The Upper/Lower Split, 4 Days a Week

Why heavy days and volume days

Each half of the body gets two sessions a week, and the two sessions do different jobs. The A days put the big barbell lifts first, in sets of 5 to 8, where you practice moving heavy weight and build the most maximal strength. The B days use dumbbells, cables and machines in sets of 8 to 20, which pile up hard sets for muscle growth without grinding the joints and lower back a second time in the same week.

Muscle grows across a wide range of reps as long as the sets are taken close to failure, so both days build muscle. The split simply means you are never trying to squat heavy twice in four days, and the light day still counts. If you are choosing between this and other ways to fill four days, how to choose a workout split has the decision table.

Weekly sets per muscle

A hard set is one finished within about 3 reps of failure. Warm-up sets do not count. Here is what the program adds up to:

Most muscles sit at about 9 to 13 sets once the compound lifts are given half credit for the muscles they hit indirectly. That is the bottom half of the 10 to 20 sets a week most evidence-based guidelines work with, which is where an intermediate should start: it leaves room to add sets later instead of starting at the ceiling. How many sets per muscle explains the counting and when more is worth it.

To bring up one muscle, add 2 sets of it to the B day and take 2 sets away from somewhere you are happy with. Sessions then stay at 75 minutes or under.

How to progress, with a worked example

Every exercise uses double progression: stay at a weight until you hit the top of the rep range on every set, then add the smallest jump and start again at the bottom.

• Bench, row, overhead press: add 2.5 kg (5 lb).
• Squat, Romanian deadlift, leg press: add 2.5–5 kg (5–10 lb).
• Dumbbell and cable work: go up one dumbbell or one pin, usually 2–2.5 kg (5 lb) per hand. On light dumbbells that is a big jump, so earn it with extra reps first.

Here is what that looks like on the bench, 4 sets of 5 to 6, starting at 80 kg (about 175 lb). Bench comes once a week, on Upper A, so each row is one session:

Three weeks for 2.5 kg (5 lb) looks slow. It is a normal pace for an intermediate on a main lift, and it will not run in a straight line all year: expect stretches where the reps climb and stretches where nothing moves, which is what the deload week and the troubleshooting list below are for. The accessories usually move faster.

The effort target matters as much as the weight. If week 1 already needs everything you have, the weight is too heavy and there is nowhere to go. The RPE and reps-in-reserve chart shows how to judge "2 reps left" honestly.

A 6-week block

Run the program in 6-week blocks: five weeks of pushing, one week easy.

Week 6 is a deload. You keep the weights so the movement stays sharp, but the fatigue drains off and week 1 of the next block usually starts stronger. If you feel fine at week 6, you can push the deload to week 8; if joints ache by week 4, take it then. The deload week guide covers the other ways to run one.

Schedule options

The order is fixed: upper, lower, upper, lower. The days can move. Two rules: never train the same half twice in a row, and give each heavy session at least two days before its matching volume day.

Two on, two off gives you four sessions every eight days instead of seven. That is slightly less work per week and often more consistent, because nothing has to be squeezed in.

If you miss a session, do it the next day you can and move the rest of the week along. If the week runs out, do not cram two sessions into one day. Either let the rotation run past the calendar, so the missed session opens next week, or drop it and start Monday with Upper A. If you have to drop one, drop a volume day: the heavy days carry the lifts you are trying to progress. How upper/lower and push/pull/legs compare when life gets in the way is covered in upper/lower vs push/pull/legs.

Exercise swaps

Change the exercise, keep the slot. A swap should train the same movement in a similar rep range.

Keep a swap for the whole block. Changing exercises every week means you never know whether you got stronger or just did something different.

