What’s the best workout split? The good thing is there isn’t a “best” workout split, so you don’t need to worry about that. The best workout split will look differently for different people and can range anywhere from 1 to 6 days a week (No one thinks you’re cool if you workout 7 days a week. That’s just not a good idea). Still, one of the more common and most efficient workout splits is the 4-day workout split. This article will dive into this widely used workout program to teach you all you need to know, including:
- The benefits of a 4 day workout split
- Best ways to run a 4 day workout split
- Why the upper lower program is the best for a 4 day workout split
- Best exercises for a 4 day upper lower workout split
- The Ultimate 4-Day Workout Split Routine for Mass and Strength
- How to progress with our workout program
- Recovery and nutritional advice
Knowing how to maximize your time in the gym for these 4 days will mean the difference between your success and failure.
Are 4-Day Workout Splits Effective?
Absolutely! 4-day workout splits are actually ideal for a large group of trainees, especially those who may have extra family and work pressure. Even still, many of the best weight lifters in the world choose to work out 4 days a week regardless of having the time to go more often. For example, some top-rated programs, such as PHAT, are specifically designed to be trained 4 days a week.
What you need to answer is, “Is a 4-day workout split good for you?”
Well, answer these questions:
- Do you love the gym but don’t want to spend all of your time there?
- Do you want to use one of the most effective splits there is?
- Do you want to be able to push it hard in every session?
If so, then the 4-day workout split is perfect for you.
4 Benefits Of A 4-Day Workout Split
Choosing a 4-day split for your workout program will offer a variety of benefits. Here are the top reasons you should train using a 4-day workout routine.
1. 4-Day Workout Splits Offer Sufficient Amount Of Rest
Perhaps the most significant benefit of this workout is that it gives trainees plenty of recovery time throughout the week. One of the greatest determinants of a program’s success is whether it provides a trainee with adequate rest between sessions. In fact, this is one of the main areas that trainees get wrong, especially beginners.
2. Trying 4 Days A Week Keeps You Focused
One area that trainees tend to like about a 4-day workout split is that it can keep you focused for your workout. 4 days is plenty of time to get an excellent workout in and hit all the lifts you need. At the same time, it requires you to go in with a purpose and train like every rep counts. There are no frivolous movements in a 4-day split, nor is there leftover time to do them anyways. With a 4-day workout split, you go in and perform the best of the best movements and then get out
3. A 4-Day Routine Allows You To Train Hard
Connected to allowing you adequate rest, using a 4-day workout split is designed in such a manner so that you can come in and work out hard every session. Being that you know you have plenty of rest days, you’re more likely to leave it all out on the gym floor. That and you will just have more energy
4. Allows Multiple Variations Of Splits
Since there are 4 days to train, you have an ample amount of days to divide your body parts or movements. This means you can program a 4-day split program specific to strength, hypertrophy, or a combination such s PHAT or power-building plan.
Is 4 days a week enough to build muscle?
Absolutely. In fact, for beginners and intermediate lifters, 4 workout days per week is actually the most ideal for building muscle and strength. It allows you to keep the intensity of your workouts high and get adequate recovery in-between sessions, which is the perfect recipe for building muscle and strength. People who train too frequently end up getting burned out and they don't even realize it. 4 days of workouts per week is typically the sweet spot when it comes to fitness.
4 Best Types of 4-Day Workout Routines
As just mentioned, there are numerous ways that you can run a 4-day split depending on your specific needs and goals. Let’s first go over some of these variations and then suggest what we think is the best for the great portion of people.
Option 1: 4-Day Program With A Full Body Split
Performing full-body workouts 4 days a week can work, but it can be a little tricky. It will require even more attention to recovery and monitoring load used. This type of workout is more likely to benefit the person who is more interested in maintaining overall fitness levels rather than pushing it hard during the session. If that’s you, then this could be a great option. Some of the benefits are:
- It may be more interesting as you can move a lot between exercises and perform multiple movements.
- It can be done in a way where you can superset movements to make your stay in the gym shorter. An example is to pair lower body with upper body movements and free weight movements with bodyweight movements i.e squat/pushups or lunges/barbell rows.
- It can be mentally easier as you will only need to perform one big moment a day for each main group of muscles.
