StrengthLog’s Upper/Lower Machine Program, 4x/Week

StrengthLog’s Upper/Lower Machine Program is a 4-day training program for intermediate lifters who want to build muscle and get stronger using only machines.

In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the workout plan: if it’s for you, what the program looks like, how to get started, and more.

This is a free program in our workout tracker app, StrengthLog. When you follow it in-app, you can easily keep track of the weights you use, how many reps you do, and see your gains as they happen.

Download StrengthLog to get started:

Or click here to go directly to the Upper/Lower Machine Program in the app.

Note: If you’re just starting out, the volume and intensity of this program might be a bit much. Our beginner machine programs will be a better fit for you at this point:

• Beginner Machine Program
• Bodybuilding for Beginners: Machine Version

Can You Build Muscle and Strength With Machines?

Sure you can! Just as well as with free weights.

For decades, people have argued over free weights and machines, with the “hardcore” crowd often dismissing machines. Somewhere, a free-weight purist just spat out their protein shake reading the above. “But… but… functional strength!”

Listen, muscle is functional. Strength is functional. No matter how you build them. And current exercise science confirms what many of us have known for a while: machines are fantastic for building both muscle and strength.¹

For muscle growth, studies find no significant difference between free-weight training and machine-based training. Machines work great because they let you really focus on pushing your muscles to their limit by removing the need for stability. And you don’t need a spotter to avoid getting pinned under a heavy barbell.

• If you train with free weights, you get stronger overall, but strongest at free weight exercises.
• If you train with machines, you also get stronger overall, but strongest at machine-based training.

Both types of training build real-world strength. That machine strength isn’t functional strength is an old myth.

Now, if you’re a competitive powerlifter or want to be one, you must train your competitive lifts: the free-weight bench press, squat, and deadlift. That’s the specificity principle in action: you become good at what you do.

To recap:

Do machines work?

• For building muscle: ✅
• For getting stronger: ✅
• For functional fitness and health: ✅

If you want any or all of the above, a machine training program can be your go-to workout plan. If you don’t want to or can’t use free weights, you don’t have to.

And StrengthLog’s Upper/Lower Machine Program covers all those bases.

Here’s how:

Why Upper/Lower Splits Are Great

Following an upper/lower workout split is arguably one of the most effective ways to train for just about anyone, from a beginner learning the ropes to intermediate and even advanced lifters looking to pack on muscle and strength.

When I started training back in the 1980s, I used an upper/lower split for years, and made some of my best gains while on it. Admittedly, the fact that I was new to lifting was a huge factor for those gains, not necessarily the program per se, but the point is: upper/lower worked, and it worked great!

Here’s the lowdown on why it kicks butt.

Training Frequency

The biggest win for the upper/lower split is training frequency.

With a 4-day schedule (e.g., Mon: Upper, Tue: Lower, Thu: Upper, Fri: Lower), you’re hitting every muscle group twice a week.

• Research shows that training a muscle group 2–3 times per week is very effective for muscle growth.² You stimulate the muscle, let it recover for 48–72 hours, and then you hit it again, right as it’s finished building itself back up and is ready for more. It’s like knocking on the door for gains, leaving, and then coming back right when the door is unlocked.
• In addition, lifting is a skill. The more often you practice your lifts, the better your brain gets at firing the right muscles in the right order. When you train each muscle several times per week, you train your so-called “neuromuscular efficiency,” and that means you get stronger, faster.

Other Awesome Perks

The upper/lower split has other great things going for it:

• It’s simple. Is the muscle in your upper body? Train it today. Is it in your lower body? Train it tomorrow. There’s no overthinking “Hmm, do shoulders go with chest or arms?” Upper. Lower. That’s it.
• Because you’re only training half your body, you can recover well before it’s time to hit those same muscles again. You’re not annihilating a single muscle group into oblivion, which can take a full week to recover from, but you’re still doing enough work to trigger growth. That way of training also works very well, but is perhaps best for more advanced bodybuilders.
• An upper/lower split almost begs you to focus on the big, heavy compound exercises that give you the most bang for your buck. In other words, they’re time-efficient, and you get a lot done in relatively short sessions.

