The Best 4

A 4-day workout split is one of the best options for building muscle and strength.

It allows for adequate recovery and is flexible in that you can prioritize training frequency vs training volume, or find a happy-medium between the two.

While there are various ways that you can run a 4-day split, and which is best can be both subjective and objective, I’ll take you through what I believe to be the best 4-day split for most lifters.

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4-day workout splits are my favourite for intermediate lifters. 3-day splits are almost always better for beginners, but once you get to an intermediate level, adding a fourth day makes your workouts easier and stimulates more muscle growth.

When Marco was coaching professional and Olympic athletes, he would put them on 4-day splits during their offseason to help them bulk up. These people had the highest-performing bodies in the world, and they would lift 4 days per week.

You’ve got a few options. You could do a bodybuilder’s “Bro Split,” an athlete’s Upper/Lower Split, or you could try a slightly more unusual approach I’ve been using for the past 4 years with clients.

Training splits are a way of dividing up exercises to work your muscles hard enough, often enough. Let me quickly cover some of the factors to consider. That way, you understand what’s going on when we talk about the best 4-day workout routines.

There are plenty of ways to satisfy all these requirements, ranging from 2-day full-body routines to 6-day split routines:

What makes 4-day splits special is that they spread the workload so nicely throughout the week. For most intermediate lifters, the workouts are strenuous but manageable, the training volume is perfect, the frequency is ideal, you don’t need to do that many exercises per workout, and you still get plenty of rest days.

Most research shows that 4-day splits can stimulate slightly more muscle growth than 2-day splits (study) and 3-day splits (study). They also have a long history of being used in bodybuilding and strength training. As I mentioned above, Marco would use them with professional and Olympic athletes.

I personally like them, too. 4-day splits helped me bulk from 180 pounds to 205 pounds. They brought my deadlift from 405×1 to 405×8. They brought my bench press from 250 to 315. They can be incredibly effective.

The journey for more muscle can be exciting and overwhelming. With countless workout splits and routines, finding the best approach is more complicated than it seems. For starters, how many days a week should you train? Looking online, anything from three to six days per week seems acceptable. Beyond that, how much volume should you do? How hard should you push each set? What about exercise selection? “Hey man, I just want to lift weights.” Good! That’s why you are here. In this article, I will lay out the best 4-day workout splits to build muscle. 

Of course, when I say “best,” it’s subjective. There are other good 4-day workout splits, but to me, three stand out above the rest. So, if you’re ready to maximize your muscle gains without spending every waking hour in the gym, one of these 4-day workout splits might be your golden ticket. All you have to do is pick one and run with it. 

I have made a lot of mistakes in twenty years of lifting weights. If I laid them all out on the page, we both could have a laugh. However, one of my biggest mistakes was thinking I had to workout six days a week. Notice, I wrote had. I love training. I don’t regret the time I spent training six days a week. That said, I wish I would have taken my own advice.

Anytime someone asked me if four days a week was sufficient to build muscle (or gain strength), I said it was. But I acted like the rules didn’t apply to me. As most of us do, I thought I was special.