The upper lower split is one of the most popular training splits in strength training.
And for good reason.
It's versatile enough for beginners and advanced lifters alike. It hits every muscle group at least twice per week. And it can be run anywhere from 4 to 6 days per week depending on your schedule and goals.
But most upper lower programs you'll find online have a sneaky problem baked in.
They're unbalanced.
Upper body days end up crammed with exercises while your side delts and biceps get the short end of the stick. Lower body days breeze by in 35 minutes while your upper days drag on for 90.
This guide covers the standard 4-day upper lower split, explains its shortcomings, and then shows you how to modify it into something that actually distributes volume intelligently across your training week.
What Is an Upper Lower Split?
An upper lower split divides your training into two categories.
Upper body days cover chest, back, shoulders, biceps, and triceps.
Lower body days cover quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, and abs.
You alternate between the two. Upper, lower, upper, lower.
That's it. No complicated rotation schemes. No muscle groups falling through the cracks.
The beauty is in the simplicity. Every muscle gets trained at least twice per week, which research shows is likely superior to once-per-week training for muscle growth. And because you're splitting the body in half rather than into 4 or 5 pieces, you have real flexibility in how you schedule your training days.
| Split Type | Days Per Week | Frequency Per Muscle | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Lower | 4-6 | 2-3x/week | Intermediate to advanced |
| Full Body | 3-4 | 2-3x/week | Beginners |
| Push Pull Legs | 6 | 2x/week | Advanced, high volume |
| Bro Split | 5-6 | 1x/week | Bodybuilders with specific weak points |
The upper lower split hits the sweet spot between training frequency and recovery for most lifters.
Why the Upper Lower Split Works So Well
Three things make this split particularly effective.
First, training frequency. A 2018 meta-analysis examining training frequency and hypertrophy found that hitting each muscle group twice per week produced better results than once per week. The upper lower split naturally achieves this with just four training days.
Second, scheduling flexibility. Upper and lower days can be placed back to back with no issues. Your chest doesn't care that you squatted yesterday. This means the split adapts to chaotic schedules, shift work, and life in general.
Here's the thing:
Most splits fall apart the moment your schedule changes. Miss a day on a push/pull/legs rotation and suddenly you're training chest once every 10 days. With upper lower, you just pick up where you left off.
Third, built-in recovery. While you're training upper body, your legs are recovering. While you're training lower body, your upper body is recovering. It's elegant in a way that bro splits simply aren't.
The research on split vs. full-body routines shows comparable hypertrophy outcomes when volume is equated. But the upper lower split makes it easier to accumulate sufficient volume per muscle group because you have more time within each session dedicated to half the body.
Upper lower gives you frequency, flexibility, and enough session time to actually push hard on each muscle group.
The Standard 4-Day Upper Lower Program
Let's start with a straightforward 4-day version.
You'll run four workouts per week: Upper 1, Lower 1, Upper 2, Lower 2. Each upper and lower session uses different exercises or rep ranges to provide variety and hit muscles from multiple angles.
