Push - Pull - Legs Routine - Pros and Cons (FULL BREAKDOWN)
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Date: 2022-04-22
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Comments and reviews: 10
banditkade
Due to my own schedule, where I work a double on Tuesdays and Thursdays, my split is based on the push/pull/legs. I have an olympic-sized weight set at home, but no treadmill, cables, or dumbells. So Tuesdays and Thursdays are my rest days. Wednesdays are leg day; no trip to the gym, just squats, barbell lunges, and at-home excercises like leg lifts, planking, rotator cuff stretches, and back stretches. Friday-Monday, it's -push/pull-, bench press, overhead press, and close grip bench on push day, followed by deadlift, bent-over row, and barbell curls on pull day at home. At the gym, on push day, it's technically -dumbell day-, and pull day is -cable day-. There's a little bit of the opposite of push or pull with what I do there, but I did it mostly for the convenience of not having to bounce around the gym and how that certain stations are open by the time I get to them. All of these days have time walking and jogging on a treadmill for about 45min to keep my legs active.
In short, it's essentially 4 days on, 3 days off for the push/pull days, with a leg/core day in the middle.
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Due to my own schedule, where I work a double on Tuesdays and Thursdays, my split is based on the push/pull/legs. I have an olympic-sized weight set at home, but no treadmill, cables, or dumbells. So Tuesdays and Thursdays are my rest days. Wednesdays are leg day; no trip to the gym, just squats, barbell lunges, and at-home excercises like leg lifts, planking, rotator cuff stretches, and back stretches. Friday-Monday, it's -push/pull-, bench press, overhead press, and close grip bench on push day, followed by deadlift, bent-over row, and barbell curls on pull day at home. At the gym, on push day, it's technically -dumbell day-, and pull day is -cable day-. There's a little bit of the opposite of push or pull with what I do there, but I did it mostly for the convenience of not having to bounce around the gym and how that certain stations are open by the time I get to them. All of these days have time walking and jogging on a treadmill for about 45min to keep my legs active.
In short, it's essentially 4 days on, 3 days off for the push/pull days, with a leg/core day in the middle.
reply
Milos
PPL and 45-60 minutes of training just doesn't work if you want to build muscle, no time to focus on any muscle but rather chasing the strength at the end of the day, risking burnout, fatigue and too often sornes which can be counterproductive.
I was utilising PPL for 2 years, but 4 months ago switched to bro split and I easily packed 9 pound of muscle which tend to be impossible while doing PPL because of my metabolism at first place, not to mention focus on form and hypertrophy which is now far more easier. I do 4-5 days on the week, sometimes incorporating biceps/triceps with back/chest(but only 1 exercise when combining, and I feel much stronger than I used to feel with PPL. Also, I never stick with 7 days schedule, it's just dumb if your time schedule allows you to, for example, uitlise 10 day schedule.
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PPL and 45-60 minutes of training just doesn't work if you want to build muscle, no time to focus on any muscle but rather chasing the strength at the end of the day, risking burnout, fatigue and too often sornes which can be counterproductive.
I was utilising PPL for 2 years, but 4 months ago switched to bro split and I easily packed 9 pound of muscle which tend to be impossible while doing PPL because of my metabolism at first place, not to mention focus on form and hypertrophy which is now far more easier. I do 4-5 days on the week, sometimes incorporating biceps/triceps with back/chest(but only 1 exercise when combining, and I feel much stronger than I used to feel with PPL. Also, I never stick with 7 days schedule, it's just dumb if your time schedule allows you to, for example, uitlise 10 day schedule.
reply
John
I do a pull push legs routine with the pull and legs on the same day. Because they both often hit the lower back, I get 5 days per week of rest for the lower back. Actually, because I do barbell standing press (military press) on one of the push days, that affects the lower back, too. So, I end up with 4 days per week of complete rest for the lower back. At age 61, this is important. The only bad part: on the heavy pull-legs day I am REALLY working hard. I save that for a day that has no other demands on it. In my case, that is a Monday. The other pull-legs day is somewhat lighter (though every other one includes deadlift) and only takes half the time.
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I do a pull push legs routine with the pull and legs on the same day. Because they both often hit the lower back, I get 5 days per week of rest for the lower back. Actually, because I do barbell standing press (military press) on one of the push days, that affects the lower back, too. So, I end up with 4 days per week of complete rest for the lower back. At age 61, this is important. The only bad part: on the heavy pull-legs day I am REALLY working hard. I save that for a day that has no other demands on it. In my case, that is a Monday. The other pull-legs day is somewhat lighter (though every other one includes deadlift) and only takes half the time.
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Jean
To all the PPL warriors out there, how do you manage to stick to this program? I've tried it and I was clearly overtraining. I don't know if my recovery is too slow (I work from monday to friday and my diet is not crazy but it's alright, I do what I can. Reducing the intensity just to do PPL does not seem to me like the way to go (not satisfying at least lol. What do you advise me to do? Should I continue to go all out in each session and train each muscle 1 time per week?
