Are you hooked on lifting weights and working out? Do you want to train every day of the week?
Then let me give you some insight on whether or not a 7-day workout plan is an effective way to build long-term muscle and strength. Read on to find out!
Challenging yourself with 7 days of training every week for months can be difficult. And if you want to build strength and muscle, hard work is necessary. However, 7-day workout plans may be less beneficial than training 5-6 days a week with one or two days of rest.
Are you ready to take your workouts to the next level? First, let’s explore the mindset behind a 7-day workout plan and the benefits and drawbacks it can bring. Then, I’ll provide you with a 7-day workout plan split so you can get started right away if you feel so inclined!
Is Training 7-Days a Week Okay?
Is a 7-day workout program right for you? It can be ambitious, and while it might seem like more is better, there’s no guarantee of success if you don’t stay consistent and recover properly. So working out every day of the week comes down to whether or not it’s the most effective way to reach your goals.
If you’re ready to commit to training hard, eating well, and getting plenty of rest every day of the week, 7-day workout plans can be highly effective. Yet, they can be intense and damaging if you don’t allow your body to recover and train intelligently.
If you’re not ready to give your all to the gym, recovery, and nutrition, it’s better to scale back your plans and put your energy into an intense 5 or 6-day workout program. You’ll see better results and be able to stay focused for a more effective workout.
Need a workout program? Check out these options!
Training 7 Days Per Week
Training more often during the week can be incredibly beneficial – but there are drawbacks to consider too. Let’s explore the advantages and disadvantages of increasing your training frequency below.
Benefits
Multiple Training Days Per Muscle Group
Training volume is essential to maximize muscle growth, which means training a muscle more than once or twice a week. For example, lifting seven days a week gives you more chances to push a muscle, rest it, and repeat that process.
For instance, you can train your legs 3 days a week on a 7-day split program, which could be just the extra volume you need to break through a lower body strength and muscle growth plateau.
Shorter Workouts
Adding more workouts per week is a great way to make your total weekly volume manageable. Not only can you keep the duration of each workout shorter, but you can also achieve similar results with fewer sets per session — that’s the power of spreading out your workload!
Sessions of more than 75-90 minutes often lead to low stimulus, exhausting work, meaning you’re “working out hard” yet not getting the optimal muscle-building stimulation.
By training more often, you can keep sessions to a more manageable time limit and, ultimately, put in higher-quality workouts.
Breaking Plateaus
Struggling to break through a training plateau? Adding an extra workout or two may be just what you need! Understanding how to manipulate training frequency and overall training volume is critical to achieving muscle growth.
Consider adding a session or two to your current 5-6 day workout program. It could be the difference between staying stuck and taking your gains to the next level!
Drawbacks of Training 7 Days Per Week
It’s tempting to hit the gym every day – after all, training seven days a week has advantages. But before committing to that kind of intensity, ask yourself if the benefits are worth the drawbacks.
Remember, the real progress in muscle gain, strength building, and fat loss happens outside the gym – in your diet, recovery routine, and sleep schedule.
It might be worth adding an extra session if you’re already training five to six days a week. But too much time in the gym could mean too little time for rest – which can hinder your workouts’ quality.
Overtraining
Have you ever worked so hard on your fitness training that you couldn’t get the desired results? You may have been overtraining. Overtraining occurs after a long period when you are not recovering properly. This usually follows a stage of overreaching, when you train intensely and accumulate fatigue.
It’s essential to take rest days or deload weeks to allow your muscles and connective tissues (joints, tendons, and ligaments) to recover from the stress of the workout. If you don’t rest, your training will be impacted negatively rather than providing results.
Not Ideal for Beginner and Intermediate Lifters
Aspiring lifters, take note! There are better ways to get into shape than training every day of the week.
If you haven’t been lifting regularly (at least one year without any breaks longer than a week), then a 7-day workout program is not for you. Why? It can be tough on the body, but even if you’re feeling up to the challenge, this intense routine isn’t any more effective than sticking to a program for an entire year and training with intensity for 4-5 days a week.
Requires Extra Attention to Form
Working out with proper form and attention to detail is essential to get the most out of training. But remember that taking some rest days is vital for good recovery!
If you don’t listen to your body and push yourself too hard daily, you can feel sore and fatigued for the whole week. So stay focused, train hard, and remember to take some rest days!
Requires Smart Weight Selection
If you’re training every day, paying close attention to your weight selection and overall training volume is essential. Advanced lifters can easily fall prey to overuse injuries and excessive fatigue if they’re not careful.
Rather than thinking short term and pushing yourself too hard in each session, remember that slow and steady wins the race when training seven days a week. Allow your body to adapt gradually, and don’t lift more weight than it can handle on a given day.
Off Days
You might have off days while regularly training, which is normal and expected! Stress can come in all forms, like family, lack of sleep, and poor nutrition.