Upper Day 1
| Exercise | Sets x Reps | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bench Press | 3x5 | Low rep strength work |
| Weighted Chin-Ups | 3x6-8 | Vertical pull |
| Single Arm Dumbbell Row | 3x8-10 | Horizontal pull |
| Overhead Press | 3x8-10 | Anterior delts |
| Dumbbell Lateral Raise | 3x12-15 | Side delts |
| Barbell Curl | 3x8-10 | Biceps |
| Close Grip Bench Press | 3x8-10 | Triceps |
Upper Day 2
| Exercise | Sets x Reps | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Incline Dumbbell Bench Press | 3x8-10 | Upper chest emphasis |
| Barbell Row | 3x6-8 | Horizontal pull |
| Lat Pulldown | 3x10-12 | Vertical pull, higher reps |
| Overhead Press | 3x8-10 | Anterior delts |
| Cable Lateral Raise | 3x15-20 | Side delts, high reps |
| Dumbbell Curl | 3x10-12 | Biceps |
| Skull Crushers | 3x10-12 | Triceps |
Lower Day 1
| Exercise | Sets x Reps | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Squat | 5x5 | Low rep strength work |
| RDL | 3x8-10 | Posterior chain |
| Leg Press | 3x10-12 | Quad volume |
| Lunges | 3x10-12 each | Unilateral work |
| Calves + Abs (tri-set) | 3 rounds | Giant set for efficiency |
Lower Day 2
| Exercise | Sets x Reps | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Deadlift | 3x5 | Low rep strength work |
| Front Squat | 3x6-8 | Quad dominant |
| Lunges | 3x10-12 each | Unilateral work |
| Leg Extension | 3x12-15 | Quad isolation |
| Leg Curl | 3x12-15 | Hamstring isolation |
| Calves + Abs (tri-set) | 3 rounds | Giant set for efficiency |
Notice the structure. Heavy compound movements come first. Machines and isolation work come later. Low rep strength work on the big lifts (bench, squat, deadlift) accounts for roughly one-third of total volume.
Start every session with your heaviest compound lift when you're freshest, then shift to higher-rep accessory work.
Exercise Selection Principles
A few rules govern how exercises are chosen in this program.
Compound Before Isolation
Heavy free weight compounds go first. Bench press, squat, deadlift, overhead press, rows, chin-ups. These are your bread and butter.
Machine and isolation exercises come after. Lat pulldowns, lateral raises, curls, extensions. These mop up remaining volume.
Why this order? Because compound movements demand the most from your nervous system. You want to hit them when you're fresh, not after 45 minutes of cable work.
Vertical and Horizontal Balance
For back training, each upper day pairs a vertical pull with a horizontal pull.
Upper Day 1: Weighted chin-ups (vertical) + single arm dumbbell rows (horizontal).
Upper Day 2: Lat pulldown (vertical) + barbell rows (horizontal).
This ensures complete back development. The lats get hit from both directions. The rhomboids, rear delts, and traps all contribute.
Mixing Barbells and Dumbbells
For chest work, you'll notice barbell bench press on Day 1 and incline dumbbell bench press on Day 2.
This isn't random.
Barbells let you load heavier. Dumbbells give you a greater range of motion and address imbalances. Using both across the week covers your bases.
Rep Range Distribution
About one-third of your total volume should sit in the 3-6 rep range for strength development. The remaining two-thirds should live in the 6-12 rep hypertrophy range and occasionally venture up to 15-20 for isolation movements where higher reps work well.
Machines like the lat pulldown and leg extension are perfect for higher rep ranges. Cable lateral raises? Push them to 15-20 reps. There's no reason to do heavy lateral raises.
Balance your pulling and pressing, mix your equipment, and distribute rep ranges across the strength-hypertrophy spectrum.
The Lower Body Bias Problem
Here's the dirty secret of every standard upper lower split.
It favors the lower body.
Count the muscle groups. Upper body days need to cover chest, back, front delts, side delts, biceps, and triceps. That's six distinct areas competing for sets and time.
Lower body days? Quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, and abs. And calves and abs are often thrown in as afterthoughts.
The result?
Your upper body workouts run long. Seventy, eighty, sometimes ninety minutes. Meanwhile lower body sessions wrap up in 45-50 minutes.
But the bigger problem is volume distribution.
Smaller muscle groups like side delts and biceps get squeezed. They're trained last on upper body days when you're already fatigued. And they only get hit twice per week when many lifters would benefit from three or four exposures.