Option 2: 4-Day Program With A Strength/Hypertrophy Split
While being 5-days, the best example of a program which follows this idea is Dr. Layne Hortons PHAT program. This is actually great program for those who want to train for both strength and hypertrophy. A program like this has you training specifically for strength on two days and then running a routine more similar to bodybuilding for the other two days. Some of the benefits include:
- Tried and tested by many lifters with success.
- Is the perfect blend of strength and mass.
- Easy to individualize.
Option 3: 4-Day Program With A PPL Split
A PPL split split stands for Push/Pull/Legs. It divides movements into three days:
- Day 1-Pushing: You perform upper body pushing movements.
- Day 2-Pulling: On the second day, you perform deadlifts and upper body pulling movements.
- Day 3- Legs: On the third day, you train the legs.
The first thing to note is that a PPL split cycles through 3 workout sessions. However, that doesn’t constrain it to only being used 3 days a week. To work this into a 4-day workout program, you simply just cycle through the sessions. This will result in your sessions changing order every week.
Benefits of using a PPL split include:
- Changes the weekly sessions which may be more enjoyable for some people.
- Because the first session of the week alternates, you could easily differentiate the loads used and have your first session be a heavy session for the week. This is an easy way to periodize your program.
- PPL is becoming of the more common splits that trainees use
- You also can use the 4th day for other specific movements such as arms, core, mobility, etc.
Option 4: 4-Day Program With A Bodybuilding Split
Some may still prefer to us a bodybuilding split and hit every muscle hard once a week. To do this, bodybuilders will usually train maybe 5 days or even 6 days a week. However, you can get this done in 4 days if you don’t have the time to make it to the gym more. The easiest way to do this would be as follow:
- Day 1: Chest and Core
- Day 2: Legs and Arms
- Day 3: Back
- Day 4: Shoulders, Arms, and Core
The benefits of training like this are mainly geared towards the bodybuilder. Using a split like this allows to you to cause maximal damage to a muscle in the belief that it will grow more.
Which 4-Day Workout Is Best?
So, what’s the best one? While the above will work if done correctly, for the majority of people an upper/lower split works amazing. It’s really hard to beat this split, especially when following some simple rules. First, let’s go over why it’s your best choice.
The Benefits Of An Upper/Lower 4-Day Workout Split
1) It seems to naturally fit: This is basic math. 2 times 2 equals 4. This means that an upper/lower body split fits perfectly when training 4 days a week.
2) Training a muscle group twice a week seems to be the sweet spot for progression: Contrary to what most believe, the amount of days a week you train doesn’t really matter as much as the number of times you train a muscle. It just so happens that the optimal frequency of training a specific muscle group seems to be twice a week. Studies show training a muscle twice a week was sufficiently better than training once a week, with questionable benefits coming from training three times a week. Basically, training twice a week is definitely better than once, but may or may not be better than training three times a week.
3) It is very easy to plan your movements: An upper/lower split lays out a very methodical and logical way to layout your program and exercise selection. There is no guessing of what you need to do.
The Best Way To Run An Upper/Lower 4-Day Workout Split
There are still various ways that you could possibly run an upper/lower split. For example, you may only work your quads on a lower day or your back on an upper day. So to be clear, when running this program, you want to train every muscle of the lower body during that session and every muscle of the upper body for that particular session.
One common question that constantly plagues trainers and trainees is, is the deadlift an upper-body exercise of a lower-body exercise. That depends on who you ask (i.e., with a PPL, split your train deadlift with your back on pulling day and not on leg day), but for this program, you are going to train it during the lower body session.
Now for the critical part. One of the best ways to divide your exercises is into pushing movements and pulling movements of both the upper and lower body. For example:
Lower Body Pushing: These movements are primarily going be your quad-dominant movements and calf exercises. Exercises include squat variations and isolation exercises, such as back squats, front squats, lunges, leg extensions.
Lower Body Pulling: These movements are going to target your glutes and hamstrings. Exercises include deadlift variations, barbell hip thrust, leg curls.
Upper Body Pushing: These movements will train your chest, shoulders, and triceps. Upper body pushing exercises include the Bench Press, shoulder press, dips, and skull crushers.
Upper Body Pulling: These movements will train your entire back, posterior deltoids (the shoulder muscle on the back), and biceps. Upper body pulling exercises include rows, chin-ups, and bicep curls.
This is important to understand the difference between these movements as it will help you plan your days. Basically, what you will do is divide each day into your primary movements done with heavier loads and accessory movements performed with lighter loads. These will be divided by using the categories above. Then the next training session, you will swap which movements are primary and which movements are accessory. This will look like this.
