Reference · Program
3-Day Full Body — Wrist-Sparing
Print me. Bring me to the gym. Write your numbers in the margins. The why behind every rule lives in Lesson 1.
Muscle + metabolic health, 3×/week, ~45 minutes, neutral-wrist throughout. Three full-body sessions — A, B and C — one on each of three non-consecutive days. Each hits squat · hinge · push · pull · core, with the lifts varied day to day. Every exercise has a wrist-friendly alternate so it survives whatever machines your gym actually has.
1How to run the week
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 |
|---|---|---|
| A | B | C |
All three are full-body, so this still touches every major muscle 2–3× a week — your target frequency — at ~8–12 hard sets each. Miss a day? Just pick up where you left off (…A, B, skip, C, A, B…); don't try to cram two in.
At 3 days/week, a classic split (chest day / back day / leg day) would hit each muscle only once a week. Three full-body sessions hit everything 2–3× a week — the frequency that drives the most growth per week of training for a beginner. A, B and C just rotate the lifts so nothing goes stale and the joints get variety; the weekly total per muscle stays in the 8–12 hard-set target either way.
2–3 min after the big lifts (1–3), 60–90 s on accessories (4–6). The ⟂ superset pairs can alternate back-to-back to save time. Don't rush the big lifts — short rest just lowers the weights you can use.
2Warm-up — about 6 minutes
Raise (3–4 min): easy bike / row / incline walk, then bodyweight squats, leg swings, band pull-aparts, gentle wrist circles. Ramp (2–3 min): on the first big lift only, do 2–3 build-up sets (light → ~60% → ~80% of your working weight, ~5 reps each). Skip long static stretches before lifting.
3The three workouts
Each is full-body. A leans squat + horizontal press/row, B leans hinge + overhead press/pulldown, C is the single-leg + cable/machine day that leans on the new kit. Slots 1–3 are your big lifts; do them first and heaviest.
A Workout A · squat + horizontal push/pull
| # | Exercise | Sets × reps | Start | Log |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Goblet squatalt: DB split squat, held by the bells — once 30 kg goblet feels easy | 3 × 8–12 | 26 kg | ___ kg |
| 2 | Neutral-grip DB bench pressalt: Technogym multi press (chest) — neutral grips, no 30 kg cap · incline DB press · fist / parallette push-ups | 3 × 6–10 | 24 kg ea | ___ kg |
| 3 | Cable rowfunctional trainer, V-bar — loads past 30 kg · alt: chest-supported neutral DB row (20 kg ea) · single-arm DB row | 3 × 8–12 | 40 kg † | ___ kg |
| 4 ⟂ | Seated leg curlTechnogym — direct hamstring work | 2 × 10–12 | 30 kg † | ___ kg |
| 5 ⟂ | Face pullfunctional trainer, rope — rear delts + shoulder health, the desk-posture antidote · wrist dead neutral | 2 × 12–15 | 15 kg † | ___ kg |
| 6 | Forearm plankalt: Pallof press (functional trainer) | 2 × 30–45 s | body | ___ |
B Workout B · hinge + overhead push/pull
| # | Exercise | Sets × reps | Start | Log |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barbell Romanian deadliftalt: cable pull-through (functional trainer, rope) — grip- & wrist-free hinge · DB / KB RDL, 2 × 30 kg | 3 × 6–8 | 55 kg | ___ kg |
| 2 | Leg pressTechnogym — your main heavy quad lift | 3 × 8–12 | 100 kg † | ___ kg |
| 3 | Neutral-grip DB shoulder pressalt: Technogym multi press (shoulder) — neutral grips, no 30 kg cap · half-kneeling single-arm DB press | 3 × 6–10 | 16 kg ea | ___ kg |
| 4 | Neutral-grip lat pulldownTechnogym lat — use the V / neutral handle | 3 × 8–12 | 45 kg † | ___ kg |
| 5 ⟂ | Dead bugalt: lying leg raise | 2 × 10–12 | body | ___ |
| 6 ⟂ | Hip abductorTechnogym — glute-medius / hip stability | 2 × 12–15 | 35 kg † | ___ kg |
C Workout C · single-leg + cable/machine day
| # | Exercise | Sets × reps | Start | Log |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DB split squatheld by the bells, rear foot flat or on a low step · alt: leg press · goblet squat if balance is off | 3 × 8–12 / leg | 14 kg ea | ___ kg |
| 2 | Technogym multi press — chestthe new machine: wrist-safe, weight stack (no 30 kg cap) · set it to shoulder press for more delts | 3 × 8–12 | 40 kg † | ___ kg |
| 3 | Cable rowfunctional trainer, V-bar · alt: single-arm DB row, bench-supported | 3 × 10–12 | 40 kg † | ___ kg |
| 4 | Cable pull-throughfunctional trainer, rope between the legs, hips back — grip- & wrist-free hinge · alt: seated leg curl | 3 × 10–12 | 30 kg † | ___ kg |
| 5 ⟂ | Hip abductorTechnogym — glute-medius / hip stability | 2 × 12–15 | 35 kg † | ___ kg |
| 6 ⟂ | Pallof pressfunctional trainer — anti-rotation core, cable at chest height · alt: forearm plank | 2 × 10–12 / side | 15 kg † | ___ kg |
Time left over? Hammer-grip DB or EZ-bar curls, 2 × 10–15 (12 kg ea) — or the functional-trainer rope does these too, wrist neutral.
