Working out doesn’t need to be complicated. When it comes to improving your strength, mobility, and overall fitness, you don’t need an elaborate workout routine or a different day dedicated to every muscle group.
Instead of focusing on traditional workout splits like leg day, chest day, or back day, consider taking a full-body approach that targets the major muscle groups in a single session.
Full-body workouts allow you to train multiple muscle groups, improve overall strength, and make the most of your time in the gym. They’re especially beneficial for people who want to get stronger without spending hours exercising every week.
The best part? You don’t need to be a fitness expert to create an effective workout.
By following a simple framework, you can build your own full-body strength training routine that takes approximately 35–45 minutes, just 2–3 times per week.
Here’s how to get started.
The Framework
When designing your own workout, I recommend focusing on five fundamental movement patterns. These movements target the major muscle groups while helping you develop strength that carries over into everyday activities.
The five movement patterns include:
- Core: Strengthening the muscles that stabilize your spine and support movement.
- Knee-Dominant: Strengthening your legs through movements like squats and lunges.
- Hip-Dominant: Strengthening your glutes, hamstrings, and hips through hinging movements.
- Upper-Body Push: Strengthening your chest, shoulders, and triceps.
- Upper-Body Pull: Strengthening your back, shoulders, and biceps.
By selecting one exercise from each category, you can create a balanced full-body workout without overcomplicating the process.
This approach is particularly effective for people who train 2–3 times per week because it allows you to strengthen your entire body consistently rather than focusing on individual muscle groups only once per week.
Let’s break down each movement.
1. Core
Start your workout by choosing one core exercise.
Your core does much more than help you develop strong abdominal muscles. It plays an important role in stabilizing your spine, maintaining balance, and transferring force throughout your body.
Starting with a core exercise can help you focus on proper breathing, positioning, and stability before moving into more demanding strength exercises.
Exercise options:
- Planks
- Dead Bugs
- Bird Dogs
- Farmer Carries
- Glute Bridges
My recommendation:
Perform 3 sets with approximately 60 seconds of rest between sets.
For exercises involving repetitions, aim for 5–10 controlled reps. For exercises like planks or carries, aim for 20–40 seconds, depending on your ability.
Focus on maintaining control rather than rushing through the movement.
2. Knee-Dominant Exercises
Next, choose one knee-dominant exercise.
Knee-dominant movements primarily strengthen your quadriceps and glutes while also challenging your balance, coordination, and lower-body stability.
These movements are particularly important as we age because they help us maintain the strength needed for everyday activities like getting out of a chair, climbing stairs, and getting up from the floor.
I particularly enjoy incorporating single-leg exercises like lunges and step-ups because they challenge each leg independently while improving balance and stability. However, traditional squats are equally valuable for developing lower-body strength.
Exercise options:
- Goblet Squats
- Reverse Lunges
- Step-Ups
- Split Squats
- Bodyweight Squats
My recommendation:
Perform 3 sets with approximately 60–90 seconds of rest between sets.
- Double-leg exercises: 8–12 repetitions.
- Single-leg exercises: 6–8 repetitions per leg.
Choose a variation that challenges you while allowing you to maintain proper technique.
3. Hip-Dominant Exercises
After your knee-dominant exercise, choose one hip-dominant movement.
Hip-dominant exercises primarily target your glutes, hamstrings, and posterior chain. These muscles are essential for maintaining strength, stability, and the ability to perform everyday activities.
Developing strength through your hips can help improve your ability to lift objects, bend over, walk, and perform other daily movements.
I generally prefer double-leg hip exercises like deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts because they allow you to develop strength through the hips with a stable base of support.
However, single-leg variations are also excellent options for improving balance, coordination, and stability.
Exercise options:
- Kettlebell Deadlifts
- Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs)
- Kettlebell Swings
- Single-Leg Deadlifts
- Hip Thrusts
My recommendation:
Perform 3 sets with approximately 60–90 seconds of rest between sets.
- Double-leg deadlifts and RDLs: 8–12 repetitions.
