Anyone had success with 4 day split

Training Bodybuilding
1

I’m getting older, got married, have children and cannot really commit 6 days for working out anymore. I used to follow PPL rest repeat for a long time and I decided to stop. I’m not overtrained or too sore, but it’s just too mentally demanding for me. I wanted to ask if anyone competing had success with 3-4 day weekly routine. I’m feeling like 4 days of weight training a week is the upper bound of what is sustainable and fun for me. How do you manage to keep a good balance between gym and rest of life. I thought about sth like this:

Pull - Rows, pulldowns, curls.

rest/cardio

Push - Presses, flys, lateral raises, triceps.

rest/cardio

Legs - Squats, rdls, leg presses.

Upper / arms& delts focus - (done at home) - Incline db, shoulder press, Curls, extensions, core work.

rest/cardio

2

When I was in my 40’s I found a routine that I customized to fit four days a week. I used this routine while I was competing in Masters Bodybuilding contests. It had strategically placed rest days for recovery after the “heavy days”, and equally placed days for the body parts that needed higher frequency stimulation.

  • Monday: Heavy Back (including deadlifts) and Heavy Chest, plus a biceps pump
  • Tuesday: rest
  • Wednesday: Legs
  • Thursday: rest
  • Friday: Light Chest and Biceps
  • Saturday: Shoulders and Triceps
  • Sunday: rest
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3

Do you compete? Are you planning on competing?

What are your stats?

I would go with an Upper/Lower split.

4

I used to compete but not anymore. I’m 35yo, 1.75m manlet, 74kg weight.

My squat max is 170kg, bench 120kg, rowing 100kg for reps.

I know Upper/Lower is a go-to 4 day routine, but I hate packing whole upper body into one day. I never liked Upper/Lower.

5

In bodybuilding?

I only ask because if you did then you should know what works for you. How much volume you need and can recover from.

If volume is equal across sessions, then the frequency does not really matter.

How many sets were you doing? How many are you planning to do with the new set up?

You are not hitting calves, the short head of the hamstrings, or the rectus femoris with that setup. That is why 2 sessions would be better.

Add in leg curls, leg extensions.

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6

Yes, some local bb competitions. Nothing major. I’m doing 3 sets most of the time. I just wondered what would be a good weekly layout in my case. Fully equipped commerical gym is 10 minutes drive away. I also have a very basic gym at home (ironmaster dumbbells going up to 60kg each, adjustable bench, ez bar).

7

Quick answer…yes

8

Since you are a busy dad I can see why arranging your split to have at least one of your weekly sessions at home is desirable (I’m a home gym dad myself). If you are committed to taking advantage of that setup, I totally get it and I think your split looks fine subject to your own understanding of your volume and recovery needs.

But if you don’t mind going to the gym four times per week and you haven’t considered it before, you could think about a four-day Torso/Limbs split, e.g.:

M Chest, Back, Delts
T Legs, Biceps, Triceps
Th Chest, Back, Delts
F Legs Biceps Triceps

This is not appealing to many people (mainly because of back-to-back days with arms getting worked, I think), and if you are one of those people then just disregard; it’s not for you. But I think it can be a good solution if you:

  • Only want to weight train 4 times per week.
  • Like splitting your leg volume into two weekly sessions, but don’t need two full sessions like a competitive bodybuilder might.
  • Like hitting upper body muscles twice per week, but don’t like cramming them all into one session.
  • Are able to arrange your “torso” days so that your arms don’t get too much direct fatigue, and are thus ready to train the next day with your lower body.

I routinely go back to this split when it feels right. When it no longer does, I switch to something else. If it sounds appealing, give it a shot!

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9

One more potential advantage of this split that I forgot to mention: Having chest and back on the same day allows for some antagonist superset opportunities, and ditto for biceps and triceps. This can help time efficiency if that’s a concern, as opposed to having all pushing (or pulling) muscles on one day, where you can’t really superset exercises without an interference effect. Of course, at a commercial gym you might be restricted on how much equipment you can tie up anyway, so maybe its a non-factor.

Along the same lines, I love the full, uniform upper-body pump/soreness that comes from hitting pushing and pulling muscles in one session, but that’s really just a personal preference.

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10

i do 4 days 2 upper 2 lower with an emphasis on 1 “strength” movement per session with the rest more in the hypertrophy ranges. only draw back for me is i have to stick to sets of 3 to feel like i get bang for my buck since its the only time that particular movement is loaded heavy-ish

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11

I actually thought a 4-day plan was kind of the default bodybuilding go-to for the most part. Lots of ways to split it up.

A couple I like are:

  1. Legs
  2. Shoulders and Triceps
  3. Back
  4. Chest and Biceps

Or

  1. Legs
  2. Chest and Shoulders
  3. Back
  4. Arms

Or the old DC 3-way split is an easy fit here as well.

1 Like
12

This.

13

3 “big” gym workouts for the major lifts plus 1 “small” home session for the beach muscles works too.

I don’t know if it will get you ready to step on the bodybuilding stage but Thibadeau talked about using that setup for athletes when he posted here.

Little home workouts help gym/life balance because you can do a couple sets, then quickly check in with the family, make sure everyone is cool, and then get back to lifting. And you learn how to “Fit workouts In” to down time vs missing stuff because of scheduled training.

The small muscle focused home workout also teaches the habit of Steady Lifting and without the ritual of getting all hyped and psyched up to put on a big performance at the gym.

Also, Pull/Push/Legs is good because you can cram the workouts together on consecutive days if you need to, without the workouts impacting eachother. It can be tough to do 3 Upper/Lower sessions in a row, hitting the same muscles without much of a break.

3 Likes
14

Here’s the exact PPL I’m currently following. I’ve seen good results from it so far. I do core every other day. Hopefully this helps and if any of the other guys have inputs I’ll be following along as well!

Push
Barbell Bench - 10, 8, 8, 6
Shoulder Press - 10, 8, 8, 6
Machine Incline Press - 10, 8, 8, 6
Lat Raise – 10, 8, 6-8
Machine Fly - 10, 8, 6-8
Weighted Dips - 10, 8, 6-8
Tricep Pushdown - 10, 8, 6-8

Pull
Bent Row – 10, 8, 8, 6
Deadlift – 10, 8, 8, 6
Single Arm Dumbbell Row – 10, 8, 8, 6
Banded Back Extensions – 3 sets of 10
Unilateral Lat Pull – 10, 8, 6-8
Face Pull - 10, 8, 6-8
Curls - 10, 8, 6-8
Preacher Curl - 10, 8, 6-8

Legs
Squat – 10, 8, 8, 6
Bulgarian Split Squat – 10, 8, 8, 6
RDL – 10, 8, 6-8
Goblet Squats - 10, 8, 6-8
Narrow Leg Press - 10, 8, 6-8
Leg Curl - 10, 8, 6-8
Leg Extensions - 10, 8, 6-8

Core
Pilof Press
Hanging Leg Raise
Flutter Kicks
Reverse Cruch

2 Likes
15

I like the use of the 10/8/8/6 rep scheme. I think it’s good to have Lighter and Heavier weights in the routine.

And for the OP,with fewer training days in the week, it makes sense to do them on the same day.

16

do you maybe have any CT posts with this set up?

17

Whoops!

It looks like it was 3 full body workouts + a Gap Workout for the little stuff.

Or Push/Pull/Legs + an easy full body workout to hit everything twice.

I must have combined them in my head.

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18

Thank you! This looks pretty good too.

1 Like