- Set up. Bar over mid-foot; stand it up first. Feet hip-width, hands just outside the hips, double-overhand — the bar hangs, wrists dead straight.
- Soft knees + brace. Unlock the knees a few degrees and freeze them. Big belly breath, ribs down, brace as if to take a punch.
- Hips back, bar close. Push the hips straight back, dragging the bar down your thighs. Flat back, shins near-vertical. Stop at a hamstring stretch — about mid-shin, not the floor.
- Stand tall. Drive the hips forward, squeeze the glutes — no leaning back. Re-breathe and re-brace each rep.
Wrist/grip: the bar hangs from straight wrists — safe. If grip slips before the hamstrings tire, switch to a mixed grip (one palm forward, one back); it doesn't bend the wrist. New to the lift? Go light and film a side-on set — full walkthrough in Lesson 5.
Your current working loads — every number stepped up ~10% (or 1–2 stack/dumbbell steps) from the opening set, and the old light/moderate placeholders now carry real weights. "ea" = per dumbbell, "body" = bodyweight. On your first set, check each against ~2–3 RIR at the top of the rep range: still more than three reps to spare, go up another step; grinding below the bottom of the range, drop back one. Write what you actually used in Log and climb from there with the progression rule below. † machine-dependent (pulldown, leg press, leg curl, cable stations, multi press, hip abductor) — stack markings differ between machines, so trust the rep-feel over the number. RDL and leg press usually climb fastest. Note the dumbbells cap at 30 kg: the goblet squat and DB bench are now within two steps of that ceiling — when either gets easy at 30 kg, switch to higher reps or a single-arm / split version.
4Effort & progression — the two rules
Stop every working set with 1–3 reps left in the tank (RIR 1–3). Hard, but not a grind to failure. Early on you'll overestimate how close you are — that's normal; we'll calibrate it together.
Each lift has a rep range. When you hit the top of the range on all sets (still at 1–3 RIR), add the smallest load next time: +2.5 kg total for upper-body lifts, +5 kg for lower-body. Reps drop back down — climb the range again. If a lift stalls for ~2–3 sessions, cut its load ~10% and rebuild.
5The wrist rules (scaphoid)
Barbell bench & overhead press (the bar cocks the wrist back), front squat / low-bar back squat (the rack position forces extension), flat-palm push-ups, and heavy bare-handed deadlifts, rows and carries.
Neutral / hammer grips, the Technogym lat, leg-press and leg-curl pads/handles, the multi-press neutral handles and functional-trainer cables (you press/pull from a straight wrist), goblet holds and dumbbells held by the bells, forearm planks (wrist off the floor), and the barbell RDL — the bar just hangs from straight wrists, zero extension. No straps here, so use a mixed grip (one palm forward, one back) if grip fails before the hamstrings do; it doesn't bend the wrist. Push-ups only on fists / handles / parallettes.
Pick the variation where wrist symptoms stay stable 24–48 h after training. A clear symptom spike = back off load or range, or swap the movement. Worth a one-time clearance from a hand physio given the fracture history.
6Your gym — and what changed
You confirmed the kit on day one (v2), the gym then added three machines (v3), and now the plan splits into three distinct full-body sessions — this is v4. Same weekly volume and the same wrist rules; more variety and fuller use of the new kit.
