Tools
Build a week from nothing
An empty week with three days. Open a day, type part of an exercise name and pick it from the list; it starts with three sets, and you can change that. The body fills in with every set you add, and the count beside it shows which muscles are still below their weekly minimum. Add or remove days as your week needs.
Add exercises to see the week.
Sets per muscle this week
- No sets
- Below the minimum
- Productive range
- High
- Helper work only
- Largest gap
Press a muscle to see what counts for it.
Your week
Change the sets, remove an exercise or add one from the list. The drawing counts again each time.
Building your own week needs JavaScript. Without it you can still pick a split and its days, read the count and print the sheet.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Muscle by muscle
-
Chest
0 sets
No work this week. The weekly minimum is 10 sets.
What counts for chest
Counted in full
No exercise in the week has this as its main muscle.
-
Back
0 sets
No work this week. The weekly minimum is 10 sets.
What counts for back
Counted in full
No exercise in the week has this as its main muscle.
-
Shoulders
0 sets
No work this week. The weekly minimum is 8 sets.
What counts for shoulders
Counted in full
No exercise in the week has this as its main muscle.
-
Biceps
0 sets
Not in this week.
What counts for biceps
Counted in full
No exercise in the week has this as its main muscle.
-
Triceps
0 sets
Not in this week.
What counts for triceps
Counted in full
No exercise in the week has this as its main muscle.
-
Forearms
0 sets
Not in this week.
What counts for forearms
Counted in full
No exercise in the week has this as its main muscle.
-
Quads
0 sets
No work this week. The weekly minimum is 8 sets.
What counts for quads
Counted in full
No exercise in the week has this as its main muscle.
-
Hamstrings
0 sets
No work this week. The weekly minimum is 6 sets.
What counts for hamstrings
Counted in full
No exercise in the week has this as its main muscle.
-
Glutes
0 sets
No work this week. The weekly minimum is 6 sets.
What counts for glutes
Counted in full
No exercise in the week has this as its main muscle.
-
Calves
0 sets
Not in this week.
What counts for calves
Counted in full
No exercise in the week has this as its main muscle.
-
Core
0 sets
Not in this week.
What counts for core
Counted in full
No exercise in the week has this as its main muscle.
How sets are counted
Every exercise has one main muscle and, often, one or more helpers. Each working set you plan counts as one set for the main muscle and as half a set for each helper. Four sets of bench press are four sets for chest and two each for triceps and shoulders.
A helper is a muscle that moves the weight through a joint: the triceps in a press, the biceps in a row, the glutes in a squat. A muscle that only grips or braces is not a helper, so a deadlift adds nothing to forearms and a squat adds nothing to core. A squat, a leg press and a lunge count for quads. A deadlift counts for back, with half a set each for hamstrings and glutes. A Romanian deadlift counts for hamstrings.
For the common barbell, dumbbell, cable and machine lifts, the main muscle and the helpers come from a table kept in the Masheen app. For the rest of the list they come from the muscles the exercise list names. Totals are not rounded: 7.5 sets is below a minimum of 8. This is the count the app keeps for a week you have logged, so the page and the app give the same numbers for the same sets. The app leaves warm-up sets out, so leave them out here.
The weekly numbers
For each muscle the app keeps a weekly minimum and a ceiling, in sets. Below the minimum it calls a large muscle under-trained. It says the same of a smaller muscle only when the week trains it directly: half sets picked up from helping never flag it. From the minimum up it calls the range productive, then high. Past the ceiling it says the muscle may be getting more than most lifters recover from.
These are the app's own rules of thumb for training to build muscle. They are not measurements of you and not figures from a study. How many sets suit you depends on how long you have trained, how hard the sets are and how you recover.
| Muscle | Weekly minimum | High from | Ceiling | Flagged without direct sets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chest | 10 | 16 | 22 | Yes |
| Back | 10 | 18 | 25 | Yes |
| Shoulders | 8 | 16 | 26 | Yes |
| Biceps | 8 | 14 | 20 | No |
| Triceps | 8 | 14 | 18 | No |
| Forearms | 6 | 12 | 16 | No |
| Quads | 8 | 14 | 20 | Yes |
| Hamstrings | 6 | 12 | 16 | Yes |
| Glutes | 6 | 12 | 16 | Yes |
| Calves | 8 | 16 | 20 | No |
| Core | 8 | 16 | 25 | No |
How to read the drawing
A muscle with no sets stays the colour of the outline. With sets it fills in three strengths: pale below its minimum, mid-tone in the productive range, full once it is high or past the ceiling. There is no colour scale to learn.
Stripes mark a muscle that gets helper work only: no exercise in the week has it as its main muscle. The stripes come in the same three strengths. An outline marks the muscle with the largest gap to its minimum. Press any muscle, or move to it with the Tab key, to see which exercises count for it.
What each split adds up to
The splits are the routines the Masheen app ships, with the same exercises and sets as the printable workout log. Counted by the rule above:
| Split | Days | Sets a week | Below the minimum |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full body | 3 | 42 | Hamstrings, quads, glutes and chest |
| Upper / lower | 4 | 68 | Chest |
| Push / pull / legs | 6 | 98 | None |
| Body-part split | 5 | 86 | Calves |
Print and share
Your week is kept in the page address. Bookmark it or copy the link, and the same days and exercises open again.
Print opens one sheet in black on white: the week, the drawing and the count for each muscle. Pick A4 or Letter there. To keep a PDF, choose "Save as PDF" as the printer.
Sources
- react-native-body-highlighter, by HichamELBSI. The outline of the body and the muscle shapes, used under the MIT licence. Read 12 November 2026
Questions
How many sets per muscle per week does the checker look for?
It uses the weekly numbers in the Masheen app: a minimum and a ceiling for each muscle, such as 10 and 22 sets for chest or 6 and 16 for hamstrings. The full list is in the table on this page. They are the app's own rules of thumb for training to build muscle, not measurements of you.
How are sets counted?
Each working set counts as one set for the main muscle of its exercise and as half a set for each muscle that helps move the weight. Three sets of bench press are three sets for chest and one and a half each for triceps and shoulders. Muscles that only grip or brace get nothing. Warm-up sets are left out. This is the same count the app keeps for a logged week.
Why is a muscle below its minimum when I train it?
Helper work counts at half, and totals are not rounded. A week with six sets of squats and no other leg exercise gives quads six sets and glutes three, both short of their minimums. Add sets, or add an exercise that has the muscle as its main one. A smaller muscle that only ever helps, such as forearms in curls, is drawn with stripes and is not flagged.
What does "misses" mean here?
A week misses a muscle when one of the six large groups (chest, back, shoulders, quads, hamstrings and glutes) gets no work at all, as a main muscle or as a helper. A muscle that gets some work but less than its weekly minimum is listed as below the minimum. Smaller groups with no work, such as forearms or calves, are listed as not in the week, since many routines leave them out on purpose.
Does the checker tell me the best routine?
No. It counts a week and sets the count beside the app's rules of thumb. How many sets suit you depends on how long you have trained, how hard the sets are and how you recover. Use the drawing to see what a plan leaves out, then decide.
Can I save, share or print my week?
Yes. The page address holds your week, so a bookmark or a copied link opens the same days and exercises. Print gives one sheet with the week, the drawing and the count for each muscle, on A4 or Letter.