Push Pull Legs Workout Plan (3 Day)

About this plan

Push, pull, legs is the simplest way to split training once full-body sessions start running long. Everything that pushes goes on one day, everything that pulls on another, and the legs get their own. Nothing overlaps, so each session can be shorter and harder.

Push day runs a parallel chest press, incline hammer press, seated single-arm shoulder press, alternating front raises, triceps pushdown, standing chest press and a Pallof press. Pull day is a close-grip lat pulldown, seated row, single-arm dumbbell row, lat pushdown, rear delt row, alternating curls, back extension and a seated crunch. Leg day covers the leg press, goblet squat, leg curl, cable pull-through, forward-leaning lunge, standing calf raise, hyperextension and a cable twist.

Almost everything is a machine or a cable, which is what makes this a workable first split rather than an intermediate one. The path is fixed, the weight stack moves in known increments, and you can take a set close to failure without needing anyone to un-pin you. The trade-off is that stabiliser work is lighter than it would be with free weights — worth knowing if you plan to move to barbells later.

Sessions run 45 to 60 minutes with controlled rests. Rushing them is the common mistake: cutting rest to 30 seconds turns a strength session into a conditioning session and the weight on the stack stops climbing.

Three days a week means each pattern is trained once every seven days. That is enough to progress as a beginner and it leaves room to add a second rotation later — push, pull, legs, rest, push, pull, legs — once recovery can take six sessions.

Add weight when you finish every set at the top of the rep range with two reps still in you. If a machine's smallest jump is too big, add reps until the top of the range is comfortable, then take the jump and drop back down. Progress is not linear past the first few months, and a week where nothing moves is not a failed week.