December 9, 2025
This guide gives you ready‑made upper/lower split templates for 3–5 days per week, plus how to choose the right one for strength, muscle gain, and recovery.
Upper/lower splits are ideal for building strength and size with simple, repeatable structure.
Your weekly schedule (3–5 days) should dictate which template you use, not the other way around.
Progress comes from adding load/reps over time, managing fatigue, and keeping exercise selection simple.
These templates are organized by training frequency (3, 4, or 5 days per week) and main goal (strength focus, hypertrophy focus, or balanced). Each plan follows fundamental training principles: hitting each muscle group 2–3 times per week, prioritizing compound lifts, and using realistic training volumes for busy people who still want strong results.
Many lifters waste time over‑customizing programs instead of doing a well‑designed plan consistently. Plug‑and‑play upper/lower templates let you match your real schedule, train all major muscles effectively, and apply progressive overload without thinking about programming every week.
It hits each muscle 2x per week with one extra upper emphasis day, fits almost any schedule, and has enough volume to grow without crushing recovery.
Great for
Slightly lower accessory volume but more focus on heavy sets for squat, bench, and deadlift makes it ideal for strength while still building muscle.
Great for
This is the gold‑standard upper/lower setup: each muscle group gets 2 quality sessions per week with sustainable volume and clear structure.
Great for
Organizing days into heavy and light variations keeps intensity high without burning out and makes it easy to track progress on major lifts.
Great for
Many lifters want more chest, back, and arm work. This structure adds a fifth, shorter upper day without wrecking lower‑body recovery.
Great for
Maintains a classic 4‑day ULUL structure and dedicates one extra day to conditioning and light accessories, improving health without overloading lifting volume.
The main difference between 3‑, 4‑, and 5‑day upper/lower splits is not magic exercises but how volume and recovery are distributed; most lifters progress best by choosing the schedule they can sustain for months.
Heavy/light organization and A/B days are simple levers to bias a template toward strength or hypertrophy without changing the underlying structure, which is why similar patterns appear across all frequencies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Pick the number of days you can hit consistently for at least 8–12 weeks. If you’re busy or new, start with 3 days. Most intermediates do best on 4 days. Use 5 days only if you already recover well, sleep enough, and enjoy training frequently.
Use double progression: choose a rep range (e.g., 6–10). Once you can hit the top end of the range for all sets with good form, increase the weight slightly next session and repeat. Aim to add small amounts of reps or load most weeks on your main lifts.
Yes. Keep the movement pattern similar and swap only 1–2 exercises at a time. For example, back squat can become front squat, barbell row can become chest‑supported row, and pulldowns can become assisted pull‑ups. Avoid changing the whole program every few weeks.
For big compound lifts, stay about 1–3 reps shy of failure most of the time. For isolation work, you can go closer to failure (0–2 reps in reserve). Training too hard on every set makes recovery worse and often reduces long‑term progress.
Plan to run a template for at least 8–12 weeks, adjusting loads as you get stronger. You can keep the same structure for many months, occasionally rotating a few exercises or slightly adjusting volume if progress stalls or joints feel beat up.
Upper/lower splits give you a simple, proven structure to train every major muscle group 2–3 times per week, whether you lift 3, 4, or 5 days. Choose the template that matches your real life, focus on gradually adding reps and load, and tweak exercise choices lightly rather than rewriting the whole plan. Consistent execution matters far more than finding a perfect setup on paper.
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Distributes volume slightly toward legs or upper body depending on your priority while keeping recovery manageable.
Great for
Adds extra isolation and slightly higher rep work while keeping the upper/lower structure familiar and sustainable.
Great for
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