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4 Day Workout Plans

4 day workout plans are a great way to build strength, grow muscle, and make solid progress. Utilizing 4 training days per week is a popular choice for upper/lower body split routines like PHUL as well as programs that focus on a major compound lift each day like Wendler's 5/3/1.

Not what you're looking for? Check out Lift Vault's workout split guide to find the best routine for you.

Best 4 Day Workout Plans

  1. Jim Wendler's 5/3/1
  2. PHUL
  3. Beginner Bodybuilder Program (Ripped Body)
  4. Juggernaut Method
  5. GZCLP
  6. TSA 9 Week Intermediate Powerlifting Program
  7. Calgary Barbell 8 & 16 Week Powerlifting Programs
  8. Greg Nuckols 28 Programs
  9. nSuns
  10. Jonnie Candito 6 Week Powerlifting Program

You can check out the latest 4 day workout programs below.

Westside for Skinny Bastards Program Templates (WS4SB)

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Westside for skinny bastards (WS4SB) was developed by Joe DeFranco in 2008 as an effective strength training program for beginner athletes. Below you’ll find two different spreadsheets / templates for the program.

A few things to clear up up front:

  • Westside for skinny bastards is not a powerlifting program.
  • The program is geared for general strength enthusiasts, from high school students to working professionals.
  • While inspired by Westside Barbell Club, it is not affiliated with Westside or Louie Simmons.
  • Like Westside, WS4SB is a templated approach to lifting – not a strict cookie cutter program based strictly on percentages of 1RM. This will require you to do a little reading and interpretation to follow it. Don’t let this intimidate you! It’s a well documented program.

[Read more…]

Brian Alsruhe Mass Building Powerlifting Program

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Another free strength program from Brian Alsruhe, this time focusing on mass building. A video overview is below.

[Read more…]

16 Week Strongman Wave Program Spreadsheet

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Known simply as “wave program” via Strongman Ontario. It is a 16 week program, run 4 days per week.

[Read more…]

Frozenkilt 8 Week Overhead Press Program Spreadsheet

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This is Frozenkilt’s pressing program, which is an 8 week, 4 days per week program that focuses on bench press, overhead press (aka military press), and dumbbell press. [Read more…]

TSA 9 Week Beginner Powerlifting Program

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The Strength Athlete (TSA) released their 9 week beginner powerlifting program (aka general beginner approach) as a follow up to their successful 9 week intermediate powerlifting program. Like the intermediate program before it, the beginner program is structured as a 4 day, 9 week program, but also includes a 4 week peak if preparing for a meet. 

[Read more…]

Strength Power and Fortitude 4 Week Powerbuilding Program Spreadsheet

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The Strength Power and Fortitude (SPF) 4 week powerbuilding program by Brogan Pratt is an off season program for powerlifters designed to help build base strength and work capacity. It can be run as a 3 day or 4 day program and resets every 4 weeks, using an AMRAP set on week 4 to gauge progress.

[Read more…]

Brogains 10 Week Powerbuilding Program Spreadsheet (4 Day)

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The Brogains powerbuilding program is a strength and hypertrophy program written by Brogan Pratt. It has the option to be run as a peaking program for a meet. [Read more…]

RTS General Intermediate Program Spreadsheet – Mike Tuchscherer

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Reactive Training Systems (RTS) train some of the strongest powerlifters on the planet, so when Mike Tuchscherer published a general outline for a training program people took notice. [Read more…]

GZCLP Program Spreadsheets, Progression Tips, and Accessories

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GZCLP is a linear progression strength program for beginners. It is a simpler variation of the GZCL program methodology with more rapid progression. The GZCLP program is available in three day and four day versions. It is highly customizable, allowing the individual to select a variety of lifts to perform over the course of the program.

[Read more…]

3 Peaking Template Spreadsheets by Barbell Medicine

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Following up on the popular Bridge Program, the crew at Barbell Medicine introduced a free peaking program for athletes preparing for a powerlifting or strengthlifting meet. [Read more…]

Hepburn Method Powerbuilding Program Spreadsheet

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Doug Hepburn has become synonymous with brute force and sheer simplicity. This is reflected in his programs, which focus entirely on compound strength movements and do not explicitly recommend any direct accessory work.

