The 3 Day Workout Split Shawn Ray Trained With, Scaled for Your First Year

A 3 day workout split trains two body parts a day with a rest day between sessions: chest and triceps, back and biceps, legs and shoulders. Shawn Ray ran four exercises and four sets per muscle for his whole competitive career, with the weight rising and the reps falling from twenty to ten. A beginner builds up to that formula over twelve weeks, starting with two light sets.

This guide covers the shape of the split, the formula behind it, the three stages that get a new lifter to the full version, the exercises for each day, how to choose the weight and when to add more. The program is the ninth chapter of Start Strong, the audiobook written for the first year of training.

Why Three Days, Two Body Parts a Day, and a Rest Day Between

The shape of the split comes before any exercise is chosen. Day one is chest and triceps. Day two is back and biceps. Day three is legs and shoulders. For most people that means Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but any three days work as long as there is a day of rest between them. The rest days are not a gap in the plan. As Start Strong puts it, they are when the growing actually happens.

Two reasons drive the shape. The first is that it fits into a real life. Three hours a week is something a parent, a student or someone with a demanding job can protect. The second is recovery. Each muscle group gets a full week before it is trained hard again, so you can give everything you have on the day and still walk in fresh the next week.

The audiobook adds one piece of planning most programs skip. Decide when, before you decide anything else. A well known body of research finds that people who decide in advance exactly when and where they will do something follow through far more often than people who merely intend to. If it is Monday at six, then I am at the gym. Put the three appointments in the calendar, and use the same device for the small problems: if I have to work late on Wednesday, then I train Thursday morning.

Shawn Ray's Formula: Four Exercises, Four Sets, Twenty Down to Ten

Shawn Ray describes the formula he used throughout his career in a few plain sentences. Four exercises for a muscle. Four sets of each. The repetitions somewhere between ten and twenty. In his words: my first set will be twenty reps, my next set might be fifteen, then I might drop down to twelve, then I finish off with ten, but each set is progressively heavier than the last.

The order is not decoration. The first set of twenty with a lighter weight warms up the muscle, the joints and the tendons and gets blood moving into the area, what Shawn calls pumping it up. Each set after that asks a little more with a little more weight. By the fourth set the muscle is warm and full of blood, and you move the heaviest weight of the day with good form rather than cold.

Four exercises at four sets each comes to sixteen sets for the muscle in one session. Shawn arrived at that number through years of trial and error, not from a textbook. Decades later, when researchers pooled the studies on weekly training volume, around ten hard sets per muscle per week and above was where the most reliable growth showed up, and his sixteen sits inside that range. The same research found that more is not always better. For a beginner the number is lower still: even a handful of hard sets a week produces real growth when everything is new, which is why the program starts you well short of sixteen.

The 3 Day Split Training Routine, Stage by Stage Over Twelve Weeks

Shawn Ray is direct about starting too hard. If you try to do too much too soon, you can burn out. You are not going to start off benching three hundred pounds if you have never benched. Sixteen hard sets for a muscle in one session is a lot of work for a body that has never trained, so the 12 week workout program builds up to the full formula in three stages, each giving the body time to adapt before more is asked of it.

Stage one, weeks one and two: learn. Three exercises for the main muscle of the day, two for the smaller one. Two sets of each, with a weight you could lift around twenty times. The point of these two weeks is learning the movements and getting the body used to the idea that this is something it does now, not building muscle.

Stage two, weeks three to six: build. The main muscle gets all four exercises, the smaller muscle keeps two, and you move up to three sets of each following the start of the pattern: twenty, then fifteen, then twelve, adding a little weight each set.

Stage three, weeks seven to twelve: the formula. Four exercises for the main muscle, two for the smaller one, four sets of each. Twenty, fifteen, twelve, ten. Rising weight. By week seven the body is ready for the version Shawn used for his whole career.

Why only two exercises for the smaller muscle? Because it is already working. When you press for the chest, the triceps help. When you row and pull for the back, the biceps help. Two direct exercises are enough to start, and adding a third later is the first real piece of trial and error with the program itself.

The 3 Day Split Workout, Day by Day

On each day the bigger, heavier movements come first, while you are fresh, and the more isolated exercises, the ones where you feel the muscle most, come after. The lists below give the exercises in the order the audiobook sets them; the cues for performing each one and the swaps for when a machine is busy are in chapter nine.

