Chest and back workout plan

A chest and back workout that pairs a press with a pull on every day, three days a week.

Who it is for

Shoulders ride along with a shoulder press, lateral raises and face pulls, and the days run 28 to 42 minutes. Once you train regularly, the 4 day tab splits the week into two push days and two pull days.

• You want a balanced upper body and no separate arm day
• You spend the day at a keyboard and want as much pulling as pressing
• You are a beginner who likes the gym machines
• You have trained for six months and can give four days: take the 4 day tab

How to lay out the week

Three days, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Day A is the long one, about 42 minutes: the machine chest press, the machine row and the lat pulldown back to back, then a shoulder press, a lateral raise and face pulls. Day B is a short 28 minutes, the close-grip pulldown and the dumbbell bench press, then the reverse pec deck and lateral raises. Day C sets the seated cable row against the incline machine press and repeats the pulldown and face pulls. In weeks one and two the three sessions use only A and B, and C joins in week three. On the 4 day tab, push on Monday and Thursday, pull on Tuesday and Friday.

How to add weight

Most exercises on the 3 day tab run 10-12 reps; the close-grip pulldown runs 8-12. Reach the top in every set, then take the next plate and go back to the low end. Pressing usually climbs faster than rowing at first. That is normal; do not hold the rows back to match. Face pulls and raises at 12-15 move by reps for a few weeks before a weight change. On the 4 day tab the barbell bench press works at 5-8 with 3 minutes of rest, and after 8 in all four sets you add 2.5 kg.

If you use Claude or ChatGPT, you can connect it to AIm later: it reads the same log.

Warm-up

1. Two minutes rowing at an easy pace, which warms the back and the arms at once.
2. Ten push-ups with your hands on a bench and ten light face pulls.
3. A half-weight set of the first press and of the first row.

Mistakes to avoid

• Pressing hard and rowing lazily. The rows get as many sets as the presses; give them the same effort.
• Shrugging up on rows and pulldowns. Keep your shoulders down and away from your ears.
• Flaring your elbows on the chest press and the dumbbell bench.
• Rounding your back to finish the last reps of the seated cable row. End the set when your chest drops.

Chest and back workout on the same day

Chest and back pull in opposite directions, so one rests while the other works. That makes them easy to pair: day A puts the chest press and the machine row next to each other, day C the cable row and the incline press. If time is short, alternate the two, resting 60 to 90 seconds after each set, and the session gets shorter without lighter weights.

Back and shoulder workout

This plan trains the shoulders on every day, so it also works as a back and shoulder plan. The front of the shoulder gets the machine shoulder press and the incline press, the side gets cable and dumbbell lateral raises, and the back gets face pulls and the reverse pec deck. On the 4 day tab, shoulder work sits on the push days and the rear shoulder work on the pull days.