The Best 4 Day Workout Split: Three Options Compared (With Workouts)

Four days a week is, for most lifters, the point of diminishing returns in the best possible sense. It’s enough sessions to train every muscle group twice a week with real volume, and few enough that recovery isn’t a constant negotiation.

Below are the three structures worth considering, and an honest read on who each one suits.

Option 1: Upper / Lower (the default)

Two upper-body sessions, two lower-body sessions.

Why it wins: four days divides into upper/lower perfectly. Every muscle group gets exactly two sessions, roughly 72 hours apart. Nothing is left over and nothing is doubled up.

Who it suits: almost everyone. If you’re unsure, pick this. The complete programme with every exercise, set and rep is in the upper/lower split guide.

Option 2: Push / Pull ×2

Two push sessions, two pull sessions, with legs distributed across both.

Why it works: it keeps the movement-pattern logic of PPL (pressing muscles together, pulling muscles together) but fits it into four days by folding legs in. Quads go with push (both are knee-extension-adjacent and both are pressing patterns); hamstrings go with pull (hip hinge).

Who it suits: lifters who like PPL’s organisation but can’t train six days. The catch is that leg work lands at the end of already-long sessions, so legs tend to get the tired end of your energy.

Push A

Pull A

Push B and Pull B mirror these with the lead lift swapped (Incline Barbell Press and Front Squat for push; Lat Pulldown and Romanian Deadlift for pull) and rep ranges moved up to 8–15.

Option 3: The 4-day body-part split

Chest and triceps, back and biceps, shoulders and arms, legs.

Why people run it: high volume per muscle group, and sessions feel focused.

Why it’s the weakest of the three: every muscle group is trained once a week. That’s the frequency problem twice-weekly training exists to solve. It can still work (plenty of people have built impressive physiques this way) but at the same weekly volume, spreading the sets across two sessions produces more growth.

Who it suits: advanced lifters with high volume tolerance who’ve already built their base, and anyone whose motivation depends on the session structure feeling like a “chest day”.

How to choose

Pick upper/lower if you want the most reliable result and don’t have a strong preference.

Pick push/pull if you specifically prefer training by movement pattern and are willing to accept legs getting less priority.

Pick the body-part split only if you’ve been training for years, know you recover well, and know you’ll actually turn up because the structure appeals to you.

Volume targets

Whichever you pick, the numbers that matter are the same:

• 12–20 hard sets per muscle group per week for hypertrophy
• 1–3 reps in reserve on compound lifts (stop before technical failure)
• 2–4 minutes rest on compounds, 45–90 seconds on isolation

A “hard set” means a set taken close enough to failure that finishing was genuinely difficult. Three sets of curls with a weight you could do fifteen times isn’t three hard sets: it’s a warm-up.

Progression on four days

Double progression, applied to every lift:

1. Choose a rep range for the exercise (5–8 for compounds, 8–12 or 12–15 for isolation).
2. Work at a weight where the bottom of the range is hard.
3. Add reps session by session until you hit the top of the range across all sets.
4. Add the smallest available increment and reset to the bottom.

Four days a week gives you two chances a week to beat each lift, which means progression arrives faster than on a three-day programme, and stalls arrive faster too. When a lift stops moving for three weeks, change the rep range before you change the exercise.

Deloads

Every 6–8 weeks: same sessions, same sets and reps, about 60% of your working weights.

Four days a week accumulates fatigue faster than three. Skipping deloads is the single most common reason a four-day programme that worked brilliantly for two months stops working in the third.

Common mistakes

Adding a fifth day when you stall. More volume is rarely the answer to a stall on four days. Deload, then reassess.

Both upper days identical. Vary the lead lift and the rep range, or you’re doing the same session twice with extra fatigue.

Legs last, always. On the push/pull version especially, legs land at the end of every session. Rotate which comes first, or your lower body will lag.

Ignoring recovery signals. Four days a week is enough volume that under-recovery shows up as stalled lifts rather than obvious soreness. If your numbers are flat and your sleep is poor, that’s the answer.

---

ForgeFit tracks your weekly set count per muscle group automatically, so the 12–20 set target is something you can see rather than estimate. Connect Apple Health and Ember factors your sleep and HRV into whether today should be the heavy session or the one you back off.

Frequently asked questions