I’ve been lifting weights for about 6 years now, and I’ve built what I believe to be a robust weightlifting program that’s good for building and maintaining muscle.
Today, I’ll share some of my favorite exercises for each muscle group.
I’ve focused on keeping my lifting routine as simple as possible, because in fitness, the basics work.
This routine is far from perfect—I’m always tweaking things to dial-in on exactly the kind of results I’m after—but it’s functional and I’ve seen great results.
This post will focus primarily on:
- Training frequency: How often I train (and have trained) to achieve my goals.
- Workout tracking: What I’ve done to document my training sessions.
- The lifts I like to do (that give me an actual “burn”), focusing on 2-3 specific lifts per muscle group
- Rest… and why it’s important to give your body a chance to recover from the strenuous activity you’ve put it through.
In a separate post, I’ll outline what I’ve learned about nutrition—which, I have to say, is probably the weakest link overall (I like Oreos).
So, let’s dive into the details!
Workout Frequency
In the past, I’ve lifted 5-6 days out of the week, 60 minutes per session. That workout cadence gave me great results, and during the early days of my lifting practice, it provided the quick wins I needed to see in order to build motivation and momentum.
Nowadays, because I’m a family man and I work full-time, I haven’t been able to lift as frequently as I’d like to. I’m only in the gym about 2-4 days a week for about 45 minutes each session.
Because I’ve got a solid foundation, this season of maintenance that I’m going through shouldn’t have any negative effects on my gym habits or overall health.
But for someone who’s looking to be aggressive with their fitness progress—perhaps because they want to grow muscle and/or lose fat in the span of 3-6 months—it might make sense to do 5 workouts per week for 60 minutes per session.
For those looking to simply maintain muscle mass, 2-4 workouts per week alongside adequate rest, sufficient hydration, and proper nutrion should provide solid “maintenance” results.
Bottom line: Pick a cadence that works well for your schedule, lifestyle, and goals and stick to it. If you can’t sustain it, you might want to rethink it.
Workout Tracking
Historically, I’ve tracked my workouts in an Apple Note and an old-school physical planner, which I think worked well when I was in the early days of lifting.
It helped me to see where the gaps in my training were at and with progressive overload—making sure I was increasing weight every couple weeks.
In years past, tracking my workouts helped me to learn and grow as a lifter. I was able to see where I was making progress. It was a pivotal part for several seasons of my training.
For anyone who has never logged workouts, start now! It’s one of the most valuable investments you can make.
[INSERT ACTUAL PHOTO OF MY WORKOUT LOGGING JOURNAL HERE]
Nowadays, sadly, that habit has fallen by the wayside… and it’s something I’d like to get back to, but I don’t feel a sense of urgency to do that.
Since I have a pretty solid knowledge of how to put each muscle group through a killer workout, I keep mental records of what I’ve done during the week, just to make sure I keep things as even as possible.
For most people, creating a note in their phone will be the simplest way to track workouts. Tracking what exercise you did alongside how many sets, how much weight, and how many reps per set is really all you need.
And if you need feedback on your regimen to see if it matches your goals, all you need to do is copy and paste that note into Claude or ChatGPT and ask it for some feedback.
Goal for the Spring 2026 Edition of this post: To have restarted my workout tracking!
Workout Structure
There are so many different workout splits you can do, and everyone has an opinion on them.
Let’s look at a few:
Bro Split
This is the classic bodybuilding approach—one muscle group per day (e.g., Monday: Chest, Tuesday: Back, Wednesday: Shoulders, Thursday: Arms, Friday: Legs). The advantage? You can absolutely demolish a single muscle group with high volume and focus. The downside? Each muscle only gets trained once per week, which isn’t optimal for natural lifters—research suggests hitting each muscle 2x per week is better for growth.
Best for: Advanced lifters who need more recovery time, or people who love spending an entire session obsessing over one body part.
Push-Pull-Legs (PPL)
On push day, you train chest, shoulders, and triceps (pushing movements like bench press and overhead press). On pull day, you train back, biceps, and rear delts (pulling movements like rows and pull-ups). On leg day, you hit quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves. Run this as a 6-day cycle (PPL-PPL-Rest or straight through with rest days as needed), and you’ll hit each muscle group twice per week—ideal frequency for hypertrophy. Core work can be thrown in on any day.
Best for: People who want a balanced, sustainable routine with proven results and clear structure.
Upper/Lower Split
Upper body one day (chest, back, shoulders, arms), lower body the next (quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves). Run it 4 days per week (Upper/Lower/Rest/Upper/Lower/Rest/Rest) and you hit everything twice per week. The challenge? Upper body days can run long since you’re training multiple large muscle groups in one session, so you need to be efficient with exercise selection.
Best for: People who want simplicity and 2x frequency but prefer fewer training days than PPL, or those who like pairing muscle groups more flexibly.
For most beginners, a PPL split is probably the most sensible. I never actually did a PPL split, because I’ve kept my workouts to two muscle groups per workout, three workouts per muscle group.
For example, if I do chest and legs, I might do:
- Chest: DB Fly, Incline DB Press, DB Overhead Press
- Legs: Press, Extension, Bulgarian Split Squat
This is what I call the Neil-san Split.
