If you are new to lifting and can train four days a week, an Upper/Lower split is the programme to start with. Two days for everything above the hips, two for everything below. Every muscle is trained twice a week, the sessions are under an hour, and missing a day does not wreck the plan. This guide gives you a complete week and tells you how to run it for the next six months.
Why Upper/Lower first
Twice a week is the sweet spot. A muscle grows for a day or two after it is trained. Hitting it twice a week means it is almost always in that window, without the recovery problem of hitting it every day. A body-part split (chest Monday, back Tuesday and so on) trains each muscle once. A full-body plan three times a week works too, but the sessions get long once you add enough exercises.
Simple to remember. Upper day: push something, pull something, add arms. Lower day: squat something, hinge something, add calves. You will know the plan by heart in two weeks.
Forgiving. If Thursday disappears, you have still trained each half of the body once, and you do the missed day next. Nothing needs re-planning.
The week
Train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, or any four days with a rest day after every two. Three sets of each exercise, with 1 to 2 hard reps left in the tank on every set.
Upper A
- Bench press, 6 to 8 reps
- Seated cable row, 8 to 12 reps
- Dumbbell shoulder press, 8 to 12 reps
- Lat pulldown, 8 to 12 reps
- Lateral raise, 12 to 15 reps
- Triceps pushdown, 10 to 15 reps
Lower A
- Back squat, 5 to 8 reps
- Romanian deadlift, 8 to 10 reps
- Leg press, 10 to 12 reps
- Leg curl, 10 to 15 reps
- Standing calf raise, 12 to 15 reps
Upper B
- Incline dumbbell press, 8 to 12 reps
- Chest-supported row, 8 to 12 reps
- Pull-ups or assisted pull-ups, 6 to 10 reps
- Cable flye or machine press, 10 to 15 reps
- Face pull, 15 to 20 reps
- Dumbbell curl, 10 to 15 reps
Lower B
- Deadlift or trap-bar deadlift, 5 reps
- Bulgarian split squat, 8 to 10 each leg
- Hip thrust, 10 to 12 reps
- Leg extension, 12 to 15 reps
- Seated calf raise, 12 to 15 reps
Rest two minutes after the first two exercises of each day and ninety seconds after the rest. In Lift the rest timer starts when you tick a set and runs on the lock screen, so you do not have to watch it.
How to progress
Pick a weight for each exercise that lets you hit the top of the rep range with one or two reps in reserve. Then:
- Each session, try to add one rep to each set until every set reaches the top of the range.
- When all three sets hit the top, add the smallest weight step your gym has (2.5 kg on a bar, one plate on a machine) and drop back to the bottom of the range.
- Repeat.
That is the entire method for the first six months. Lift prefills each set with what you did last time, so progress is one number changed. When a lift has not moved for three weeks, add a fourth set to that exercise for a month before changing anything else.
Volume check
Counting helpers at half, this plan gives most muscles 12 to 15 effective sets a week, inside the 10 to 20 sets range where growth is reliable. Chest and back get direct work four times, quads and hamstrings twice each with big compound lifts, shoulders and arms plenty through helpers plus one isolation move per session. On Lift's muscle map a completed week on this plan lights up nearly the whole body, with calves and abs the palest. If you want them brighter, add a set of each to the end of the lower days.
When life gets in the way
Three days this week? Do Upper A, Lower A, Upper B and start next week with Lower B. Keep the order rolling; do not skip a day to stay on the calendar.
Only 40 minutes? Do the first four exercises of the day and go home. The last two are the least important.
Something hurts? Swap the exercise for one that trains the same muscle without the pain: leg press for squats, dumbbell press for barbell. Every exercise in Lift lists its muscles, so a like-for-like swap is easy to find.
Setting it up in Lift
Choose the Upper/Lower template when you open Lift, or from the Train tab, and this week is ready with sets and rest times filled in. Change any exercise you cannot do at your gym. Then tap Start on Monday and let the log fill in from there.
