Guides
Workout routines and training guides for the gym: weekly plans, sets, reps, rest, progression and recovery.
Workout routines
Workout splits, weekly plans and short sessions for the gym, home and travel: full body, push pull legs, upper/lower, core, bands, HIIT and stretching.
Which Workout Split Is Best? Full Body, Upper/Lower or Push Pull Legs
How to choose between full body, upper/lower, push pull legs and a body-part split: by the days you can train and how long you have been lifting, with a program for each in Trenno.
30-Minute Full-Body Workout: Quick Sessions for the Gym or Home
Two full-body sessions of about 30 minutes: five exercises with one pair of dumbbells at home, or five machines in the gym. How to run them two or three times a week, and how supersets make them shorter still.
Ab Workout Routine: 20-Minute Core Sessions for Any Plan
Three core sessions of about 20 minutes: on the floor with no equipment, on a pull-up bar, or with a cable and a kettlebell. One a week fits any plan, and here is how much ab work yours already has.
HIIT Workout at Home: 3 No-Equipment Circuits a Week
Three bodyweight interval circuits a week, about 17 minutes each, for a living room with no equipment. Which stations jump and how to make them quiet, how to make a round easier or harder, and what intervals can and cannot do.
Hotel Gym Workout: Dumbbell and Bodyweight Sessions for Travel
Three sessions for a trip, from Trenno's Explore: light dumbbells in a hotel gym, a bodyweight circuit in the room, or a band from the suitcase. How many sessions a week keep what you built, and why a week off costs less than it feels.
Resistance Band Workout: Full-Body, Upper and Lower Routines
Three band routines from Trenno's Explore for home or a hotel room: full body on three days a week, or upper and lower on four. Which band to buy, and how to progress when the band has no number on it.
Stretching Routine After a Workout: A 10-Minute Cooldown
Five stretches for the end of a lifting session, about 10 minutes from the first hold to the last, from Trenno's Explore. What stretching after training does for your range of motion, and what it does not do for soreness.
Suspension Trainer Workout: 3 Full-Body Days With Straps
Three full-body days a week on suspension straps: a pressing day, a pulling day and a legs and core day. How the angle of your body sets the load, how to progress without adding weight, and the shorter strap routines in Trenno.
2-Day Workout Plan: Full Body, Twice a Week
Two full-body gym sessions a week, about 35 minutes each, mostly on machines. For your first months of lifting, or for any stretch of life when two days is what you can promise.
5-Day Workout Split: A Body-Part (Bro) Split That Works
Five gym days a week, one body part a day: chest, back, shoulders, legs, arms. For intermediate lifters who like long, focused sessions, with the honest trade-off and a five-day alternative.
Beginner Strength Program: 3 Days of Squat, Bench Press and Deadlift
Three barbell sessions a week in sets of five, for beginners who want a stronger squat, bench press and deadlift: how to add weight every session, and what to do when it stops going up.
Bodyweight Workout Plan: 3 Days a Week at Home, No Gym Needed
Three full-body sessions a week at home with no weights: a table or a bar to row from, a chair and a step. As you get stronger, harder versions of each exercise take the place of added weight.
Dumbbell Workout Plan: 3 or 4 Days a Week With Dumbbells Only
A full-body plan for three days a week with dumbbells and a chair, and an upper/lower version for four. Which dumbbells to own, where to start and how to progress when the next pair is a big jump.
Fat Loss Workout Plan: 4 Gym Days of Lifting Plus Short Cardio
Four gym sessions a week of full-body lifting, each closed by a short cardio finisher, for lifters who want to lose fat and keep their muscle. What training can and cannot do while you eat less.
Glute Workout Plan: 3 Lower-Body Days to Grow Your Glutes
Three lower-body gym days a week, built around the hip thrust, the squat and the deadlift, for lifters past their first months who want bigger, stronger glutes. With a way to fit the upper body around them.
Kettlebell Workout Plan: 3 Full-Body Days With One or Two Bells
Three full-body kettlebell sessions a week for home or a small gym: how to pick your bell, how to progress when the next bell is a big jump, and the one- and two-bell programs that come after.
Machine Workout Plan for Beginners: 3 Full-Body Days
Three full-body gym sessions a week on machines and cables, with no free weights. For your first months of lifting: how to set each machine up and how to progress on a weight stack.
Push Pull Legs Split: 3-Day and 6-Day PPL Workout Plans
Push, pull and legs on three gym days a week, or each of them twice on six. For lifters past their first months of training, with a barbell, cables and machines.
Upper/Lower Split: A 4-Day Workout Plan for Muscle and Strength
Four gym days a week, two for the upper body and two for the legs, so every muscle is trained twice. For intermediate lifters, with a dumbbell version and a heavier one for strength.
3-Day Full-Body Workout Plan for Beginners (Gym, Dumbbells or Home)
Three full-body workouts a week for your first months of lifting, in four versions: a barbell gym, dumbbells, machines, or no equipment at home.
