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Push Pull Legs (PPL)

PPL offers flexible frequency and focused sessions when you manage weekly set counts and joint fatigue.

Well established1 min read

Use 3-5 PPL sessions/week with 10-20 sets/muscle/week, keeping 1-3 RIR on most work for sustainable progress.

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What is push pull legs?

Push Pull Legs (PPL) splits training into pushing movements (chest/shoulders/triceps), pulling (back/biceps), and legs. Commonly run 3-6 days per week, it balances frequency with focused sessions.

How does it work?

Grouping muscles by movement patterns reduces overlap fatigue within a session and allows focused volume. Running PPL twice in 8-10 days (or 6x/week) raises frequency to ~2x per muscle, supporting Hypertrophy. Managing load across the week prevents push/pull interference and keeps Progressive Overload on track.

Practical application

If training 3x/week, rotate P-P-L across weeks. For 5-6x/week, run P-P-L-P-P-L with one lighter day. Place compounds early; use accessories to shore weak points. Track weekly sets per muscle to stay in the 10-20 range. Adjust intensity so pressing fatigue doesn’t tank pulls the next day; move high-skill lifts away from days after very hard sessions.

FrequencyRun 3-6 days; aim for ~2x/week per muscle if recovery allows.
VolumeKeep 10-20 sets/muscle/week; balance push/pull load to avoid shoulder stress.
Fatigue mapPosition heavy lifts to avoid back-to-back max efforts on the same joints.

Common mistakes

Blasting every session to failure, collapsing recovery by midweek.
Letting push fatigue degrade pulling technique and vice versa.
Ignoring set counts per muscle, leading to overload on shoulders/triceps.