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To all the PPL warriors out there, how do you manage to stick to this program? I've tried it and I was clearly overtraining. I don't know if my recovery is too slow (I work from monday to friday and my diet is not crazy but it's alright, I do what I can. Reducing the intensity just to do PPL does not seem to me like the way to go (not satisfying at least lol. What do you advise me to do? Should I continue to go all out in each session and train each muscle 1 time per week?
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travis
I like that you address adding additional exercises to the ppl split. I just started ppl this week as a full body split wasn't working for me no matter how hard I tried to split it up and make it my own workout. As I understand it strength training mostly comes from high rep work vs Hypertrophy in low rep high weight work, I assume I can add some strength building work to the hypertrophy workout, correct? Or do strength gains follow hypertrophy gains in this?
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I like that you address adding additional exercises to the ppl split. I just started ppl this week as a full body split wasn't working for me no matter how hard I tried to split it up and make it my own workout. As I understand it strength training mostly comes from high rep work vs Hypertrophy in low rep high weight work, I assume I can add some strength building work to the hypertrophy workout, correct? Or do strength gains follow hypertrophy gains in this?
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Bobby
I train 7 days a week. Is this bad? I train individual muscle groups so I have time to heal. For example, I will do Chest(M, Back(Tues, Legs(W, Shoulders(Thurs, Biceps(F, Triceps(Sat, and Legs(Sun. I've been doing this for 3 straight months right now and I am definitely getting stronger, but I just don't know if it's worth it. Especially considering if I'll see the same gains if I just workout 5-6 days a week instead.
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I train 7 days a week. Is this bad? I train individual muscle groups so I have time to heal. For example, I will do Chest(M, Back(Tues, Legs(W, Shoulders(Thurs, Biceps(F, Triceps(Sat, and Legs(Sun. I've been doing this for 3 straight months right now and I am definitely getting stronger, but I just don't know if it's worth it. Especially considering if I'll see the same gains if I just workout 5-6 days a week instead.
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Daniel
Jeff, any recommendations on trying to fit in some short distance running 5K-10K? I-m truly stuck here and don-t know what-s best. I don-t want to see loss in gains w/ strength & hypertrophy, but don-t want to lose the benefits of short distance running. Right now, I only do it once per week. Is that a inefficient use of time? SO grateful for all of your insight and thorough instruction. Thank you!
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Jeff, any recommendations on trying to fit in some short distance running 5K-10K? I-m truly stuck here and don-t know what-s best. I don-t want to see loss in gains w/ strength & hypertrophy, but don-t want to lose the benefits of short distance running. Right now, I only do it once per week. Is that a inefficient use of time? SO grateful for all of your insight and thorough instruction. Thank you!
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Sk0lzky
I've recently switched my program from classic ppl to hybrid ppl-off-upper-lower-off-off (long distance heavy rucking on Sunday could count for traps, erectors and legs 2. 0 but it's not the same. Never had better gains (ok I'm lying here, I had better gains in late teens doing some random high rep shit but that doesn't count) and never felt better (more recovery=better in this case)
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I've recently switched my program from classic ppl to hybrid ppl-off-upper-lower-off-off (long distance heavy rucking on Sunday could count for traps, erectors and legs 2. 0 but it's not the same. Never had better gains (ok I'm lying here, I had better gains in late teens doing some random high rep shit but that doesn't count) and never felt better (more recovery=better in this case)
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Chris
He missed the only actual con. To get enough volume you are lifting 6x per week. Many people are only prepared to lift 2-3x and if that's the case then full body or upper/lower is better.
Also to help recovery on ppl can have a bias towards horizontal movements on the first pull/push day then vertical movements on the second (rows vs pull downs, dips vs inclined press)
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He missed the only actual con. To get enough volume you are lifting 6x per week. Many people are only prepared to lift 2-3x and if that's the case then full body or upper/lower is better.
Also to help recovery on ppl can have a bias towards horizontal movements on the first pull/push day then vertical movements on the second (rows vs pull downs, dips vs inclined press)
reply
Marcus
-ATHLEAN-X I am totally late to the party, but I have a question. I try to break it up so triceps, which typically are also engaged on chest exercises, are worked on a non chest day. This way I don't do a tricep exercise, and start my chest exercises already worn out a bit so I can get more out of my chest workout. Is that thinking wrong, or is there something to that?
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-ATHLEAN-X I am totally late to the party, but I have a question. I try to break it up so triceps, which typically are also engaged on chest exercises, are worked on a non chest day. This way I don't do a tricep exercise, and start my chest exercises already worn out a bit so I can get more out of my chest workout. Is that thinking wrong, or is there something to that?
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