StrengthLog’s Upper/Lower Machine Program Overview

Now, let’s take a closer look at StrengthLog’s Upper/Lower Machine Program: workouts, exercises, sets, reps, and tips and recommendations for how you can make the best gains possible and progress over time.

You’ll train four days per week and hit each major muscle group twice weekly.

You’ll get stronger, build muscle, and get all the positive health effects only strength training can provide, and you’ll do it with machine-only training: gym machines, cables, and the Smith machine.

How the Upper/Lower Machine Program Is Structured

Here’s what you’ll be training each day:

• Day 1: Upper body
• Day 2: Lower body (plus abs)
• Day 3: Rest
• Day 4: Upper body
• Day 5: Lower Body (plus abs)
• Day 6: Rest
• Day 7: Rest

That’s the default schedule, but you’re free to shift the days around to fit your life and schedule.

For example, you could train two days in a row, rest one, train one, rest one, and train one. As long as you get your four workouts in, you’re good.

Below is a detailed peek at a week of the Upper/Lower Machine Program, the way it’s programmed in StrengthLog.

Upper Body Workout #1

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Smith Machine Incline Bench Press	4	6
Lat Pulldown	4	8
Machine Shoulder Press	3	8
Seated Machine Row	3	8
Cable Curl	2	10
Tricep Pushdown	2	10

Lower Body Workout #1

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Smith Machine Squat	4	6
Seated Leg Curl	4	10
Leg Extension	3	10
Hip Thrust Machine	3	10
Leg Press Calf Raise	3	12
Machine Crunch	3	15

Upper Body Workout #2

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Machine Chest Press	4	10
Cable Seated Row	4	10
Machine Chest Fly	3	12
Cable Lateral Raise	3	12
Machine Biceps Curl	3	12
Overhead Cable Triceps Extension	3	12

Lower Body Workout #2

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Leg Press	4	10
Smith Machine Romanian Deadlift	4	8
Smith Machine Lunge	3	10
Leg Extension	3	12
Seated Calf Raise	3	15
Cable Crunch	3	12

Feel free to swap exercises for ones that you prefer or that work better for your body and the equipment available at your gym.

For example, you could do hack squats instead of Smith machine squats, or machine triceps extensions instead of using a cable. And it’s all good.

StrengthLog even has a built-in function that suggests alternative exercises, so if the default selection isn’t your cup of whey, go ahead and change things up.

Warm-Up & Prep for the Upper/Lower Machine Routine (Fast, Effective Template)

Don’t forget to warm up before loading up the full stack of the machine. You’ll improve performance and might reduce the risk of injury. Warming up is most important early in the workout.

Try this short and sweet routine before your workouts:

• General: 5–8 minutes of easy cardio + 2–3 dynamic drills for the day’s joints (e.g., high knees, hip openers, scapular pull-ups).
• Specific: Do one or two light warm-up sets of your first exercise, then go. One warm-up set is likely enough for later compound lifts, and you might not need any at all before isolation exercises for the same muscles you’ve just trained with compounds.

Program Progression: How to Keep Building Muscle and Strength

You’ve got the map (your program as detailed above and at your fingertips in the StrengthLog app). But now you want to make sure the journey actually goes somewhere instead of just walking in circles.

That’s smart. It is, without a doubt, the most important part of strength training.

The magic word you’re looking for is progressive overload.

It might sound super sciency, but it’s very simple. It just means:

You have to make your workouts harder over time.

Your body is kinda lazy. It doesn’t have much interest in building new, expensive-to-maintain muscle or getting stronger unless you force its hand.

Doing the same three sets of 10 reps with 100 lb on the machine press forever will make you really good at, well, doing 3×10 at 100 lb. Your body adapts to that stress and says, “Cool, got it. No need to change.”

To progress, you have to give it a new, slightly harder problem to solve.