Research suggests that smaller muscle groups may respond better to higher frequencies. Side delts recover fast. Biceps recover fast. Training them just twice a week might be leaving gains on the table.
| Muscle Group | Standard U/L Frequency | Sets Per Week | Potential Issue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chest | 2x/week | 6 | Adequate |
| Back | 2x/week | 6 | Adequate |
| Side Delts | 2x/week | 6 | Could benefit from 3-4x |
| Biceps | 2x/week | 6 | Could benefit from 3-4x |
| Triceps | 2x/week | 6 | Adequate (pressing overlap) |
| Quads | 2x/week | 8-10 | Often overprogrammed |
| Hamstrings | 2x/week | 6 | Adequate |
The standard upper lower split quietly underprograms your upper body while overprogramming your legs.
The Modified Upper Lower Split: Redistributing Volume
Here's where things get interesting.
The fix is simple. Take your side delt and bicep work and spread it across all four training days instead of confining it to upper days only.
That means you're doing some form of lateral raise on every workout. And some form of curl on every workout.
Why does this matter?
Three reasons:
-
Workout length evens out. Your upper days get shorter. Your lower days get slightly longer. No more 90-minute upper marathons followed by 40-minute lower sessions.
-
Upper body volume increases. You can now fit more total sets for side delts and biceps across the week without any single session becoming excessive.
-
Training frequency jumps to 4x per week for those smaller muscle groups. Lateral raises and curls are low-fatigue movements. Your recovery between sets is fast. Training them four times per week is not just manageable, it's probably optimal.
Here's what the modified version looks like in practice:
- Upper Day 1: Chest, back, shoulders + lateral raises + curls
- Lower Day 1: Squats, RDLs, leg press, lunges + lateral raises + curls
- Upper Day 2: Chest, back, shoulders + lateral raises + curls
- Lower Day 2: Deadlifts, front squats, leg work + lateral raises + curls
You're redistributing volume, not adding it. Take a set or two of leg work away and give it to side delts and biceps. The total weekly volume stays similar, but the distribution becomes much smarter.
Move your lateral raises and curls onto every training day. It's the single biggest upgrade you can make to a standard upper lower split.
Giant Sets and Tri-Sets for Efficiency
Time is always a constraint.
One trick that works particularly well in upper lower programs: giant sets for abs and calves.
Instead of doing three separate exercises for abs with full rest between each, you chain them together.
Pick three ab exercises. Something like:
- Hanging leg raise
- Standard crunch
- Bicycle crunch
Perform them back to back with minimal rest. That's one round. Do three rounds.
You've just knocked out 9 sets of ab work in roughly the time it would take to do 3 sets of a single exercise with normal rest periods.
This is especially useful on lower body days where you need to fit in calves and abs without adding another 20 minutes to the session. Pair a calf raise variation with your ab tri-set and you've covered both in under 10 minutes.
- Calf raises: 3x12-15
- Ab tri-set: 3 rounds (hanging leg raise + crunch + bicycle crunch)
Total time: 8-10 minutes for 6 exercises worth of volume.
Giant sets for abs and calves keep lower body days from running too short and upper body days from running too long.
Antagonistic Supersets: A Natural Fit
Upper lower splits lend themselves beautifully to antagonistic supersets.
What's an antagonistic superset? You alternate between a pushing movement and a pulling movement with minimal rest between them.
Bench press paired with barbell rows.
Overhead press paired with chin-ups.
Curls paired with tricep extensions.
Research shows that this approach maintains (and sometimes enhances) performance on both exercises while cutting your workout time significantly. You're resting one muscle group while working the other.
This is particularly useful if your upper body days are running long. Instead of doing 7 exercises with 2-3 minutes rest between each set, you pair them up and get through the same volume in 60-70% of the time.
Here's how you might structure an upper day with antagonistic supersets:
| Superset | Exercise A | Exercise B |
|---|---|---|
| A | Bench Press 3x5 | Barbell Row 3x6-8 |
| B | Overhead Press 3x8-10 | Chin-Ups 3x6-8 |
| C | Dumbbell Curl 3x10-12 | Skull Crusher 3x10-12 |
| Standalone | Cable Lateral Raise 3x15-20 |
The key rule: pair muscles that don't interfere with each other. Chest and back. Biceps and triceps. Shoulders and... well, shoulders are tricky since they're involved in most pressing and some pulling. Lateral raises usually work best as a standalone.
