Leg focus – beginner, 4 days/week, 8 weeks

Four gym days a week where the legs get two workouts: Monday with the emphasis on squat-type movements, Thursday with more focus on glutes and hamstrings. The upper body is split into push on Tuesday and pull on Friday. Eight weeks, the last one a deload.

How it works

The workouts use machines and dumbbells, so you can learn the movements without balance and free-weight technique being the hard part. Monday's lower-body workout starts with leg press and goblet squat. Thursday's legs and glutes workout has more exercises for glutes and hamstrings: leg curl, glute bridge and abduction. The difference between the days is smaller at beginner level than later on – what matters now is training the legs twice a week with good technique.

Weeks 1–4: stay at RIR 2, two reps in reserve. Weeks 5–7: same workouts, go to RIR 1–2 and add weight where you can. Week 8 is a deload – halve the sets, keep the weights.

Progression

The app shows last time's weight on every set. When you hit the top of the rep range on all sets, add the smallest increment next time. Legs often handle bigger jumps than the upper body, but go slowly rather than letting technique fall apart.

The rest days

Wednesday sits between the two leg days and gives the legs two days before the next leg workout; Tuesday's upper-body workout hardly loads them. The weekend is free. A walk or light mobility on rest days is fine, but let the legs rest from heavy training.

If four days becomes three

Keep both leg days and combine the upper body that week: do the first three or four exercises from both the push and pull workouts on Friday.