How many days a week should you lift

The honest answer is the number you can hold for six months, not the number that looks best written down. But that is not useful on its own, so here is what each one actually buys you.

Three days

Full body, three times a week, is the most underrated schedule there is. Every muscle gets trained three times, you are never more than two days from a session, and one missed day does not ruin the week.

The three days have to be different from each other. Same squat, same press, same row, three times over is how people stall out. Different variations, different rep ranges, one heavy day and two moderate.

Four days

This is where upper and lower splits start earning their keep. Two upper, two lower, each muscle group trained twice a week with more volume per session than you can fit into full body.

Four is my default for anybody with a year or more of consistent training and a schedule that holds.

Five days

Five works when your sleep and your food are already sorted. If they are not, the fifth day is not training, it is fatigue you have to recover from with time you do not have.

I do not put beginners on five days. Not because they cannot handle the work, but because the first thing that breaks is the schedule, and once the schedule breaks people quit.

The thing that matters more than the number

Whatever number you pick, every lift needs sets, reps, rest, an effort target and the rule for when to add weight. Without those you have a list of exercises, not a program, and you will do the same weights in March that you did in January.

That is what the paid four week block is: the same days you already have, written properly, with the numbers moving.