What Is Push Pull Legs?
Push Pull Legs (PPL) organises your training week around three movement patterns. Push days train the muscles responsible for pushing movements: chest, shoulders, and triceps. Pull days target the muscles that pull: back and biceps. Leg days focus on the entire lower body — quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves.
The classic PPL runs 6 days per week, repeating the Push/Pull/Legs cycle twice. This means every muscle group receives two dedicated training sessions per week. A 3-day version (one of each session type) also exists and suits lifters who cannot commit to six sessions, but loses the frequency advantage that makes 6-day PPL so effective.
PPL has been used by competitive bodybuilders and strength athletes for decades and remains one of the best-supported training structures in evidence-based fitness. Its continued popularity reflects a fundamental truth: moderate-to-high frequency per muscle group, combined with focused session structure, is highly effective for building strength and muscle simultaneously.
PPL Weekly Schedule
| Day | Session | Primary Muscles |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Push A | Chest, Shoulders, Triceps |
| Tuesday | Pull A | Back, Biceps |
| Wednesday | Legs A | Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Calves |
| Thursday | Push B | Chest, Shoulders, Triceps |
| Friday | Pull B | Back, Biceps |
| Saturday | Legs B | Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Calves |
| Sunday | Rest | — |
A and B sessions use different exercise selections for variety. Push A might lead with Barbell Bench Press, while Push B leads with Overhead Press. This rotation prevents adaptation and ensures complete development across all angles.
Key PPL Exercises by Session
| Session | Strength (5×5) | Build (3×12–15) |
|---|---|---|
| Push | Bench Press, Overhead Press | Incline DB Press, Lateral Raises, Tricep Pushdown |
| Pull | Deadlift, Barbell Row | Pull-Ups, Lat Pulldown, Bicep Curls |
| Legs | Back Squat, Romanian Deadlift | Leg Press, Leg Curl, Bulgarian Split Squat, Calf Raises |
Who Should Run PPL?
PPL is best suited to intermediate lifters with at least six months of consistent training experience. Beginners typically benefit more from full-body training, where the higher per-movement frequency (three sessions per week) accelerates skill acquisition and neurological adaptation. Once those foundations are established, PPL's higher volume delivers continued progress.
You also need to be able to reliably train five or six days per week. If your schedule only supports four days, the Upper/Lower split will serve you better and maintain sufficient frequency. Consistency matters more than optimal programming — a 4-day Upper/Lower maintained for 12 months beats a 6-day PPL run sporadically.
Lifters focused primarily on aesthetics — maximising muscle development across all body parts with balanced proportions — tend to respond particularly well to PPL. The split enforces equal volume on push, pull, and legs by its very structure, which naturally prevents the imbalances that arise from programs that overemphasise chest while neglecting back or legs.
Benefits of Push Pull Legs Training
Twice-weekly frequency. Training each muscle group twice per week is one of the most consistently supported strategies in exercise science for hypertrophy. Compared to once-weekly body-part splits, PPL's twice-weekly frequency produces substantially greater muscle growth when total weekly volume is matched. The 6-day schedule achieves this without excessive session length.
High specialised volume per session. Each session focuses on only one movement pattern, allowing you to accumulate significant volume for chest, back, or legs without the session becoming unmanageably long. A PPL Push session comfortably fits 20+ total sets for push muscles in 60–75 minutes.
Structural balance. Push sessions develop pressing strength, Pull sessions develop rowing and pulling strength, and Legs sessions develop the entire lower body. The three-way equal split prevents the chronic imbalances — overdeveloped chest, underdeveloped back, neglected legs — that plague many lifters on arbitrary body-part splits.
Scalable across experience levels. PPL adapts easily as you advance. Add sets, increase frequency to 3-day cycles (9 days instead of 7), or introduce periodisation within sessions. The structure accommodates serious long-term progression.
How to Run Progressive Overload on PPL
The standard approach for PPL is double progression: aim to add reps within a target range before increasing weight. For strength sets (5×5), once you complete all 25 reps with proper form, add 2.5–5 kg at the next session. For build sets (3×12–15), once you complete 45 reps (3 sets of 15), increase the weight and restart at 3×12.
Track every session. Write down or log the weight, sets, and reps for every exercise. If you're not tracking, you cannot confirm you're applying progressive overload — and progressive overload is the primary driver of strength and muscle gains in trained individuals.
How to Use the PPL Generator
The My Buddy Workout PPL generator creates a complete Push Pull Legs program in seconds. Select the number of training days (3 or 6), your available equipment, and session duration. The generator assigns Push, Pull, and Legs days appropriately and populates each session with compound strength movements (5×5) followed by accessory build work (3×12–15) and a core finisher.
After generating, all exercises are editable inline. Add your own movements, adjust sets and reps, rename day cards to distinguish your A and B sessions. Export the finished plan as a PNG image or CSV file for your training log. Read the full PPL workout guide article for detailed programming advice on volume, frequency, and progression.