the 4-3-8 rule for beginners in the gym

Ever been to the gym and felt totally lost? Should you hop on the machines, tangle yourself up in a complicated cables exercise, lift some dumbbells, or go straight for the barbells?

Then how many sets should you do? Is 8 reps better than 15 reps? Do you need to feel completely exhausted at the end of your workout? And how long should you even be in the gym for?

The 4-3-8 rule aims to simplify all of this. Very simply put, choose four exercises, do 3 sets of 8 reps of each and call that a day.

Let's discuss all the details below.

Table of contents

• What exercises to pick from

• Why three sets is good for beginners

• The 8-10-12 rule for reps

• How often should beginners change exercises?

• Free 8 weeks beginner workout plan

Best gym exercises for beginners

My advice to anyone new to the gym is to pick exercises you can easily do and find enjoyable. I can give you the best exercise known to man to make you strong, but if you hate it, odds are you wont be very consistent with it, negating it's efficacy.

The experience of going to the gym can already be jarring at first, there's no point in making it worst by doing exercises that you don't enjoy.

If the dumbbell chest press feels awkward, do the chest press machine. Your muscles don't care if you pushing a dumbbell or a machine. All they care about is how much tension you put on them. If it's easier for you to do this on a machine, do that instead of the dumbbells.

That doesn't mean you'll never have to do the dumbbells. You may feel the urge to revisit them in a couple months.

Exercises should feel good for you. Take the time to find the ones you enjoy doing

Pick four exercises to work on

As we will see below, you have tons of options to choose from. Make your life easy and just pick four exercises.

Pick one that works your legs, one that works your back (a pull exercise) and one that works your chest or shoulders (a push exercise). Then depending on your goals, select a fourth one that targets any of these areas.

Stick with the same four exercise for at least four weeks. Learning proper form and technique requires time and repetition. You'll notice that the more you do your workout, the easier the moves will become. We'll cover how to progress as you get fitter further down below.

Now let's talk about the actual exercises

As a rule of thumb, pick movements that work two or more joints. These compound exercises will engage more muscles at once and save you time in the gym.

Quick tip: Compound exercises work two or more joints and isolation exercises only work one joint. The squat is a compound lift, working muscles around your knees and hips. The leg extension machine is an isolation exercise working your muscle around your knee

Compound exercises, like this lat pull down, will save you time in the gym

Best exercises for chest

• Chest press machine

• Incline chest press machine

• Dumbbell bench press

• Incline dumbbell bench press

• Decline dumbbell bench press

• Barbell bench press

• Incline Barbell bench press

• Smith machine bench press

• Assisted dips

• Body weight dips

• Push ups and all their variations (kneeling, elevated, weighted)

• Dumbbell flys

• Cable flys

• Pec deck machine

Best exercises for back muscles

• Lat pull down

• Seated row

• Single arm dumbbell rows

• Assisted pull ups

• Pull ups

• Any machines where you pull a handle towards you

Best exercises for legs

• Squats

• Barbell squats

• Barbell front squats

• Goblet squat with either a dumbbell or kettlebell

• Dumbbell lunges

• Barbell lunges

• Leg press machine

• Dumbbell step ups

• Barbell deadlift

• Dumbbell deadlift

Best exercises for shoulders

• Dumbbell shoulder press, either seated or standing

• Barbell shoulder press

• Landmine press

Shoulder exercises fall into the "push" category of exercises, like the chest exercises

There are 33 exercises listed above, which is a very condensed list of all the workout moves available to you.

All of the moves above a great options. All will work your muscles properly. That's why picking any four of them is a good start.

That doesn't mean you'll never do the other ones. It just means you will focus on four of them for the next four weeks. Then either you can keep them, if you really like them, or you can rotate another set of movements in.

What about biceps and triceps?

Exercises like bicep curls and tricep extensions fall into the isolation type of movements that only work one joint. These aren't bad, but if you're a beginner in the gym, they aren't very efficient in my humble opinion.

You biceps and triceps are already engaged during compound exercises. Whenever you do a chest press, your triceps are working as well. Similarly, yith each pulling exercises, your biceps are also working.

Now let's take a look at the reps.

