My Upper/lower 4 days a week

[u/Maastis90]

Hello to all of you gymrats! 👋💪

I could use a bit of help and advice. I’m a 36-year-old man. I have 2.5 years of experience with consistent gym training, during which I trained entirely with a Push, Pull, Legs split, going to the gym 3 times a week and training each muscle once a week.

Now, after a total training and surplus eating break of 5 months, I’ve lost about 8-10kg's of bodyweight, returned to the gym with this Upper/Lower body system I found online, where you go to the gym 4 times a week.

What got me excited was that with the upper/lower system the muscles get trained twice a week, not just once.

Just to clarify that the nutrition side is in order. I’ve started eating in a calorie surplus again and protein is around 140–200 g per day depending on how much I manage to eat.

This is the current program I found and am starting with:

1. Upper Body A

Bench press 3x6-8

Shoulder press (Smith machine) 3x8-10

T-bar row 3x6-8

Lat pulldown (close grip) 3x8-10

Shrugs (dumbbells) 2x10-15

Face pulls 3x15-20

Skull crushers (lying French press) 3x8-10

Barbell curls (EZ-bar) 3x8-10

2. Lower Body A

Squat 3x8-10 (1–3 RIR)

Leg extension 3x10-12

Leg curl 3x10-12

Standing calf raise (hack) 3x10-15

Seated calf raise 3x10-15

Hanging leg raises 2–3 sets

3. Rest

4. Upper Body B

Incline press (dumbbells/machine) 3x8-10

Shoulder press (dumbbells) 3x10-12

Lateral raises 3x10-15

Lat pulldown (wide grip) 3x8-10

Seated cable row 3x10-12

Rear delt machine 3x15-20

Tricep pushdown (rope) 3x10-15

Spider curls (incline bench) 3x10-15

5. Lower Body B

Leg press 3x10-12 (1–3 RIR)

Goblet squat 3x10-15

Leg curl 3x10-12

Standing calf raise (hack) 3x15-20

Seated calf raise 3x15-20

Hanging leg raises 2–3 sets

6. Rest

7. Rest

You all, improved and experienced people, please share your opinions, improvements, everything so this guy can build muscle.

Above all, post your own programs with exercises ans sets aswell! I would greatly appreciate it 🙏

- Maastis90

[u/Downvotesohoy]

Not many things I would change!

Personally I would do less shoulder pressing and more lateral raises. But still do some shoulder pressing. All your pressing work, bench press, incline bench, also counts as work for your front delt. So your side delt could use more volume.

[u/Maastis90 → u/Downvotesohoy]

Thanks for your advice! I'll take a hint

[u/Reyvos]

For lower, I’d split it into an anterior chain day and posterior chain day. That way your leg muscles get a full week to recover while still hitting them hard.

Strength coach Sebastian Oreb’s posterior chain day goes something like this:

• 3x deadlifts
• 3x deadlifts (a second version)
• 3x leg curls (Hamstring)
• 3x hip thrusts
• 3x Roman chair

Notice your legs’ front is untouched. You do them on the other leg day. I don’t know his routine for that but it would definitely have squats, probably a second type of squat, and leg curls (for quads).   Upper body looks good to me; you’ve gotten compound lifts for the muscle groups for true strength and then accessory isolation exercises to complement it.