4-Day Pull-Up Bar Home Muscle Building Plan for Intermediates

A week for an intermediate lifter at home with a pull-up bar who wants to build muscle: 4 workouts of 45 minutes (Mon upper body, Tue lower body, Thu upper body, Fri lower body).

Goal: Muscle gain
Days per week: 4 days
Minutes per workout: 45 minutes
Split: Upper / lower
Level: Intermediate
Where: Home and outdoors

Monday — upper body

≈ 49 min

Warm-up 2 exercises

Arm Circles
3 × 30 s rest 15 s
Seated Thoracic Extension (Chest Opener)
3 × 30 s rest 15 s

Main work

Push-Up Wide
4 × 6 rest 90 s RPE 8
Backpack Row
4 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8
Feet-Elevated Pike Push-Up
4 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8
Muscle-up
6 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8

Cool-down 2 exercises

Cross-Body Shoulder Stretch
3 × 30 s rest 15 s
Overhead Lat Stretch
3 × 30 s rest 15 s

Tuesday — lower body

≈ 44 min

Warm-up 2 exercises

90/90 Hip Switches
3 × 30 s rest 15 s
Hip Circles
3 × 30 s rest 15 s

Main work

Sissy Squat
4 × 6 rest 90 s RPE 8
Single-Leg Hip Thrust
6 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8
Lunge Sprint
4 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8
Walking Lunge
2 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8

Cool-down 2 exercises

Kneeling Hip-Flexor Stretch
3 × 30 s rest 15 s
Half-Kneeling Hip Flexor Rock
3 × 30 s rest 15 s

Thursday — upper body

≈ 48 min

Warm-up 2 exercises

Cat–Cow Mobility
3 × 30 s rest 15 s
Arm Circles
3 × 30 s rest 15 s

Main work

Push Up
4 × 6 rest 90 s RPE 8
Towel Doorframe Row
4 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8
Pike Push-Up
4 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8
Wide-Grip Pull-Up
4 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8
Feet-Elevated Bench Dip
2 × 12 rest 60 s

Cool-down 2 exercises

Standing Wall Shoulder Opening Stretch
3 × 30 s rest 15 s
Overhead Triceps Stretch
3 × 30 s rest 15 s

Friday — lower body

≈ 44 min

Warm-up 2 exercises

Front-to-Back Leg Swings
3 × 30 s rest 15 s
90/90 Hip Switches
3 × 30 s rest 15 s

Main work

Pistol Squat
4 × 6 rest 90 s RPE 8
Hip Hinge Drill
4 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8
Single-Leg Bound
4 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8
Forward Lunge
4 × 10 rest 90 s RPE 8

Cool-down 2 exercises

Pigeon Glute Stretch
3 × 30 s rest 15 s
Lying Figure-Four Glute Stretch
3 × 30 s rest 15 s

RPE is how hard a set feels on a 1–10 scale: at RPE 7 you have about three more reps left.

This is a sample week the Workoutify generator built for this questionnaire. For your own days, time and equipment it will build yours. Built on October 25, 2026

Why it is built this way

Upper and lower body alternate: on 4 days each muscle is trained twice a week with rest in between.
Reps: 5–20. The day's main lift sits near the bottom of the range, compounds at 8–12, isolation up to 20. Muscle grows from tension and sets taken close to failure.
Rest on the day's main lift is at least 2.5 min, so the next set goes with the same weight. Accessory exercises get shorter rest.
Effort is set on the RPE scale from 1 to 10. RPE 8 means roughly 2 reps left in reserve: you choose the weight by that feel, not by a percentage of your max.
The weeks undulate: moderate, heavy (2 fewer reps, RPE +1) and light (2 more reps, RPE −1) weeks rotate. This page shows the moderate one.