Below there are essentially 2 programs, each with a power phase and a pump phase. In the old days, [Read more…]

TSA 9 Week Intermediate Powerlifting Program (v1.0 + v2.0)

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September 21, 2019 Edit: Added v2.0 of the 9 Week Intermediate Powerlifting Program.

Description from The Strength Athlete:

We wrote this program as a nine-week program for an intermediate level powerlifter, with the goal of strength and proficiency in the squat, bench press, and deadlift. You will work using progressively heavier loads week by week toward a

[Read more…]

Brian Alsruhe 9 Week Powerbuilding Program (5/3/1 Variant)

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Check out the spreadsheet for Brian Alsruhe’s 5/3/1 variant program, which is excellent for those looking for a powerbuilding training style.

Please watch Brian’s video to understand how the program works. [Read more…]

Brian Alsruhe Programs (Dark Horse + 4 Horsemen)

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Below you fill find two programs by Brian Alsruhe (check out his YouTube channel and website): Dark Horse and 4 Horsemen.

Dark Horse Program Overview

Notes directly from Brian:

  • Fill in your competition lifts and 1RMs in the spreadsheet
  • In each wave, for each of the first 4 days, set your conditioning workout
  • Pick a variation for each ME Wave
  • In each wave, for each of the first 4 days, set your antagonistic, core, and conditioning giant set exercise

[Read more…]

12 Week Peaking Program by Cast Iron Strength

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This program, billed “the best fucking 12 weeks of powerlifting you’ll have all year” is a powerlifting peaking program best suited for meet preparation. This is not designed for running back to back, as it accumulates a significant amount of fatigue throughout the duration of the program.  [Read more…]

Calgary Barbell 16 Week + 8 Week Program Spreadsheets

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Written by Calgary Barbell, the 16 week and 8 week programs are designed to improve the squat, bench press, and deadlift of the athlete in preparation for a powerlifting meet. You can, however, run them even if you’re not prepping for a meet. Both programs are quite similar, with the primary difference between the two being that the 16 week program has a more full progression of each lift, whereas the 8 week program is more a training snapshot.

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5 Blaine Sumner Program Spreadsheets

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This is the free program spreadsheet collection offered on Blaine Sumner’s site.

It contains:

  • linear progression program
  • high frequency program
  • off-season program
  • equipped lifting program
  • bench-only program

All of the above programs are 12 weeks in length and are programmed off of percentages of the lifter’s training max. [Read more…]

Dan Alexander 10 Week Powerlifting Peaking Program

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10/1/19 Edit: Fixed the rounding and added support for lbs and kgs! 🙂

Dan Alexander’s 10 week Powerlifting Peaking Program is designed to improve the 1RM of the squat, bench, and deadlift by 5%. Spread across the three lifts, this can result in a sizeable boost to a lifter’s total on the competition platform.

This program is a hybrid of Korte’s 3×3 program and Verhoshansky’s Soviet peaking routine. [Read more…]

Greg Nuckols 28 Programs Spreadsheet

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Greg Nuckols released 28 program variations through his site, Stronger by Science.

In addition to these programs, I strongly recommend you check out The Art & Science of Lifting and the free lifting guides he authored. He also co-authors the best monthly round-up of cutting edge research on strength, hypertrophy, and related subjects. It’s called MASS and it’s absolutely worth a look. He even has a free issue available as a preview.

See also: Greg Nuckols High Frequency Program (free spreadsheet) [Read more…]

nSuns 5/3/1 Complete Program Collection (4 Day, 5 Day, Cap3, and More)

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nSuns 5/3/1 is a linear progression powerlifting program that was inspired by Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 strength program. It progresses on a weekly basis, making it well suited for late stage novice and early intermediate lifters. It is known for its challenging amount of volume. Those who stick with it tend to find great results from the additional work capacity.

Redditor /u/nsuns assembled a 5/3/1/ LP spreadsheet complete with 4, 5, and 6 day variants in addition to deadlift and squat specific workloads to help everyone get stronger.

Use the table of contents to jump to your desired spreadsheet or read on below to learn about which nSuns program you should run.

[Read more…]