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Building Muscle

Build Full-Body Muscle

Using The ‘Push, Pull,
Legs’ Method
Tired of not seeing proper results? Using
the ‘Push, Pull, Legs’ (PPL) method, you
can accelerate your progress in the
weights room without sacrificing time
BY EDWARD COOPER AND KATE NEUDECKER
UPDATED: 03 APRIL 2024

JOSE CARLOS CERDENO MARTINEZ // GETTY IMAGES

JUMP TO:
What is ‘Push, Pull, Legs’?
Push, Pull, Legs: An Expert’s Opinion
Is Push Pull Legs Actually Good?
Who Should Avoid Push, Pull, Legs?
Best Exercises for Push, Pull, Legs
Workout
Push, Pull Legs Tips and Advice
The Best Methods for Building Muscle

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When it comes to building strength and

gaining muscle, it can be easy to get lost
in the reams and reams of conflicting
advice and suspect training personalities
on social media. With a myriad of
workout splits, dietary advice, and gym
hacks published hourly, the noise can be
deafening, especially when you're reliant
on reputable fitness advice. Take a cruise
through any bodybuilding forum or
training and blog, however, and you'll
likely come across one common training
method that is validated by almost
everyone: push, pull, legs (PPL).

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Add Inches to Your Arms With

The 5/20 Method

Like its name, the methodology of push,

pull, legs is a simple one, and it suits
almost everyone in the weights room,
from motivated and green lifters to the
calloused gym regulars looking to bust
through a training plateau. So, if you're
looking to give it a shot, you've come to
the right place. First things first...

CAVAN IMAGES / ROBERT NIEDRING

PHOTOGRAPHER // GETTY IMAGES

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What is ‘Push, Pull,

Legs’?
It's a full-body training split that's
designed to build muscle in almost every
single muscle group by following a
simple format: on a certain day of the
week, you only train either upper-body
pushing muscles (push), upper-body
pulling muscles (pull), or your entire
lower-body (legs).

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Fast Muscle Growth

Typically, push, pull, legs follows an

alternating format, helping each muscle
group receive adequate recovery time
between sessions. Ideally, you'll hit each
session twice weekly, but once a week
could be adequate for relatively
inexperienced gym-goers (more on that
below). An example split would be:

Day #1, Push: Chest, shoulders,

triceps

Day #2, Pull: Back, traps, biceps

Day #3: Legs: Legs, glutes and abs

Day #4, Push: Chest, shoulders,

triceps

Day #5, Pull: Back, traps, biceps

Day #6, Legs: Legs, glutes and abs

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Most push, pull, legs routines will be

focused around compound moves —
exercises that recruit multiple muscle
groups — to provide maximum bang-for-
your-buck potential.

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The Muscles Groups You

Should Train Together

'Push, pull, legs is a training split that's

generally split over three or six days,'
explains Third Space Elite Trainer and
Education Co-ordinator Tom Hall. 'You
can do three days — one push-dominant
exercises, one pull-dominant exercises
and one all leg-dominant exercises and,
if you really want to, you can cycle this
into six days [per week] and cycle this,
doing each day twice.'

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Push, Pull, Legs: An

Expert’s Opinion
Now that you're au-fait with the push,
pull, legs methodology, let's start to
unpack what makes it so popular. 'The
effectiveness comes from [training] six
days a week, especially if you're
bodybuilding, so you can hit the muscle
groups more frequently,' Hall explains. 'If
you're only doing three days a week, the
training split allows you to just to focus
on certain movement patterns, including
using vertical and horizontal pushes or
pulls in the same session and training
your posterior and anterior chains in
your legs during another session.'

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Is Push Pull Legs

Actually Good?
'The major benefit is that PPL is simple.
Everything you push, you do on one day,
everything you pull, you do on another.
Everything with your legs, you do with
another,' Hall explains. 'It categorises
movement properly, too, so that you
think about movement over muscle
groups.'

Who Should Avoid

Push, Pull, Legs?
By this point it should be clear that there
are plentiful benefits to a push, pull, legs
training split. But, crucially, that doesn't
mean it's a one-size-fits-all training plan.
Instead, those looking to train using the
PPL split should first take a beat to figure
out what their schedule, equipment
access and individual fitness level allows
for. 'Even three days a week could be a
stretch. In that case, you may want to do
full-body. If you're time-poor, don't do it.
PPL is for people who can get in three to
six sessions in a week.'

As well as this, some may find the

programme isn't advanced or specialised
enough. Those who want to advance
specific lifts may require more rest and
recovery. However, as with all training
programmes, they should be adjusted to
suit your individual needs so that you
can get the best results.

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""

Best Exercises for

Push, Pull, Legs
Workout
Ready to commit? There's more to PPL
than stringing a group of exercises
together for an hour and hoping for
rapid muscle-gain. Instead, utilise Hall's
crib sheet below for an easy-to-digest
guide to training with push, pull, legs.

Best Push Exercises for

PPL
barbell bench press

Bench Press

1. Lie back on a flat bench holding a

barbell in the rack above you with a
shoulder-width, overhand grip.

2. Drive your feet into the floor to

contract your quads and glutes, and
clamp back your shoulder blades to
shorten the weight's path of travel.
This increases neural drive to your
chest, delts and triceps

3. Lift the bar off the rack and position

it above your chest with arms fully
extended.

4. From the starting position, breathe in

and lower the bar slowly until it
skims the middle of your chest.

5. Focus your mind on activating your

chest muscles and push the bar back
to the starting position explosively as
you breathe out. That’s one rep.

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bench press

Dumbbell Bench Press

1. Lie on a flat bench with the

dumbbells up above your chest with
the arms straight and the palms
facing away from you.

2. Lower the dumbbells either side of

your chest, at 45 degrees below your
shoulders.

3. Feel a stretch across your chest

before pushing the dumbbells away
from you, ready to repeat.

MH Tip: To bring the dumbbells down safely,

rest the dumbbells on your thighs and bring
your body upright and to place them down.
strict press

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Overhead Press

1. Position your feet close together and

lift the barbell up to your shoulders,
palms facing forward.

2. Press the barbell above your head

explosively until your arms are fully
extended, then lower the weight under
control.

landmine punch

Landmine Press

1. Raise the barbell to shoulder height,

with the other arm extended at your
side and feet in a staggered stance.

2. Explosively press the weight up and

out in front of you. With the weight
shifted to one side of your body, your
obliques will be working hard to keep
you straight.

3. Pause, then slowly return the bar to

shoulder height.

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Push Press

1. With your dumbbells on your

shoulders, palms facing in, take a
breath and brace your core.