- Single-leg exercises: 6–8 repetitions per leg.
- Kettlebell swings: 8–15 repetitions, focusing on power and proper technique.
If you’re new to strength training, begin with a traditional deadlift or RDL before progressing to more advanced movements like kettlebell swings.
4. Upper-Body Push
Next, choose one upper-body pushing exercise.
Pushing exercises primarily strengthen your chest, shoulders, and triceps. These muscles are important for everyday activities like pushing doors open, lifting objects overhead, and getting yourself up from the floor.
When designing your workouts, I recommend alternating between horizontal pushing movements, like push-ups and bench presses, and vertical pushing movements, like overhead presses.
This allows you to develop strength through different movement patterns while providing variety in your workouts.
Exercise options:
- Push-Ups
- Dumbbell Bench Press
- Single-Arm Overhead Press
- Double-Arm Overhead Press
- Incline Push-Ups
My recommendation:
Perform 3 sets with approximately 60–90 seconds of rest between sets.
- Double-arm exercises: 8–12 repetitions.
- Single-arm exercises: 6–10 repetitions per arm.
Choose an exercise that allows you to move through a comfortable range of motion while maintaining control.
5. Upper-Body Pull
Lastly, choose one upper-body pulling exercise.
Pulling exercises primarily strengthen your back, shoulders, and biceps. These muscles play an important role in maintaining upper-body strength, supporting posture, and helping you perform everyday pulling and lifting activities.
I recommend incorporating both single-arm and double-arm pulling exercises into your routine.
Double-arm exercises allow you to develop strength through both sides simultaneously, while single-arm exercises challenge your core stability and help you identify differences in strength between sides.
Exercise options:
- TRX Rows
- Bent-Over Dumbbell Rows
- Cable Rows
- Single-Arm Dumbbell Rows
- Lat Pulldowns
My recommendation:
Perform 3 sets with approximately 60–90 seconds of rest between sets.
- Double-arm exercises: 8–12 repetitions.
- Single-arm exercises: 6–10 repetitions per arm.
Focus on controlling the movement and allowing your shoulder blades to move naturally rather than relying on momentum to complete each repetition.
Putting It All Together
Now that you understand the five movement patterns, it’s time to build your workout.
Here’s an example of what a simple full-body strength training session could look like:
| Movement | Exercise | Sets × Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Core | Dead Bug | 3 × 8 |
| Knee | Goblet Squat | 3 × 10 |
| Hip | Kettlebell Deadlift | 3 × 10 |
| Push | Dumbbell Bench Press | 3 × 10 |
| Pull | TRX Row | 3 × 10 |
Rest approximately 60–90 seconds between sets, adjusting as needed based on the difficulty of each exercise.
Before beginning, spend a few minutes warming up with movements that prepare your body for the exercises you’ll be performing.
The weights you choose should be challenging enough that the last few repetitions require effort while still allowing you to maintain proper technique.
As you become stronger, gradually increase the resistance, repetitions, or difficulty of your exercises.
You don’t need to change your workout every time you train. In fact, repeating the same exercises for several weeks allows you to track your progress and develop greater strength over time.
Summary: Keep Your Workouts Simple
One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to fitness is believing their workouts need to be complicated to be effective.
The truth is that consistency, proper exercise selection, and gradual progression matter much more than how many different exercises you can fit into a workout.
By focusing on five fundamental movement patterns core, knee, hip, push, and pull you can create a balanced strength training routine that targets your entire body without spending hours in the gym.
You don’t need to train six days per week, perform dozens of exercises, or constantly change your workouts to see progress.
For most adults, strength training 2–3 times per week can be an excellent starting point for building strength, improving mobility, and maintaining physical independence as they age.
At MB Wellness, this is the philosophy behind our approach to functional strength training. We focus on exercises that help you move better, get stronger, and feel more confident in your everyday life.
Remember, the best workout isn’t necessarily the most complicated one. It’s the one you can consistently perform, progressively improve, and enjoy doing.