Push pull legs split: a complete guide with sample days

A push pull legs split groups your training by movement. Push days train the muscles that press away from you, pull days the ones that pull towards you, and legs days everything below the waist. It's one of the most popular ways to organise a week because each day has a clear job and the muscles from one day rest while you train the next.

What goes on each day

• Push: chest, front and side delts, triceps. Presses, flyes, raises and extensions.
• Pull: lats, upper back, rear delts, biceps. Rows, pulldowns, pull-ups and curls.
• Legs: quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, plus core. Squats, hinges, lunges and curls.

Three days or six?

Run once through (push, pull, legs, three days a week) and every muscle is trained once a week. That works, but for growth most lifters do better hitting each muscle at least twice a week. Running the cycle twice (six days) does that, and so does a rolling rotation where you train push, pull, legs, rest and repeat, which lands each day roughly every four days.

If six days is more than your life allows, a four-day upper/lower split or three full body sessions give you the same twice-a-week frequency in fewer days.

Sample push day

• Barbell bench pressChest
• Incline dumbbell pressChest, Front delts
• Standing overhead pressFront delts
• Dumbbell lateral raiseSide delts
• Cable pushdownTriceps

Three or four sets of 6 to 10 reps on the presses, 10 to 15 on the raises and pushdowns.

Sample pull day

• Pull-upLats
• Barbell rowUpper back, Lats
• Seated cable rowUpper back, Lats
• Cable face pullRear delts
• Dumbbell curlBiceps

Swap the pull-ups for lat pulldowns if you can't yet do 5 clean reps.

Sample legs day

• Back squatQuads, Glutes
• Romanian deadliftHamstrings, Glutes
• Dumbbell walking lungeQuads, Glutes
• Leg curlHamstrings
• Standing calf raiseCalves

Squats and Romanian deadlifts are the heavy work. Keep the rest at 8 to 15 reps so the day doesn't take two hours.

Common mistakes

• Too many exercises. Five or six well-chosen lifts are plenty. A dozen presses on push day is junk volume by the end.
• Skipping legs day. Because it's the hardest, it's the one that slips. Put it first in the week if that keeps you honest.
• Never changing the weight. A split is just a schedule. You still need progressive overload on every lift.
• Counting sets wrong. Rows train the rear delts and biceps too. Count weekly sets per muscle, not per exercise.

Tip: Missed a day? Don't skip ahead. Do the next day in the rotation, so no muscle group gets left out for a fortnight.

Push pull legs in Liftsmith

Pick Push / pull / legs in Settings › Training › Program and Liftsmith plans each day from only that day's muscles, using the equipment in your gym and skipping any muscle that isn't recovered yet. It keeps the effort targets, deload weeks, readiness calls and the workout length slider, and moves your weights and reps forward every session. The split is part of Pro; the fixed programs are free.