How to Program a 4-Day Workout Split for Gaining Muscle Mass

4-day workout splits are a popular way of training, and rightfully so. You’ll see a lot of bodybuilders doing a chest day, back day, leg day, and arm day. And that can work, depending on how you do it. You’ll see a lot of athletes doing upper/lower splits, alternating between upper-body days and lower-body days. That can be great for gaining mass, too. And one of my favourite ways of training is to combine full-body workouts with a split routine, doing 2–3 full-body workouts and then 1–2 workouts focused on something more specific, such as bringing up a target area.

So not only are 4-day workout routines great for building muscle, there are also quite a few different ways of programming them, and all of them can be quite effective for gaining muscle mass and strength.

In this article, we’ll talk about the pros and cons of 4-day workout splits, how they compare against 3-day full-body routines, how best to program them, and then we’ll give you some sample workouts.

How to Train for Muscle Mass

When building a workout routine for gaining muscle mass, there are a few factors that we need to consider. Now, to be clear, there’s nuance to all of this, but as a rule of thumb, here’s how how to train for muscle growth:

• Choose good exercises: we want to choose the lifts that are best for stimulating muscle growth, usually building our routines out of the big compound lifts: the front squat, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, and chin-up. After that, we can add in smaller lifts to work the muscles that aren’t properly stimulated, such as biceps curls and triceps extensions to build bigger arms. Fortunately, 4 days is a lot to work with. We have room for tons of great lifts.
• Do enough sets per week: Most research shows that doing somewhere between 9–18 sets per muscle per week is ideal for building muscle.
• Do enough reps per set: Most research shows that doing 4–40 reps per set will build muscle, but that we gain more muscle more easily by keeping most of our training in the 6–20 rep range. Usually, the big compound lifts are done for fewer reps, the lighter isolation lifts for higher reps.
• Rest long enough between sets: to recover properly between sets, we usually need to rest somewhere between 2–5 minutes between sets. That allows us to lift harder in subsequent sets, stimulating more muscle growth.
• Train often enough: to maximize our rate of muscle growth, we want to train our muscles 2–4 times per week, and 4-day workout splits are perfect for this.
• Train hard enough: to make sure that we’re challenging our muscles, we need to bring our sets within 0–3 reps of failure on most sets.
• Outlift yourself: we don’t need to hit PRs every workout, but we should always try to either add weight to the bar or eke out extra reps. That’s how we achieve progressive overload, becoming bigger and stronger over time.

There are plenty of ways to satisfy all these requirements, ranging from 2-day full-body routines to 6-day split routines. Still, different workout routines each have their own pros and cons, and some are certainly better than others. On the one hand, if you’re only training twice per week, it’s hard to squeeze all of those exercises in. On the other hand, if you’re training 6 days per week, it’s hard to manage joint stress and fatigue, and the workouts tend to be fairly inefficient.

For another example, if we look at 3-day push/pull/legs routines, the training frequency is too low. We’re only working each muscle once per week. A recent meta-analysis of all the relevant research shows that isn’t enough to maximize our rate of muscle growth:

So what’s great about 4-day workout splits is that they aren’t extreme. We’re working out a moderate amount with a moderate training frequency, and for most intermediate lifters, that tends to be ideal for building muscle. We can train every muscle 2–4 days per week, we have enough time to do all of the best exercises, and our workload is spread out over enough days that it’s fairly easy to push ourselves hard every workout. That’s why, if we do it right, 4-day workout routines can be absolutely perfect for building muscle.

The Advantages of 4-Day Workout Splits

Okay, so, we’ve covered how 4-day workout splits can be great for building muscle, and that’s true. But they’re not the only great way to build muscle. There are a few equally good options, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. For example:

• A 3-day full-body workout routine.
• A 5-day split workout routine.
• A 6-day push/pull/leg split routine.

However, those 5 and 6-day routines don’t tend to offer much extra muscle growth over 4-day routines. They can work, and they’re great, but it often means spending more time in the gym without seeing much extra benefit from it. They’re more for people who enjoy going to the gym as part of their daily routines, or for people who enjoy doing very short workouts. So the advantage to 4-day splits, then, is that they’re more efficient without sacrificing much, if any, muscle growth.