You must be mindful of how your body feels when training every day. For example, if you enter the gym and feel weak or have nagging pain, pushing through isn’t the best idea – it could lead to an injury.
The key to success is understanding when to take a break and when to stay flexible without compromising your long-term program.
Your Recovery Must Be on Perfect
As you can tell, recovering between workouts is one of the greatest struggles when training daily. You must be able to manage the other aspects of your life (diet, sleep, work, family, and lifestyle stressors) or at least be aware of them. Otherwise, you could find yourself run down and missing multiple days or weeks of workouts.
Training every day is difficult and requires more than sheer willpower or determination; it requires focus outside the gym, even more than inside.
Who Should or Shouldn’t Train 7 Days Per Week
7-day workouts may be precisely what you need to break through a plateau. However, they could completely derail your progress.
To benefit from them, you need to be able to dedicate yourself entirely to recovery outside of the gym. Otherwise, your body and drive will break down incredibly fast.
If you attempt 7-day workouts, use them as a short-term catalyst to help propel you to your next goal. After 6-8 weeks max of this training style, it is best to have a deload week and then resume the training style you previously saw results with.
How To Structure 7-Day Workout Routines
When constructing a 7-day workout program, it’s essential to determine your objectives, how much time you can devote to the gym, and where you are starting from.
You can make more mistakes if you are relatively new to fitness and strength. The more developed you are, the less room for error you have.
In this case, let’s assume you have been exercising for over a year and have experience with 5-6 days of training a week, with you focusing on all major muscle groups at least twice a week.
If not, try our other training programs to build up your base.
Training Split
It all depends on your goals, but you should aim to work out your major muscle groups or movements two to three times a week. For example, to build muscle (bodybuilding), dedicate two to three days a week to each muscle group and alternate between heavier and lighter workouts.
7-day split workout for bodybuilding examples:
Push/Pull
- Day 1 – Push (Quads, Chest, and Triceps)
- Day 2 – Pull (Hamstrings, Glutes, Back, and Biceps)
- Day 3 – Push (Shoulders, Chest, and Triceps)
- Day 4 – Pull (Hamstrings, Glutes, Back, and Biceps)
- Day 5 – Push (Quads, Chest, and Abs)
- Day 6 – Pull (Hamstrings, Glutes, and Back)
- Day 7 – Bonus Day (Biceps, Triceps, Abs, and Shoulders)
Upper/Lower
- Day 1 – Upper (Chest, Back, and Abs)
- Day 2 – Lower (Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, and Calves)
- Day 3 – Upper (Shoulders, Biceps, and Triceps)
- Day 4 – Lower (Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, and Calves)
- Day 5 – Upper (Chest, Back, and Abs)
- Day 6 – Lower (Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, and Calves)
- Day 7 – Upper (Shoulders, Biceps, and Triceps)
Arnold Split + 1
- Day 1 – Chest and Back
- Day 2 – Shoulders and Arms
- Day 3 – Legs and Lower Back
- Day 4 – Chest and Back
- Day 5 – Shoulders and Arms
- Day 6 – Legs and Lower Back
- Day 7 – Bonus Day (added volume to desired muscle group)
If you’re hoping to become stronger (strength sports), you could dedicate 2-3 days to hone the major movements of your sport or objective (bench, squat, deadlift OR snatch, clean, jerk).
7-day workout splits for strength sports examples:
Powerlifting
- Day 1 – Back Squat, Belt Squat, and GHD
- Day 2 – Bench Press, Incline Press, and Row
- Day 3 – Back Squat, RDL, and Hamstring Curl
- Day 4 – Bench Press, Overhead Press, and Pull Up
- Day 5 – Deadlift, Belt Squat, and GHD
- Day 6 – Bench Press, Row, and Pull Up
- Day 7 – Bonus Day (Biceps, Triceps, and Abs)
Olympic Weightlifting
- Day 1 – Snatch, Snatch Pull, and Back Squat
- Day 2 – Power Clean, BTN Snatch Push Press, and Pull Up
- Day 3 – Power Snatch and Front Squat
- Day 4 – Clean, Snatch Balance, and Push Press
- Day 5 – Power Snatch, Snatch High Pull, and Pull Up
- Day 6 – Clean, Clean Pull, and Front Squat
- Day 7 – Power Clean/Snatch, Strict Press, and Upper Body Accessories
Sets and Reps
7-day workout plans are a great way to reach your goals, but you need to make sure you don’t overdo it! You should aim to make at least one day of the week slightly less intense than the others, such as doing more accessory work or lower percentage lifts for speed and technique.
Remember that the goal isn’t to be super sore or exhausted after a workout – the program accumulates weekly volume, not just daily volume. So, when in doubt, always remember- stimulate, don’t annihilate.
Loading (Intensity)
When it comes to training, it’s essential to monitor your volume and load to reduce the risk of injury. In addition, when you don’t take rest days, it’s imperative to keep an eye on how many sets and reps you do during each session.
