Train with FITENIUM app! Torso-Leg routine of 4 days.
If you don’t already know Fitenium is a free, mobile, video-based social network for athletes who train strength or bodyweight exercises. At Fitenium users can follow their performance, compete and get discounts in nutrition and sports equipment stores. Download it here.
Hello Fiteniers, today we are going to talk about another of the most popular training schemes and the best results. It’s usually a natural step when a 3-day Fullbody routine falls short on training days and you want to hit the gym more. The 4-day Torso-Leg routine continues to have a base of multi-joint exercises, but ending each session with one or two isolated exercises to end the session.
In this case, we recommend this 4-day Torso-Leg routine for intermediate athletes. If you are a beginner, we believe that it is better that you start your journey in the gym for a few months with the 3 day fullbody routine a few months, and if you are advanced, although this routine is valid, we believe that there are other more interesting options such as Pull-Push-Legs.
Guidelines:
1. Weekly Division of the Routine:
Access the Fitenium app where you can train this routine for free.
Monday: Torso 1 Workout
Tuesday: Leg 1 Workout
Wednesday: Active Rest
Thursday: Torso 2 Workout
Friday: Leg 2 Workout
Although in general this routine is designed to go to the gym four days, if for some reason one week you can only go three days, you can do three days of this routine and start the following week with the training that was missing. An example would be like this.
Week 1:
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Week 2:
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What is active rest? It consists of resting from our usual 3-day routine, but continuing to be active by doing some moderate activity with a moderate pace and duration. Examples of active rest: yoga or stretching session, 45-60 minute walk, foam roller routine, riding a bike… there are options for all tastes.
2. Rest between sets:
In multi-joint exercises such as Squats, Deadlifts or Bench Press, we recommend taking long breaks of 3-4 minutes without any problem, since by recruiting a lot of muscle, our CNS needs a little more time to recover. For isolation exercises, short rests of 60-90 seconds are enough to go for another set.
3. Effort:
Given the predominance of multi-joint exercises, we do not recommend training near failure if we want to maintain performance and technique throughout our sets. As a general rule in compound exercises we recommend training with a weight that allows us to do 2 or 3 more repetitions. In the more analytical exercises we recommend training with a weight that allows us to do 1 or 2 more repetitions.
If we are beginners we can apply a linear weight progression and almost every week we will be able to lift more weight than the previous one, but if we are already intermediate we recommend other types of more complex progressions that we will talk about later.
4. Warm up and stretch:
The warm-up will be the same every day, it is VERY IMPORTANT never to skip the warm-up and stretching if we want to continue progressing without injuries.
Exercise | Sets | repetitions | Grades |
Low Intensity Cardio | 1 | 5-10 min | 100-135 PPM |
Front leg swing | 2 | 12 | watch video |
Side leg swing | 2 | 12 | watch video |
activate gluteus | 2 | 15 cover | watch video |
Trapeze Raise | 2 | 12 | Watch Video |
Elbow Internal Rotation | 2 | 12 | Watch Video |
External Rotation Elbow | 1 | 12 | Watch Video |
5. Substitutions:
We highly recommend doing our 3-day routine with the scheduled exercises, but if for whatever reason you can’t do any of the exercises, you can substitute them as follows.
- Squat: Press + 15 reps of lower back extension (i.e. if you have 3×8 of Squat, replace it with 3×8 of press and 3×15 of lower back extension).
- Deadlift: Hip Thrust `+ 15 repetitions of lumbar extension.
- Romanian Deadlift: Nordic Curl.
- Stride: Unilateral Hip Thrust with Dumbbell.
- Hip Thrust: Hip Thrust on a quadriceps extension machine.
- Calf Raise standing machine: Calf Raise with dumbbell.
- Femoral Curl: Femoral Curl with Dumbbell (between the feet).
- Quadriceps Extension: You can eliminate them.
- Barbell Bench Press: Dumbbell Bench Press.
- Incline Dumbbell Press: Incline Barbell Press.
- Military Press: Standing Military Press with Dumbbells.
- Pulley Openings: Dumbbell Openings or Pec Deck.
- Funds: Bench Press Declined Dumbbells.
- Supine Pulley Pulldown: Biceps Pull Ups.
- T-Bar Row: Dumbbell Bench Row.
6. Progression
Once we are intermediate, the linear progression is no longer realistic for us in this 4 day Upper-Leg routine.
In this routine, we recommend an undulating progression that works as follows:
- Let’s take as an example an exercise from our 4-day Torso-Leg routine that has 3 series for 6-8 repetitions.
- We load a weight that allows us to do 6 repetitions.
- We do the series of 6 repetitions until with the increase in our strength, we can do 8 repetitions with the same weight.
- Once we can do 3 sets of 8 repetitions, we increase the weight (1-2.5kg disc in isolated exercises and 5kg in compound exercises).
- With this new weight we start again doing 6 repetitions. If we fail we return to the previous weight.
7. And the diet?
To make truly significant progress in the gym, diet is just as important as training if not more. Avoid processed foods, eat a reasonable amount of protein for your weight and training level, and calculate a caloric deficit/surplus based on your goals. Read our article if you want to have a Body 10.
The 4-day Torso-Leg Routine
Access the Fitenium app where you can train this routine for free.
Day 1 – Heavy Torso
Exercise | Sets | repetitions | Rest |
Flat Bench Press | 3 | 5-7 | 3-4 min |
pulley pulley | 3 | 10-12 | 2-3 min |
Press Militar | 3 | 10-12 | 3-4 min |
T Bar Row | 3 | 12-15 | 2-3 min |
Pulley Openings | 3 | 12-15 | 1-2 min |
Dumbbell Biceps Curl | 3 | 10-12 | 1-2 min |
Triceps Extension | 3 | 12-15 | 1-2 min |
Day 2 – Heavy Leg
Exercise | Sets | repetitions | Rest |
squat | 3 | 6-8 | 3-4 min |
Romanian Deadlift | 3 | 10-12 | 2-3 min |
Hip Thrust con Barra | 3 | 12-15 | 2-3 min |
Quadriceps Extension | 3 | 12-15 | 1-2 min |
Curl Femoral | 3 | 12-15 | 1-2 min |
Machine Abduction | 3 | 6-8 | 1-2 min |
Crunch | 3 | 12-15 | 1-2 min |
Day 3 – Light Torso
Exercise | Sets | repetitions | Rest |
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press | 3 | 8-10 | 2-3 min |
Supine Pulley Pulldown | 3 | 8-10 | 2-3 min |
Dips | 3 | 10-12 | 2-3 min |
Yates row | 3 | 10-12 | 2-3 min |
Dumbbell Lateral Raise | 3 | 12-15 | 1-2 min |
Face Pull with Pulley | 3 | 12-15 | 1-2 min |
Hammer Curl | 3 | 8-10 | 1-2 min |
Day 4 – Light Leg
Exercise | Sets | repetitions | Rest |
Dead weight | 3 | 8-10 | 3-4 min |
Dumbbell Lunge | 3 | 10-12 | 2-3 min |
Unilateral Quadriceps Extension | 3 | 12-15 | 2-3 min |
Unilateral Leg Curl | 3 | 12-15 | 1-2 min |
Machine Abduction | 3 | 12-15 | 1-2 min |
Standing Calf Raise | 3 | 12-15 | 1-2 min |
Plank (Abdominals) | 3 | 20-40″ | 1-2 min |
If you want to go to the gym more days and spin more finely in each workout, this 4-day Torso-Leg routine is a perfect option to continue progressing once we are no longer newbies.
Don’t forget to record your progress and upload it to Fitenium!