That leaves us with 3-day workout routines. How do they compare? Pretty well, actually, especially for beginners and early intermediates. But as you get stronger, your sets will become more draining, requiring longer rest times. If you’re benching 115–185 pounds for sets of 8 reps, you may only need to rest 2 minutes between your sets. But when you’re benching 275 for sets of 8, that’s a different story. Those sets can be rough, and you may need a good 5 minutes of rest before getting back under the barbell.

When your exercises are that tiring, and when you need to spend that much time resting between sets, full-body workouts can become quite a bit longer and harder. That’s when it starts to make sense to either, a) do specialization phases, focusing on bulking up just a few muscles at a time, or b) add a fourth workout day.

This is the approach I took after bulking from 130 up to 185 pounds using a 3-day full-body workout routine. My progress had plateaued, and I wanted to gain a bit more muscle mass, so I added a fourth workout day. And it worked. I was able to bulk up to 195 pounds while increasing my bench press rep max to 15 reps with 225. From there, I dropped back down to a 3-day routine and brought my 1-rep max up to an awkward 315 pounds—my lifetime goal:

So although 4-day workout routines aren’t quite as efficient as 3-day full-body routines, once you become strong enough, they can be a great way to continue gaining more muscle mass. An extra workout day means gives us more time and energy to train, allowing us to increase our training volume and intensity.

The Downsides of 4-Day Workout Splits

There are no major downsides to 4-day workout splits. The only real disadvantage compared to 3-day routines is that you need to invest the extra time into doing a fourth workout. That can mean going to the gym or setting up your home gym, going through a warm-up routine, doing warm-up sets, and you know the drill. Spreading your volume out over more workouts means more time spent prepping to work out.

The other thing is, you don’t always get extra muscle growth out of the extra time investment. When compared against full-body workouts, 4-day routines don’t always stimulate more muscle growth. For example, in this study, the participants doing a 4-day routine increased their chest circumference by slightly more, but still gained about the same amount of overall muscle mass as the group training just 3 days per week.

With that said, 4-day workout splits are great. In fact, they’re tied for first place. It’s one of the very best ways to train. And for stronger lifters, they’re often the best approach. We get to train our muscles often enough and hard enough. Our connective tissues still get plenty of rest, and most people can recover from them fairly well. So if you want to add an extra workout day, I say go for it.

Sample 4-Day Workout Routines

What’s great about 4-day workout splits is that there are a variety of different options, and many of them are good. Let’s go over a few different 4-day workout splits, each with different pros and cons, and each for slightly different goals. Feel free to adjust these routines to better fit your goals. These are just rough frameworks.

These are fairly minimalistic workout routines. You can add exercises for the muscles you’re most eager to grow. You don’t have to, but adding extra volume is usually a good way to speed up muscle growth. If you want to accelerate your chest growth, feel free to add in some smaller exercises for your chest, such as push-ups, dips, incline bench presses, dumbbell bench presses, chest flyes, or a few sets on a chest press machine.

4-Day Full-Body Split

One of the best ways to program a 4-day routine is to cycle through 4 different full-body workouts. Every workout, we train a wide variety of muscle groups, giving us a great training frequency, great exercise variety, giving our joints plenty of rest, and allowing us to train our muscles while they’re fresh.

You can shuffle the workouts around to fit your schedule. It’s pretty flexible. But here’s a good default approach:

• Monday: Full-Body Workout 1
• Tuesday: Rest
• Wednesday: Full-Body Workout 2
• Thursday: Rest
• Friday: Full-Body Workout 3
• Saturday: Full-Body Workout 4
• Sunday: Rest

Full-Body Workout 1

• Front Squat: 4×8 for your quads, glutes, and back.
• Dumbbell Bench: 3×12 for your chest.
• Romanian Deadlift: 3×10 for your glutes and hamstrings.
• Neck Curls: 3×20 for your neck.