Training guides
How many sets and reps, how long to rest, how hard to push and how often to train, plus warm-ups, deloads, cardio, building each muscle group and your first pull-up.
How to Build Muscle: The Beginner's Guide to Training in the Gym
Two or three full-body sessions a week, a few hard sets per muscle, a little more weight over time, and enough protein to rebuild. The whole method in one guide, with the program to start and your first 12 weeks laid out.
How to Build a Bigger Back: Exercises for Width and Thickness
About 10 to 20 hard sets a week, split between pull-ups or pulldowns for width and rows for thickness. The back's muscles, six exercises with a cue for each, and a two-session plan.
How to Build a Bigger Chest: Best Exercises and a Weekly Plan
About 10 to 20 hard sets a week, a flat press and an incline press, and weight that keeps going up. What the chest muscle does, six exercises with a cue for each, and a two-session plan.
How to Build Bigger Arms: Biceps and Triceps Training That Works
About 10 hard sets a week for the biceps and for the triceps, with your presses and pulls counted at half. What the arm muscles do, seven exercises with a cue for each, and a two-session plan.
How to Build Bigger Legs: Quads, Hamstrings and Calves
A squat or a leg press for the quads, a hinge and a seated leg curl for the hamstrings, standing calf raises with a full stretch, about 10 hard sets a week each. Seven exercises and a two-session plan.
How to Build Bigger Shoulders: Front, Side and Rear Delts
The front of the shoulder grows from your presses; the side and the rear need raises and flies of their own. What each part does, six exercises with a cue for each, and a two-session plan.
How to Do Your First Pull-Up: A Progression From Zero
No pull-up yet? Build it from the parts you can already do: hanging from the bar, pulling the shoulder blades down, lowering slowly, then pulling with a band's help, three short sessions a week.
Cardio Before or After Weights? How to Combine Both
Lift first when strength is the goal: two meta-analyses found more leg strength that way, while muscle and aerobic fitness did not depend on the order. How much cardio fits a lifting week, and where.
Compound vs Isolation Exercises: Which to Do and When
Compound lifts train several muscles at once, isolation exercises one. What the studies found about each, both kinds for every muscle group, and how our programs put them in order.
Deload Week: What It Is, When to Take One and How
A deload is a planned lighter week that lets fatigue clear before the next block of training. What the research shows, when to take one, and how to cut the work without losing ground.
Free Weights vs Machines: Which Is Better for Muscle and Strength?
For muscle, the studies find no winner; for strength, each builds most on the equipment you train with. What the research shows, where each one helps, and how our programs mix them.
How Long Should a Workout Be? Session Length by Goal
Most strength and muscle sessions take 30 to 60 minutes, and the length is arithmetic: sets plus rests. The count on real days of our programs, and what fits in 30, 45, 60 and 90 minutes.
How Long to Rest Between Sets for Muscle and Strength
Two to three minutes after heavy compound sets, one to two after lighter and isolation work. What the studies found, the rests our programs use, and how to tell when a rest was too short.
How Many Days a Week Should You Work Out? Plans for 2 to 6 Days
Two days is the minimum the health guidelines set, three or four suit most people, five or six only pay when they add work you recover from. A plan for each number of days, with the programs that follow it.
How Many Reps Should You Do? Rep Ranges for Muscle and Strength
Sets of about 6 to 30 reps build similar muscle when they end close to failure, and heavy sets of 1 to 6 build the most strength. How close to failure to go, and the rep ranges our programs use.
How Many Sets per Muscle per Week to Build Muscle
About 10 to 20 hard sets per muscle group a week, fewer when you are new. What counts as a set, what the research measured, and what our programs give each muscle.
How Much Weight Should You Lift? Finding Your Starting Weight
Start light, do one test set, count the reps you had left and adjust. The method for barbells, dumbbells and machines, a worked first session, and why no formula can do it for you.
RPE and RIR Explained: How Hard Should Each Set Be?
RPE 8 means two reps left in the tank. How the effort scale works, how close to failure your sets should end for muscle and for strength, and how accurate people are at judging it.
Warm-Up Sets: How to Warm Up Before Lifting Weights
Two or three lighter sets of the first lift do more than twenty minutes on a bike. How many warm-up sets to do, at what weights, and why long stretches can wait.
How to Keep a Workout Log (and Actually Use It)
What to record after every set, what to skip, and the five-minute weekly review that turns a training diary into faster progress.
Muscle Recovery: How Long to Rest Before Training the Same Muscle Again
How recovery actually works between sessions, the 48 to 72 hour rule and its exceptions, the signs you are under-recovered, and how to plan frequency around it.
Progressive Overload: How to Add Weight Without Guessing
The double progression method, when to add weight, why small plates matter, and how to handle a stall, with an example you can copy.
Supersets: When They Help and How to Program Them
Three kinds of supersets, which ones save time without costing strength, how to set rest, and how to log rounds so your records stay honest.
Product articles
How Trenno and its Apple Watch app fit into a session at the gym.
