4-Day Workout Program: A Complete Upper/Lower Gym Split

The 4-Day Upper/Lower Split

The program comes down to four workouts, two for the upper body and two for the lower body. It’s called an upper/lower split, or just upper/lower. You do Upper 1, Lower 1, Upper 2 and Lower 2 in that order, for example on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. That way each muscle gets trained twice a week.

In the tables, “3 × 8–10” means three sets of 8 to 10 reps, and that range is what tells you when to increase the weight.

Upper 1

Exercise	Sets	Rest
Barbell bench press	3 × 8–10	2–3 min
Seated cable row	3 × 8–12	2–3 min
Overhead press	3 × 8–10	2–3 min
Lat pulldown	3 × 8–12	2–3 min
Pec deck	3 × 10–15	1–2 min
Dumbbell curl	3 × 10–15	1–2 min
Triceps pushdown	3 × 10–15	1–2 min

Lower 1

Exercise	Sets	Rest
Barbell squat	3 × 8–10	2–3 min
Romanian deadlift	3 × 8–10	2–3 min
Leg extension	3 × 10–15	1–2 min
Leg curl	3 × 10–15	1–2 min
Standing calf raise	3 × 10–15	1–2 min
Cable crunch	3 × 10–15	1–2 min

Upper 2

Exercise	Sets	Rest
Incline dumbbell press	3 × 8–12	2–3 min
Seated cable row	3 × 8–12	2–3 min
Machine chest press	3 × 8–12	2–3 min
Lat pulldown	3 × 8–12	2–3 min
Lateral raise	3 × 10–15	1–2 min
Dumbbell curl	3 × 10–15	1–2 min
Triceps pushdown	3 × 10–15	1–2 min

Lower 2

Exercise	Sets	Rest
Leg press	3 × 8–12	2–3 min
Romanian deadlift	3 × 8–10	2–3 min
Leg extension	3 × 10–15	1–2 min
Leg curl	3 × 10–15	1–2 min
Standing calf raise	3 × 10–15	1–2 min
Cable crunch	3 × 10–15	1–2 min

Print the program

The Rest column gives the rest between two sets of the same exercise. It’s longer on compound exercises, the ones that work several muscles at once like the squat or the bench press. It’s shorter on isolation exercises, which target just one, like the curl. The article on how long to rest between sets explains where these times come from.

The three sets in the table are working sets. Before the first two exercises of each workout, start with one or two lighter sets of the same exercise. You don’t need any other warm-up, according to a 2021 review on short workouts.

Which Days to Train

Put the four workouts on whichever days suit you, keeping the order Upper 1, Lower 1, Upper 2, Lower 2. You can train two days in a row, because an upper-body workout and a lower-body workout don’t work the same muscles. So your legs recover on the day you do your bench press.

Three weekly schedules that work:

• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, if you want to keep your weekend free.
• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, if your Friday is taken.
• Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, if you have few free evenings during the week.

Even with no rest day between two workouts, you make just as much progress. In a 2018 study, 30 young men followed the same program for 12 weeks, some on three days in a row, the others with one or two days between workouts. Both groups gained as much strength and as much lean mass, even though the first group trained the same muscles three days in a row. In this program upper and lower alternate, so you have even more leeway.

What Weight to Use and When to Increase It

Start each exercise with a weight that leaves you some room at the bottom of the range, then increase it when all three of your sets reach the top. So on an exercise set at 8 to 10 reps, you stop at 8 feeling you could have done two or three more. Those reps you didn’t do are called reps in reserve. The first week is for finding those weights, and the RPE calculator helps you estimate them.

You don’t need to push any further, because you don’t make more progress by going to failure, meaning the last rep you can do. That’s the position of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in its 2026 recommendations, drawn from 137 research reviews.

After that, keep the same weight and try to get at least one more rep than last time, on any of the three sets. Last time means the last workout where you did that exercise. For the Romanian deadlift, which is in both Lower 1 and Lower 2, that’s the previous lower-body workout. For the squat, which is only in Lower 1, it’s Lower 1 from the week before.

When all three sets are at the top of the range, move to the next weight up and start again from the bottom. On a barbell that’s 2.5 kg more, on a machine one more plate, and with dumbbells the next pair up. This rule is called double progression.

Take the Romanian deadlift, set at 8 to 10 reps, and say you start at 60 kg.

In the fourth workout, two sets out of three are at 10 and you still stay at 60 kg, because the third isn’t there yet. In the fifth, all three are, so you move up to 62.5 kg and start again from 8 reps.

To find your reps from last time, log every set with its weight.

How Long a Workout Takes

An upper-body workout takes a little over an hour and a lower-body workout a little under: 63 and 52 minutes if you take the middle of each rest range.

The math assumes 40 seconds per working set, 2 min 30 sec of rest on compound exercises, 1 min 30 sec on isolation exercises and 2 minutes per station change. These are rough figures, and a packed gym stretches them fast.

The upper-body workouts are longer because they have seven exercises, four of them compound, while the lower-body ones have six, two of them compound. Upper 2 and Lower 2 take as long as Upper 1 and Lower 1.

If you’re short on time, do one set of curls then one set of triceps pushdowns before you rest, instead of finishing one exercise before moving on to the other. That pairing is called a superset. The two exercises don’t work the same muscles, so one rests while the other works, and you save about three minutes. On lower-body days, you can do the same with the leg extension and the leg curl. The 2021 review on short workouts lists supersets among the ways to save time without cutting sets.

What to Replace an Exercise With

When a station is taken, do the same movement with different equipment, for example dumbbells instead of a barbell.

