90 Day Workout Plan to Lose Weight and Build Muscle

Our 90 day workout plan is a great way to get in shape for the summer. This plan is suitable for beginners, and includes exercises that target the whole body. The workout plan has 3 stages, featuring compound body building exercises, fat-burning cardio and individual body part muscle chiseling. And it takes just 30 minutes per day!
What are the goals of the 90 day workout plan?
The goal of the 90 day workout plan is to get in shape, build healthy and consistent fitness habits and help you achieve your long-term fitness goals. It also aims to improve your confidence and increase your energy levels. A consistent plan of exercise and good diet can make lasting changes in your life.
Strength gains and improved endurance are key goals of the 90 day plan. This workout plan will help you build muscle, improve your overall fitness level and make steady, consistent progress towards an achievable goal.
Any fitness plan should be tailored to your specific needs and preferences. A tailored plan is key to seeing long-term positive changes, whether that’s losing weight, bulking up or simply staying fit.
What are the benefits of a 90 day workout plan?
There are a range of benefits of a 90 day workout plan, both physical and mental. Physical benefits include building a toned body and muscle, increasing your strength and endurance and losing weight. This plan can also increase your energy levels and boost your self-confidence and motivation.
Following this 90 day plan will see you create healthy and lasting habits, that will last even after the 90 day plan ends. We recommend you maintain a journal to use as a daily reminder of the progress you make over the 3 months.
90 day plans can give better results than shorter-term plans, simply because they are a long-term commitment. Consistency is the key to long-lasting results, so 90 day plans can be an effective way to achieve your goals.
How effective are 90 day workout plans and fitness challenges?
The effectiveness of a 90 day workout plan depends on the individual and their commitment to the plan. A 90 day plan can be a great way to jump start your weight loss journey. But this can only be effective when paired with a healthy and nutritious diet, so we recommend you follow a balanced meal plan alongside your workouts. Nutrition and exercise are key to weight loss.
If you are after a beach body, your focus should be on building muscle. Weight training is a great way to build muscle. It is also important to eat the right foods, as a healthy and nutritious diet is key to muscle repair and growth.
When following a 90 day plan, you should regularly review your goals and change your sessions as needed. Keeping a workout diary can help you keep track of your progress, and see how one workout session builds on the previous.
So, in summary, a 90 day workout plan can be a very effective way to build muscle or lose weight. With your commitment, you can be on the way to see amazing results in just 12 weeks!
Is a 90 day workout challenge suitable for beginners?
Absolutely! A 90 day workout plan is a great choice for beginners, as the plan gradually increases in intensity over time. This makes it a great starting point for those just getting into fitness.
It is important to set realistic goals for the 90 day plan. Breaking your goals down into smaller goals is a great way to not feel overwhelmed or discouraged by your progress.
The 90 day plan is not a suitable choice for everyone, however. Those with medical conditions or injuries should consult a doctor or medical professional before starting any new exercise program.
What equipment do I need for the 90 day workout challenge?
A key part of the 90 day workout challenge is getting a full-body workout. This includes both upper and lower body exercises, strength and cardio. For example, you’ll be doing Wide Grip Lat Pulls on the cable machine to target your back muscles and performing weighted squats with dumbbells. The 90 day plan requires access to gym equipment, so it is not suitable for home workouts unless you already have the necessary equipment.
If you are looking for a more accessible 90 day challenge without gym equipment, there are better options available.
Do I need to go to the gym for this workout plan?
Yes. We recommend you use gym-level equipment for the 90 day workout plan. You can do some exercises at home, but most of your exercises should take place in the gym. Professional gyms have a full range of equipment and the greater choice is important to maximizing your results.
If you don’t have access to a gym, you can do some of the workouts at home. But, these should be supplementary exercises to your workout plan, and not the primary focus on your 90 day plan. Other online fitness programs are available that offer effective 90 day weight-loss plans without going to a gym.
How many days per week do I need to exercise on this plan?
The 90-day workout challenge consists of 12 weeks of exercise. In the first 5 weeks, you will be working out 5 days per week. From week 6 onwards, you will exercise 6 days per week with one rest day each week.
5 days a week can be an intense plan for some people. If you are just starting out on your fitness journey, you may want to start with 3 days of exercise per week and add days as your fitness level increases. It’s important to listen to your body and take the right amount of rest.
The 90 day plan is designed to get in shape quickly and safely. It’s important to choose a plan that matches your fitness level, and take the necessary number of rest days. Build up your days of exercise gradually, try not to overdo it and avoid the risk of injury.
Importance of rest days
Rest days are important as they give your body a break from the physical stresses of exercise. Taking rest days also reduces the risk of overtraining, because it gives your muscles a change to recover. In addition to avoiding injury, you may also feel less fatigue if you take regular rest.
