Push/Pull/Legs: The Complete Guide to PPL Training

Push/Pull/Legs (PPL) is one of the most popular ways to organise a training week. Instead of hitting the whole body every session or chasing one muscle per day, you group exercises by movement pattern: pushing muscles together, pulling muscles together, and legs on their own. It is simple, scalable, and works whether you train three days a week or six.

How the split works

Each day targets muscles that naturally cooperate during a movement:

• Push: chest, shoulders (deltoids) and triceps — the muscles that extend your arm and press weight away from you.
• Pull: back (lats, traps, rhomboids), rear deltoids and biceps — the muscles that draw weight toward you.
• Legs: quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes and calves, usually with some core work.

Because pushing muscles work together and pulling muscles work together, you avoid the problem of fatiguing your triceps on chest day and then hammering them again on shoulder day. The grouping keeps related muscles fresh within a session and recovered between sessions.

Who PPL is best for

PPL suits intermediate lifters who can already perform the main barbell and dumbbell lifts with good technique and who want more weekly volume than a full-body plan comfortably allows. Beginners can use it too, but a simpler full-body or upper/lower structure is often easier to recover from at first. The real strength of PPL is flexibility: the same template scales from three to six sessions a week.

Choosing your weekly frequency

A key principle from the research is that each muscle group responds well to being trained at least twice per week. Meta-analyses show that, when total volume is equal, training a muscle twice weekly tends to produce more growth than training it once.

• 3 days/week: Push, Pull, Legs on non-consecutive days. Each muscle is hit once — a solid maintenance or beginner option, though frequency is lower.
• 6 days/week: Push, Pull, Legs, repeat. Each muscle is trained twice weekly — the classic "PPL x2" that maximises the split's potential.
• 4-5 days/week: Rotate the three days on a rolling basis so frequency lands between once and twice weekly for most muscles.

Sample Push day

• Barbell or dumbbell bench press — 3-4 sets of 6-10 reps
• Overhead press — 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Incline dumbbell press — 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Lateral raises — 3 sets of 12-20 reps
• Triceps pushdown or overhead extension — 3 sets of 10-15 reps

Sample Pull day

• Pull-ups or lat pulldown — 3-4 sets of 6-12 reps
• Barbell or dumbbell row — 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps
• Seated cable row — 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Face pulls or rear-delt raises — 3 sets of 15-20 reps
• Biceps curls — 3 sets of 10-15 reps

Sample Legs day

• Squat (back or front) — 3-4 sets of 5-8 reps
• Romanian deadlift — 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Leg press — 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Leg curl — 3 sets of 10-15 reps
• Standing calf raise — 3-4 sets of 12-20 reps

Sets, reps and progression

Most hypertrophy work sits in the 6-15 rep range, taken to within a couple of reps of failure. Strength-focused lifters can push the compound lifts lower, into 3-6 reps. As a general target, aim for roughly 10-20 hard sets per muscle group per week, split across your sessions.

Progress comes from progressive overload: adding a little weight, an extra rep, or an extra set over time. Keep a training log and try to beat your previous numbers gradually. Trying to add weight every single session is unrealistic; small, steady gains across weeks are what build muscle and strength.

Rest periods and tempo

Rest long enough to perform your next set with quality. On heavy compound lifts, that usually means two to three minutes; on isolation work, 60-90 seconds is plenty. Cutting rest too short on big lifts sacrifices the load you can handle and blunts the strength stimulus. Control each rep, especially the lowering (eccentric) phase — a smooth two- to three-second descent keeps tension on the muscle and reduces reliance on momentum. Full range of motion on every rep matters more than shifting an extra plate you cannot control.

Warming up

Before your first heavy set, spend five to ten minutes raising your body temperature with light cardio, then perform two or three progressively heavier ramp-up sets of your first exercise. This primes your nervous system, rehearses the movement pattern, and reduces injury risk without draining the energy you need for your working sets.

Common mistakes

• Skipping legs. The lower body holds your largest muscles — do not treat leg day as optional.
• Too many junk sets. More is not always better; quality sets near failure beat endless easy ones.
• Ignoring rest. If you run PPL six days a week, one full rest day matters for recovery and long-term progress.
• Neglecting recovery. Sleep of seven to nine hours and adequate daily protein are what let high-frequency PPL work; without them, six days a week becomes overreaching.

Key takeaways

• PPL groups exercises by movement pattern: push, pull, and legs.
• It scales cleanly from 3 to 6 days per week.
• Training each muscle roughly twice weekly tends to beat once-weekly for growth.
• Aim for about 10-20 hard sets per muscle per week and lead with compound lifts.
• Progressive overload plus a training log is what drives results.

References

1. Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Effects of resistance training frequency on measures of muscle hypertrophy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 2016. — Sports Medicine (2016)
2. Schoenfeld BJ, Grgic J, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Strength and hypertrophy adaptations between low- vs. high-load resistance training: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2017. — Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (2017)
3. American College of Sports Medicine. Progression Models in Resistance Training for Healthy Adults (Position Stand). Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2009. — ACSM Position Stand (2009)
4. Schoenfeld BJ, Contreras B, Krieger J, et al. Resistance Training Volume Enhances Muscle Hypertrophy but Not Strength in Trained Men. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2019. — Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (2019)