Full-Body Workout 2

• Bench Press: 3×8 for your chest and front delts.
• Skull crushers: 3×15 for your triceps.
• Leg Press: 3×8 for your quads.
• Barbell Row: 3×15 for your upper back and forearms.

Full-Body Workout 3

• Deadlift: 3×6 for your glutes, hamstrings, and back.
• Incline Bench Press: 3×8 for your shoulders and upper chest.
• Incline Biceps Curls: 3×12 for your biceps.
• Neck Extensions: 3×20 for your neck.

Full-Body Workout 4

• Overhead Press: 3×6 for your shoulders.
• Chin-Up: 3×8 for your back and biceps.
• Overhead Triceps Extensions: 3×12 for your triceps.
• Lateral Raises: 3×12 for your side delts.

4-Day Upper/Lower Split Routine

What’s great about upper/lower splits is that they give equal emphasis to both your upper and lower body, with each getting two dedicated workouts per week. This makes them popular among athletes practicing sports where sprinting is important, such as rugby and football, and among people trying to fully develop both their lower and upper-body muscles, such as bodybuilders.

When I first met Marco, he had just finished interning with the strength coach for the Yankees, Eric Cressey, and was working as the strength coach for his university football team and our Canadian Olympic rugby team. he was a big fan of upper/lower splits, and he made one for me. I was still fairly new to lifting, and that routine was what finally got me benching 225 pounds and deadlifting 315 pounds for the first time.

Another advantage to upper/lower splits is that they allow you to schedule all of your workouts during the workweek, which many people find easier. That way they can do their workouts before or after their work days.

Here’s an example of a 4-day upper/lower split routine designed for an intermediate bodybuilder training at a commercial gym who’s trying to gain overall muscle mass. You’ll notice that we use different exercises each workout. That way you get extra exercise variety, giving more balanced muscle growth. And you get more time to recover before being tasked with outlifting yourself.

No matter how you organize your schedule, your muscles will always have at least a day of rest between workouts. Still, these workouts can be taxing, and so if you can, it’s best to give your muscles 2–3 days of rest, spreading the volume out a little more evenly. That gives you a workout schedule something like this:

• Monday: Lower-boy workout 1
• Tuesday: Upper-body workout 1
• Wednesday: Rest
• Thursday: Lower-boy workout 2
• Friday: Upper-body workout 2
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest

Workout 1: Lower Body

• Front Squat: 3 sets of 6 repetitions (3×6) for the quads.
• Romanian Deadlift: 3×8 for the glutes and hamstrings.
• Leg Extension: 3×10 to improve quad growth.
• Leg Curl: 3×10 to improve hamstring growth.

Workout 2: Upper Body

• Barbell Bench Press: 3×8 for the chest.
• Skull crushers: 3×12 for the triceps.
• Barbell Row: 3×15 for the upper back.
• Biceps Curl: 3×10 for the biceps.

Workout 3: Lower Body

• Conventional Deadlift: 3×6 for the posterior chain.
• Leg Press: 3×8 for the quads.
• Standing Calf Raise: 3×15 for the calves.
• Hanging Leg Raises: 3 sets of max reps for the abs.

Workout 4: Upper Body

• Weighted Chin-Ups: 3×6 (or max reps with bodyweight) for the upper back and biceps.
• Overhead Press: 3×6 for the shoulders.
• Pullover: 3×10 for the lats.
• Lateral Raises: 3×12 for the side delts.

4-Day Push/Pull Workout Routine

The 4-day push/pull workout is similar to the upper/lower routine. The difference is that instead of dividing your workouts between your upper body and lower body, you’re dividing them between pushing and pulling movements.

Pushing exercises include:

• Front squats for your quads.
• The bench press for your chest.
• The overhead press for your shoulders.
• Skull crushers for your triceps.
• Neck extensions for your neck.

Pulling exercises include:

• Deadlifts and barbell rows for your posterior chain.
• Chin-ups for your upper back.
• Biceps curls for your biceps.
• Neck curls for your neck.
• Forearm curls for your forearms.