Session 1 - Upper Body:
Primary movements (Strength) - Upper Pushing
Accessory movements (Hypertrophy) - Upper Pulling
Session 2 - Lower Body:
Primary Movements (Strength) - Lower Pushing
Accessory Movements (Hypertrophy) - Lower Pulling
Session 3 - Upper Body:
Primary movements (Strength) - Upper Pulling
Accessory movements (Hypertrophy) - Upper Pushing
Session 4 - Lower Body:
Primary Movements (Strength) - Lower Pulling
Accessory Movements (Hypertrophy) - Lower Pushing
*Note: This does include any type of isolation movements which is always done at the end of the session.
Why You Should Do This 4-Day Workout Split
One problem that many trainees will have working an upper/lower split is trying to hit heavy numbers for all of their main movements. This is especially true when performing squats and deadlifts on the same day. Some advanced lifters will do this, but it can often be too much for your general trainees. What happens is they aren’t able to hit the numbers they want and end up having a crappy workout.
This fixes that.
This split will allow you to focus on only a couple main lifts for one movement group with a heavy load. Then, you can move onto the other group of muscles and perform your smaller accessory movements that focus more on volume rather than working with heavier loads.
Training Variables For Your Primary Strength Movements
Your strength training movements will consist of your big compound movements working in a rep range of 3-6 with 3-5 sets and using loads of about 85-90% of your 1RM.
Training Variables For Your Accessory Movements And Hypertrophy Training
These are going to consist of your “smaller” compound movements as well as some isolation work. These will work in a rep range of 8-12+ with 2-3 sets using loads of about 70-80% of your 1RM.
The Ultimate 4-Day Workout Split Routine
Now that you have a good idea of why you’re doing what you’ll be doing, let’s go over the actual workout.
Session 1 - Upper Body A:
- Standing Military Press: 4x5
- Rack Pulls (Above the Knee): 4x3
- Dips (weighted if needed): 4x6
- Landmine Rows: 3x8
- Lat Pull-Down: 3x8
- Reverse Fly: 3x12
- Face Pulls/Swimmers: 2x15
- Roper Hammer Curls/Triceps: 2x15
Session 2 - Lower Body A:
- Back Squat: 3x5
- Barbell Split Squats: 4x6
- Leg Press: 4x6
- Landmine Deadlifts: 3x8
- Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts: 3x8
- Barbell Hip Thrusts: 3x8
- Leg Extension/Leg Curls: 3x12
Session 3 - Upper Body B:
- Bench Press: 4x4
- Chin-Ups: 5x5
- Bentover Barbell Rows: 4x6
- Incline Dumbbell Chest Press: 3x8
- Seated Dumbbell Press: 3x8
- Chest Flyes (Machine or Cable): 2x12
- Dumbbell Pull-Over: 2x12
- Dumbbell Curls/Tricep Press Down: 2x15
Session 4 - Lower Body B:
- Deadlift: 3x5
- Barbell Hip Thrust: 4x4
- Barbell Romanian Deadlift: 4x6
- Front Squat: 3x8
- Dumbbell Lunges: 3x10 steps
- Leg Press: 2x20
- Squat Jumps: 3x3 (weighted or not)
- Leg Extension/Leg Curls: 3x12
This is going to be your basic layout for the session. While it looks like a lot, realize that after your main lifts, you will want to move pretty quickly through the rest of the movements. It may take 30-40 minutes for the strength movements and just 25-30 minutes for the remainder. Now, there are a few different ways that you can plan them during the week.
Option A
Day 1: Upper Body A
Day 2: Lower Body A
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Upper Body B
Day 5: Rest
Day 6: Lower Body B
Day 7: Rest
Option B
Day 1: Upper Body A
Day 2: Lower Body A
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Upper Body B
Day 6: Lower Body B
Day 7: Rest
The obvious difference is that you can either have 3 single rest days OR 1 two-day rest period and then a single day rest period. In terms of effectiveness, it shouldn’t really make a big deal what one you choose. However, some people enjoy having 2 days of rest for travel or just to relax while others feel keeping rest to 1 day helps them stay in the zone. You can also change dependent on what is going on in your life. BUT DO NOT train 3 days in a row or have 3 days of rest.