Make sure you schedule the right amount of rest in your 90 day workout plan. This can help reduce the risk of burnout and help you stay on track with your plan.
Overtraining can have serious consequences. Listen to your body and build sustainable, consistent habits to stay on track with your fitness goals.
During rest days, you may choose to do low low-intensity exercise, such as walking and stretching. This can help keep you motivated and prepare you for your next workout session.
What types of exercises will I be doing in a 90 day workout plan?
The plan consists of a wide variety of exercises, focused on building strength, improving cardio endurance and giving your body greater flexibility. The plan includes resistance training, aerobic activities and stretching.
Cardio exercise is key to a healthy heart and lungs. Doing regular cardio exercise can reduce stress and help you build endurance. Examples of cardio exercises include running (including treadmill), jogging, swimming, cycling and ellipticals. The 90 day plan includes 20 minutes of cardio exercise per day.
Other than cardio, the 90 day plan includes a range of bodyweight training exercises. These exercises target different areas of the body to improve your overall fitness.
What are sets and reps?
Sets and reps are terms related to strength training. Sets are the number of times you repeat a set of exercises. Reps (repetitions) are the number of times you repeat each individual exercise. For example, if you did 5 sets of 10 push ups, you will be doing a total of 50 push ups.
The goal of a strength training workout is to perform as many reps as possible within a specific target rep range. Suitable target rep ranges depend on the exercise and your fitness level. Most workouts target 6-12 reps. Fewer than 6 reps may not give your muscles enough stimulus for growth (hypertrophy). Doing more than 12 reps may increase the risk of injury to your body.
If you are able to consistently complete the upper end of a rep range (e.g. 12), you should consider increasing the weight for that exercise. Increasing weight challenges your muscles further, promoting more growth and strength. It is important you do not increase weight too much too fast, as this can increase the risk of injury.
If you are struggling to complete the rep target, you should consider decreasing the weight. This allows you to hit the target rep range with proper lifting form.
What is volume?
In strength training, volume is the total amount of “work done” during a session. It is based on the number of sets and reps performed, as well as the amount of weight lifted. Volume is important for strength training as it gives a clear indication of how much weight you are lifting, and helps you see overall progress between workouts.
The formula for volume is “Sets x Reps x Weight”. For example, if you do 6 sets of 8 reps lifting 20 lbs, the total volume is “6 x 8 x 20” which is 960 lbs of volume. You can also add the volume of multiple exercises together to get the total volume for a workout session.
For muscle building, volume is the most important factor in building muscle and making progress. To increase volume, you can add weight, increase sets or increase the reps for each exercise. You can also change the types of exercises in the workout plan to increase or decrease the total workout volume.
Volume is a great way to track progress over time and help you decide when to adjust your workouts. For this reason, it’s a great number to track when your goals are to maximize gains in strength and muscle size.
What is the Muscle Confusion Principal?
The Muscle Confusion Principle says that, when you train your body the same way day in and day out, your body starts to adapt to the routine. And so the routine gets easier to perform.
When this adaptation happens, often the trainee either reaches a plateau and notices they’re making very little progress or they find ways to change their workout routine.
This is where muscle confusion comes into play, because as you vary the muscle groups you’re working each workout, your body doesn’t adapt as easily… simply because it can’t… and this is the main principal behind this entire routine.
Now let’s take a look at the workout itself and see how it breaks down.
- Five weeks of five day workouts over seven days
- 2 days of workouts
- 1 day off
- 2 days of workouts
- 1 day off
- 1 day workout
Then a new weekly cycle begins leaving off with another day in the gym, followed by a day off.
What is the structure of the 90 day workout plan?
The 90 day workout plan consists of a sequence of compound body building exercises, individual body part muscle chiseling and cardio each day. It is a great way to achieve your fitness goals in just 90 days!
The first 5 weeks focus on compound body building movements. These exercises target multiple muscles and muscle groups, and build a foundational strength for the workout plan.
Between weeks 6 and 10, we focus on high rep compound movements, alongside moderate fat-burning cardio. These exercises can increase your metabolism, burn more calories and help you achieve body shape.
From week 11 onwards, we will perform high rep, individual body part muscle chiseling alongside cardio. This part of the plan further enhances your body shape and muscle definition, and gives your muscles an extra challenge to increase strength.
Following the 90 day workout plan is a great way to reach your fitness goals in just 12 weeks!
