PHUL workout program: Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower, the complete 4-day plan

1.What PHUL is and who created it

PHUL stands for Power Hypertrophy Upper Lower. It was created by Brandon Campbell and published on Muscle & Strength as a four-day program for lifters past the beginner stage. The exercises, sets and reps on this page are the published program’s; NoteFit has no connection to the author or the site.

What the program does not fix and the app needs, we filled in, and we say where: the rest times, the secondary muscle of each exercise, the calf machine on the power day — the original only asks for a calf exercise — and the progression rule of the copied plan.

2.The week: two power days, two hypertrophy days

Monday, upper power; Tuesday, lower power; Wednesday, rest; Thursday, upper hypertrophy; Friday, lower hypertrophy; weekend off. Every muscle group is trained twice a week: once with heavy loads, once with more reps.

On power days the main lifts sit between 3 and 5 reps; on hypertrophy days between 8 and 12, and up to 15 on some leg exercises. Sets come as ranges — 3-4, 2-3 — and the tables show the full week exactly as it sits in the app.

3.Why split power and hypertrophy

Low reps with heavy loads train your ability to produce force on the main lifts; moderate reps build up the volume hypertrophy asks for. Splitting them across different days lets each session do one thing well, instead of every session doing both halfway.

The hypertrophy days also change the exercises: incline barbell bench instead of bench press, front squat instead of back squat, cable and dumbbell rows instead of the barbell row. The same muscle is trained twice a week, but not with the same movement at maximal load.

4.How to progress

The progression rule of the copied plan is ours, the same double progression as the other plans in these guides. On power days, add load once you get 5 reps on every set of an exercise. On hypertrophy days, add load once every set reaches the top of the range.

The set ranges are there to regulate volume: start the block at the lower number and add the extra set when recovery allows. It is the simplest way to make volume climb across the mesocycle without touching the exercises.

Muscle & Strength presents PHUL as a 12-week program. The copy creates a four-week block: at the end of it, take a deload week and copy the block again, starting from the loads you reached.

5.How many sets it gives each muscle

Counting the top of every range, the way the app counts a "3-4" (as 4), the week has 98 sets: 25 on upper power, 21 on lower power, 28 on upper hypertrophy and 24 on lower hypertrophy. At the bottom of the ranges it is 73.

Legs get 41 sets. Glutes get 21, all of them indirect: they come from the squats, the deadlift, the leg press and the lunges. Chest ends up with 16 and back with 20. Triceps and biceps pass 20 — 22 and 23 — but only 7 of each are direct.

The weak spot is shoulders: 7 direct sets between the overhead press and the lateral raises, and none for the rear delts. There is no ab work either. If either matters to you, add face pulls or ab work at the end of upper hypertrophy and watch the column move in the panel.

6.PHUL or the 4-day upper/lower in these guides?

They share the structure, four sessions with two upper and two lower, and differ in intent. PHUL separates the heavy days from the volume days; the example plan in these guides mixes low and moderate reps in every session, opening each one with a heavy compound.

If you like watching the load climb on sets of 3 to 5, PHUL fits better. If you prefer sessions that look alike, with fewer sets per week, the 4-day upper/lower is easier to recover from. Both fit into the same four days.

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