Machines (Technogym): lat pulldown · leg press · leg extension/curl · multi press (chest + shoulder) · hip abductor. Cables: Vision dual-pulley functional trainer (rows · pull-throughs · face pulls · Pallof · pushdowns). Free weights: barbell + plates · dumbbells to 30 kg · kettlebells · benches. Cardio: treadmills + bikes — use these for the warm-up.
- No trap bar → the hinge is now a barbell Romanian deadlift; the bar hangs from straight wrists, so it stays scaphoid-safe. DB/KB RDL is the lighter fallback.
- Leg-curl machine → a direct hamstring set added to Workout A, closing the one slot the v1 tally left low.
- Leg press promoted to your main heavy quad lift (3 sets) — the RDL is more hip/hamstring than quad.
- Dumbbells cap at 30 kg → the goblet squat goes higher-rep and later becomes a split squat; bench/press/row will cap eventually, then go higher-rep or single-arm.
- No chest-/shoulder-press or cable-row machines at the time → the dumbbell versions became the plan, not a backup. The gym has since added both — see "New in v4" below.
- Two workouts → three (A/B/C). Still 3 days a week, still full-body each day, still ~8–12 hard sets per muscle per week — the sessions just rotate the lifts so nothing goes stale (Section 1's box explains why full-body beats a split at 3 days/week).
- Technogym multi press → the wrist-safe, uncapped press. It's the alternate on A's bench and B's shoulder press and the main press on day C — your go-to once the dumbbells feel light (keep some DB pressing for the stabiliser work).
- Vision functional trainer → carries the variety: cable rows (A3, C3 — past the 30 kg cap), cable pull-through (C4, plus the RDL fallback), face pulls (A5 — rear delts + shoulder health) and a real loaded Pallof press (C6).
- Hip abductor → a fixed accessory on days B and C for glute-medius / hip stability.
7Away days — no equipment, no wrist load
Travelling for a few days, or stuck without a gym? This is one full-body bodyweight session that hits the same patterns as A/B/C — squat, push, pull, hinge, core — using nothing but the floor and a bit of furniture, with the wrist kept just as safe as on the gym card. Run it every day or every other day while you're away and treat it as keep the habit and hold your muscle, not a growth block — bodyweight is a lighter stimulus, so more frequency makes up for less load.
T Travel Workout — no equipment
| # | Exercise | Sets × reps | Log |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tempo bodyweight squat3 s down, no bounce · easier: sit to a chair & stand · harder: slow 5 s down, or add a 2 s pause at the bottom | 3 × 15–25 | ___ reps |
| 2 | Bulgarian split squatrear foot on a chair / bed — your away-day heavy quad + glute lift · easier: reverse lunge, hand on a wall for balance | 3 × 8–12 / leg | ___ reps |
| 3 | Fist push-upon your knuckles, wrist dead straight — never flat palms · easier: fists on a desk/counter (incline) · harder: feet up on a chair | 3 × 6–15 | ___ reps |
| 4 | Doorway / table rowgrip both sides of a doorframe or a sturdy table edge, lean back, pull your chest in · no anchor? → prone Y-T-W raises on the floor, arms lifted, 3 × 8 | 3 × 8–12 | ___ reps |
| 5 | Single-leg glute bridgethe hinge — hamstrings + glutes · shoulders up on the couch = hip thrust · easier: both legs · harder: foot on a chair | 3 × 10–15 / leg | ___ reps |
| 6 | Forearm plank + side planksame core work as the gym card — elbows down, wrist off the floor | 2 × 30–45 s ea | ___ s |
Short on time? Run 1–6 as a circuit — one set of each, back-to-back, then repeat 2–3 rounds. That keeps the heart rate up and doubles as your cardio.
You can't add plates, so add difficulty instead — in this order: more reps → slower tempo / pauses → a tougher one-leg or feet-elevated variation. The effort target doesn't change: stop each set at 1–3 RIR (Rule 1 above). If a movement is easy for 25+ clean reps, it's time for the harder variation in its alt line, not another ten reps.
Every lift here keeps the wrist neutral — fists (never flat palms), forearms on the floor for planks, hands free for the hinges, and a gripped doorframe/table edge for the row. That's the same rule as Section 5. Warm up with the Section 2 raise — 3–4 min of brisk marching or stairs, leg swings, a few slow bodyweight squats — then start; there's no barbell ramp to do.
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