Why Is Push/Pull/Legs The Most Effective Training Split?

I recently showed a ‘Day In The Life’ on my Instagram stories and explained what my training split looked like. If you are new here, I started training as a powerlifter in 2018. I competed in my first meet at the end of that year. Since then, I have done a second meet and currently training for a mock meet in January 2022. You can get all the scoop about my journey so far in ‘My Story’ highlight on Instagram. I also share all my failures and my wins in my lifts in my ‘Powerlifting’ highlight as well. I digress.

When you’re online you see a lot of people do chest day, back day, leg day, arms day etc. Something that I picked up when I started powerlifting was the push/pull/legs routine. I have found it to be very effective for muscle and strength gains. I’m able to tailor it for my weaker muscles and make sure that my physique is well balanced. That is important to me. I’m not trying to have a strong lower body with an upper body that can barely do nothing. It’s not on brand for me. I’ve never shared my training split before so I thought it would be great to share my current training split. I hope this gives you ideas on how to combine strength and muscle gains goals in one workout.

What is Push/Pull/Legs Split?

A push/pull/legs split is a simple yet effective training style that splits the body into three parts. Each part is trained on a separate day. For a ‘push workout’, you would train all the upper body muscles that are used for pushing. These include chest, shoulders and triceps. For a ‘pull workout’, you would train all the upper body muscles that are used for pulling. These include back and biceps. For a ‘legs’ workout, you would train the entire lower body such as quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves and abs.

You would then alternate these three workout parts according to the number of days that you train. However, you don’t want to be only training three times a week with this split because you will be training each muscle group once. If you want optimal muscle growth, you’ll need to train each body part at least twice a week. If you work out four times a week, you can alternate the sessions so that you are not training more than two days in a row. For example:

• Monday – push day
• Tuesday – pull day
• Wednesday – rest day
• Thursday – leg day
• Friday – push day
• Saturday – rest day
• Sunday – pull day

It depends on your schedule. However, this is an example of how you can structure this kind of split for a four day training session. If you would prefer to train five days a week, you can do the same structure. Take Friday as a rest day and work out the following Monday to finish off the cycle. This structure may be hard to follow as the training days will continuously change.

Why Should You Do Push/Pull/Legs Split?

In my opinion, the push/pull/legs split is one of the most effective training styles out there. All of the related muscle groups that do the same actions are trained on one day. It means that you are maximising a combination of movements in one workout. For example, it’s a leg day. You choose to do squats to hit your quads. You are also hitting every other leg muscle in that one movement. Then when you choose to follow up that exercise with lunges. Your quads and hamstrings are involved in that movement too.

The benefit of this training split is that you maximising optimal muscle growth and strength. You are also limiting the overlap of movements between each workout. Therefore, you are giving your body enough rest to recover for your next leg day, pull day or push day.

Who Should Use Push/Pull/Legs Split?

Anyone who is at an intermediate or advanced stage in lifting can use this split. I would say that if you have trained for a year or more, you can definitely use this training split. If you are a beginner or you have started lifting, I would recommend waiting until you are more comfortable. Build a foundation with the movements. As a beginner, I would suggest doing an upper body/lower body split to maximise the new lifter growth. It is a popular training style with a lot of seasoned lifters. It is what I did for my first five years of training and I saw amazing growth with it. I have posted what I did back then below:

• Monday – Upper Body
• Tuesday – Lower Body
• Wednesday – Rest Day
• Thursday – Upper Body
• Friday – Lower Body
• Saturday – Cardio & Abs

What Is My Current Training Split?

My current training split combines the three main powerlifting lifts (squat, bench and deadlift) and then follows the push/pull/leg split. The aim of this split is to ensure that I’m training my body for the strength aspect of powerlifting and using the bodybuilding style of training for shape and size. I compete as a powerlifter but I use a hybrid training approach called powerbuilding to get the best of both worlds.

• Monday – Squats, Bench, and push day accessories
• Tuesday – Deadlifts, Hip Thrusts and pull day accessories
• Wednesday – Rest Day
• Thursday – Squats, Bench and push day accessories
• Friday – Squats, Bench, Deadlifts and leg day accessories
• Saturday – Rest Day
• Sunday – Rest Day

As powerlifting training is very intense, my legs do a brunt of the work during the week. Therefore, I only have one leg day a week. I do two push days a week as bench is my weakest lift. The extra day gives me an opportunity to strengthen those muscle groups.

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That is everything about my current training split. And why I believe that the push/pull/legs training style is an effective method to use in the gym. I know that some of you are beginners. I will be putting out more posts for beginners and how to get started when it comes to training. In the meantime, head over to my Pinterest page where I post a lot of beginner workout videos, fitness and health tips so you can get started with your lifting journey. Don’t forget to like this post, share with a friend and subscribe for more fitness content.

Until next time,

Folakemi