Who this plan is for
This routine is for lifters with at least six months of consistent training who can perform the main barbell lifts with solid technique. If you are still adding weight every session on a beginner plan, stay there; this split trades fast linear progress for more volume per muscle.
It also demands time. Six sessions of an hour or more is a serious commitment. If you can reliably train only four days, the upper/lower split will give you better results than a PPL you keep skipping.
A useful middle ground is running the six days as a rolling cycle: push, pull, legs, rest, repeat. That gives you roughly five sessions a week and an extra recovery day.
How the heavy and volume days work
Days 1 to 3 are built around compound lifts in lower rep ranges, where the goal is to push strength. Days 4 to 6 use more dumbbell, cable and machine work in higher rep ranges, where the goal is to accumulate quality volume without beating up joints.
Both styles build muscle. Research reviews, such as Schoenfeld and colleagues' work on loading ranges, consistently find similar hypertrophy across a wide rep range as long as sets are taken close to failure. Mixing them gives you strength and size, and keeps training from getting stale. More on this in how many sets and reps for muscle growth.
How to progress week to week
Use double progression on every exercise. Each one has a rep range, for example 8 to 12.
- Pick a weight you can lift for the bottom of the range on all sets.
- Each session, try to add a rep or two to at least one set.
- Once every set hits the top of the range, increase the weight by the smallest available jump and drop back to the bottom.
Most sets should finish with one to three reps in reserve, meaning you could have done one to three more with good form. Take the last set of isolation exercises such as lateral raises and curls to technical failure if you like, but avoid true failure on squats and deadlifts, where form breaks down first.
Over an 8-week block, you should see your logbook numbers creep up across most lifts. If a lift has not moved in three weeks, swap it for a close variation for the next block.
Progress in total reps counts too. Going from 3 sets of 8 to 3 sets of 10 at the same weight is a real gain.
Warm-up
Warm up for 5 to 10 minutes before each session:
- Light cardio until you break a mild sweat.
- Push days: band pull-aparts, arm circles and a few push-ups.
- Pull days: dead hangs, scapular pull-ups and light rows.
- Leg days: bodyweight squats, hip swings and glute bridges.
- Two to four ramp-up sets on the first compound lift, building from the empty bar to your first working weight.
How to pick weights
For the heavy compound lifts, start with a load around 75 to 80% of your one rep max. If you do not know your max, take a recent hard set and run it through the one rep max calculator; it estimates your max and prints a percentage table you can work from.
For accessories, choose by feel. The right weight lets you hit the bottom of the rep range with clean form and leaves you unable to do more than two or three extra reps.
Nutrition to support the split
Six days of high-volume training burns a lot of energy, so it pairs best with a small calorie surplus if muscle gain is the goal. Estimate maintenance with the TDEE calculator and add 200 to 400 kcal. A gain of about 0.25 to 0.5% of bodyweight per week is a good pace for most intermediates.
Set protein at around 1.6 to 2.2 g per kg of bodyweight with the protein calculator, and use the macro calculator to split the rest between carbs and fat. Carbohydrates fuel high-volume sessions, so do not cut them too low. If you are deciding between gaining and leaning out first, read bulking vs cutting.
Deloads and swaps
After every 6 to 8 weeks, take a deload week: same exercises, half the sets, and stop each set four or more reps short of failure. Take one sooner if joints ache or performance drops two sessions in a row. See rest days and recovery for the signs.
Swap freely within a movement pattern: dumbbell bench for barbell bench, hack squat for back squat, chest-supported row for barbell row. Keep a swap for a full block so your progress stays measurable.
Common mistakes on a PPL split
Push pull legs is easy to run badly. The usual problems are too much volume and too little effort, in that order.
- Adding exercises. Six sessions already give each muscle 10 to 20 hard sets a week. More is rarely better and often worse.
- Junk sets. Sets that stop five or more reps short of failure do little. Make each listed set count.
- Skipping leg days. Two leg sessions a week are what make this a complete program.
- Ignoring sleep. Six training days demand seven to nine hours a night; see sleep and muscle growth.
If you find yourself dreading sessions or missing lifts across the board, drop to the rolling five-day version for a few weeks rather than pushing through.
Frequently asked questions
Is push pull legs good for beginners?
It can work, but it is usually not the best choice. Beginners progress faster on a three-day full body plan that practises the main lifts more often and leaves more time to recover.
Can I run push pull legs 3 days a week?
Yes, but each muscle is then trained only once a week. That works for maintenance, but most people build muscle faster with twice-weekly frequency, so four to six days is better for growth.
Where does ab training fit?
Add two or three sets of planks, hanging leg raises or cable crunches at the end of any two sessions. Heavy squats and deadlifts already train your trunk hard.
Should I train to failure on every set?
No. Leave one to three reps in reserve on most sets, especially compound lifts. Occasional failure on isolation exercises is fine, but constant failure adds fatigue faster than it adds muscle.
How long should a PPL session take?
Most sessions take 60 to 75 minutes including the warm-up. If you are regularly going past 90 minutes, shorten rest on isolation exercises or drop a set from the last movement.
Check with a doctor before starting a new training programme if you have a medical condition or injury. See our medical disclaimer.