You are also able to start with the lower body session instead. This would have you cycle through the sessions as:
- Lower Body A
- Upper Body A
- Lower Body B
- Upper Body B
You can run this using the different weekly layouts as above.
One way you can use this to your advantage is by setting up a plan so that you have at least one rest day before a session with lifts that you really want to improve on. For example, if your squats are weak and you want to improve them, you can set up your 4-day workout routine so that you have 2 days of rest and then perform your Lower Body A session (squats)
How To Progress On This Program
Just like any effective program, you are going to use progressive overload to increase your performance. However, there are a few caveats to go over.
Main Strength Lifts
The most common way of implementing progressive overload is by increasing weight every week. This is what you will do for your strength lifts as these are the most “important” lifts. Further, when it comes to building strength, lifting more weight seems to be the optimal method. The very basic suggestion is to add 10lbs to your lower body moments and 5lbs or less to your upper body movements every week. However, you will need to judge by yourself. But a word of advice; the less amount of weight you add will allow you to progress more smoothly for a longer period of time.
You will probably find some lifts where you are unable to add weight on every set. That’s fine. If you can only add weight to the first set and then drop back down to the remaining sets, that’s fine. Just write that down and then next week, try to add weight to at least two sets and then dropdown.
Accessory and Hypertrophy Lifts
While adding weight for the accessory lifts is still a concern, you will be going off what you feel you are able to do. Basically, this means that if you can increase the weight, then great. If you are too fatigued from the bigger lifts, just use the same weight. If you can increase the weight on 1 set, do that. And so on and so on. These are important and have a purpose, but they are to support your bigger lifts. Even if your bigger lifts are increasing and your accessory weights are staying the same, you will still progress and get bigger and stronger.
Also, feel free to have some freedom (and a little “fun”) with these sets. If you want to increase the reps on your last set, then cool. If you want to add a drop set, then do it. Just don’t overdo it!
What Are The Best Recovery Methods?
Many trainees confuse “Rest Days” to mean “Do Nothing”. This is a horrible idea that will significantly hinder your progress. What you do outside of the gym can greatly influence your performance inside the gym. Here are the 4 practices that you can do to use this time wisely.
1) Engage in some light aerobic activity OR active recovery: This is one of the best things you can do. Failing to move the body will result in more tightness in the muscles and even increase DOMS chance. The main mechanism is thought to be that the activity will increase the heart rate slightly and pump fresh blood with more oxygen and nutrients to the body. It will also keep the muscles and joints loose. Active recovery is one of the best things you can do.
2) Engage in some mobility exercises: Everybody needs to improve mobility. Everybody. Rest days are a great time to do this because you don’t need any special equipment and can find anything you may need around the house. Here are three movements you can do:
- Dead bugs: Dead bugs are one of the best mobility exercises to increase your core strength and improve your shoulder mobility.
- Bird Dogs: Bird dogs are dead bugs but inverted. This means you’ll basically do the same exercise but on your hands and knees. This places the activation onto the posterior muscles and targets your back and glutes. Still, it also improves your shoulder mobility and overall body extension.
- Overhead Squats (with towel): If you have a broom or dowel of any sort, you can easily use that. If not, a towel works just fine. These are hard, so you need to work into it slowly, but once you can get into a full squat with shoulders fully extended overhead with good form, you can call yourself a master.
3) Perform your core work: As you probably noticed, this plan doesn’t have a lot of specific core work. You can do this on your rest days with your mobility work or after some aerobic activity. Specific core work is very important, but sometimes it can overshadow other areas. Further, many people completely overdo it.
4) Get some sleep!: This is easily the most effective and simple thing you can do to improve your performance. Don’t buy into the “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” mentality. Getting adequate sleep is not an option; at least if you want to perform at your best. Aim for at least 6 hours of quality sleep but if you need more, sleep more.
The Best Nutrition Tips For Your 4-Day Workout Routine
Your nutrition will play a big role in determining if you succeed with this program; however, you don’t need to overcomplicate it. Here are the basic numbers for your macros.
Protein: To optimize growth, you want to eat 1.6-2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight a day.
Carbs: This will range from person to person, but it will be somewhere in the range of 5-8g/kg/d, which will depend on your daily activity levels.
Fat: Fill up the rest of your calories with fat. This number should be at least 20% of your total calories.