How many sets and reps should beginners do in the gym?

I recommend starting with three sets of 8 reps per exercises.

Why? Because it's a solid starting point. Three sets allow you to get familiar with the weights you use. If you find the first set too easy, grab heavier weights on the second one. If that one ends up being too hard, grab lighter ones on your last sets.

You don't have to always use the same weight every set.

The more you practice your four exercises, the better you'll understand which weight to use to complete your sets with proper effort.

Keep your exercise selection simple.

How hard should a workout set feel?

A proper workout set has a few objective:

• To make your muscles adapt to the load

• To be done safely

• To be done with proper form

Having these three criteria in mind, a workout set should feel challenging but not impossible. You should feel happy the set is over, but it shouldn't feel completely drained.

On a scale of one to ten, ten being extremely tough and one being super easy, your workout set should be around a seven or eight. Read this article to get a better sense of using this scale.

The reps

Eight reps allows you to use a weight that isn't super heavy nor super light. If the weight is too heavy, it will be hard to learn proper form. If the resistance is too light, it won't trigger your muscles to adapt and get stronger.

Keep in my this format is your starting point. You will not be doing three sets of eight reps for the rest of your life. In fact, you will change

The 8-10-12 rule

Can you tell I like trios?

Let me be boogie here and paraphrase Einstein by saying that doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results is ludicrous.

Once your body can handle a certain effort, it stops adapting, because it doens't need to anymore. If you can already do three sets of 8 with a certain weight, there is no more need for your muscles to get stronger.

That's why every week or so, you're going to change the amount of reps you do.

Once you've done three sets of 8 for two consecutive weeks, do three sets of 10 reps with the same weight.

Once you've done 3 sets of 10 for two consecutive weeks, do three sets of 12 reps with the same weight.

Once you've achieved this, start over from three sets of 8, with a heavier weight, and repeat the cycle.

This process of intensifying your workouts gradually over time is called progressive overload.

We get stronger, fitter, lose more weight and burn more calories when we successfully apply progressive overload to our training.

There are many ways to apply progressive overload to your gym workouts. The 8-10-12 rule is an entry point. As you gain more lifting experience, you'll discover new strategies that may be better suited for you.

How often should you rotate your exercises?

As stated above, I recommend keeping each exercises for a minimum of four weeks. This will allow you to go through the 8-10-12 rule assuming you change up your reps each week.

As a beginner, you'll experience noobie gains: the ability to rapidly use more and more weights on any given exercise. This isn't due to a Herculean increase in strength (sorry to burst your bubble) but a quick technique adaptation.

As you learn how to do each exercise more efficiently, you'll naturally be able to lift more intense loads.

That's why at the beginning you'll most likely be able to change up your reps each week.

Now, does that mean you HAVE to change your exercises every four weeks? Of course not?

I usually stick with 4-6 main exercises that I love, and sprinkle new exercises here and there if I have more time in the gym

If you're a creature of habit, you can keep your chosen movements until the cows come home. As long as you're applying progressive overload of course.

If you need variety and itching to change things up, you can rotate exercises every four weeks or so. You can do it every six weeks, or eight. It's really up to you.

As long as you stay engaged in your fitness routine, and you keep seeing results, do what is best for you.

There is a free workout plan at the end of this post if you need help getting started.

How many workouts per week?

In order to see results sooner than later, try hitting the gym three times per week. This is a very solid start.

You can choose to do the same workout every time, or select four different exercises for each workout. Again, this is up to you.

Tracking your workouts

If there's one workout habit that will pay huge dividends in the future, it's tracking your workouts.

Record how many reps, sets and the weights you do somewhere you can easily refer to in the future. This can be done old school style with pen and paper, or on the note's apps of your phone.

There are many fitness apps out there that also allow you accurately do this. You can also create your own fitness tracker in a google sheet. You can check out my personal workout tracker I've done for myself here.

Free 8 weeks beginner workout plan

Not sure how to start your gym routine? Here is a simple workout plan to get you started.

This workout routine has three workouts per week, with fresh exercises introduced during weeks 5-8.

I've selected 2 legs exercise, 1 push and 1 pull for each period.