You don’t lose strength by switching equipment, since the ACSM finds no difference between machines and free weights. For muscle growth, there isn’t enough data yet.

If the station is taken every workout, stick with the variation for good rather than going back and forth. To tell whether you’ve made progress, you need the same exercise from one workout to the next, and a 60 kg barbell can’t be compared with two 24 kg dumbbells.

If You Miss a Workout

If you miss a workout, do it the next day and push the following ones back without changing the order. Missed Lower 1 on Tuesday? Do it on Wednesday, then Upper 2 on Thursday and Lower 2 on Friday. That makes three days in a row, which isn’t a problem since upper and lower alternate.

If the week ends before you’ve been able to make it up, start the next week with the workout you missed, then carry on in order. You don’t add a fifth workout to catch up, you just push the rest back.

One missed workout doesn’t wipe out your week. Without Lower 2, your legs still have the sets from Lower 1, which is half of their week, and your upper body loses nothing.

How Many Sets per Muscle Group per Week

This program gives the major muscle groups between 10.5 and 12 sets a week, and the calves and abs 6. The half sets come from the way of counting, because a set counts in full for the muscle doing most of the work and as half a set for the ones that help. So the triceps get 6 sets of pushdowns, plus half of the week’s 12 sets of presses, which makes 12. The article on how many sets per muscle group per week explains this way of counting in detail.

For muscle growth, the ACSM benchmark is 10 or more sets per muscle group per week. The calves and abs only get 6 because they have just one exercise, in the lower-body workouts. That’s less than the benchmark, but more than the minimum of 4 sets recommended by the 2021 review on short workouts.

If there’s a muscle you most want to develop, add a fourth set to its exercises. One more set on the squat and the leg press brings the glutes to 12, and one more set on the overhead press and the lateral raise brings the shoulders to 12.5. With a fourth set, the calves and abs go up to 8.

Upper/Lower, Body-Part Split or PPL on 4 Days

On four days a week, upper/lower, a body-part split and PPL bring the same progress when the number of sets per muscle is the same. Upper/lower is the one that copes best with a missed workout.

All three spread the same muscles across the week in different ways. A body-part split gives each muscle group its own day, for example chest and triceps on Monday, back and biceps on Tuesday, legs on Thursday and shoulders on Friday. So each muscle is trained once a week instead of twice. PPL, short for push/pull/legs, has three workouts: one for the muscles that push, one for the ones that pull and one for the legs.

That difference in frequency doesn’t change muscle growth. A review of 25 studies finds no difference between a muscle trained once a week and the same muscle trained more often, as long as the total number of sets is the same.

Other studies have directly compared a split with full body, where the whole body is trained in every workout. They come to the same result.

1. 2021Upper/Lower or Full Body, the Same Strength

   Johnsen and van den Tillaar have 21 trained men lift four times a week for 8 weeks, some on an upper/lower split, the others on full body. With the same total work, both groups gain as much on the squat and the bench press.

2. 2022The Same in Women New to Lifting

   Pedersen and colleagues give the same exercises and the same number of sets to 50 women who weren’t training, as four upper/lower workouts or as two full-body workouts. After 12 weeks, strength and muscle mass have increased as much in both groups.

3. 202414 Studies, No Difference

   A review of 14 studies compares full body with programs that spread the muscles over several days. With the same number of sets, the gains in strength and muscle are similar, and its authors conclude that you can choose based on what you prefer.

Upper/lower still has a practical edge. When you miss a workout on a body-part split, that day’s muscles get no sets at all for the week, whereas on upper/lower they keep half of them.

For strength, coming back to a muscle twice a week may be a small plus. According to a review of 67 studies published in 2026, strength improves a little more when a muscle is trained more often, but the ACSM notes that this advantage shrinks when the number of sets is the same.

PPL, on the other hand, is an awkward fit for four days because it only has three workouts. Either one of them comes up twice in the week, or the cycle shifts from one week to the next. It slots more easily into three or six days.

3 or 4 Days a Week

A fourth day is for doing more sets. This program has 78 a week, versus 54 for the 3-day workout program, which means 12 sets for most muscles instead of 9. In return, you spend about an hour more at the gym: 3 hr 50 min a week instead of 2 hr 46 min.

Those extra sets bring you a little more progress, but each added set pays off less than the one before, according to the review of 67 studies. The fourth day adds nothing else, because training a muscle more often without doing more sets doesn’t build more muscle.

Four workouts are also harder to stick to. In the 2022 study, four participants in the four-workout group dropped out for lack of time or motivation, and none in the two-workout group. So if you’re making progress on three workouts, you can leave it at that.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Lifting 4 Days a Week Enough?

Yes, four workouts a week are enough to build muscle and strength. This program gives the major muscle groups 10.5 to 12 sets a week, above the ACSM benchmark of 10 sets for muscle growth. For strength, the ACSM advises at least 2 workouts a week.

Is This Program Suitable for Beginners?

Yes, a beginner can follow this program. The ACSM recommendations apply to beginners and trained lifters alike, and the 2022 study had women who weren’t training follow a four-workout upper/lower split. They didn’t progress faster than with two full-body workouts, so you can also start with the 3-day program.

Is This Program Suitable for Women?

Yes, this program works for women as well as men. The 2022 study on the four-workout upper/lower split was carried out on women, and the ACSM recommendations don’t set out separate settings for them. Like anyone else, you can add a set for the muscles you most want to develop.

When Should You Move to 5 Workouts a Week?

Move to five workouts when your four workouts have become too long to add any more sets. Before that, add a fourth set to the exercises for the muscles you want to develop, because one more day without more sets doesn’t build more muscle.