Stage 1: The Five Week Workout Exercise Routine
Monday – Chest & Back
- Flat Bench Press – 5 sets of 5 reps
- Wide Grip Lat Pull downs – 5 sets of 5 reps
Tuesday – Legs
- Leg Presses – 6 sets of 7 reps
- Seated Calf Raises – 6 sets of 7 reps
Wednesday – Rest Day
Thursday – Biceps & Triceps
- Dumbbell Curls – 5 sets of 5 reps
- Lying Triceps Extensions – 5 sets of 5 reps
Friday – Shoulders
- Dumbbell Presses – 5 sets of 5 reps
Saturday – Rest Day
Sunday – Legs
- Squats – 5 sets of 5 reps
- Standing Calf Raises – 5 sets of 5 reps
It’s important to note that you have to do three things during these workouts for them to be the most effective:
- Take just enough time between sets to change the amount of weight you’re using for each set
- Try to go to failure on your last two sets
- Take advantage of Your “Rest Days” by resting and recuperating properly
- It’s also important to either train with a partner or make sure that you ask someone to spot you for your own safety.
The other thing that you should have noticed is that by the time you train your legs again, it’s been 4 days since you last trained them. This is something you should try to do with each muscle group.
This five week routine is also designed for the weight trainer in mind, someone who should be able to use different movements for each body part.
In other words if you did flat bench presses during week one, then week two you could do dumbbell bench presses or decline or incline bench presses.
For the back muscles you can try T-Bar rowing, seated rowing or barbell bent rows, but you get the idea. Each week you’ll use a different exercise movement to keep your muscles confused and keep your mind interested enough to push through each set within the 30 minute time frame.
Stage 2: The Four Week Schedule
This is where things get a little tougher, and the reason why is because there’s only one “Off Day” during this four week cycle and cardio is a full 20 minutes with a day of its own as well as the 30 minute allotted time frame to complete a workout per day.
The routines that you’ll be doing during this cycle still involve compound movements, but we start to turn up the heat a bit more as we add more reps to each set along with 12-15 minutes of cardio per workout.
The central idea of this workout schedule is simple; same amount of sets, but reps using slightly less weight to attain those extra reps per set.
Monday – Legs
- Leg Curls – 5 sets of 8-10 reps
Tuesday – Chest
- Barbell Incline Presses – 5 sets of 6-8 reps
Wednesday – Back
- Seated Cable Rowing – 6 sets of 7-10 reps
The back is a larger muscle group to train and so that’s why we add an extra set and try to go for 7-10 reps per set
Thursday – Rest Day
Friday – Shoulders
- Machine Presses – 5 sets of 6-8 reps
Saturday – Biceps and Triceps
- Biceps: Seated Camber Curls – 5 sets of 7-10 reps
- Tricpeps: Standing Cable Rope Pull Downs – 5 sets of 7-10 reps
Sunday – Cardio
Monday starts a new cycle and as with the Five Week Routine, Monday is actually day two of your six day workout routine and Tuesday would be day three.
Wednesday would be your day off this second week of the four week training cycle, and you would once again take a major body part, train it using just one movement, and make sure that you included that additional 10-12 minutes of cardio for each workout day…other than the one day devoted to total cardio.
Stage 3: The Three Week Shred
This is where we separate the men from the boys so to speak. The final three weeks of training is all about targeting each individual muscle… and this is where the training is the hardest and most intense because we’re actually focusing on training almost on the level of a pro bodybuilder chiseling his muscles for maximum definition.
This cycle you’ll be training four days straight with one day off, and then back for another two days before a new week of training begins… without a break leading into that next week of training and don’t forget about that cardio for each workout.
Monday – Shoulders
- Seated Dumbbell Presses – 7 sets of 8-10 reps
- Dumbbell Lateral Raises – 7 sets of 8-10 reps
- Dumbbell Rear Delt Raises – 6 sets of 9-10 reps
Tuesday – Legs
- Machine Leg Curls – 7 sets of 7-10 reps
- Seated Calf raises – 6 sets of 8-10 reps
- Seated Leg Extensions – 7 sets of 7-10 reps
Wednesday – Chest
- Decline Bench Presses – 6 sets of 7-10 reps
- Standing Cable Flyes – 7 sets of 8-10 reps
Thursday – Biceps
- Barbell Preacher Curls – 6 sets of 7-10 reps
- Seated Dumbbell Concentration Curls – 5 sets of 8-10 reps
Friday – Rest Day
Saturday – Back
- Wide Grip Lat Pull Downs – 7 sets of 7-10 reps
- Dumbbell Bent Rows – 6 sets of 8-10 reps
- Seated Cable Rows – 5 sets of 8-10 reps
Sunday – Triceps
- Lying French Presses – 6 sets of 7-10 reps
- Seated Dumbbell Extensions – 5 sets of 6-8 reps
- Dips – 5 sets of 5-8 reps
Monday – Legs
- Hack Squats – 6 sets of 7-10 reps
- Seated Leg Extensions – 7 sets of 8-10 reps
- Standing Leg Curls – 6 sets of 6-8 reps
Tuesday – Chest
- Incline Bench Press – 6 sets of 7-10 reps
- Incline Dumbbell Flyes – 6 sets of 7-10 reps
- Decline Dumbbell Flyes – 6 sets of 6-8 reps
Wednesday – Rest Day
Okay so you should be able to go on your own from here. Remember that you’re going to finish off your second training week and go right into the third and final week of training four days on, one day off and two final days of training to finish of your final week of the program!
