Beginner · Gym
Upper/Lower · 4 days
The beginner's next step
- Days per week
- 4
- Sets per week
- 34
- Distinct exercises
- 12
- Goal
- Strength
- Sessions
- Upper body · Lower body
Four days alternating upper and lower body. Splitting keeps each session shorter than a full-body one and fits more volume per muscle group without the workout dragging on.
The sessions
Upper body40–50 min per session
- Machine chest press3 sets × 8–12 reps2 min rest
Learn the horizontal push on a machine, with a guided path that protects your form.
- Machine lat pulldown3 sets × 8–12 reps2 min rest
- Machine shoulder press3 sets × 8–12 reps2 min rest
- Seated cable row3 sets × 8–12 reps2 min rest
- Dumbbell lateral raise2 sets × 12–15 reps1 min rest
- Dumbbell curl2 sets × 10–15 reps1 min rest
Lower body44–55 min per session
- Goblet squat3 sets × 8–12 reps2.5 min rest
The safest way to learn to squat: holding the dumbbell at your chest keeps you upright and trains legs and core without the barbell's risk.
- Dumbbell Romanian deadlift3 sets × 8–12 reps2.5 min rest
- Leg press3 sets × 10–15 reps1.5 min rest
- Lying leg curl3 sets × 10–15 reps1.5 min rest
- Standing machine calf raise3 sets × 12–20 reps1 min rest
- Plank3 sets × 30 s1 min rest
Who it's for
The next step when three-day full body starts running long and the weight is still climbing. It needs four reliable sessions a week: done three weeks out of four, it returns less than the three-day version done in full.
How to progress
Each group comes up twice a week, so weight climbs more slowly than in full body — that's expected. Progress the main lift of each session first and let the accessories follow it, not the other way round.
The mistake that ruins it
Treating leg days as the optional ones. It's the mistake that turns four days into two: if lower-body sessions are the ones that get skipped when the week gets tight, what's left is a two-day upper routine with a longer name.
Load it in two taps
In the app this routine is created whole with one tap: exercises, sets and ranges already in place. Then you edit it however you like.
