Push, Pull, Legs

Plan overview

Muscle focus

See how the planned working sets are spread across muscle groups.

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The Push-Pull-Legs (PPL) training plan is a classic that has gained popularity in recent years. It’s basically a specific type of 3-day split, where all muscle groups are trained over three days.

What sets the PPL plan apart is the grouping of exercises, which generally follows this pattern:

Week 1
- Monday: Push (pressing movements)
- Tuesday: Pull (pulling movements)
- Wednesday: Legs
- Thursday: Rest
- Friday: Rest
- Saturday: Push
- Sunday: Pull
Week 2
- Monday: Legs
- Tuesday: Rest
- Wednesday: Push
- Thursday: Pull
- Friday: Legs
- Saturday: Rest
- Sunday: Rest

Example PPL Plan

Here’s an example of a Push-Pull-Legs training plan:

Push movements mainly target chest, front/middle shoulder, and triceps.
Pull movements focus on back, biceps, and rear shoulder.
Legs are self-explanatory.

Push Day

Exercise	Main Muscle Group	Sets	Repetitions
Bench Press	Chest	3	10 / 8 / 6
Dips	Chest	3	10 / 8 / 6
Incline Bench Press	Chest	3	10/ 8 / 6
Lateral Raise	Shoulders	3	12 / 10 / 8
Front Raise	Shoulders	3	12 / 10 / 8
Triceps Pushdown	Triceps	3	12 / 10 / 8
Triceps Kickbacks	Triceps	3	12 / 10 / 8

Pull Day

Exercise	Main Muscle Group	Sets	Repetitions
Pull-ups	Upper back	3	10 / 8 / 6
Barbell Rows	Upper back	3	10 / 8 / 6
T-Bar Row	Upper back	3	10 / 8 / 6
Dumbbell Biceps Curls	Biceps	3	10 / 8 / 6
Cable Biceps Curls	Biceps	3	10 / 8 / 6

Legs Day

Exercise	Main Muscle Group	Sets	Repetitions
Barbell Squats	Thighs	3	10 / 8 / 6
Standing Calf Raises	Calves	3	15
Deadlifts	Lower back	3	10 / 8 / 6
Sit-ups	Abdominals	3	20

Push, Pull, Legs alternative exercises

You can perform the following exercises as alternatives to Push, Pull, Legs.

Filter the exercises below by muscle group and difficulty.

Exercise	Main muscle group	Difficulty	Type of training
Barbell Curls	Biceps training	Easy	Isolation exercise
Barbell Row	Shoulder training	Hard	Compound exercise
Barbell Squats	Thigh training	Hard	Compound exercise
Behind-The-Neck Overhead Press	Shoulder training	Medium	Isolation exercise
Bench Press	Triceps training	Medium	Compound exercise
Biceps Curls	Biceps training	Easy	Isolation exercise
Cable Lat Pulldown	Upper back	Easy	Compound exercise
Cable Lat Pulldown, close grip	Neck training	Easy	Compound exercise
Cable Row	Neck training	Medium	Compound exercise
Concentration Curls	Biceps training	Easy	Isolation exercise
Deadlift	Thigh training	Hard	Compound exercise
Decline Bench Press	Lower chest	Medium	Compound exercise
Dips	Upper chest	Hard	Compound exercise
Dumbbell Bench Press	Chest training	Medium	Compound exercise
Dumbbell Deadlift	Lower back	Hard	Compound exercise
Dumbbell Shoulder Press	Shoulder training	Easy	Isolation exercise
Dumbbell Squats	Thigh training	Medium	Compound exercise
Flys	Middle chest	Medium	Isolation exercise
Front Squats	Thigh training	Hard	Compound exercise
Hammer Curls	Biceps training	Easy	Isolation exercise
Incline Barbell Press	Upper chest	Easy	Compound exercise
Incline Dumbbell Biceps Curls	Biceps training	Medium	Isolation exercise
Pull-Ups	Upper back	Medium	Compound exercise
Seated Machine Row	Neck training	Easy	Compound exercise
Single Arm Dumbbell Row	Neck training	Medium	Isolation exercise
Squats	Thigh training	Medium	Compound exercise
Sumo Deadlift	Thigh training	Hard	Compound exercise
Zercher Squat	Thigh training	Hard	Compound exercise