Day One: Chest and Triceps

• Chest press: a barbell bench press, or a chest press machine if you are new to the bench or training without someone to spot you
• Incline dumbbell press on a low incline, around thirty degrees
• Dumbbell flyes on a flat bench, light weight, all feel
• Cable crossover, or the pec deck machine
• Cable pushdown
• Overhead dumbbell extension, seated with back support

Day Two: Back and Biceps

• Lat pulldown
• Seated cable row
• One arm dumbbell row
• Chin ups, on the assisted machine for most beginners. Shawn Ray recommends starting a back workout with chin ups because they reach parts of the back a machine or a barbell will not, and the long term target he sets is twenty repetitions, which can take a year
• Dumbbell curl
• Cable curl, or the concentration curl

Day Three: Legs and Shoulders

• Leg press
• Squat: the goblet squat first, holding one dumbbell against the chest, and the barbell squat later once the form holds, with someone experienced checking it the first few times
• Leg extension
• Leg curl, lying or seated
• Seated dumbbell shoulder press
• Lateral raise, lighter than you think

One addition for the first few weeks: finish chest day and back day with a couple of light sets of squats or leg presses. It is practice, not training, so that by the time stage three arrives the movement feels like second nature.

How to Choose the Weight on a 3 Day Gym Split

The question every beginner asks is how much weight to use, and Shawn Ray's answer is that there is no guideline, because it is different for everyone. You find weights within your range that you can handle, and then you increase them incrementally.

The way to find them is the formula itself. The first set of twenty should feel like a solid warm up, challenging by the end but nowhere near the limit. Add a little weight for the set of fifteen, a little more for twelve, a little more for ten. The last set should be hard, the final couple of reps a real effort, but every rep with full range of motion and control. If the form breaks down, the weight is too heavy. And do not walk in having decided what you will lift. Shawn never went into the gym with a number preset in his mind. The notebook says what you did last time. The body says what is right today.

When to Add Weight

This is where the notebook does its most important job, and the rule is short. When you can do every set of an exercise with the target reps, with full range of motion, a real stretch and a real squeeze, and you feel the muscle doing the work, it is time to add a little weight next session. The smallest jump the gym allows: a couple of pounds on dumbbells, one plate on the machine.

If you cannot hit the target reps yet, keep the weight the same and try for one more rep next time. One more rep is progress. Better control is progress. The notebook that records the date, the exercise, the weight and the reps is how you know what last time was. Shawn Ray himself never kept a log; his instinct was built over thousands of workouts. A beginner earns that instinct faster by writing it down.

How Long to Rest Between Sets, and How Long a Session Runs

Shawn trained fast, with only enough rest for his partner to get his work done. For someone starting out that means around a minute to a minute and a half between sets, a little longer on the heavy foundation exercises and shorter on the isolation work. The whole workout should take around forty five minutes to an hour. If it is taking much longer, you are resting too much. If it is much shorter, check that you are really doing the sets.

That number is for a first year, and it is deliberately on the generous side, because a beginner needs the next set to be a good set more than a hard one. The companion notes to Shawn Ray's Program Design video put it the other way round for a trained lifter chasing size: shorter rests of thirty to sixty seconds raise the metabolic stress of the session. Both are right for their reader. On this split, hold the minute to a minute and a half for the twelve weeks, let the stage three sets of ten earn the longer end of it, and shorten the rests later, when the notebook shows the weights have stopped climbing and the program is due for its first real adjustment.

When the machine you planned on is taken, the principle is that every exercise has a cousin that trains the same muscle. Bench taken, use dumbbells or the chest press machine. Pulldown busy, do the assisted chin ups first. Leg press occupied, do the squats first. Write the swap in the notebook so next time you can compare like with like.

A 3 Day Lifting Split Is a Blueprint, Not a Law

Shawn Ray says so himself: there is absolutely no golden rule that says on day one I have to do this, on day two I have to do that. One of his own principles is to train the weakest muscle first, while the energy is highest. A beginner will not know their weak points for a while. After a few months, when the photos and the notebook start showing which muscles respond slowly, those exercises can move to the front of the workout.

The repetitions are a starting point too. Ten to twenty worked for Shawn, and he is careful about how he says it: that is the Shawn Ray way that worked for me, I am sure it can work for you, but trial and error, everyone is different. Start with his way, because it is proven and it is kind to joints that are still learning. Then, over months and years, pay attention to whether your body responds better at the lower or the higher end.

