Guides
Practical guides to planning training. Longer than a glossary definition, and written to be followed start to finish.
Where to start
How to structure a training plan: from macrocycle to workout
Start here if the word "mesocycle" still means nothing to you. It gives you the shape of a plan — from the block of weeks down to today’s session — and the vocabulary the others use without explaining again.
Training splits: which one to choose and why
Then decide how many days you train and what goes in each. The split is the first choice that constrains every later one: it sets the frequency each muscle gets and the room left for volume.
How many sets per muscle per week
Finally, how much work to put inside. This is the guide that turns a split into a number of sets per muscle, and the one closest to the app’s weekly volume panel.
All the guides
How to structure a training plan: from macrocycle to workout
From the goal for the next few months to today’s workout — how macrocycles, mesocycles and microcycles fit into a plan that actually progresses.
Read the guideWhat a deload is and when to program it
A reduced-load week is not lost time: it is where the adaptation shows up. When to program a deload, how to do it, and the mistakes that ruin it.
Read the guideTraining splits: which one to choose and why
Full body, upper/lower, push-pull-legs or a body-part split? The right split is the one that fits the days you have and spreads volume per muscle.
Read the guideA 4-day upper/lower plan, exercise by exercise
The full week of a 4-day upper/lower plan, with sets, reps, rest and loads — and the reason behind every choice, exercise by exercise.
Read the guideHow many sets per muscle per week
The most cited range is 10 to 20 effective sets per muscle per week. Where to start, how to climb inside a block, and what actually counts as a set.
Read the guideUsing RIR and RPE without testing your max
How to prescribe the effort of each set with reps in reserve or perceived exertion, without needing a one-rep max that changes every week.
Read the guideHow to plan a training block with ChatGPT
The three ways to use a chatbot to plan training — copy from the chat, a custom GPT, or a connector — and what each one costs you every week.
Read the guidePrompts for planning training with AI (and why they work)
Prompts you can use in ChatGPT or Claude — and the difference between asking a chat and asking an assistant that actually writes into your plan.
Read the guideImport your athlete roster into NoteFit by chat
Paste your athletes’ CSV into the conversation and the assistant creates them all at once. How to prepare the file and what happens to rows with errors.
Read the guideAI for personal trainers: what it actually saves
What AI saves a coach with 10 to 30 athletes — and it is not writing the programme. It is the weekly upkeep, which is where the time goes.
Read the guideChatGPT or Claude for training plans?
What is identical in both, what genuinely differs, and the comparison we cannot honestly make for you. You can connect both to the same account.
Read the guideImport your training history from a notebook into NoteFit
Years of training written by hand or in a spreadsheet, into NoteFit by chat: photograph the pages, the assistant reads them and creates the blocks, dated.
Read the guideSpecialisation: prioritise one muscle without wrecking the rest
How to give one muscle group more volume for a block: where to take it from, how much, how long, and how to confirm in the panel that the week does it.
Read the guideHow to progress load and volume in the same block
Raising both every week is the mistake that brings fatigue before the block ends. Three ways that work, how to write them into a week, and when to stop.
Read the guidePush Pull Legs 6-day program: the full split, exercise by exercise
The 6-day PPL that became famous on Reddit, session by session: exercises, sets, reps, how to progress, and the sets it gives each muscle.
Read the guideFull body workout 3 days a week: the complete plan
A full-body plan for three sessions a week: each day’s exercises, sets and reps, how to progress, and the sets it gives each muscle.
Read the guidePHUL workout program: Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower, the complete 4-day plan
Brandon Campbell’s PHUL, day by day: two power and two hypertrophy sessions a week, with sets, reps, progression and the sets per muscle.
Read the guide5/3/1 Boring But Big program: the complete 4-week cycle
Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 with Boring But Big: each week’s percentages, the 5×10, the assistance work, the training max and the sets per muscle.
Read the guideWhat these guides do — and what they do not
Each guide explains one decision and what changes if you make it differently, using a real week as the example rather than an invented case. They all end at the volume calculator with that week already loaded, so you can change the numbers instead of reading them. They are longer than a glossary definition and meant to be followed start to finish.
They are not a program to copy blindly: the number of days, the exercises and the load depend on you, on the time you have and on the equipment you can reach. And they do not invent precision — no cited studies, no tables of exact values. Where the honest answer is a range or "it varies", it says so; and when a number does appear, it is either the most commonly cited range or a NoteFit default, and the text says which of the two.
Tools
Weekly volume calculator: sets per muscle group
Pick the week’s exercises, set the sets and see how many sets each muscle receives — no account needed.
Open the calculatorGlossary
What is a mesocycle, a deload or training volume? Short, practical definitions of the periodization and hypertrophy terms every lifter and coach needs.