The Best 4-Day Workout Splits for Muscle & Strength

Below, you’ll find a lucky 13 of our best 4-day workout splits, built by lifters for lifters.

From classic upper/lower programs to powerbuilding routines, bodybuilding bro splits, and powerlifting programs for lifters who want to be as strong as can be.

StrengthLog’s 4-Day Workout Splits

1. 4-Day Bodybuilding Split
2. Bodybuilding Ballet
3. Bodybuilding for Hardgainers
4. Heavy Duty Bodybuilding
5. Intermediate Barbell Program
6. PHUL
7. Powerbuilding
8. Powerlifting Polka
9. Pyramid Workout Routine
10. Strength & Size
11. StrengthLog’s Upper/Lower Program
12. Push Pull Workout Routine
13. Zero to Hero

Click the one you’re interested in to find out more, or scroll down.

How to Choose?

Choose the one that matches your goal. Like:

• If you want a proven combination of size and strength, choose upper/lower, powerbuilding, or, well, Strength & Size.
• If you like training by movement pattern, choose push/pull.
• If you’re a powerlifter, obviously pick a powerlifting routine.
• If you’re a bodybuilder who loves body-part training, choose a bro split.

And, most importantly, pick something fun.

Regardless of your goals and what you like, I think you’ll find a split up your alley here.

What Is a 4-Day Workout Split?

No surprises: 4-day workout splits are training programs where you lift four days per week.

For example:

• Monday: Upper body
• Tuesday: Lower body
• Wednesday: Rest
• Thursday: Upper body
• Friday: Lower body
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest

That’s an upper/lower split, one of the most popular and effective 4-day setups.

But there are no rules you must follow when you decide what to train each workout.

It’s common to split your body up and focus on certain muscle groups, movement patterns, or training goals each workout, but you don’t have to worry about the gym police coming to arrest you if you do four full-body sessions. That’s a legit 4-day split, too.

Why 4 Days Per Week?

It’s not hard to see why it’s a favorite split for both muscle and strength gains.

Personally, I usually stick with a 5-day body part split, but that’s more because I’ve always been partial to bro splits (they’re just more fun to me), not because they are “better.”

In fact, if I had to pick one split with the ideal balance between training for both hypertrophy and strength – and with plenty of time to do stuff outside the gym – I’d probably go with a 4-day.

There’s no doubt that you can make great progress with three days per week, but volume can become a limiting factor once you’re past the beginner stage.

For muscle growth, you’re looking at 10–20 hard weekly sets per muscle group. With four training days at your disposal, you can spread that volume out instead of cramming a crapton of work into a few sessions.

And if you’re training for strength, you can get plenty of practice with your main lifts and still fit in accessory work.

With five or six days per week, yes, you can specialize more, but recovery can become an issue. And not everyone has the time to hit the gym almost every day.

Four days, though, like I said, a favorite. You have room to train hard, recover, and still have a life.

That combination is why 4-day workout splits are so popular among bodybuilders, powerbuilders, and recreational lifters alike. And why so many follow them in our workout log app.

4-Day Bodybuilding Split

This is a premium program.

StrengthLog’s 4-Day Bodybuilding Split is a bro split, but with more flexibility than the classic “one muscle group per week and see you next Monday” setup.

The program splits your training into chest and triceps, back and biceps, shoulders and abs, and legs and calves. You combine muscle groups that work great together, with plenty of recovery before you train them again.

Plus, you can easily adapt it to your schedule and recovery, running it like a traditional weekly split or going for a higher frequency.

Either way, you get built-in progression, enough volume to grow, and the recovery to actually benefit from the work you put in.

Bodybuilding Ballet

This is a premium program.

Bodybuilding Ballet is our premier bro split.

This is a high-volume program that throws free weights, machines, compound lifts, isolation exercises, and a wide range of reps at you for maximum muscle gain.

Each major muscle group gets plenty of work, and even though it’s a body part split, overlapping compound lifts mean your muscles still get their due more often than the term “bro split” might suggest.

The workouts are meaty, and Bodybuilding Ballet isn’t a beginner program. But it’s not pretending to be. If you’ve got the training experience and recovery capacity for it, this program gives you a top-tier muscle-building routine.

(You’ll also find a Lite variant (also with four training days), with lower volume, in the StrengthLog app.)

Bodybuilding for Hardgainers

This is a free program.

Bodybuilding for Hardgainers is a 4-day program for lifters who have a hard time putting on size.

If you’re a hardgainer, you need enough hard work to build muscle, but without burning you out with marathon sessions or advanced-bodybuilder volume you’re not ready for.

This program is simple but effective: back, chest and abs, legs, and shoulders plus arms. It focuses on compound exercises, with isolation work where it makes sense, and enough weekly volume to grow without overdoing it.

Training is only half the equation, of course, but combined with a calorie surplus, this program gets you on the fast track from skinny to muscular.

Heavy Duty Bodybuilding

This is a premium program.

Heavy Duty Bodybuilding is inspired by Mike Mentzer’s high-intensity training philosophy: do less, but make it count.

This program has you training every other day, taking a rest day after each workout, plus two full days of rest after every 4-day cycle. Instead of piling on set after set of junk volume, you’ll do a few hard working sets, using up as little of your body’s recovery capacity as possible.

You’ll rely on pre-exhaust supersets, heavy compound lifts, short workouts, and maximum effort: minimalist training compared to most bodybuilding programs, but minimalist doesn’t mean easy.

Intermediate Barbell Program

This is a free program.

If your beginner gains have slowed down, but you’re not done milking straightforward progress, the Intermediate Barbell Program is a swell next step.