What This Article Did Not Cover

This article covered the shape of the split, the formula, the three stages and the exercises. It did not cover:

• How each exercise is performed: the cues, the depth, the grip and the stretch and squeeze rhythm, which are chapters eight and nine of the audiobook
• The first week day by day, including what the soreness on day two means and how to tell sore from hurt, which is sore muscles after a workout
• When the twelve weeks start to show, which is how long to see results from working out
• Why ten to twenty reps builds muscle and why volume has a ceiling, which is the chapter on how muscle grows
• Comparisons with full body routines or push, pull, legs. The source makes no comparison, and neither does this article
• Running the three days back to back. Start Strong asks for a day of rest between sessions and offers no version without it
• Programs for a lifter past the first year. That is Bodybuilding Program Design and the Maximum Growth Blueprint
• Food. A beginner's question about eating while starting to lift is answered in how to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time

Where to Go From Here

How a set should feel, and how to find a muscle you cannot yet feel, is The Mind Muscle Connection. The ego mistakes that end a first year early, and how Shawn Ray trained through a long career with one real injury, are in The Injury-Free Training Blueprint. What to do on the four days you are not lifting is in what to do on rest days. If the goal behind the split is the sport itself, how to start bodybuilding sets out the longer road, and a woman who wants the numbers written for her will find them in the beginner workout plan for females. The full catalog runs in order through the Five Tracks on the BuildWithPros Education page.

Frequently asked questions about the 3 day workout split

Is a 3 day split good for a beginner?

Yes, with the stages respected. The split itself is the one Shawn Ray trained with, but a beginner does not start where he finished. Two light sets per exercise for the first two weeks, three sets for the next four, and the full four sets from week seven. The three day shape gives each muscle a week to recover and fits around a job, a family or a semester, which is what keeps a beginner showing up long enough for the work to show.

How do I know when to increase the weight?

When every set of an exercise hits its target reps with full range of motion, a real stretch and a real squeeze, and you feel the muscle doing the work. Then add the smallest jump the gym allows at the next session. If you fall short of the reps, keep the weight and aim for one more rep next time. Adding weight every week is not required for growth.

Can I run the three days back to back if that is all my schedule allows?

Start Strong does not offer a version of the plan without a rest day between sessions, so this article cannot either. What the audiobook does offer is the if then plan: decide in advance which day moves when a session is lost, so the rest day is protected rather than the session. If two of your available days are consecutive, the honest answer is that the program is written for a day between them.

What rep range does the split use?

Ten to twenty repetitions, falling across the four sets from twenty to fifteen to twelve to ten as the weight rises. Shawn Ray trained in that range his whole career and presents it as the starting point, not a law. Over months a lifter learns whether their body responds better toward the lower or the higher end.

I have trained before. Do I start at stage one?

If you have just finished a first week, stay in stage one for one more week. If you have been training for a while, start at stage two with three sets and earn your way into stage three. Mark the date you plan to start the full formula in the calendar, and let the notebook decide whether you are ready on that day.

What do I do in week one?

Warm up for five to ten minutes with easy movement, do a near empty set on the first exercise to learn the feel, then two sets of each exercise with a weight you could lift around twenty times. Lighter than you think. The first week is about learning the movements and getting the body used to the idea that this is something it does now, and the soreness that arrives a day later is normal and gets much better after the first week.

How long should I rest between sets on a 3 day split?

Around a minute to a minute and a half, a little longer on the heavy foundation exercises and shorter on the isolation work, which keeps a session at about forty five minutes to an hour. That is the Start Strong setting for a first year. Shorter rests of thirty to sixty seconds belong to trained lifters chasing size, and are a later adjustment, not a starting point.

About the source

This article is published by BuildWithPros and draws on Start Strong, chapters two, five, six and nine, and on the companion notes to Bodybuilding Program Design, from the BuildWithPros catalog. The research referred to is the research the audiobook cites, and the training figures are the ones it gives, not population averages. The competitive experience behind the catalog is that of IFBB Hall of Famer Shawn Ray: 13-time Mr. Olympia competitor with 12 consecutive top-five finishes from 1990 to 2001, Mr. Olympia runner-up in 1994 and 1996, and 1991 Arnold Classic champion, across a career spanning nearly two decades. It follows the standard applied across the catalog: every method explained, nothing left to guesswork.

---