Push pull legs: the split, the schedule, and where runs fit

Push pull legs is the split everyone's gym friend swears by. Push day for chest, shoulders and triceps. Pull day for back and biceps. Leg day for everything below the belt. Run it once a week as a 3-day split or twice through as a 6-day split, and you have the most copied routine on the internet.

It's a good split. It also has one catch that most push pull legs routine templates ignore: it was built for people whose only sport is lifting. If you run as well, the leg day is where the trouble starts, and it's why people go looking for a lifting app that also schedules your runs instead of a template that assumes you sit down between sessions.

Below: what goes on each day, the 3-day and 6-day versions, sample workouts, and where runs fit. If you're still deciding between splits, the bigger picture is in beginner workout splits.

What is push pull legs?

Push pull legs (PPL) groups exercises by movement, not by body part:

The logic is neat: muscles that work together get trained together, then rest while the others work.

The question that matters is how many times a week you can run through it, which is the same question behind every template of a split that leaves room for running. Three days and six days produce very different programs.

The push pull legs 3 day split

Once through the cycle per week: push Monday, pull Wednesday, legs Friday, for example. Each muscle gets trained once a week.

That's fine on paper. For muscle growth, how often you train a muscle matters far less than how many hard sets it gets per week. A meta-analysis found similar hypertrophy whether a muscle was trained once, twice or three or more times a week, as long as weekly volume was matched (Schoenfeld et al., 2019).

The problem is delivery. To give your chest 9 or 10 weekly sets on a 3-day PPL, all of them land in one session. And if you miss Friday, your legs get zero that week. A missed full-body session costs you a third of a week's work spread across everything; a missed PPL session costs one body region the entire week.

The push pull legs 3 day split works best for:

• ›Beginners who want short, focused sessions and won't miss many.
• ›People whose weekly set targets are modest (around 6 to 9 sets per muscle).
• ›Runners who want their legs trained once a week, on purpose.

The 6-day push pull legs routine

Twice through the cycle: push, pull, legs, push, pull, legs, rest. Each muscle gets trained twice a week, and weekly volume doubles without any session getting long.

This is where PPL earns its reputation. Each muscle gets two exposures a week, and for strength that frequency helps a bit: a large set of meta-regressions found strength gains increased with training frequency, with diminishing returns, while muscle growth didn't change much once volume was equal (Pelland et al., 2026).

The cost is the calendar. Six lifting days leaves one rest day and no obvious slot for a run. That's a lot to ask from anyone with a job, and almost too much for anyone with a running goal.

A push pull legs workout you can run

Here's a straightforward push pull legs workout. Effort targets use RPE, where RPE 8 means about two reps left in the tank.

Push

Pull

Legs

Each session lands at roughly 12 to 15 working sets, which fits comfortably inside an hour. Run on three days, that gives most muscles about 6 to 9 hard sets a week. Run on six, it doubles. Either way you're inside the ranges in how many sets per workout to build muscle: 6 to 10 weekly sets is plenty for beginners, 10 to 20 for most intermediate lifters.

There's no push pull legs workout routine PDF needed here. The three tables above are the whole thing. Screenshot them.

To progress, add reps until you hit the top of the range on every set, then add a little weight and start again at the bottom.

Is push pull legs better for muscle?

No better and no worse. A 2024 meta-analysis comparing split routines with full-body routines found similar gains in strength and muscle size when total volume was matched, and concluded people can choose based on preference (Ramos-Campo et al., 2024).

So PPL isn't a muscle-building secret. It's a scheduling choice. Its advantages are practical: shorter sessions, a clear focus, and room to add volume per muscle without a two-hour workout. Its disadvantage is also practical: it needs more days to give each muscle the same frequency as other splits.

Where runs fit in a push pull legs routine

This is the part the templates skip. The rule from running and lifting in one plan is to keep hard leg sessions and hard runs on different days, and let easy runs fill the gaps.

The reasoning holds up. A 2022 meta-analysis found adding aerobic training to strength training didn't meaningfully blunt maximal strength or muscle growth overall, but did reduce explosive strength gains, more so when both happened in the same session than when they were separated by at least three hours (Schumann et al., 2022).

3-day PPL plus running (3 lifts, 3 runs)

Push and pull pair happily with easy runs because they barely touch the legs. Leg day sits on its own, a day after intervals and two days before the tempo run. The long run is three days away from heavy legs.

Notice what this gives you: legs trained once a week. That's fine for maintaining strength while running is the priority. It's not ideal if building leg strength is the goal.

6-day PPL plus running

Honestly, don't, unless running is a light side activity: two easy runs a week on push or pull days, no intervals, no long run. Two leg days plus a real running week is four or five days of serious leg stress, and the quality of every session drops.

If you want to lift five or six days and run seriously, a 3-day PPL plus two upper-body extra sessions is a more honest compromise than the full 6-day version.

Push pull legs vs other splits

PPL is one of three common options, and the right one depends mostly on days available:

• ›Two or three lifting days: a 3 day full body workout trains everything each session, so a missed day costs less, and it's easier to keep legs away from hard runs.
• ›Four lifting days: most four-day lifters are better off running upper, lower and repeating, which hits each muscle twice a week with only two leg days.
• ›Five or six days, lifting is the priority: this is PPL's home turf.

The head-to-head of upper lower vs full body comes down to the same logic: days available and session length. And if you like the upper/lower structure but want a strength day and a size day, power hypertrophy upper lower (PHUL) is the popular hybrid of the two.

Common push pull legs mistakes

Running a 6-day plan on a 4-day life. Two missed sessions a week on PPL means two body regions untrained that week. Pick the version you'll complete.

Skimping on pull day. Rows and pull-ups are the first thing people cut and the thing most programs need more of.

Isolation before the basics. A handful of big lifts, the same compound exercises for full body workout plans are built on, done for enough hard sets, do most of the work. Curls and lateral raises are the garnish.

Leg day the day before the long run. The long run is a hard session. Plan it like one.

How exrsz handles push pull legs

exrsz builds your lifting split and your running into one periodized plan from your goal, schedule, level and equipment. It keeps hard leg days away from hard runs, adapts each week to how you actually trained, and reshuffles a missed leg day instead of dropping it on the day before your long run.

FAQ

Is push pull legs good for beginners?

It can be, as a 3-day split, if you rarely miss sessions. Most beginners do slightly better on full body two or three times a week, because they practice each lift more often and a missed day costs less.

Is push pull legs 3 days a week enough?

For many people, yes. Muscle growth was similar across training frequencies when weekly volume was matched (Schoenfeld et al., 2019), so once a week works if each session gets enough hard sets.

What's the best push pull legs routine for runners?

A 3-day version with push and pull on easy-run days and legs on a day of its own, away from intervals and the long run. The 6-day version leaves very little room for serious running.

Is push pull legs better than full body?

Not for results. When volume is matched, split and full-body routines produce similar strength and muscle gains (Ramos-Campo et al., 2024). Choose the one that fits your week.

How many exercises per push pull legs day?

Four to six is plenty: one or two big compound lifts, then two to four smaller ones. That usually lands at 12 to 15 working sets per session.