Workout 1 and workout 3 are the same. Workout 2 has different exercises in order to mix things up a bit.

Week 1

Workout 1

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Goblet squats	3	8
Chest press machine	3	8
Lat pull down	3	8
Walking lunges	3	8

Workout 2

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Leg press machine	3	8
Dumbbell chest press	3	8
Seated row	3	8
Dumbbell step up	3	8

Workout 3

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Goblet squats	3	8
Chest press machine	3	8
Lat pull down	3	8
Walking lunges	3	8

Week 2

Workout 1

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Goblet squats	3	10
Chest press machine	3	10
Lat pull down	3	10
Walking lunges	3	10

Workout 2

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Leg press machine	3	10
Dumbbell chest press	3	10
Seated row	3	10
Dumbbell step up	3	10

Workout 3

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Goblet squats	3	8
Chest press machine	3	8
Lat pull down	3	8
Walking lunges	3	8

Week 3

Workout 1

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Goblet squats	3	12
Chest press machine	3	12
Lat pull down	3	12
Walking lunges	3	12

Workout 2

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Leg press machine	3	12
Dumbbell chest press	3	12
Seated row	3	12
Dumbbell step up	3	12

Workout 3

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Goblet squats	3	12
Chest press machine	3	12
Lat pull down	3	12
Walking lunges	3	12

Week 4

Remember that now we are going back to 3 sets of 8, meaning we need to use slightly heavier weights.

Workout 1

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Goblet squats	3	8
Chest press machine	3	8
Lat pull down	3	8
Walking lunges	3	8

Workout 2

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Leg press machine	3	8
Dumbbell chest press	3	8
Seated row	3	8
Dumbbell step up	3	8

Workout 3

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Goblet squats	3	8
Chest press machine	3	8
Lat pull down	3	8
Walking lunges	3	8

This is the end of the first four weeks of your workout plan. I selected fresh exercises for the following period.

Week 5

Workout 1

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Split squats	3	8
Shoulder press	3	8
Single arm rows	3	8
Kettlebell deadlift	3	8

Workout 2

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Goblet squat	3	8
Chest flys	3	8
Reverse grip lat pull down	3	8
Stationary lunges	3	8

Workout 3

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Split squats	3	8
Shoulder press	3	8
Single arm rows	3	8
Kettlebell deadlift	3	8

Week 6

Workout 1

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Split squats	3	10
Shoulder press	3	10
Single arm rows	3	10
Kettlebell deadlift	3	10

Workout 2

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Goblet squat	3	10
Chest flys	3	10
Reverse grip lat pull down	3	10
Stationary lunges	3	10

Workout 3

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Split squats	3	8
Shoulder press	3	8
Single arm rows	3	8
Kettlebell deadlift	3	8

Week 7

Workout 1

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Split squats	3	12
Shoulder press	3	12
Single arm rows	3	12
Kettlebell deadlift	3	12

Workout 2

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Goblet squat	3	12
Chest flys	3	12
Reverse grip lat pull down	3	12
Stationary lunges	3	12

Workout 3

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Split squats	3	12
Shoulder press	3	12
Single arm rows	3	12
Kettlebell deadlift	3	12

Week 8

Remember that now we are going back to 3 sets of 8, meaning we need to use slightly heavier weights.

Workout 1

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Split squats	3	8
Shoulder press	3	8
Single arm rows	3	8
Kettlebell deadlift	3	8

Workout 2

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Goblet squat	3	8
Chest flys	3	8
Reverse grip lat pull down	3	8
Stationary lunges	3	8

Workout 3

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Split squats	3	8
Shoulder press	3	8
Single arm rows	3	8
Kettlebell deadlift	3	8

Conclusion

The 4-3-8 rule is a great starting point for beginners in the gym. It simplifies the exercise selection and gives you a clearer idea of what to do in any gym.

As I mentioned before, this is just a foundation.. Follow the 8-10-12 workout rule to apply progressive overload to your training. This will help you reach your goals faster.

As with everything in fitness, everything should be individualized. My goal with this article is to provide a framework you can adapt to your own workout routine.

Once you get familiar with the concepts of this post, you'll be able to arrange them however you want, based on your unique training goals.

Happy training,

Clem