4-day gym routine: guide and 17 free routines

What is a 4-day routine

A 4-day routine spreads your training over four sessions a week and leaves three days free. The most common form is an upper lower split, with two upper days and two lower days, so every muscle is trained twice. It is also used for strength, with one day centered on each main lift, and as a mix of strength and hypertrophy, with a heavy day and a higher-rep day for each half of the body.

Four days is a practical middle ground. It fits into a week with work or school and is enough to train each muscle twice with good volume. The ACSM (2009) proposes 3 to 4 days a week for the intermediate level, and a 4-day split so that each large muscle group is trained twice.

Four days guarantee nothing on their own. What matters most is the hard sets each muscle accumulates over the week, how close to failure you finish each set and that you raise the load little by little.

How to spread the 4 days

The three most common forms follow the same pattern, with two training days, one off and two more. That way neither half of the body is trained two days in a row and the weekend stays free.

Three ways to build a 4-day week
Day	Upper lower	Strength and volume	Strength
Monday	Upper A	Lower strength	Squat
Tuesday	Lower A	Upper strength	Bench
Wednesday	Rest	Rest	Rest
Thursday	Upper B	Lower volume	Deadlift
Friday	Lower B	Upper volume	Accessories
Saturday	Rest	Rest	Rest
Sunday	Rest	Rest	Rest

If your week doesn't allow that order, any split works as long as you don't put the same half of the body two days in a row. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday also works. If you can't train one day, shift the rest of the week instead of stacking two leg sessions.

There are two other options. Four shorter full body sessions give similar results with the same volume (Ramos-Campo et al., 2024), although you train the same muscles on consecutive days. A push pull legs routine with an extra day comes out uneven, because one pattern is trained twice and the others once.

Who a 4-day routine is for

Intermediate level. You already know the main lifts and it helps you to repeat each muscle twice with more sets than fit in a full body routine.
Beginners with time. If you already have 4 days, you can start with Beginner Upper-Lower 4 Days, without going through a full body routine first.
Anyone after strength. Powerlifting Strength 4 Days trains the squat and bench twice a week and the deadlift once. Hybrid Strength and Hypertrophy 4 Days combines a heavy day and a volume day for each half.
Anyone who wants to prioritize a muscle. The 4-day specializations raise the sets for one muscle and lower them for others so the session doesn't run long, like Chest Specialization or Glutes Specialization · Advanced.
Anyone short on time or training at home. Dense Upper-Lower 4 Days uses short, dense sessions, and Home with Dumbbells 4 Days is done with dumbbells and a bench.

If your real week has 3 days, a complete 3-day routine does more for you than a 4-day one where you skip a day every week. Check out the 3-day routines.

Volume and frequency per muscle

To build muscle, what matters most is how many hard sets each muscle adds up over the week. Schoenfeld, Ogborn and Krieger (2017) showed that more weekly sets give more growth. The ACSM (2026) associates the greatest hypertrophy with 10 or more sets per muscle, and sees the gain flatten around 18 to 20. Pelland et al. (2026), with 67 studies, also find that each extra set adds a little less.

Splitting across two days helps you reach those numbers. Ten sets of back is 5 per session, which fits with two exercises. With the same volume, training a muscle once or twice a week gives similar hypertrophy (Schoenfeld, Grgic and Krieger, 2019), so frequency mostly helps you spread the work.

For strength, the rules change a bit. Heavy loads give more maximal strength, while muscle grows similarly with light or heavy loads if the sets are hard (Schoenfeld et al., 2017). The ACSM (2026) sees strength gains flatten after about 2 to 3 sets per exercise, and strength seems to respond a bit more to frequency (Pelland et al., 2026). That's why strength routines tend to practice each main lift more than once a week, with few heavy sets.

Direct sets per week in three of Mobbe's 4-day routines
Muscle	Beginner Upper-Legs 4 Days	Intermediate Upper-Legs 4 Days	Strength and hypertrophy hybrid 4 days
Chest	6 over 2 days	8 over 2 days	8 over 2 days
Back	6 over 2 days	13 over 2 days	13 over 2 days
Shoulders	5 over 2 days	6 over 2 days	6 over 2 days
Quads	9 over 2 days	14 over 2 days	11 over 2 days
Hamstrings	6 over 2 days	9 over 2 days	12 over 2 days

The table counts the sets where each muscle is the primary mover and the days it is trained. The main lifts also add to other muscles. The chest press works the triceps and shoulder, and the row works the biceps.

A set counts if it is hard. Reaching failure doesn't give more muscle than stopping close to it (Refalo et al., 2023), and the ACSM (2026) proposes finishing with 2 or 3 reps in reserve. Every Mobbe routine lists the RIR for its exercises.

Common mistakes with 4-day routines

Making the repeated days identical. The second upper day can repeat the main exercise with a different rep range and swap the accessories for others that work the muscle from another angle.
Going heavy on everything. In a strength routine, the heavy work is the main lifts. Accessories go with more reps and less load, so you add volume without piling up as much stress on your joints.
Changing routines every few weeks. As long as you add reps or weight, the routine works. Repeating the same week lets you compare session to session, and rotating exercises randomly or too often can backfire (Kassiano et al., 2022).
Training without logging. Without a log you don't know what weight you used or how many reps you did last time, and progression depends on that data.

How to progress on a 4-day routine

Most of Mobbe's 4-day routines use double progression, which combines adding reps and raising weight. Plotkin et al. (2022) compared the two separately in trained people over 8 weeks, and both worked.

Pick a weight that lets you reach the bottom of the range with the indicated RIR.
Add reps session after session with that weight, without changing your technique.
Go up by the smallest increase when all sets reach the top of the range, and start over from the bottom.

Strength routines, like Powerlifting Strength 4 Days and Hybrid Strength and Hypertrophy 4 Days, add 2.5 kg on the main lifts when you complete all sets at the indicated RIR, and drop 10% if you fail two sessions in a row. The idea is the same as the ACSM (2009), which proposes raising the load by 2 to 10% when you exceed the targeted reps in two sessions in a row. To choose your starting weight, use the 1RM calculator.

If your performance drops for several sessions in a row, check your sleep and food before adding work. The calorie calculator gives you a starting point for your goal. If nothing changes, do a week with about half the sets and the same load. The consensus by Bell et al. (2023) defines a deload as a period with less volume, and sees no evidence that you need to schedule it every so many weeks.

In Mobbe every set is saved. When you train you see what you did in the previous session on each exercise, and in Progress you see how your records go up.

Questions about 4-day routines

How much rest between sets?

To build muscle, more than 60 seconds. Beyond 90 it barely changes the result (Singer et al., 2024). On heavy main lifts, if you're after strength, more than 2 minutes works better in trained people (Grgic et al., 2018).

Can I do cardio on my days off?

Yes. In a meta-analysis of 43 studies, adding aerobic exercise did not hold back muscle or maximal strength (Schumann et al., 2022). If you do both on the same day, lifting first was associated with more leg strength (Murlasits et al., 2018).

Where do abs go?

On any of the four days. They usually go at the end of the session, after the main exercises, so they don't take energy away from them.

4-day gym routine

What is a 4-day routine

How to spread the 4 days

Who a 4-day routine is for

Volume and frequency per muscle

Common mistakes with 4-day routines

How to progress on a 4-day routine

Questions about 4-day routines

How much rest between sets?

Can I do cardio on my days off?

Where do abs go?

Sources

17 4-day gym routines

More routines

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