Introduction
What is the Push Pull Legs split :
It is simply a training split in which you have 2 push days were you train your chest/shoulder/triceps, 2 pull days were you train your back/biceps/rear delts, 2 leg days (but you can do a single leg day if you want).
How to setup your Push days
You want to start with your main chest exercises first and then continue with your smaller muscle groups (triceps/deltoids).
For chest: I recommend doing 2 heavy pressing movements and then add a fly movement at the end of the workout.
For Triceps: I recommend doing 2 isolation exercises, one focusing on the long head of triceps (overhead extension or skullcrushers) and one focusing on lateral head of the triceps (classic pushdown).
For shoulders: I recommend doing a pressing movement (OHP, shoulder machine press) and a lateral raise variation.
To manage fatigue during the workout you should start with your main chest exercises and then alternate between shoulder and triceps exercises and finish off with your chest isolation movement. Because you’re doing 2 push days you can also make a push day that is more focused on your chest and another one a bit more focused on the smaller muscle groups (depending on your strong and weak muscle groups).
It would look something like that:
Push 1
3-4 sets of barbell bench press (5-15 reps)
2-3 sets of incline dumbbell press (6-15 reps)
3-5 sets of OHP (5-20 reps)
2-4 sets of overhead triceps extension (10-20 reps)
2-4 sets of lateral raises (10-20 reps)
2-4 sets of triceps pushdown (10-20 reps)
2-4 sets of unilateral poulley fly (10-20 reps)
Push 2
3-4 sets of weighted dips (5-15 reps)
2-3 sets of incline dumbbell press (6-15 reps)
3-5 sets of OHP (5-20 reps)
2-4 sets of overhead triceps extension (10-20 reps)
2-4 sets of lateral raises (10-20 reps)
2-4 sets of triceps pushdown (10-20 reps)
2-4 sets of unilateral poulley fly (10-20 reps)
How to setup your pull days
You should start with your heavy back movements and end with the smaller muscle groups.
For back: I recommend doing 1 heavy rowing movement (5-10 reps) and 1 heavy (5-10 reps) pull up or vertical pull per workout and then add a lighter rowing movement and a pullover or lighter vertical pull variation.
For Biceps: I recommend doing 2 exercises, a heavier variation (like standing curls) and a lighter variation which is a controlled type of movement (like preacher curl)
For rear Delts: You want to be doing a rear delt movement.
For ideal fatigue management during the workout you should alternate between your heavy vertical and horizontal pulls and also alternate between your biceps and rear delts movements.
It would look something like that:
Pull 1
3-4 sets of weighted pull-ups (max reps)
3-4 sets of T bar rows (5-15 reps)
2-3 sets of Chin ups (max reps)
2-3 sets of chest supported rows (10-20 reps)
2-3 sets of standing bicep curl (8-20 reps)
2-3 sets of rear delt raises (10-20 reps)
2-3 sets of preacher curl (10-20 reps)
Pull 2
3-4 sets of T bar rows (5-15 reps)
3-4 sets of weighted pull-ups (max reps)
2-3 sets of chest supported rows (10-20 reps)
2-3 sets of incline bicep curl (8-20 reps)
2-3 sets of pulley pullover (10-20 reps)
2-3 sets of rear delt raises (10-20 reps)
2-3 sets of preacher curl (10-20 reps)
How to setup your leg days (or leg day)
For legs you have 3 ways to go:
-You can do a workout where you would do all your heavy lifts with some isolation at the end and a workout were you would do lighter exercises.
You will in each one of the workouts target all the 3 big muscles groups of your lower body (glutes, quads and hamstrings) pretty evenly.
-You can evenly split your big heavy lifts on each one of your leg days and have one of your leg days more focused on quads and the other one of your leg days more focused on hamstrings and glutes.
-You can do a single big leg day session where you would just obliterate the fuck out of your lower body, but you would probably see less gains.
It would look something like that:
Legs 1: (heavy with some isolation)
3-4 sets of leg press (5-10 reps)
3-4 sets of Romanian deadlift (5-10 reps)
2-3 sets of leg extension (10-20 reps)
2-3 sets of hamstring curl (10-20 reps)
Some calves stuff (if you’re into that shit)
Legs 2: (light)
3-4 sets of Bulgarian split squat (10-20 reps)
3-4 sets of Nordic curls
2-3 sets of leg extension (10-20 reps)
2-3 sets of hamstring curl (10-20 reps)
Some ass stuff like hip thrusts if you lack ass
Some calves stuff (if you’re into that shit).
Fatigue management and how to spread your workouts during the week
Fatigue management is important in order to do the Push/Pull/Legs split. You need to space out your leg days as much as possible from one another and you don’t want to be doing your leg day the day after a pull workout because you’re gonna have a sore lower back and doing a leg day with a sore lower back is really not fun.
This is an example of how to do it:
Monday : Pull 1
Tuesday : Push 1
Wednesday : legs 1
Thursday : Rest
Friday : Pull 2
Saturday : Push 2
Sunday : legs 2
Conclusion
This post is supposed to give you an idea on how your Push/Pull/Legs structure should look like, you’re welcomed to swap out the exercises used as examples for the ones that you prefer. You can also add some ab/neck/forearm exercises to any of the workouts if you want.