Antagonistic supersets are the most underused tool for making upper body days time-efficient without sacrificing performance.
Scheduling Your Week: 4, 5, and 6 Day Options
One of the best features of the upper lower split is how easily it scales.
The 4-Day Setup
This is the classic.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upper 1 | Off | Lower 1 | Off | Upper 2 | Lower 2 | Off |
You can shuffle these around freely. The only real guideline: try to avoid two lower body days back to back if both include heavy squatting or deadlifting. Upper days? Stack them if you need to. Your legs won't mind.
The 5-Day Setup
Want more volume? Add a fifth day.
If you want an upper body focus, run three upper days and two lower days:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upper 1 | Lower 1 | Off | Upper 2 | Lower 2 | Upper 3 | Off |
If you want a lower body focus, flip it: three lower days and two upper days.
To create that fifth session, simply repeat one of your existing upper or lower workouts. You don't need a completely new program. Just run Day 1 again.
One important note for 5-day setups: when frequency hits three times per week per muscle group and you're pushing 15+ sets per week, fatigue accumulates faster. Combat this by shifting more of your volume into the 10-20 rep range with isolation and machine exercises.
The 6-Day Setup
For advanced trainees who need serious volume, alternate upper and lower days six times per week with one rest day.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upper 1 | Lower 1 | Upper 2 | Lower 2 | Upper 1 | Lower 1 | Off |
This is a significant commitment. It works best within a structured mesocycle where you're deliberately progressing and deloading. Most people won't need this, but if you've been training for years and your volume needs have outgrown a 4-day setup, it's a legitimate option.
Start with four days. Only add a fifth or sixth when four days genuinely isn't enough volume to keep progressing.
Workout Ordering: Lead With Upper Body
When you're placing upper and lower days back to back, lead with the upper body workout.
Why?
A heavy lower body session (think squats or deadlifts) generates substantial systemic fatigue. If you squat heavy on Monday and then try to bench on Tuesday, you'll feel it. Your whole body is still recovering from those heavy compounds.
An upper body workout, by contrast, generates less overall systemic fatigue. Bench pressing today won't meaningfully impact your squat tomorrow.
So when you have consecutive training days:
- Better: Upper Monday, Lower Tuesday
- Workable but harder: Lower Monday, Upper Tuesday
This is a preference, not a hard rule. If your schedule dictates otherwise, you'll still make progress. But if you have the choice, upper first tends to produce better sessions across both days.
When stacking training days back to back, lead with upper body to minimize systemic fatigue carryover.
Adapting for Powerbuilding
The upper lower split adapts to a powerbuilding approach with almost zero modification.
You can center each training day around one of the big three:
- Upper Day 1: Bench press focused
- Lower Day 1: Squat focused
- Upper Day 2: Overhead press focused (bench accessory)
- Lower Day 2: Deadlift focused
If you've ever followed a 5-3-1 or similar beginner to intermediate strength program, this will feel familiar.
The heavy compound opens each session in the 3-6 rep range for strength development. Everything after that is hypertrophy work in the 8-15 rep range.
This blend of strength and hypertrophy within the same program is what makes the upper lower split so practical. You don't have to choose between getting stronger and getting bigger. You do both.
| Day | Primary Lift | Rep Scheme | Accessory Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper 1 | Bench Press | 3-5x3-5 | Chest, back, arms |
| Lower 1 | Squat | 5x5 | Quads, hamstrings, calves |
| Upper 2 | Overhead Press | 3x5-8 | Shoulders, back, arms |
| Lower 2 | Deadlift | 3x5 | Posterior chain, quads |
The upper lower split is arguably the best framework for powerbuilding because every session has a natural primary compound to anchor around.
Customizing for Weak Points
The standard program as written favors lower body development.
But what if that's not what you need?