Related: Bulking vs Cutting
The Best 3 Supplements To Use
There are a ton of supplements on the market, but most of them are worthless. Here the best ones to use that will almost definitely improve your progress:
1) Protein Powder: Protein powder is nothing but real protein that has been processed into a powder. It’s a very efficient and economical way to get in your protein when consuming higher amounts. The best time to use protein powder is post-workout but can also be used for a healthy snack.
**You will find affiliate links below where we receive a small commission on any purchases at no additional cost to you**
2) Creatine: Creatine is the most researched supplement there are and is one of the very few supplements to have overwhelming evidence to support it’s use to improve sports performance.
3) Caffeine: Caffeine is similar to creatine in that it has an overwhelming amount of studies to support its use. This is why it is usually the primary ingredient in many pre-workouts, as it gives you increased energy and can help you train hard throughout a session.
That's all you need….Now It’s Time To Train!
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22 Responses
Sean
Hello, I have somewhat of busy weeks. I like this program but would only be able to do it 4 days consecutively and rest on Friday Saturday and Sunday. Would this be okay to do?
SET FOR SET
@STEVE – Just do the warm up sets for your first main lift. If you are working on strength and lifting heavy, and want to be very thorough, it could look like this:
Empty Bar x 15 reps
50% x 5 reps
60% x 5 reps
75% x 5 reps
80% X 3 reps
If not, just do a 2-4 warm up sets working up to your working weight. Use your best judgement.
For other big compound lifts, since they are similar movement patterns, your muscles will already be warm so you don’t need to do that, but you can still prep the movement pattern with an empty bar for one set and even pyramid up a couple sets as well if you want some more volume (and you have enough time).
Steve
Can you confirm how many warm sets are required and for which exercises? Should I just do warm up sets on my main strength lifts? Thanks
SET FOR SET
@ANDA, For the squat jumps, we are simply looking for max height or max output. This is an intense program so 3×3 will be plenty. Keep in mind that your goal is to get max height every jump. BTW – these are bodyweight or dumbbell squat jumps, NOT barbell.
SET FOR SET
@R, Walking lunges are good. Do 10 steps each side (so 20 total). If you are doing lunges in place, you can switch it up each week and do forward one week, reverse the other.
R
Hello! For Lower Body B Dumbbell Lunge : 3X10 Steps , I’ve been doing walking lunges, 10 steps each leg. Is this supposed to forward or reverse lunges, 10 each side?
Anda
Question about Squat Jumps: 3×3. Just 3 times per set seems kinda low. Is this correct?
SET FOR SET
@AMY, consult with your doctor or physical therapist, but back extensions and reverse hypers should be good alternatives.
Amy
Hi, I am not allowed to deadlift or KB swing due to a back injury. Any alternative recommendations? Thanks!
SET FOR SET
@DG – Pull up assist machine works well and you can progress by using less assistance. Negatives will also be good to build up strength. Ideally, you want to be doing chin ups/pull ups so even if after some time you can only do 1-3 reps, do those for sets and progress from there.
DG
I can’t quite do a pull-up; should I use an assisted pull-up machine or something else as a substitute?
Renette
Thanks!
SET FOR SET
@RENETTE, choose a tricep isolation exercise of your choice. i.e. triceps extensions, triceps kickbacks, triceps dips, etc.
Renette
Hello! In Upper Body A what is the triceps exercise supposed to be in the superset of Roper Hammer Curls/Triceps: 2×15
SET FOR SET
@HANK Thanks for asking. Swimmers, in this case, are straight arm pulldowns (for the lats), but if you have access to a machine like the SkiErg that would also be great.
Hank
Hi, what exactly is the “swimmer” exercise? Google isn´t very helpful since all that comes up are actual swimming exercises.
SET FOR SET
@RENETTE, that is a superset.
Renette
Hello! For clarification, does “/“ forward slash in the above workout Leg Extension/Leg Curls: 3×12 mean a superset or choose to do one of f the exercises?
SET FOR SET
@SHAH, thanks! That is correct. Do them as a superset.
Shah
Thank you for the great article.
When you say Dumbbell Curls/Tricep Press Down: 2×15, Do you mean that these are superset exercises? or you mean we should do only one of them? Thanks
Bill
This was incredibly helpful. Thank you so much for all the amazing info!
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SET FOR SET
May 03, 2022
@SEAN, we recommend a rest day in-between but you could definitely do 4 days on 3 days off. Give it a try and see how you feel. As long as you are sleeping good and eating right, you should be good. Again, not ideal, but it’ll work just fine.