Exercise Selection
Exercise selection is important during the training week if there are issues with muscle soreness or restrictions in other sessions.
For example, the Powerlifting 7-day workout plan utilizes the belt squat twice weekly to target the lower body rather than doing more back-loaded movements or additional back or front squat sets.
This is primarily because the program already has you squatting 2-3 times a week and doing deadlifts 1-2 times a week. That can lead to a lot of fatigue in the lower back. So as a safeguard, the belt squat is programmed to enable muscle growth in the legs without adding additional lower back strain.
The 7-Day Gym Workout Plan
Below is a sample 7-day workout plan designed to build maximal muscle.
Monday (Lower)
- Back Squat for 4 sets of 5-8 reps
- RDL for 4 sets of 5-8 reps
- Walking Lunge for 3 sets of 8-10 steps per side
- GHD for 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Tuesday (Upper)
- Incline Barbell Bench Press for 4 sets of 5-8 reps
- Lat Pulldown for 4 sets of 5-8 reps
- Flat Dumbbell Bench Press for 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- One Arm Dumbbell Row for 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Cable Chest Flye for 4 sets of 8-12 reps
Wednesday (Upper)
- Seated Barbell Military Press for 4 sets of 5-8 reps
- Skullcrusher for 4 sets of 5-8 reps
- One Arm Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raise for 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Preacher Curl for 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Incline Dumbbell Curl for 4 sets of 8-12 reps
Thursday (Lower)
- Deficit Deadlift for 4 sets of 5-8 reps
- Hack Squat for 4 sets of 10-15 reps
- Lying Hamstring Curl for 4 sets of 10-15
- Sled Push for 4-6 sets of 45-60 seconds
Friday (Upper)
- Flat Barbell Bench Press for 4 sets of 5-8 reps
- Chest Supported T Bar Row for 4 sets of 5-8 reps
- Incline Dumbbell Bench Press for 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- One Arm Cable Pulldown for 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Dumbbell Pullover for 4 sets 10-15 reps
Saturday (Lower)
- Back Squat for 4 sets of 5-8 reps
- Belt Squat for 4 sets of 10-15 reps
- GHD for 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Reverse Sled Drag for 4-6 sets of 45-60 seconds
Sunday (Upper)
- Seated Dumbbell Military Press for 4 sets of 5-8 reps
- Pushdown for 4 sets of 10-15 reps
- Face Pull for 4 sets of 10-15 reps
- Preacher Curl for 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Incline Dumbbell Curl for 4 sets of 8-12 reps
Progressing Over Time
Weekly progressions should be moderate during a seven-day exercise plan due to the difficulty of recovery. Pick one activity or movement every day to improve, then attempt to meet your past week’s numbers (or at least don’t exhaust yourself on every exercise each week).
Additionally, it is crucial to understand that you may feel worn out or overwhelmed on certain weeks or days, so be sure to listen to your body. If this is a recurrent issue (more than one week at a time), you may need to reduce the load or shift to a split that allows for better recovery.
Avoid These On The 7 Day Workout Plan
Are you thinking of taking on a 7-day workout plan? Read on to discover the common pitfalls to avoid to maximize your results!
Training TOO Hard
Working out 7 days a week can be a great way to stay in shape, but if you don’t have a plan, you’ll fail to see the results you’re after. That’s why it’s essential to have a systematic, long-term approach to your workouts.
Each session must complement the next, or else you risk derailing the entire program – even more so with a 7-day plan, as there’s no room for error and no days to rest and recoup.
Training One Muscle TOO Frequently
If you plan your training program carefully, you shouldn’t have too much difficulty. However, it can still come up during high-intensity training regimens.
Most large muscle groups can be worked out 2-3 times per week, while smaller muscles like biceps and abs can be trained 2-4 times weekly. However, the more often you exercise a particular muscle, the fewer sets you must do in a single session.
Ignoring Pain or Discomfort
Being mindful of your body when you work out is vital. For example, when you feel nagging joint pain or even slight discomfort, it’s an indication that you must take notice and heed its warning.
If you train every day of the week, there’s little room for error. Ignoring the discomfort can cause you to be out of the game for days or even weeks. That’s why it is often better to train just 4-6 days a week instead of 7.
Not Recovering Enough
Not recovering properly? You’ll soon start to feel it – soreness, stiffness, and lower energy are all signs you need to step up your recovery game.
If you’ve been unable to match your performance from earlier weeks, it’s a surefire sign that you must focus on nutrition, hydration, and getting more rest. If none of this works, it’s best to avoid 7-day workout plans.
Final Thoughts
A 7-day workout routine can be a powerful way to boost your progress, especially if you are a seasoned lifter. However, it can be challenging to maintain consistency in the long run due to the risk of overtraining or overuse. Nevertheless, this guide can provide helpful information on crafting a 7-day workout plan tailored to your goals.
If you need help finding the right workout plan, subscribe to our email for first access to our free workouts!
