4 Day Upper Lower Split Workout Plan
Two upper days and two lower days a week, compounds first and accessories after. A four-day split with every set, rep and rest period listed.
Routines
Day 1 — Upper A
Vertical pull and horizontal press emphasis; balanced with row, shoulders, arms, and core.
Day 2 — Lower A
Squat + hinge day with unilateral work, hamstrings, calves, and anti-rotation core.
Day 3 — Upper B
Horizontal press with vertical pull; scapular health, arms, and core accessories.
Day 4 — Lower B
Sumo squat focus; hip hinge and glute work with hamstrings, calves, and rotational core.
About this plan
An upper/lower split is the point where most people stop guessing. Two upper days, two lower days, each muscle group trained roughly twice a week — which is about where the research settles for building size and strength — and enough recovery between sessions that you can actually push.
Upper A opens with a close-grip lat pulldown and a chest press, then a T-bar row, incline front raise, triceps extension and curls, finishing with lying leg raises. Upper B covers the same patterns from different angles: standing chest press, single-arm pulldown, suspension row, Y raise, cable kickback and inner-grip curl. That angle change is the point — the second session is not a repeat, it is a second look at the same muscles.
Lower A is a squat, a straight-leg deadlift, a forward-leaning lunge, a leg curl, a seated calf raise, a Pallof press and a hip bridge. Lower B swaps to sumo squats, cable pull-throughs, step-ups and a straight-hip leg curl. Squat pattern, hinge pattern, single leg, calves, core — twice a week, from two directions.
Everything here is a machine, cable, band or suspension trainer. That is deliberate for a first split: fixed paths let you learn the movement without also learning how to balance a loaded barbell, and you can add weight in small steps without a spotter.
Run it Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, or any pattern that leaves a day between the two upper sessions. If you can only make three days, run Upper A, Lower A, Upper B one week and pick up at Lower B the next. The rotation matters more than the calendar.
Progress by adding a rep before adding weight. When every set in an exercise hits the top of its rep range with clean form, add the smallest increment the machine allows and start again at the bottom of the range. Two sessions where nothing moves is normal. Four is a signal to check your sleep and your protein before you change the programme.
The main lifts are worth filming from the side once a month. Bar path and depth drift slowly, and the drift is invisible from the inside.
Train this plan in the app
LoadMuscle carries all 4 routines with a demo for every exercise, and logs your sets as you go, so next session you can see what to beat. Free on iPhone and Android.
Want something built around your own schedule and equipment instead? Try the free workout planner.