Progressive Overload

Here are the main ways you can “overload” your muscles. You don’t do all of these at once! You pick one (max two) and focus on it.

1. Add More Weight (Intensity): The most obvious one. You did three sets of 10 with 100 lb? Next time, you try for three sets of 10 with 105 lb.
2. Add More Reps (Volume): You keep the weight the same, but you do more reps. Your program says three sets of 10? Last week you got 10, 9, 8. This week, you fight for 10, 10, 9 or even 10, 9, 9. Before you know it, you’re at those 3×10 and can add more weight (step 1).
3. Add More Sets (Volume): You were doing three sets of 10? After a few weeks to months, maybe you progress to 4 sets of 10.
4. Decrease Your Rest Time (Density): You did all your sets with 2 minutes of rest. Next week, you try to do it all with only 90 seconds of rest. You’ll make the workout way harder without changing weight or reps. This is not always the best way to get stronger (you can’t lift as heavy), but it’s great to save time and works well (although not necessarily better) for building muscle.
5. Improve Your Form (Technique): Maybe last week your 100-lb squat was a little high. This week, you use the same weight, but you sink it all the way down (a$$-to-grass) with perfect control. That is also progress. You’ve increased the range of motion and made the lift more effective.

A Super-Simple Plan

This is my favorite method for most people and the one I recommend you use when you follow the upper/lower machine routine. At least unless you’re an advanced lifter and know exactly the progression system that works best for you.

It uses weight and reps.

Let’s say your program calls for four sets of 10 reps on the leg press. And it does, if you’re following this program.

• Week 1: You pick a weight you’re pretty sure you can get all 40 reps with (4×10).
• Week 2: You add something like 5 lb (for weight stack exercises, move the pin down one notch). You’ll probably get something like 10, 9, 8, 8 reps. Or lower (and that’s fine).
• Week 3: You use the same weight. You fight to beat last week’s numbers. Let’s say you get 10, 10, 9, 8. Almost there!
• Week 4: Same weight again. You fight again. Now you get 11, 10, 10, 10. You did it!
• Week 5: Time to increase the load again, and the battle to reach 4×10 starts over, with an even heavier weight. And you repeat the process.

The Most Important Tool: Your Logbook

You must track your workouts. Your memory is a terrible liar.

If you’re not tracking, you’re guessing.

You need to walk into the gym knowing exactly what you did last time, so you know exactly what you need to do (or try to do) this time to beat it.

The good news is that the same app you use to follow the Upper/Lower Machine Program is also the best way to track your progress over time.

Follow the Upper/Lower Machine Program in StrengthLog

This workout routine is one of our many free programs in our workout log app, StrengthLog,

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

It remembers what weights you used in your last session, and automatically loads them into your next one. And trying to improve on your last workout is the key to improving and getting stronger over time.

Download it and start tracking your gains today!

StrengthLog is free to use, and so is this program.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Upper/Lower Machine Program

Final Rep

Well, that’s a wrap. You now have a complete machine-only plan that’ll build strength and put muscle on just about anyone.

But remember that you can’t just grind yourself into dust. You don’t get stronger or build muscle when you’re in the gym. You get stronger when you recover from the gym.

• Sleep is when your body repairs itself. You skimp on sleep, you skimp on progress.
• Food makes your gains possible. You can’t build a brick house without bricks. Proteins are bricks for your muscles, and you need enough energy (calories) to fund the construction project.

It’s a simple feedback loop:

Stress (training) ➡️ Recover (eat/sleep) ➡️ Adapt (get stronger).

So, the key is to always challenge yourself in a small, manageable, and trackable way.

You’ve got a machine-only program, but it’s certainly not effort-free. Time to get to work.

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Last reviewed: 2025-11-10

References

1. BMC Sports Sci Med Rehabil. 2023 Aug 15;15(1):103. Effect of free-weight vs. machine-based strength training on maximal strength, hypertrophy and jump performance – a systematic review and meta-analysis.
2. Sports Med. 2016 Nov;46(11):1689-1697. Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.