Maximize Your Gains with a Perfect 4-Day Upper Lower Training Split Guide

The Upper/Lower training split is a staple amongst lifters. There's not much NOT to like. It's 4 sessions per week, making it time-efficient. It allows you to easily hit each muscle group 2 times per week. It's endlessly customisable. But like any programme, you need to have a framework for putting it together. Otherwise, you can end up just throwing things at a wall, and hoping something sticks.

This is a simple methodology I've used hundreds of times when creating an individualised Upper/Lower routine for clients or myself. It gives you a framework for sets, reps, and rest times, but leaves flexibility for exercise selection.

Your training schedule is going to be 2 days on, 1 day off, 2 days on, 2 days off. Alternatively, you could have 2 days off after the 2nd session and 1 rest day after the 4th session, both will work.

Upper 1: This is going to be more push-focused, with some back and additional arm work. Depending on what you want to prioritise more, you can opt for a more chest or delt focus or an even mix of both. For the back, you can choose to hit more upper back or lats.

You’re going to pick 2 big pressing movements from the Horizontal and Vertical Push categories. The first movement is the one you want to see most progress in. They can be from different categories or the same category, depending on what you want to prioritise:

Sets, Reps & Rest times: You’re going to do a top set in the 8-10 rep range, and a backoff set in the 10-12 rep range for both exercises. The back-off set is going to be ~10% lighter than the top set. Rest for 2-3 minutes between sets.

Then you’re going to pick 1 big pulling movement, either a lat or upper back exercise from either the Horizontal or Vertical Pull categories.

Sets, Reps & Rest times: You’re going to do a top set in the 8-10 rep range, and a backoff set in the 10-12 rep range. The back-off set is going to be ~10% lighter than the top set. Rest for 2-3 minutes between sets.

Then you’re going to pick 2-4 movements from the Accessory category.

Sets, Reps & Rest times: You’re going to do 2-3 straight sets, in the 10-15 rep range, for each exercise. Rest for 90-120s seconds between sets.

Lower 1: This is going to be more quad-focused with some hamstring and glute work as accessory movements. You’re going to pick a total of 2-3 knee-dominant exercises from the following Bilateral and/or Unilateral Squat categories:

Sets, Reps & Rest times: You’re going to do 2 working sets, one top set in the 8-10 rep range, and a backoff in the 10-12 rep range for each exercise. The backoff set is going to be ~10% lighter than your top set. Rest for 2-3 minutes between sets.

Then you’re going to pick 2-3 movements from the Accessory category.

Sets, Reps & Rest times: You’re going to do 2-3 straight sets in the 10-15 rep range for each exercise. Rest for 90-120s seconds between sets.

Upper 2: This is going to be more back-focused (either lats or upper back or a mix of both) with some push movements, and arms. Now you’re going to pick 2-3 movements from the Horizontal and Vertical Pull categories. Sets, reps, and rest times follow the same rules as in Upper 1.

Then you’re going to pick 1 movement from the Horizontal/Vertical Push category. Sets, reps, and rest time are the same as above for the 2-3 back movements.

Then you’re going to pick 2-4 movements from the accessory category. The idea is to pick different variations on this day. For example, if Upper 1 had DB Preacher Curls, Upper 2 could have Bicep Cable Curls. Sets, reps, and rest time follow the same rules as in other Accessory movements in the programme.

Lower 2: This is going to be more hamstring & glute focused, with some added quad work. You're going to choose 1 movement from the Hip Dominant category, 1 movement from the Knee Dominant category. Sets, reps, and rest times are the same as for your other main lifts.

Then you’re going to pick 2-3 movements from the Accessory category for Lower 1. The idea is to pick different variations from what you did on Lower 1. For example, if you did Lying Leg Curls on Lower 1, you would now do Seated Leg Curls. Sets, reps, and rest times follow the same rules as for all accessory lifts.

Summary: You should now have sessions with 5-7 exercises, 2-3 working sets for each movement, with 4-12 working sets per week. It would make sense to start on the lower end of the volume and gradually increase your number of sets based on your ability to recover and see progress.

Progression method?

You'll follow a progression method called Dynamic Double Progression. Each set operates on its individual progression track. Whenever any INDIVIDUAL set hits the TOP OF THE REP RANGE with the designated Reps in Reserve (RIR), then that one set increases the following week, while subsequent sets remain at the lower weight until these also top out the rep range.

DAILY PREPAREDNESS

It's not realistic to be at optimal functionality for every session. Below is a list of some things that can impact your ability to meet your own expectations:

1. Low quality or duration of sleep

2. Low quality or insufficient intake of calories

3. Stress (work, homelife, financial etc…)

If there is a day with poor preparedness, you may need to drop load and/or reps. As an example, if you enter a session intending to hit 100 x 12 @ 2 RIR (because last week you hit 11 reps), but as you're in the middle of your first work set, you realise that you'd have to go to failure to hit the 12 reps. Instead, you stop at 10 reps to maintain the target of "2 reps in reserve". Then you lower the load for the subsequent sets. It doesn't mean you got weaker or lost muscle. It's just the stimulus that is adaptive for your body in THIS ONE SESSION.

On the flipside, if you go into the gym feeling great, intending to hit 100 x 12 (because last week you hit 11), but you get to 12 reps and realise you've got more in the tank. You end up getting 14 reps and maintain your "2 reps in reserve" target. Happy days! You might consider keeping 100kg for the following sets, too.

There you have it. A very simple framework for creating your perfect 4-day training split based on the Upper/Lower routine.