3-Day Home Dumbbell Muscle Building Plan (Lower-Back-Friendly)

A week for an intermediate lifter at home with dumbbells who wants to build muscle: 3 workouts of 45 minutes (Mon full body, Wed full body, Fri full body). The generator left out exercises contraindicated for lower back problems.

Goal: Muscle gain
Days per week: 3 days
Minutes per workout: 45 minutes
Split: Full body
Level: Intermediate
Where: Home and outdoors

Monday — full body

≈ 47 min

Warm-up 2 exercises

Arm Circles
3 × 30 s rest 15 s
Kneeling Thoracic Rotation
3 × 30 s rest 15 s

Main work

Dumbbell Thruster
4 × 6 rest 2.5 min RPE 8
Floor Press
4 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8
Dumbbell Row Bilateral
6 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8

Cool-down 2 exercises

Kneeling Hip-Flexor Stretch
3 × 30 s rest 15 s
Half-Kneeling Hip Flexor Rock
3 × 30 s rest 15 s

Wednesday — full body

≈ 48 min

Warm-up 2 exercises

90/90 Hip Switches
3 × 30 s rest 15 s
Arm Circles
3 × 30 s rest 15 s

Main work

Dumbbell Sumo Squat
5 × 6 rest 2.5 min RPE 8
Standing Palms-In Dumbbell Press
5 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8
Dumbbell Single Arm Upright Row
4 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8

Cool-down 2 exercises

Seated Wrist Flexor Stretch
3 × 30 s rest 15 s
Overhead Lat Stretch
3 × 30 s rest 15 s

Friday — full body

≈ 48 min

Warm-up 2 exercises

Hip Circles
3 × 30 s rest 15 s
90/90 Hip Switches
3 × 30 s rest 15 s

Main work

Front-Foot-Elevated Split Squat
5 × 6 rest 2.5 min RPE 8
Floor Press
5 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8
Dumbbell Single Arm Row
4 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8

Cool-down 2 exercises

Pigeon Glute Stretch
3 × 30 s rest 15 s
Cross-Body Shoulder Stretch
3 × 30 s rest 15 s

RPE is how hard a set feels on a 1–10 scale: at RPE 7 you have about three more reps left.

This is a sample week the Workoutify generator built for this questionnaire. For your own days, time and equipment it will build yours. Built on October 25, 2026

Why it is built this way

Every workout trains the whole body: on 2–3 days a week each muscle gets worked more often than with a body-part split.
Reps: 5–20. The day's main lift sits near the bottom of the range, compounds at 8–12, isolation up to 20. Muscle grows from tension and sets taken close to failure.
Rest on the day's main lift is at least 2.5 min, so the next set goes with the same weight. Accessory exercises get shorter rest.
Effort is set on the RPE scale from 1 to 10. RPE 8 means roughly 2 reps left in reserve: you choose the weight by that feel, not by a percentage of your max.
The weeks undulate: moderate, heavy (2 fewer reps, RPE +1) and light (2 more reps, RPE −1) weeks rotate. This page shows the moderate one.
The restriction from the questionnaire is a hard filter: exercises the catalogue marks as contraindicated never make it into the week.