You train four days per week: two upper-body workouts and two lower-body workouts, with one main heavy lift and one lighter.

For example, on one upper-body day, you do heavy bench presses and lighter overhead presses, while the other flips the script. Same for the lower body: one day built around heavy squats, the other around heavy deadlifts.

This program is built around adding weight, adding reps, and improving over time – the things that matter for getting stronger and building muscle, at any level.

PHUL

This is a free program.

PHUL stands for Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower, which should tell you pretty much everything you need to know about this split.

With this program, you get a classic upper/lower split where you train for strength in the first two workouts and for muscle growth in the second two.

It’s a very popular program and well worth checking out for a double strength/hypertrophy whammy, with some worthwhile variation built in. The workouts can run long, but that volume’s part of why the program works.

Powerbuilding

This is a premium program.

Want to be strong and look like you lift? That’s what Powerbuilding is about.

Powerbuilding combines squats, bench presses, and deadlifts as the foundation of your training, then adds accessory work to maximize muscle growth.

Training volume and intensity increase throughout the six-week program, making it a top choice for adding weight to the bar without sacrificing your bodybuilding goals.

(In the StrengthLog app, you’ll also find a Lite version if you want to start with lower volume and shorter workouts (don’t blame you – regular Powerbuilding isn’t for beginners)).

Powerlifting Polka

This is a premium program.

Powerlifting Polka is a six-week powerlifting program and one of our most popular and effective splits for your strength gains.

This 4-day version takes the original 3-day Polka and adds an extra bench press plus pause deadlift workout. That means more bench volume, a lot more deadlift work, and the same amount of squat training.

The program uses 1RM-based percentages, wave progression, heavy low-rep work as well as medium- and higher-rep work, and a taper before max attempts at the end.

It’s not a gentle beginner’s program; it packs quite the punch and is best suited for reasonably advanced lifters who are already used to high training volume and know when to push and when to ease up.

(You’ll also find 3- and 6-day versions of this program in StrengthLog, both of which are lower volume than this 4-day workout split.)

Pyramid Workout Routine

This is a premium program.

What do you get when you start our 4 Day Pyramid Workout Routine? One of the oldest and most reliable strength-training methods, pyramid training, that’s what.

In this program, you start each session with a big compound lift, then follow up with accessory pyramidal work. You increase (or decrease) the weight from set to set, doing different rep ranges to hit your muscle fibers in more than one way.

No, pyramid training isn’t automatically superior to regular straight sets, but it is a fun (and proven) way to overload your muscles and keep your training varied.

Strength & Size

This is a premium program.

Strength & Size combines bodybuilding training with strength and powerlifting in a modified push/pull split, with leg training woven into the week.

The program uses undulating periodization, which is a flowery way of saying you combine heavy, low-rep work for strength with lighter, higher-rep hypertrophy training in the same week.

Some workouts are heavy, some are pump-focused, and all are high-intensity. You hit all muscle groups twice with both compound lifts and accessories, and you get enough volume and recovery in a balance nicely conducive to gains.

StrengthLog’s Upper/Lower Program

This is a free program.

This Upper/Lower Body Split Program is one of the most popular free programs in our app for a reason: it ticks all the big shiny boxes that say gains.

In this program, you train four days per week: two upper-body and two lower-body workouts. Enough frequency to keep growing and enough practice on the lifts you want to improve.

It’s built around the big movement patterns: upper-body pushing, upper-body pulling, squats, and hip hinges. Each workout has a core part with the essentials, plus optional exercises if you have the time and energy.

This program actually makes bad business sense: it’s free, and you could theoretically stick with it and keep making progress for years or decades.

Push Pull Workout Routine

This is a free program.

Push, pull, recover, repeat. That’s the Push Pull Workout Routine in action.

This is a straightforward and uncomplicated program that still covers everything you need: compound lifts, isolation work, progressive overload, and enough weekly volume to build both strength and muscle.

It organizes your workouts by movement pattern, with two workouts focusing on strength, heavier weights and lower reps, and the other two on hypertrophy, with moderate weights and moderate reps.

The popular routine is free in the StrengthLog app, and it’s the kind of program you can keep running over and over.

Zero to Hero

This is a premium program.

Zero to Hero is a 10-week upper/lower split centered around the classic compound lifts.

The program starts with hypertrophy-style training and shifts toward heavy strength work. Over the course of 10 weeks, you move from sets of 10 reps down to heavy singles, ending with (hopefully) new personal records.

Moderate volume, twice-weekly training for the major muscle groups, and workouts designed to be as effective as possible without taking all day.

Not only is this program great for getting strong in general, but it’s also the actual bee’s knees for when you’re not at your peak strength and want to get back to and surpass where you were.

Follow Your 4-Day Workout Split in StrengthLog

You’ve got your program, and you’re ready to lift. What’s next?

You download our workout log app, StrengthLog, follow your program, and start tracking your gains.

The app makes it super easy to keep track of your weights and reps and make sure you’re on the right path.

Many of our 4-day workout splits are free to follow in-app, but some include advanced programming and require a subscription.

You can activate a free 14-day trial in the app, no strings attached and no funny business.

Final Rep

Not all 4-day workout splits are built equal. You want one that aligns with your goals and your level.

Chances are you have one right here.

But the exact split isn’t even the most important part.

That’s showing up, training hard, adding weight, eating enough, recovering, having fun, and sticking with the plan.

Do all that, and any of these plans can take you as far as you want to go.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with your training.

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Last reviewed: 2026-09-02