4 day workout split: the best 4 day workout plans

What is a 4 day workout split?

A workout split is how you divide your muscles across the training week. A 4 day split does it over four sessions with three rest days, usually two days on, one off, two on, then the weekend. Four days is the most popular number of gym days for a reason: it is enough to train every muscle twice and short enough to fit around work and family.

There are four common ways to fill the days. They differ mostly in how often each muscle is trained and how long each session runs.

The best 4 day workout split: upper lower

Upper A opens with the bench press and Lower A with the squat, at 6 to 8 reps. Upper B swaps the main lift for the overhead press and pull-ups, and Lower B puts the hip thrust first, so the second session of the week works the same muscles from different angles instead of repeating the first. Upper days are 21 sets and about 65 minutes; lower days are 16 sets and about 55.

This is a balanced, hypertrophy-first version. If you want a stricter strength day and a lighter volume day for each half, the upper lower split page has that heavy and light version, with a 3 and 5 day schedule as well.

4 day push pull legs plus upper

Push, pull and legs need three days, so a fourth day is spare. Using it for an extra Upper session gives chest, back, shoulders and arms two sessions a week while legs get one long one. It suits lifters whose legs already lead, or who simply want more upper body work. The Upper day uses machines and cables, so it adds volume without a second heavy bench or row.

The trade-off is plain: legs get one session of 17 sets, so quads and hamstrings sit near the bottom of the useful range. If you would rather keep legs at two sessions, run the upper lower plan above. To run push pull legs on three or six days instead, see the full push pull legs routine.

The 4 day bro split, done right

The classic bodybuilding week pairs a big muscle with a small one: chest and triceps, back and biceps, legs, then shoulders and arms. The popular versions pile 20 to 30 sets onto one muscle in a session and finish with burnouts. The version below caps each day at 16 to 19 sets, which is plenty when the muscle has a full week to recover.

Weekly sets per muscle in each 4 day split

Here is what each plan gives every muscle per week, counted straight from the planners. Use it to pick the split that matches what you want to grow.

Every split lands in the same range for the big muscles. The difference is where the extra sets go: upper lower favors legs, push pull legs plus upper favors chest, back and arms, and the bro split puts most of a muscle's week into one session. If one muscle lags, add a set to one of its exercises in each session that trains it, and keep the rest as written.

4 day workout schedule: which days to train

Every planner above switches between these weeks. The rule behind them is simple: never train the same muscles on two days in a row, and spread the rest days so each half of the body gets at least 48 hours off.

Two on, one off (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) is the default: weekends free, and Wednesday splits the week into two halves. Every other day gives a little more rest before the second half of the week, if Friday's legs still feel Wednesday. The weekend week puts two sessions on Saturday and Sunday, when there is more time.

4 day workout split for men and for women

Men and women build muscle the same way, so every plan on this page works for both. What changes is usually the goal, and the split can follow it.

• For women focused on glutes and legs, run the upper lower plan and make the lower days the priority: 4 sets of hip thrusts on Lower B, plus 3 sets of hip thrusts or the hip abduction machine at the end of Lower A. That takes glutes from 3 to 7 direct sets a week, before counting squats and lunges.
• For men focused on chest, shoulders and arms, push pull legs plus upper gives the upper body the most work. Keep the leg day hard, since it is the only one.
• For either, if you want to look athletic and stay strong on the big lifts, upper lower as written is the safest choice.

How to progress on a 4 day split

Use double progression on every exercise. Pick a weight you can lift for the bottom of the rep range with one to three reps left, which is RPE 7 to 9 on the effort scale. Keep it until every set reaches the top of the range, then add the smallest jump and work back up.

Warm up with two or three lighter sets before the first lift of the day; the warm-up calculator works out the weights and the plate calculator loads the bar. To set starting weights from a recent set, use the one rep max calculator. Every six to eight weeks, or when two lifts stall for two weeks running, take a lighter week with half the sets, then carry on from your last good numbers.

Is a 4 day split good? What the research says

No split is magic. A 2024 meta-analysis of 14 studies and 392 people found that split and full body routines gave similar strength gains and similar muscle growth when volume was equal, and concluded that people can choose by preference (Ramos-Campo et al., 2024).

Once versus twice a week has been tested head to head. Trained men did either 16 sets per muscle in one session or 8 sets in each of two sessions for 8 weeks. Strength, muscle thickness and endurance improved by a similar amount in both groups, with effect sizes leaning slightly toward twice a week (Brigatto et al., 2019). That is the case for upper lower as the default, and also why a sensible bro split still works.

A meta-analysis of 25 studies agrees: with volume matched, training a muscle more often made no significant difference to growth. When volume was not matched, higher frequencies came out ahead, but the gap between once and three or more times a week was modest (Schoenfeld et al., 2019). In a 10 week trial in trained men, a split routine even grew the vastus lateralis more than total body training, while total body did better on one of the strength tests (Bartolomei et al., 2021).

What matters most is how many hard sets you do. Across 15 studies, each extra weekly set was linked to a little more growth, and the higher-volume groups gained about 3.9 percentage points more than the lower-volume groups (Schoenfeld et al., 2017). Four days is enough to give chest, back, quads and hamstrings 9 to 13 sets each without any session running long, which is why it suits so many people.

4 day vs 5 day split

A fifth day mostly buys more sets or shorter sessions. If your four workouts already run past 70 minutes, or you want more than about 15 sets a week for a muscle, the 5 day workout split adds push, pull and legs days on top of upper and lower. Otherwise, four days you never miss beat five days you skip one of.

Who should run a 4 day workout split?

Beginners with a few months of lifting can start on the upper lower plan at the bottom of each rep range and with one fewer set on the first exercise of each day. If you have never trained, a three day full body workout routine is the easier first step.

Intermediate lifters get the most from it: enough sets to keep growing, enough rest to keep the big lifts moving. For fat loss, keep the lifting as written and add walking or easy cardio on rest days; the training keeps muscle, the diet takes off the fat. At home with adjustable dumbbells and a bench, swap each barbell and machine lift for its dumbbell version and keep the sets and reps.

Common 4 day split mistakes