As a result, every workout trains both your lower and upper body, allowing you to shift the emphasis around as much as you like. For instance, if someone wanted to bulk up their hips, they could do back squats on push days and Romanian deadlifts on pull days, training their glutes 4 days per week while only training their quads and hamstrings twice per week.

Or if someone wanted to prioritize upper-body growth, they could start their push workouts with the bench press and their pull workouts with chin-ups, and limit their lower-body work to front squats and Romanian deadlifts. They’d still gain size and strength in their lower body, but most of their energy would be going into training their upper body, and so that’s where the majority of the muscle growth would go.

4-day push/pull workout routines are pretty flexible, but most of them are scheduled like so:

• Monday: Push workout 1
• Tuesday: Pull workout 1
• Wednesday: Rest
• Thursday: Push workout 2
• Friday: Pull workout 2
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest

Here’s an example of how you might program a 4-day push/pull workout if your goal is to gain full-body strength with an emphasis on upper-body size and aesthetics:

Push Workout 1

• Bench Press: 4×8 for your chest and shoulders.
• Front Squat: 3×6 for your quads and upper back.
• Dumbbell Overhead Press: 3×10 for your shoulders.
• Overhead Triceps Extension: 3×12 for your triceps.
• Lateral Raise: 3×12 for your side delts.

Pull Workout 1

• Conventional Deadlift: 3×6 for your posterior chain.
• Lat Pulldown: 3×10 for your upper back and biceps.
• Biceps Curl: 3×10 for your biceps.
• Reverse Fly: 3×15 for your rear delts.

Push Workout 2

• Overhead Press: 4×8 for your shoulders
• Leg Press: 3×6 for your quads and upper back.
• Close-Grip Bench Press: 3×10 for your upper chest and triceps.
• Skull crushers: 3×12 for your triceps.
• Neck Extensions: 3×12 for the back of your neck.

Pull Workout 2

• Weighted Chin-Up: 3×6 for your upper back and biceps.
• Romanian Deadlift: 3×8 for your hips and hamstrings.
• Barbell Curl: 3×10 for your biceps.
• Neck Curl: 3×15 for the front of your neck.
• Forearm Curl: 3×15 for your forearms.

4-Day Push/Pull/Legs/Arms Routine

One of the classic 4-day workout splits is to do a push/pull/legs (PPL) routine with an added arm day. PPL routines suffer from a low training frequency, but if we’re smart with our exercise selection, we can mostly fix that problem. To start, you can do your deadlifts on pull day, using them mainly as a back exercise, but also getting some quad, hamstring, and glute stimulation stimulation. And then on arm day, you can include some close-grip bench press and barbell rowing, mostly for your shoulders and arms, but also to give your chest and back some extra work. That way you’re hitting almost every muscle twice per week.

This routine is designed for someone training at a home with a simple barbell home gym, training to gain overall muscle size, but with extra emphasis on building bigger arms and shoulders, hence the extra arm day.

You can shuffle the days around to best fit your schedule, but ideally you’ll want a day of rest after the full-body workouts and again after the upper-body workout. That way each muscle has at least two days to recover before being trained again.

• Monday: Push day
• Tuesday: Rest
• Wednesday: Pull day
• Thursday: Rest
• Friday: Leg day
• Saturday: Arm day
• Sunday: Rest

Workout 1: Push Day

• Bench Press: 4×8 for your chest.
• Dumbbell Overhead Press: 3×10 for your shoulders.
• Overhead Triceps Extension: 3×12 for your triceps.
• Lateral Raise: 3×12 for your side delts.

Workout 2: Pull Day

• Conventional Deadlift: 3×5 for your posterior chain.
• Weighted Chin-Up: 3×8 for your upper back and biceps.
• Biceps Curl: 3×10 for your biceps.
• Reverse Fly: 3×15 for your rear delts.

Workout 3: Leg Day

• Front Squat: 3×6 for your quads and upper back.
• Good Morning: 3×8 for your posterior chain.
• Standing Calf Raise: 3×15 for your calves.
• Hanging leg raise: 3 sets of max reps for your abs.

