- Official Mike Mentzer / Heavy Duty - The Ideal Routine. Includes pec deck, incline press, pulldowns, deadlifts/shrugs, laterals, rear delts, curls, pushdowns, dips, leg extensions, leg press, squats and calf raises.
- Official Mike Mentzer / Heavy Duty - 1995 Blueprint. Also documents rows and leg curls in the three-workout version.
- Muscle & Fitness - Phil Heath's Essential Shoulder Workout and Tips. Documents machine/Smith pressing, dumbbell lateral raises, reverse pec deck, rear-delt work and face pulls, with Heath explicitly calling face pulls a favourite rear-delt movement.
- Muscle & Fitness - Phil Heath's Arm Blast Routine. Includes rope pushdowns, dips, dumbbell curls, concentration/spider curls and EZ-bar curls.
- Muscle & Fitness - Phil Heath's Olympia-Winning Chest Routine. Features incline dumbbell pressing, fly work, seated chest press and cable work.
- Muscle & Fitness - How Phil Heath Trains for Wide Lats and a Detailed Back. Includes pulldowns, barbell rows, seated cable rows, machine pullovers and back extensions.
- Muscle & Fitness - Phil Heath's Olympia-Winning Back Routine. Heath lists pull-ups, seated cable rows, barbell rows and one-arm dumbbell rows as core movements from his first Olympia-winning back routine.
- Muscle & Fitness - Phil to the Brim. Documents squat, leg press, hack squat, lunges, leg curls, stiff-leg deadlifts and calf raises.
- SET FOR SET - Sam Sulek Training Program and Favorite Exercises. Compiles exercises Sulek repeatedly discusses and uses across chest, back, shoulders, arms and legs, including incline presses, cable/machine flyes, pulldowns, rows, lateral/rear-delt work, curls, pushdowns, hack squats, leg extensions, leg curls, RDLs and calf work.
- Sam Sulek - Winter Bulk Day 1: Back and Rear Delts on his official YouTube channel.
- Sam Sulek - Winter Bulk Day 2: Arms on his official YouTube channel.
- Sam Sulek - Winter Bulk Day 3: Legs on his official YouTube channel.
- Sam Sulek - Winter Bulk Day 4: Chest and Side Delts on his official YouTube channel.
- BarBend - The Tom Platz Leg Workout. The classic routine centres on back squats, hack squats, leg extensions, leg curls, standing calf raises and seated calf raises.
- American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand, 2026. Synthesises 137 systematic reviews and finds that progressive resistance training works across a wide range of prescriptions, with hypertrophy responding especially to sufficient weekly volume.
- Kassiano et al., 2022 — exercise variation systematic review. Supports some systematic exercise variation while cautioning that excessive, redundant or frequently changing exercise selection may compromise adaptations.
- Costa et al., 2021 — exercise variation and regional hypertrophy. Found that using different exercises for the same muscle group can support hypertrophy across different measured regions.
The exercise-pick caps are a research-informed product rule, not a universal scientific threshold. They intentionally allow a small amount of systematic variation while preventing users from selecting a long list of redundant exercises. Arnold’s clean and press is cited because he has explicitly called it his favourite, but it is intentionally not added to this simple beginner-friendly exercise library because it is a more technical Olympic-style lift. The planner also does not copy the extreme set volumes used by elite bodybuilders.
Use the Training Planner's "Get my PDF" button to prepare a printable copy before printing.