Eating healthy during a 90 day workout plan
Eating healthy is essential when following any fitness plan. Proper nutrition can maximize the results of your workouts, and help you achieve your goal faster. Food provides the fuel your body and muscles need, help you build muscle and lose weight in a safe way. Any diet needs to match the intensity of your workout plan.
You should include plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables in your diet, alongside lean protein sources like fish and chicken. While it’s important to avoid highly-processed foods and sodas, it’s okay to opt for healthy snacks like almonds and walnuts as snacks.
Staying hydrated is also key to maintaining good health during a workout or weight loss plan.
You may wish to track your progress with a food journal or calorie tracking app like MyFitnessPal. Calorie tracking can be an effective way to lose weight in a safe way, and gives you insight into the foods you eat and your macronutrient intake.
A healthy diet is just as important as exercise when following a workout plan. Foods provide the energy you need for workouts, and a healthy diet can reduce cravings for unhealthy snacks.
What types of foods should I eat to lose weight?
During the 90 day workout plan, you should choose the right types of foods to maximize weight loss. It’s essential you get the nutrients your body needs to achieve your outcomes in a sustainable and healthy way. A great diet to follow focuses on lean proteins, complex cards, fresh fruits and vegetables and low-fat or zero-fat dairy.
Good choices for lean protein include fish, chicken, turkey and lean cuts of beef. Protein is an important nutrient for muscle growth and repair. Eating additional protein can also help you feel full, aiding your weight loss journey.
Complex carbs should make up most of your calorie intake. Complex cards include whole grains like brown rice, quinoa and oats. These are great choices, as they provide a slow release of energy, compared to simple cards that can cause blood sugar spikes.
Fresh fruits and vegetables are important to include in your diet as they provide vitamins, minerals and fiber your body needs. Leafy greens, brocolli and other vegetables are great choices for many meals. Fruits can include apples, oranges and bananas, and make great snacks between meals. You should aim for at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables per day.
Finally, low-fat dairy can be a great choice, including yogurts and milks. Dairy can be a great source of additional protein, which can help your feel fuller for longer.
What kinds of foods should I avoid when trying to lose weight?
Fast food is the enemy of weight loss. Try to avoid burgers, pizzas and fried foods. Also avoid other foods that are particularly high in fat or have high calorie density. Diets that include lots of fast food can increase weight gain.
You should also avoid foods that are high in sodium, which includes many potato chips and candy bars.
While it’s important to limit your intake of unhealthy foods, you do not need to entirely eliminate treats and snacks from your diet. You should aim to enjoy unhealthy foods in moderation, to build sustainable and long-term habits. For example, rathe than eating a whole bag of potato chips, you can choose to eat a measured portion.
Success on the 90 day workout plan depends on a healthy diet, made up of plenty whole foods and good portion sizes.
How should I set calories and target macronutrients?
There are 3 important macronutrients – protein, carbohydrates and fats. Protein is important for muscle growth and repair. Carbs give your body energy, including when you are exercising. Fats are the slowest source of energy, providing energy for long-duration but low-intensity exercises.
The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institutes of Medicine (IOM) recommend that healthy adults consume 45-65% of calories from carbohydrates, 10-35% from protein and 20-35% from fats. You should consider adjusting your goals based on your level of activity and fitness goals. For example, if you are highly active with a goal of gaining muscle, you may aim to increase your protein intake.
You should also consider whether a calorie goal is right for you. The number of calories your body uses per day is known as the total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). A typical calorie deficit plan sees you target 500-1000 calories below your TDEE. A calorie deficit is suitable if weight loss is your goal. You should aim to lose no more than 1 kg or 2 lb per week.
How do I create a meal plan to lose weight?
A meal plan is a good way to keep your calories under control, alongside the 90 day workout plan. It’s important balance healthy foods and exercise. Start by understanding your current calorie needs (TDEE) and adjust to target a deficit if you goal is to lose weight.
Build your meal plan based on whole, unprocessed foods. You should focus on lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and low-fat dairy. Aim for 3 meals per day, with healthy snacks between meals.