Workout 4: Arm Day

• Close-Grip Bench Press: 3×10 for your shoulders and triceps (and a bit of chest).
• Skull crusher: 3×12 for your triceps.
• Barbell Row: 3×15 for your upper back and forearms.
• Barbell Curl: 3×8 for your biceps (and a bit of upper back).
• Forearm Curl: 3×15 for your forearm flexors.

4-Day Full-Body + Upper/Lower Routine (My Favourite)

What’s great about doing full-body workouts combined with an upper/lower split is that it allows us to hit each muscle 2–3 times per week. It also gives you a lot of flexibility to customize the routine to suit your goals. For example, this routine is designed for intermediate lifters working out at home with a simple barbell setup who are training to be strong overall, give their upper body a bit of extra emphasis, and look awesome. (This is how we built the 4-day Outlift workout routine.)

You’ll notice that we use different exercises each workout. That way you get extra exercise variety, giving more balanced muscle growth. And you get more time to recover before being tasked with outlifting yourself. For example, the bench press might make your chest sore for several days, but that’s okay, because the next upper-body workout emphasizes your shoulders.

You can shuffle the workouts around to best fit your schedule, but ideally you’ll want a day of rest after the full-body workouts and again after the upper-body workout. That way each muscle has at least two days to recover before being trained again.

• Monday: Full-body workout 1
• Tuesday: Rest
• Wednesday: Full-body workout 2
• Thursday: Rest
• Friday: Lower-body workout
• Saturday: Upper-body workout
• Sunday: Rest

Workout 1: Full Body

• Front Squat: 3 sets of 7 repetitions (3×6) for your quads and upper back.
• Good Morning: 3×9 for your glutes, hamstrings, and spinal erectors.
• Barbell Curl: 3×10 for your biceps.
• Neck Curl: 3×20 to bulk up the front of your neck.

Workout 2: Full Body

• Barbell Bench Press: 3×8 for your chest.
• Skull crushers: 3×12 for your triceps.
• Barbell Row: 3×15 for your upper back and forearms.
• Neck Extensions: 3×20 to bulk up the back of your neck.

Workout 3: Lower Body

• Conventional Deadlift: 3×7 for the posterior chain.
• Zercher Squat: 3×9 for the quads, spinal erectors, and traps.
• Hanging Leg Raise: 3 sets of max reps for the abs.
• Neck Curls: 3×20 to bulk up the front of your neck.

Workout 4: Upper Body

• Weighted Chin-Ups: 3×7 (or max reps with bodyweight) for your upper back and biceps.
• Overhead Press: 3×7 for your shoulders.
• Weighted Dips: 3×9 for your chest and triceps.
• Lateral Raises: 3×12 for your side delts.

Summary

3-day full-body routines are often the best default for new lifters. But as you get stronger, the heavier weights will tire you out, you’ll need to rest longer between sets, and your workouts can start to drag. At that point, it can help to either focus on just a few muscles at a time, or to add a fourth workout day. That’s where 4-day workout splits come in. The extra day allows us to shorten our workouts, increase our training volume, and increase our training intensity.

4-day workout routines aren’t the only good way for an intermediate lifter to train. Could you get by with 3 days? Yeah. Could you add a fifth or sixth day? Absolutely. But 4-day workout programs can be both efficient and effective, making them a great default.

There are many different ways of programming a 4-day workout split, each with their own pros and cons. For athletics and bodybuilding, upper/lower splits tend to work well because they emphasize full development of your legs. For general strength and aesthetics, full-body splits, body-part splits, and hybrid routines tend to work because they can put more emphasis on your chest, back, arms, and neck. My favourite approach is combining two full-body workouts with an upper-lower split. I find it gives the best of both worlds.

As always, if you want a customizable workout program (and full guide) that builds these principles in, check out our Outlift Intermediate Bulking Program, which includes both 3-day and 4-day workout routines. We also have our Bony to Beastly (men’s) program and Bony to Bombshell (women’s) program for skinny and skinny-fat beginners, which use 3-day full-body workout routines. If you liked this article, you’ll love the full programs.