Training Plan Template (Free Download) With a Filled Example
Download a two-sheet workbook: a blank week to fill in, and the same columns filled with a four-day upper/lower plan so you can see what finished looks like. No formulas, no progression rules, just the structure.
By Jobri Fitness ยท Published September 10, 2026
The template
Download the training plan template (XLSX)
Two sheets. Template is a blank week: seven days, five exercise rows each, seven columns. Example is the same columns with a four-day upper/lower plan already written in, so you can see what a finished one looks like before you fill in your own.
It opens in Excel, Numbers, LibreOffice, and Google Sheets.
There are no formulas in it, deliberately. This is the structure a plan goes into, not a calculator. What it should contain is covered below; where the arithmetic lives is covered in what this template deliberately leaves out.
What goes in each column
| Column | What it holds | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Day | The day of the week | Leave every row for a day blank to make it a rest day |
| Workout | A name for the session | Name it for what it is, "Upper A", not "Day 1". You will read it in the gym |
| Exercise | One movement per row | The version you can actually load and repeat, not the most impressive one |
| Sets | Working sets | Warm-up sets do not go here. They are not the thing you are progressing |
| Rep range | A range, not a number | A range gives you somewhere to go before the weight has to change |
| Rest | Time between sets | Two to three minutes on hard compounds, less on isolation |
| Notes | Anything you will forget | Bar height, seat position, which lift is the priority that day |
Rep range is the column people fill in wrong. Writing "10" means every session is pass or fail. Writing "8-12" gives you four sessions of progress at the same weight before you have to add anything, which is what makes a plan survive a bad week.
The filled example
The Example sheet holds a four-day upper/lower week:
| Day | Workout | Exercises |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Upper A | Bench press, lat pulldown, seated shoulder press, biceps curl, triceps pushdown |
| Tuesday | Lower A | Squat, Romanian deadlift, leg extension, seated leg curl, standing calf raise |
| Wednesday | Rest | |
| Thursday | Upper B | Incline bench press, bent-over row, pull up, chest fly, lateral raise |
| Friday | Lower B | Deadlift, leg press, seated leg curl, standing calf raise, hanging leg raise |
| Saturday, Sunday | Rest |
Compounds carry four sets of six to ten with three minutes of rest; isolation work carries three sets of ten to fifteen with ninety seconds. The pattern is worth copying even if the exercises are not: the heaviest movement comes first in each session, and each upper day pairs a push with a pull rather than stacking all the pressing on one day.
It is an example, not a recommendation for you specifically. Four days suits someone who can genuinely train four days. How to create a workout plan walks through the six decisions behind a week like this one, in the order you have to make them.
Weekly, block, or calendar
Most people need one sheet, filled once, used for months. Two variations are worth knowing about.
A block plan repeats the same week for six to eight weeks and then changes something deliberately: more sets, a different rep range, a lighter week. If you want to plan several blocks in advance, copy the Template sheet once per block and change one variable between them.
A calendar plan puts dates on the sessions rather than weekdays. It is worth the extra bookkeeping only when you are training towards a date, such as a meet or a season. For everything else it converts a plan into a schedule you can fall behind on.
Planned variation across weeks is periodization, and it buys less than most programs imply: when studies match the total amount of work, it shows a small edge for maximal strength without a clear average advantage for muscle size. Periodization: what it is and when it's worth using covers when the extra structure earns its keep.
What this template deliberately leaves out
There is no progression rule in this file, and that is on purpose. A plan template answers "what am I doing on Thursday". It does not answer "what weight goes on the bar this Thursday", because that depends on what happened last Thursday, which a blank sheet cannot know.
Two places to get that answer:
- The progressive overload spreadsheet is the calculator version. You log the reps you completed and it works out the next weight and rep target using double progression, with the formulas documented so you can change them.
- How much weight to add and when is the decision itself: add weight when you complete your target reps on every working set with technique intact, and make the jump the smallest one you can actually load.
Keeping the two files apart is deliberate. A template that also tried to run progression would be worse at both jobs, and you would end up maintaining formulas in the same sheet you want to scribble on.
There is also no log in it. What you planned and what you did are different records, and mixing them is how a plan quietly becomes a diary. The plan should be stable for weeks; the log changes every session.
When a spreadsheet stops being the right tool
A sheet is excellent for thinking and poor for the gym floor. The moment you are standing at a rack with your phone, scrolling a spreadsheet to find what you did three weeks ago, it has stopped paying for itself.
The usual signs: you have stopped updating it, you cannot remember whether the weight in a cell is planned or achieved, or you keep two copies and neither is current.
If you would rather not start from a blank sheet at all, the workout plan generator builds a week from your days, equipment, and goal, and shows the weekly set count per muscle so you can check it before committing.
And if the plan needs to live somewhere it can change, Lift stores the split, arranges the workouts across the days of the week, and works out the next weight and rep target for each exercise from the sets you actually logged. See how Lift's workout planner works.
Sources
- Training plan template workbook: Jobri Fitness
- Periodization: What It Is and When It's Worth Using, Lift: Jobri Fitness
- How Long to Rest Between Sets, Lift: Jobri Fitness
- Lift app capabilities, public feature inventory: Jobri Fitness