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How to build a push pull legs routine

Group training by movement instead of body parts: choose your weekly shape, one main lift per day, smart accessories, and a simple way to progress.

8-minute read · Updated Sep 26, 2026

Push pull legs sorts every exercise into three days by what the movement does: push away from you, pull toward you, or load the legs. It is simple to run and scales cleanly from three days a week to six.

Choose your weekly shape first

Three days a week means push, pull and legs, each trained once with a rest day between. Six days means running the cycle twice. On four or five days, repeat the day you care about most and keep at least one full rest day.

Pick the shape you can hold for months, not the one that looks best on paper. Write the days down and treat them like appointments; a push pull legs run from memory drifts within a month. A routine you miss twice a month is worse than an easier one you never miss.

Pick one main lift per day

Push day: bench press or overhead press. Pull day: a row or a pull-up. Leg day: a squat. Do it first, while you are fresh, for three to five hard sets of five to ten reps.

This lift is the headline of the day. Give it your energy and your focus; everything after it is support work. Keep the same main lift for at least six weeks, so progress on it actually means something.

Fill each day with two or three accessories

Push day: a second press angle, lateral raises and triceps work. Pull day: another row, rear delt work and curls. Leg day: a hinge like the Romanian deadlift, lunges and calves.

Keep accessories at two or three sets each and stop a rep or two short of failure. Choose accessories that are quick to set up, because they should never eat the time your main lift earned. They exist to add volume without stealing recovery from next session's main lift.

Keep the order strict and the load honest

Always main lift first, then accessories in the same order every week, because a routine you can run on autopilot is a routine you keep. Warm up well for the main lift; accessory warm-ups can be short. Two to three minutes of rest between main-lift sets is normal, even if it feels lazy.

Add weight to the main lift when you reach the top of its rep range. For accessories, add reps first and weight later. Log every set in Bulky so the next session starts with a number, not a guess.

Adjust after a few weeks, not after one bad day

Run the plan for at least six weeks before judging it. If you keep missing sessions, drop to the three-day version. If everything is stalled and you feel worn down, plan a light week with the same exercises and half the sets.

The routine is the skeleton; the log tells you when to push and when to ease off.

Muscles

Track this exercise in Bulky

Save this movement to a routine, log every set, and see your history per exercise.

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