Fixed-path machines make a first plan easier in one way: the machine guides the movement, so you can spend your attention on load, effort and consistency. They make it harder in another: every machine has seat, pad and lever settings, and if you don't write them down, "last week's weight" stops meaning anything. A machine-led plan therefore needs two parts: coverage of the whole body, and a record that lets you repeat the same setup.
The numbers below are illustrative starting values, not prescriptions. Adjust loads, reps, rest and the schedule to your body, your equipment and your recovery. If you have a medical condition, pain or an injury, check with a clinician before starting.
Strength programming / Weekly planner
Full-Body Workout Plan Generator
Build a sample machine-based week around your schedule, goal, and available time.
See the worked two-day example below for a complete sample plan.
Muscle coverage and weekly sets
Sets count toward the exercise’s primary target. Presses and pulls also train other muscles.
Machine settings and progression
Record the machine, seat and pad positions, load, and reps. Once you reach the top of the rep range on all sets with steady form and roughly two reps left, try the smallest load increase at the next comparable session.
Start with coverage, not a machine list
Physical activity guidance for adults calls for muscle-strengthening work that involves all major muscle groups on two or more days a week. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans and the ACSM review of resistance training prescription both frame it that way. Two full-body sessions satisfy that baseline, and they suit a machine-led start because each session can be short and repeatable.
Build each session by pattern first, then pick the machine that fills it:
| Pattern | Typical machine choices |
|---|---|
| Knee-dominant legs | Leg press, hack squat, leg extension |
| Hip-dominant legs | Leg curl, glute or hip-extension machine, back extension |
| Horizontal push | Chest press |
| Vertical push | Shoulder press |
| Horizontal pull | Seated row |
| Vertical pull | Lat pulldown |
| Core | Crunch or rotation machine |
| Small muscle groups | Lateral raise, calf raise, arm machines |
If your gym or home setup lacks one machine, substitute within the same row rather than dropping the pattern. Exercise technique for each movement is a separate topic; here the point is to make sure each pattern appears in the week.
A worked two-day example
Both days use 8–12 reps on the big lifts, with 60–90 seconds of rest between sets on isolation work and about 2 minutes on leg and chest presses. Stop each set with roughly two good reps left in reserve, meaning you could have done two more with the same form. Nothing here is a requirement; it is a template to edit.
Day A (15 sets)
| Exercise | Sets × reps |
|---|---|
| Leg press | 3 × 10 |
| Chest press | 3 × 10 |
| Seated row | 3 × 10 |
| Shoulder press | 2 × 10 |
| Leg curl | 2 × 12 |
| Crunch machine | 2 × 12 |
Day B (14 sets)
| Exercise | Sets × reps |
|---|---|
| Leg press | 2 × 10 |
| Incline or second chest press | 2 × 10 |
| Lat pulldown | 3 × 10 |
| Glute or hip-extension machine | 3 × 10 |
| Lateral raise | 2 × 12 |
| Calf raise | 2 × 15 |
Weekly totals: leg press 3 + 2 = 5 sets; chest 3 + 2 = 5; back 3 + 3 = 6; shoulders 2 + 2 = 4 (plus the pressing work that also involves them); hip-dominant legs 2 + 3 = 5; core 2; calves 2. That adds up to 15 + 14 = 29 sets for the week.
Time budget: at roughly 3 minutes per set including rest, Day A is about 45 minutes and Day B about 42, plus 5 minutes of lighter warm-up sets. Plan around 50 minutes per session. Put the days at least a day apart, such as Monday and Thursday, so neither session starts while you're still very sore.
Order the work from the largest, most demanding machine to the smallest. Leg press and chest press come first while you're fresh; calf raises and lateral raises come last.
Record settings so a load means something
On a fixed machine, 100 lb on a leg press with the seat set far back is not the same task as 100 lb with the seat forward. The log should capture everything that changes the work. A compact template:
| Field | Example entry |
|---|---|
| Date / session | Week 1, Day A |
| Machine | Chest press |
| Seat height | 4 |
| Back pad / start position | Position 2 |
| Grip or handle | Neutral, mid |
| Range limiter | Setting 3 |
| Load | 70 lb |
| Sets × reps | 10 / 10 / 9 |
| Effort | 2 in reserve on the last set |
| Notes | Left shoulder felt tight on rep 9 |
Numbers like "4" and "Position 2" are whatever the machine's own markings say. If it has no markings, photograph the setup or write a short description such as "seat pin in the third hole." Record it on the first session when you find a comfortable setting, and then leave it alone unless it genuinely doesn't fit.
The Speediance Gym Monster 3 is an all-in-one home gym with digital cable resistance. It provides independent load on each side and allows resistance adjustments in 1 lb increments.
When each arm or leg moves its own load, record each side separately rather than a single combined figure. Fine load steps also give you small increases to use in the progression rule below.
A simple progression rule
Use a range rather than a fixed rep target, and move the load only when the log says you've earned it.
- Start each exercise at a load where you finish all sets inside 8–12 reps with about two reps in reserve.
- Each session, try to add a rep to one or more sets while holding the same setup.
- When every set reaches 12 reps at that effort, on two sessions in a row, raise the load by the smallest step available. Common steps are 5 lb on a pin stack, or a single pound where the equipment allows it.
- After the increase, expect the reps to fall back toward 8–10, and then build up again.
Two decisions keep the rule honest:
- If a set looks better only because the setup changed, don't count it. Change the seat or pad and you have a new baseline, not progress.
- If reps drop two sessions in a row with the same setup, hold the load for a week, check sleep, food and stress, and then retry before lowering anything.
Changing too many things at once makes the log unreadable. Progress one exercise at a time where you can, and let small exercises like lateral raises move more slowly than leg press.
A first-month checklist
- Week 1: find and record settings for every machine; use lighter loads and stop with three or four reps in reserve.
- Weeks 2–3: apply the rep-first progression rule; keep the same days and order.
- Week 4: compare your entries with Week 1. If the plan feels too easy to recover from, add one set to a lagging area. If you're dragging, remove one set from the busiest day instead.
Stop an exercise and change it if you feel sharp or joint pain, rather than pushing through, and use the machine's safety stops or a spotter where it offers them. Then fill the gap in your log with a note, so the next session starts from what actually happened.
