The Fastest Way to Plan a 4-Day Hypertrophy Program

If you've been lifting for a while, you know planning your own hypertrophy program can be both fun and frustrating. Fun, because you can tailor it to your preferences. Frustrating, because it can take hours of tinkering to get the balance right between volume, frequency, and recovery.

But here's the truth: You don't need to spend hours writing a plan if you follow a clear structure and use the right tools.

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Choose Your Split

For a 4-day hypertrophy program, you need enough training volume per muscle group without overloading your recovery. The two best splits are (in my opinion):

• Upper / Lower / Upper / Lower
• Push / Pull / Upper / Lower

💡 Pro Tip: Avoid cramming everything into one muscle group per day — frequency matters for growth. Two sessions per muscle group per week hits the sweet spot.

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Select Your Core Lifts

Every session should have 2–3 main compound lifts.

Example for an Upper Day:

• Bench Press (Flat or Incline)
• Barbell Row
• Overhead Press

Example for a Lower Day:

• Squat or Leg Press
• Romanian Deadlift
• Walking Lunge

💡 Pro Tip: Stick to 5–10 rep ranges for compounds — heavy enough to challenge, but light enough to keep good form.

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Add Accessory Work

After the compounds, add 3–4 isolation exercises targeting muscles that need extra attention.

For example, after bench + row:

• Dumbbell Flys
• Lateral Raises
• Bicep Curls
• Tricep Pushdowns

💡 Pro Tip: For accessories, aim for 6–12 reps to maximize hypertrophy.

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Balance Volume

Hypertrophy works best with 10–20 hard sets per muscle group per week.

Example:

• Chest: 12 sets/week (6 on each Upper or Push day)
• Back: 14 sets/week (spread across rows, pull-ups, etc.)
• Quads: 10–12 sets/week
• Hamstrings: 10–12 sets/week

💡 Keep a running tally — it's surprisingly easy to overtrain some muscles and undertrain others.

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Make It Repeatable

You could spend hours formatting this in a spreadsheet… Or, you could plug your routine into a fast workout PDF generator and have a clean, shareable program in minutes — ready for your phone, printer, or client.

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Sample 4-Day Hypertrophy Program

Day 1 – Upper

1. Bench Press – 4x8
2. Barbell Row – 4x8
3. Overhead Press – 3x10
4. Dumbbell Fly – 3x12
5. Lateral Raise – 3x12
6. Cable Curl – 3x12

Day 2 – Lower

1. Squat – 4x8
2. Romanian Deadlift – 4x10
3. Walking Lunge – 3x12
4. Leg Curl – 3x12
5. Standing Calf Raise – 4x15

Day 3 – Upper

1. Incline Bench Press – 4x8
2. Pull-Up – 4x8 (weighted if possible)
3. Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 3x10
4. Chest-Supported Row – 3x10
5. Face Pull – 3x12
6. Hammer Curl – 3x12

Day 4 – Lower

1. Front Squat – 4x8
2. Hip Thrust – 4x10
3. Step-Up – 3x12
4. Lying Leg Curl – 3x12
5. Seated Calf Raise – 4x15

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Final Thoughts

Planning a hypertrophy program doesn't have to be a long, messy process. Pick your split, select the big lifts, fill in accessories, balance your weekly sets — and you're done.

If you want to cut your planning time from hours to minutes, you can use a workout planner to build your program and export it as a clean PDF instantly — no spreadsheets, no formatting headaches.