My Favorite Exercises
Chest
Chest is, by far, my favorite group to train.
If I was going to the gym right now, here are the three exercises I would do.
First, I’d do either machine chest press or incline dumbbell press.
- Machine Chest Press: 3 sets, 90-100 lbs., 9-12 reps
- Incline Dumbbell Press: 3-4 sets with 45-pound dumbbells, 8-10 reps
Next, I’d do a seated cable fly or flat bench fly.
- Seated Cable Fly: 3-4 sets, 20 lbs. per pulley, 10 reps
- Flat Bench Fly: 3-4 sets, 20-pound dumbbells, 10-12 reps
Finally, I’d grab a 50- or 55-pound dumbbell, set the bench flat, and do a dumbbell pullover for about 10-12 reps.
Shoulders
Shoulders are another one of my favorite muscle groups to train, and because I want to be able to lift for a long time, I’d be sure to get my shoulders warmed up pretty good before doing the following exercises:
Front Deltoid
For the front deltoid, I’m a big fan of the dumbbell shoulder press. I don’t usually use a machine for front deltoids… instead, I’ll set a bench so it’s fully upright.
Nowadays, I’m grabbing 40-pound dumbbells for my first set, then upping it to 45 pounds for the second, third, and fourth sets. If I’m feeling ambitious, I might grab the 50-pound dumbbells.
Middle Deltoid
For the middle deltoid, I like lateral raises. Usually, I’ll do either a cable lateral raise with the pulley set at hip height OR lateral raises with dumbbells.
- Cable Lateral Raise: 3-4 sets, 10-15 lbs. per pulley, 10-12 reps
- Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 3-4 sets, 20-pound dumbbells, 10-12 reps
Rear Deltoid
The rear deltoid is one of the easiest muscle groups to neglect, so my recommendation to everyone is this: Don’t overlook it!
I’d start off doing a cable face pull. Grab the rope attachment, set the pulley at face height.
- Cable Face Pull: 3-4 sets, 40 lbs., 10-12 reps
Next, I’d grab dumbbells and head over to a flat bench for a bent over reverse fly.
For this exercise, I’d probably do a drop set in order to really feel the burn:
- Bent Over Reverse Fly: 3-4 drop sets (20-pound dumbbell for 10 reps, then a 10-pound dumbbell for 12-15 reps)
Traps
Everyone (including myself) gravitates toward the shrug to isolate the traps. The shrug is an excellent exercise, and I typically do them with dumbbells or a Smith machine.
Recently, the Planet Fitness I go to added a machine that’s supposedly for deadlifts, lunges, and squats, but I’ve found it works well for shrugs, too.
All that said, there are so many variations of shrugs (including the infamous trap bar—if your gym has one, count yourself lucky… I’ve never had the privilege of using one).
So, for traps, here’s what I’m doing:
- Dumbbell Shrug: 3-4 sets, 60 lbs., 10-12 reps
When I work traps, I like to pair that up with…
Rhomboids
I only have one exercise I do for rhomboids, and that’s the upright dumbbell row.
- Upright Dumbbell Row: 3-4 sets, 20-pound dumbbells, 10-12 reps
Well-developed rhomboids look super sick, and I think by the time I get to the spring 2026 edition of my workout guide, I’d like to have found a couple other exercises that tear up the rhomboids.
Lats
The back is one of the most defining muscle groups, and I think as I move into the winter, I’d like to spend more time developing the lats.
My first exercise to develop the lats is the seated row.
- Seated Cable Row: 3-4 sets, 100 lbs., 9-12 reps
Once I wrap up the seated cable row, I’ll do some sort of a pull down. My gym has a couple options here: the typical cable lat pulldown, or the pulldown machine.
- Cable Lat Pulldown: 3-4 sets, 100 lbs., 10-12 reps
Core
I keep core pretty simple, and I’ll start off with hanging leg raises.
For these, all I do is hang from a pull-up bar or the monkey bars, then I raise my legs straight up, trying to keep my knees straight with control on the way up AND on the way down.
- Hanging Leg Raises: 3-4 sets, 7-8 reps per set
Next, I’m headed to a cable to do woodchoppers.
- Woodchoppers: 3-4 sets, 30 lbs., 10-12 reps
Lower Body
I know some folks dread leg day, but I like training lower body.
Since I have spent years and years in the martial arts—practicing Taekwondo specifically—my hamstrings are pretty well-developed, so I don’t spend a ton of time isolating them in my workouts.
Instead, I focus largely on quads.
Here are my five go-to lower body exercises:
- Leg Extension:
- Goblet Squat (with heels elevated on a plate, to isolate quads):
- Leg Press (Plates): 270 lbs., 3-4 sets, 10 reps
- Bulgarian Split Squat: 15 lbs, 3-4 sets, 8-9 reps
- Hip Adduction:
In conclusion
Alright—that’s a wrap for this season’s edition of My Minimalist Lifting Routine ().
I’ll be making some adjustments this winter, and probably in spring, I’ll drop an update to my lifting regimen. Maybe in that post I’ll include some videos. 😉
If you have any questions about anything in this post, head over to the contact page and drop me a line—I’ll be sure to get back with you.
Peace!
-Neil