This page includes a split 4 day workout routine for beginners, designed for muscle and strength building, and to improve general overall fitness. Training 4 days a week is ideal for beginners and intermediate lifters, and those that are slightly more serious about their goals.
The Exercises
The exercises in these workouts will focus mainly on compound exercises for maximizing muscle and strength development. With some isolation exercises to help to target certain body parts.
Your Diet
If you want to get the most out of these workouts you will need a good diet. You need to consume enough calories to support your activity levels, muscle growth and repair. However it’s not just about calories, your body also needs the right nutrients, so you can’t just rely on eating chips and burgers to get results.
You need plenty of fruit and vegetables, good quality sources of protein, for example, eggs, fish, milk, beans and nuts and also the good fats that these foods provide.
Carbohydrates are also important for giving our bodies the energy it needs. Examples of good carbohydrates would be, fruit, vegetables, oats, brown rice, high fiber breakfast cereals and whole-wheat bread.
Warm Up
Make sure to warm your body and muscles up before you start your main workout. This will provide two main benefits, injury prevention and increased performance during the workout.
You could perform some light cardio to achieve this, and/or some light resistance exercises, the pin cable machines are a nice way of doing this.
Cardio
Despite what some may think, cardio can actually help with muscle development and recovery. Add a couple of short, medium to high intensity cardio sessions a week. 10 minutes on the treadmill for example.
Split 4 Day Workout Routine Timetable Example
- Monday – Workout 1 – Back & Triceps
- Tuesday – Workout 2 – Shoulders
- Wednesday – Rest Day
- Thursday – Workout 3 – Leg Day
- Friday – Workout 4 – Chest & Biceps
Then rest on Saturday and Sunday. It might suit some people to train at the weekends, so adjust to suit your lifestyle.
Split 4 Day Workout Routine for Beginners
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Bent Over Barbell Rows | 4 | 8 - 10 |
| Deadlift | 4 | 8 - 10 |
| Skull Crushers/Tricep Extensions | 3 | 8 - 10 |
| Pull Ups | 4 | 8 - 10 |
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell Shoulder Press | 4 | 8 - 10 |
| Shoulder Raises | 4 | 8 - 10 |
| Upright Rows | 3 | 8 - 10 |
| Dumbbell Shoulder Press | 4 | 8 - 10 |
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Squats | 4 | 8 - 10 |
| Calf Raises | 4 | 10 |
| Lunges | 3 | 10 each leg |
| Leg Press | 4 | 8 - 10 |
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell Bench Press | 4 | 8 - 10 |
| Dumbbell Flyes | 4 | 10 |
| Barbell Bicep Curls | 4 | 10 |
| Incline Bench Press | 4 | 8 - 10 |
For best results you should be reaching muscle failure on the final reps of the exercise, this is what is needed to trigger the break down those muscle fibers so they can rebuild stronger and bigger.
