About this workout
This is the program I hand people who tell me they do not have time to train. Four days a week, two workouts, each one run twice. Push day covers chest, shoulders, triceps, quads and calves. Pull day covers back, biceps, hamstrings and glutes. Everything is machines, dumbbells, cables and the Smith machine, so it runs at Planet Fitness or any commercial gym in the country. You are in and out in 30 to 45 minutes. The best program is the one you actually run, and a 40 minute session you do four times a week beats a 90 minute session you do once.
Who This Program Is For
- You have 30 to 45 minutes to train and you are not going to stretch that into 90 no matter what a program tells you.
- You train at Planet Fitness or anywhere else that barbells are not an option, and you are tired of programs that ignore that.
- You are new to lifting and you want a split simple enough to memorize in a week.
- You have started and quit programs before because they asked for more time than your life actually has.
Who this is NOT for: This is not for the advanced lifter chasing a specific bench or squat number. Two exercises per muscle group twice a week builds a real base, and it will stop being enough once you have a few honest years of training behind you. It is also not a fat loss program on its own. Four sessions a week will not out run your kitchen, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
What You'll Need
- A gym with dumbbells, cable stations, selectorized machines and a Smith machine. That is standard Planet Fitness equipment, nothing exotic.
- Somewhere to log your sets. A notebook or the notes app on your phone. If you are not writing the weights down you are guessing, and guessing does not progress.
- Four days a week for eight weeks. Not four perfect days. Four days.
The Program
Two workouts, Push and Pull, each run twice a week with a small change in exercise selection the second time through. Quads and calves live on the push days, because squatting and pressing are both pushing patterns. Hamstrings and glutes live on the pull days, because hinging and curling are both pulling patterns. That trains your entire lower body twice a week without adding a separate leg day you would have to find time for. Run it Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, or any four days that give you a rest day somewhere in the middle. Order is Push A, Pull A, Push B, Pull B.
| Day 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Push A | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Smith Machine Bench Press | 4 | 6-8 | 90 sec |
| Dumbbell Shoulder Press | 3 | 8-10 | 75 sec |
| Leg Press | 3 | 10-12 | 90 sec |
| Dumbbell Lateral Raise | 3 | 12-15, no swinging | 45 sec |
| Tricep Pushdown | 3 | 10-12 | 45 sec |
| Standing Calf Raise | 3 | 12-15, pause at the bottom | 45 sec |
| Day 2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pull A | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Lat Pulldown | 4 | 8-10 | 75 sec |
| Seated Cable Rows | 3 | 8-10 | 75 sec |
| Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift | 3 | 8-10, 3 second lower | 90 sec |
| Lying Leg Curl | 3 | 10-12 | 60 sec |
| Hip Thrust (Weighted Hip Extension) | 3 | 10-12, squeeze 1 second at the top | 60 sec |
| Dumbbell Curls | 3 | 10-12 | 45 sec |
| Day 3 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Push B | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Incline Dumbbell Bench Press | 4 | 8-10 | 90 sec |
| Smith Machine Squat | 3 | 8-10 | 90 sec |
| Cable Crossover | 3 | 12-15 | 45 sec |
| Cable Lateral Raise | 3 | 12-15 per arm | 45 sec |
| Cable Rope Overhead Tricep Extensions | 3 | 10-12 | 45 sec |
| Seated Calf Raise | 3 | 15-20 | 45 sec |
| Day 4 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pull B | |||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
| Close Grip Pulldown | 4 | 8-10 | 75 sec |
| One Arm Dumbbell Row | 3 | 10-12 per arm | 60 sec |
| Cable Pull Through | 3 | 12-15 | 60 sec |
| Standing Cable Leg Curl | 3 | 12-15 per leg | 45 sec |
| Face Pulls | 3 | 15-20 | 45 sec |
| Cable Hammer Curl | 3 | 10-12 | 45 sec |
How to Progress
The four workouts do not change for eight weeks. What changes is the number in your log next to them.
Weeks 1 and 2. Pick weights that leave you two or three reps short of failure at the top of every rep range. You are learning the movements and finding your starting numbers. Nothing here should feel like a max effort. If you finish a session and you are not sure you worked hard enough, that is normal for the first two weeks. Write every weight down.
Weeks 3 and 4. Add weight to any exercise where you hit the top of the rep range on all sets. Five pounds on upper body movements, ten on leg press and Smith machine work. When you add weight the reps will drop back toward the bottom of the range. That is exactly what should happen. Work back up.
Weeks 5 and 6. Same rule, but now push the last set of each exercise to one rep short of failure. Not to failure, one short. This is where most of the size comes from. Rest times stay where they are; if you stretch them the session stops fitting in 45 minutes.
Weeks 7 and 8. Add one set to the first exercise of each day, so it becomes 5 sets instead of 4. Keep everything else the same. Finish week 8, look at your log next to week 1, and you will see whether you actually ran the program. Then run it again for another eight weeks or move to a four day upper lower split.
Warm-Up and Recovery Notes
Five minutes on a bike, treadmill or elliptical to get warm, then two ramp up sets on the first exercise of the day. Half the working weight for 8 reps, then about 75 percent of it for 5. That is the entire warm up. You do not need 20 minutes of stretching before you lift, and cutting the warm up short is the fastest way to make a 45 minute session fit into 40.
Three rest days a week is not laziness, it is when the work you did turns into muscle. Sleep seven hours minimum; if you are sleeping five and wondering why you are not progressing, that is your answer. Walk on your off days. If a joint hurts, not sore but hurts, swap the movement for something in the same pattern that does not hurt and keep training. Skipping the whole session is rarely the right call.
Nutrition and Supplementation
Set protein at roughly one gram per pound of goal body weight and hit it every day. That number matters more than anything else on your plate. To add muscle, eat about 250 calories above maintenance and expect to gain half a pound a week. To lose fat, sit 300 to 500 below maintenance and keep protein high so you hold onto what you are building. Fill the rest with carbs and fats in whatever ratio you can actually stick to for eight weeks. Consistency is the whole strategy.
Keep it simple: a protein powder to make hitting your protein number realistic, and a multivitamin to cover the gaps in a normal diet. Creatine monohydrate is cheap and it works if you want a third thing. That is the whole list. Supplements are supplemental; the food and the training do the work.
FAQ
Push pull or upper lower, which is better for four days a week? For four days a week they are close enough that the difference will not decide your results. Upper lower gives your lower body a full session of its own, so it is the better pick if legs are your priority. Push pull, run the way it is written here, splits the legs across both days and keeps each session shorter because you are never squatting and deadlifting on the same day as your heavy pressing. Pick the one you will show up for.
Is 40 minutes really enough to build muscle? Yes, if the 40 minutes are spent working. Most people who train for 90 minutes are training for about 45 and socializing for the rest. Twenty hard sets per muscle group per week is plenty for a beginner, and this program delivers that inside four short sessions. Time in the gym is not the input that matters. Total hard sets and progressive load are.
How do I add a fifth day later? Once eight weeks are done and you want more, add a fifth day as a second pull day rather than a second push day. Most people are chest and shoulder dominant and behind on back and hamstrings. Run Push A, Pull A, Push B, Pull B, then a fifth day of Lat Pulldown, One Arm Dumbbell Row, Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift and arms. If five days starts costing you sessions, go back to four. Four days you complete beat five days you skip.
Questions and results
Ask a coach
Running this program? Tell us what week you are on and how the progression is going. A coach answers every question here.