Glute Emphasis
Replace lunges with heavy hip thrusts. Add a few sets of glute-focused work like cable pull-throughs or hip abductions. This shifts the lower body bias toward the posterior chain.
Upper Body Emphasis
Run the 5-day setup with three upper and two lower days. Redistribute some lower body volume to back, side delts, or whatever's lagging.
Higher Frequency for Lagging Muscles
The modified version (side delts and biceps on all four days) is just the beginning.
You can apply the same principle to any muscle group that responds to higher frequency. Calves are a common one. Back is another.
To do this, take some sets from your leg days and swap them with sets from your upper body days. For example, move some calf raise sets from lower days to upper days. Now your calves get hit four times per week instead of two.
The principle: any low-fatigue isolation movement can be placed on any training day regardless of whether it's technically an "upper" or "lower" exercise.
Checklist for redistributing volume:
- Identify which muscle groups are lagging or respond to higher frequency
- Pick low-fatigue isolation exercises for those muscles (cable work, machines)
- Move 1-2 sets from their current day to the opposite type of day
- Keep total weekly volume the same
- Monitor recovery and adjust if needed
Don't treat the upper/lower divide as sacred. Move isolation work wherever it needs to go to optimize frequency and volume distribution.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
A few pitfalls show up repeatedly in upper lower programs.
Cramming too much into upper days. If your upper sessions consistently run 30+ minutes longer than lower sessions, redistribute. The modified split with daily lateral raises and curls fixes this.
Neglecting the 5-rep range. Bench press for 3x10 is fine. But you're leaving strength on the table if you never go heavy. Keep at least one compound per session in the 3-6 rep range.
Skipping ab work. Abs respond well to direct training. The tri-set/giant set approach makes them painless to fit in. No excuses.
Going too heavy on isolation movements. Cable lateral raises for 6 reps? Skull crushers for 5 reps? There's no benefit. Push isolation movements into the 10-20 rep range where they belong.
Running the same program forever. Even the best split needs progression built in. Use a mesocycle structure where you progressively increase volume or load over 4-6 weeks, then deload. Mesostrength's workout split generator can help you plan this out.
The best upper lower program is one you actually progress on. Pick your version, commit to it for a mesocycle, and track everything.
Who Should Use an Upper Lower Split?
Not everyone.
Complete beginners usually do better with a full-body program three days per week. They don't need the volume that a split provides, and the motor learning benefits of practicing compounds more frequently outweigh the benefits of splitting.
But once you're past the beginner phase and training 4+ days per week, the upper lower split becomes arguably the best all-around option.
It's ideal for:
- Intermediate lifters who've outgrown full-body programs
- Lifters training 4-5 days per week who want maximum flexibility
- Anyone wanting to combine strength and hypertrophy in one program
- People with inconsistent schedules who need a split that adapts
- Lifters who want high frequency for stubborn muscle groups (with the modified version)
It's less ideal for:
- True beginners (stick with full body for 6-12 months first)
- Lifters who can only train 3 days per week (full body is more efficient here)
- Advanced bodybuilders who need extreme specialization for individual muscle groups
If you train four or more days per week and want a split that covers everything without overcomplicating your life, the upper lower split is probably your best bet.
TLDR
The upper lower split alternates between upper body and lower body training days. It works for 4, 5, or 6 day schedules and ensures each muscle gets trained at least twice per week.
The standard version has a lower body bias. Upper days are too long, lower days are too short, and small muscles like side delts and biceps get undertrained.
The fix: spread lateral raises and curls across all training days instead of confining them to upper days. This evens out workout length, increases upper body volume, and bumps frequency to 4x per week for those smaller muscles.
Use antagonistic supersets (bench/rows, press/chin-ups, curls/extensions) to cut upper body session time. Use giant sets for abs and calves to keep lower days efficient.
Start with four days. Add a fifth only when you need more volume. Lead with upper body when stacking consecutive training days.
For most intermediate lifters training 4+ days per week, the upper lower split is the most versatile and practical option available.