When something goes wrong

• If a main lift stalls for three sessions in a row: check sleep and food first. If both are fine, drop the weight by 10 percent and work back up over three weeks. If it stalls again at the same point, see how to break a strength plateau.
• If your lower back is tired for Tuesday's squats and RDLs: Monday's barbell rows are the likely cause, because bent-over rows hold the same back muscles under load for four sets. Switch to the chest-supported row and keep everything else.
• If sessions run past 75 minutes: pair the accessories (curl with pushdown, leg curl with calf raise), and keep rest on isolation work to 60 seconds. Do not cut the warm-up.
• If your legs are still sore on Lower B: normal for the first two weeks. If it is still happening in week 3, take one set off the leg press and one off the RDL.
• If your shoulders ache: swap the barbell bench for dumbbells and the overhead press for a landmine or seated dumbbell press, then keep the lateral raises light and strict. Sharp pain, pain that lasts into the next day, or numbness down the arm is a reason to stop that lift and see a doctor or physical therapist, not to train around it.
• If everything feels easy in week 1: good. That is the plan. Raise weights only when the reps say so.

Who this program is for

It suits you if you have trained consistently for six months or more, your beginner gains have slowed, and you can count on four days in a normal week, not just a good one. If you can only guarantee three, a 3-day split will do more for you than a 4-day plan you miss once a week.

If you are brand new, the program still works with two changes: do 3 sets instead of 4 on every lift, and use 8–12 reps on the A days too until you have learned the barbell lifts. If you have six reliable days and would rather train in shorter sessions, the push/pull/legs program spreads similar work over six days.

The program is the same for women. If glutes are the priority, replace the leg extension on Lower B with 3 sets of cable kickbacks, and add 3 sets of hip thrusts to Lower A after the Romanian deadlift. Glutes go from 13 to 19 hard sets a week, quads drop from 13 to 10, and Lower A runs about 8 minutes longer; if that is too long, take the leg press down to 2 sets.

Questions people ask

Is an upper lower split good for building muscle?

Yes. It trains every muscle twice a week with roughly 9 to 13 hard sets, which sits inside the range the research on muscle growth points to. When weekly sets are equal, studies have not found another split that builds more muscle.

Can I do an upper lower split 3 days a week?

Yes, by alternating: upper, lower, upper one week and lower, upper, lower the next. Each half then gets three sessions every two weeks, which is less than full body three days a week gives you.

Is it OK to train upper and lower on back-to-back days?

Yes. They use different muscles, so Tuesday's squats do not need Monday's bench press to have recovered. Three or more training days in a row is where many people start to feel it, which is why every schedule below has a rest day after each pair.

Where do abs and cardio go?

Abs are already on both lower days. Cardio goes on rest days or after lifting. Keep hard intervals away from the day before Lower A, so your legs arrive fresh for squats.

How long should I run this program?

As long as the numbers keep moving, often a year or more with small changes between blocks. Change exercises every two or three blocks if you want variety, but keep the structure.

Should I eat more on this program?

Protein first: about 1.6 g per kg of bodyweight a day covers most people, which is about 130 g for an 80 kg (176 lb) lifter; going up to 2.2 g per kg is a reasonable ceiling, not a requirement. If adding size is the goal, eat a small surplus, roughly 200–300 kcal a day above maintenance, and judge it by your bodyweight trend over a few weeks. Anyone with kidney disease should check with their doctor before eating more protein.

Where these numbers come from

• American College of Sports Medicine position stand, Progression Models in Resistance Training for Healthy Adults (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2009): 3–4 days a week for intermediates, with an upper/lower split as the 4-day option, loads varied across sessions, and load raised by about 2–10 percent once the target reps are beaten.
• Schoenfeld and colleagues, Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy (Sports Medicine, 2016): twice a week per muscle beat once a week.
• Schoenfeld and colleagues, How many times per week should a muscle be trained to maximize muscle hypertrophy? (Journal of Sports Sciences, 2019): once weekly sets are equal, frequency makes little difference, so the case for twice a week is that it spreads the sets into sessions you can do well.
• Schoenfeld and colleagues, Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass (Journal of Sports Sciences, 2017): more weekly sets, more growth, up to a point.
• Schoenfeld and colleagues, Strength and Hypertrophy Adaptations Between Low- vs. High-Load Resistance Training (Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2017): heavy and light sets build similar muscle when taken close to failure; heavy sets build more maximal strength.
• Morton and colleagues, protein supplementation meta-analysis (British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2018): gains in muscle level off at about 1.6 g of protein per kg a day, with the upper end of the estimate near 2.2 g.