5 Ways to Program Your Training as a Musician
It’s surprising how many people guess their way around the gym.
Picking exercises based on what they feel like. Repeating “3 sets of 10” forever. Chasing a PB every session.
Then wondering why progress stalls, or why something starts hurting.
If you’re serious about training as a musician, programming matters. Not in a complicated way, but in a structured one.
Here are five principles you can use to make sure your training actually moves you forward without setting you up for injury or imbalance.
1. Use a Full-Body Split
Most gym programs are built on bodybuilding logic.
Bro splits. Upper/lower splits. Sessions focused on hammering one area at a time.
That approach works if your only goal is hypertrophy. For musicians, it often causes problems.
First, hammering one muscle group increases the chance of DOMS. Performing while sore encourages subtle changes in technique as your body finds workarounds. Over time, those compensations reduce precision and increase injury risk.
Second, rigid splits assume a predictable schedule. If your week involves travel, variable rehearsal times, or fluctuating energy, missed sessions quickly turn into imbalances or inconsistency.
A full-body split lets you:
Spread load across the whole system
Reduce performance-disrupting soreness
Stay covered even if you miss a session later in the week
2. Base Sessions on Key Movement Patterns
Instead of thinking in muscles, think in movements.
The core patterns are:
Push
Pull
Hinge
Squat
Single-leg
Both push and pull also have horizontal and vertical versions.
Programming around these patterns ties training to real-world movement and performance demands. It keeps sessions balanced without overthinking exercise selection.
3. Use Supersets and Modified Tri-Sets
A superset is two exercises performed back-to-back with no rest.
A tri-set is three.
Traditionally, these target the same or opposing muscle groups.
I prefer using the same work–rest framework but pairing different movement patterns to suit a full-body approach.
This lets you:
Get more work done in less time
Add a metabolic element without separate cardio
Challenge the cardiovascular system while lifting
You work harder, but in a controlled way.
4. Build Around Key Compound Exercises
Compound movements involve multiple joints and demand more coordination.
Squats. Presses. Hinges. Rows.
Anchor each session around one or two of these, then build out with simpler accessory work.
This approach:
Preserves nervous system freshness
Improves technique quality on complex lifts
Reduces injury risk when fatigue sets in
Isolation work has its place, just not at the expense of movement quality earlier in the session.
5. Be Smart About Training to Failure
There’s a strong narrative that you need to train to failure to progress.
The research doesn’t fully support that.
When volume is matched, gains are very similar whether you train to failure or stop short. The difference is injury risk.
Taking every set to complete breakdown increases fatigue and raises the chance of form slipping, especially on compound lifts.
A safer rule:
Stop 1–3 reps in reserve (RIR) on most sets
Save higher-risk efforts for smaller accessory movements, if at all
Consistency beats intensity spikes.
Pulling It All Together
Good programming accounts for:
Your schedule
Previous injuries
Strengths and weaknesses
How many sessions you can realistically train each week
There are endless ways to build sessions, but if you start with these five principles, you’re on solid ground.
Structure removes guesswork.
And that’s what keeps you training consistently.
