4 Day Split Weight Training: Template, Progression and How to Track It
Quick Answer: A 4-day split can work for cutting, bulking or building strength, as long as the weights go up over time. Upper/lower trains each muscle group twice a week. Push, pull, legs and arms trains each once, with more volume per session.
A 4-day split works long-term only if you can see your targets change as you get stronger. A workout list alone won't tell you when to add weight, when to back off, or whether last week's session built any muscle.
In this guide, we'll show you the template. Then we'll show you how to progress it and log it, so the split keeps working month after month.
What Is a 4 Day Workout Split
A 4-day split is a weekly plan that spreads your training across four sessions, each focused on different muscle groups. Many lifters use upper/lower. Others spread it across push, pull, legs and arms, or a weak-point day.
The structure is simple. Muscle comes from knowing how much weight to add each week, and from sticking to the plan. Progression matters more than which split you pick.
Who Should Run a 4-Day Training Split
Run a 4-day split if:
- You can train four days a week on a set pattern, such as Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
- You want each major muscle group worked twice a week.
- You recover well enough in 48 hours between sessions hitting the same muscles.
- You're cutting, bulking, or maintaining and you want a schedule that doesn't take over your week.
The 4-Day Split Weight Training Template
Here's a straightforward upper/lower 4-day split that trains every major muscle group twice a week.
Sample Day-by-Day Breakdown
- Day 1, Upper A: Bench press, overhead press, barbell row, lat pulldown, triceps pushdown
- Day 2, Lower (quad focus): Back squat, leg press, walking lunge, leg extension, calf raise
- Day 3, Rest or mobility
- Day 4, Upper B: Incline dumbbell press, lateral raise, seated cable row, face pull, biceps curl
- Day 5, Lower (hinge focus): Romanian deadlift, hip thrust, leg curl, Bulgarian split squat, calf raise
- Day 6-7, Rest
4 Day Split Workout Routines You Can Swap In
You can also arrange four days as push, pull, legs and arms. This gives arms their own session instead of folding biceps and triceps into the upper days. Each muscle group then trains once a week, so each session needs more sets to match the weekly volume.
Another option is an upper, lower, push, pull hybrid. A strength and hypertrophy split, often called PHUL (Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower), uses two heavier, lower-rep days and two higher-rep accessory days. Pick the layout that matches the muscles you want to prioritize, not the one with the most
Full Body vs Split Training: What's the Difference
A split divides muscle groups across different days, as the 4-day template does. The trade-off is frequency versus volume per session.
Full-body training hits each muscle about three times a week. Each session covers the whole body, so each muscle gets fewer exercises per workout. A split lets you stack more exercises and sets onto one muscle group per session, because you're not trying to fit everything into one day.
Neither is automatically better. Full body suits lifters training three days a week with limited time. A 4-day split suits lifters who want more weekly volume per muscle and can commit to four separate sessions.
3-Day vs 4-Day vs 5-Day: Which Split Fits Your Week
A 3-day split is usually full body or upper/lower/full. It asks for less time, but each session is more intense. A 5-day split adds more exercises per muscle group, but it takes more hours from your week. A 4-day split sits between them.
| Split | Days/Week | Recovery Pattern | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-day split | 3 | Full rest between most sessions | Limited weekly time, beginners, full-body frequency |
| 4-day split | 4 | 48 hours between same-muscle sessions | Balanced time commitment, twice-weekly muscle frequency |
| 5-day split | 5 | Less rest per muscle group, more total volume | Lifters with more weekly hours, specialization goals |
A 2021 study of 67 untrained young men found split and full-body routines produced similar strength and muscle gains when weekly sets were matched (Evangelista et al., einstein). The split you choose should come down to your schedule and recovery.
How to Progress Your 4-Day Split Workout Week to Week
To progress, change the weight or reps on each lift based on what you did last session. Don't guess. Without that feedback, you repeat the same workout and hope for results.
Double progression is the easiest rule to run on a 4-day split. Pick a rep range for each lift. For example, 3 sets of 8–10 on lat pulldown.*
1. Start at a weight you can lift for 8 reps on every set.
2. Add reps each session until all 3 sets reach 10.
3. Then add the smallest jump your equipment allows, often 2.5 kg or 5 lb, and drop back to 8 reps.
If you miss reps two sessions in a row, cut the weight by about 10% and rebuild. Every 4–8 weeks, take a lighter week with about half the sets at moderate effort.
A tracker can do this math for you. More on this in the next section.
Tracking the Split: What Changes When You Log It Properly
A log needs five columns per exercise: date, exercise, weight, reps and RIR (reps in reserve, meaning how many more reps you could have done). Next session, compare each set to the last one. The same weight with more reps, or the same reps at a lower RIR, means you're progressing.
Training and nutrition are easier to compare when they sit in one account. You can see what you ate in the same weeks you hit your lifts.
TRY Fitness is a workout tracker and nutrition log for lifters who want to manage training and macros in one place. It combines macro tracking with RIR and RPE-based workout logging under one subscription. RPE, or rate of perceived exertion, is a 1–10 rating of how hard a set felt.
For each set, RY Fitness suggests a weight and rep target based on your recent performance. Hit the target, beat it, or adjust it, and your next recommendation adapts to what you actually did.
Before committing to a new split, paste the template into TRY’s free program analyzer. You do not need an account, and it shows how your weekly training volume is distributed.
Reality Check: A split template is only as good as the logging behind it. A perfectly written program with no record of what you actually lifted last week tells you nothing about whether you're progressing.
If you're ready to run your 4-day split with real progression tracking instead of a static list, start logging with TRY Fitness.