PPLUL is push, pull and legs early in the week, then upper and lower after a rest day. It answers a common question: what do I run if I can train five days, not four or six?
Each muscle gets one session of focused, PPL-style work and one session of upper/lower-style work, so everything is trained about twice a week. The PPL days carry more volume per muscle; the upper and lower days are shorter, heavier and built around the big lifts.
Who it’s for
Intermediate lifters with five days a week to train who have outgrown a four-day upper/lower and don’t want the six-day commitment of PPL. It is also a good bridge for people who like PPL’s focused days but keep missing the sixth session.
Beginners don’t need this much structure, and a full-body or upper/lower program will get them further for less. If your weeks are unpredictable, a four-day split gives you more slack.
The week
| Day | Session | Emphasis |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Push | Chest, shoulders, triceps: volume |
| Tuesday | Pull | Back, rear delts, biceps: volume |
| Wednesday | Legs | Quads, hamstrings, calves: volume |
| Thursday | Rest | — |
| Friday | Upper | Bench, row, press: heavier |
| Saturday | Lower | Squat or deadlift: heavier |
| Sunday | Rest | — |
A sample day
| Exercise | Sets × reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell bench press | 4 × 4–6 | 3 min |
| Weighted pull-up | 4 × 5–7 | 3 min |
| Standing overhead press | 3 × 6–8 | 2 min |
| Seated cable row | 3 × 8–10 | 2 min |
| Dumbbell lateral raise | 2 × 12–15 | 60 s |
| Incline dumbbell curl / overhead extension | 2 × 10–12 | 60 s |
The upper day is the strength day for the top half: heavy presses and pulls, then a little shoulder and arm work. Monday’s push day uses different variations at higher reps, such as incline dumbbell press, machine press, flyes and more lateral raises, so the week does not repeat itself.
Lower on Saturday mirrors it: heavy squat or deadlift (alternate weeks if you like), a single-leg movement, leg curls and calves. Wednesday’s leg day is the volume session.
How to progress
Progress the heavy days with low reps and small, regular jumps: 5 lb on upper lifts and 5–10 lb on lower lifts whenever you complete every set. When a lift stalls twice, take 10% off and work back up.
Progress the PPL days with double progression in the 8–15 range. Take the last set of each isolation exercise close to failure; this is where most of your hypertrophy volume lives.
Watch the sequence from Saturday to Monday. Lower then push is fine. If your shoulders feel beaten up on Monday after Friday’s heavy press, swap the order of the upper and lower days.
Mistakes that stall it
Duplicating sessions
If Friday’s upper day is just Monday’s push and Tuesday’s pull glued together, it will run two hours. Pick the heaviest movement for each pattern and leave the isolation work to the PPL days.
Legs then lower back-to-back
Wednesday legs and Thursday lower would cook your legs. The rest day on Thursday is there for a reason; keep it.
Uneven arm volume
Arms get hit on push, pull and upper days. Watch elbow soreness and trim direct arm work first.
Treating the heavy days as volume days
Fewer sets, more rest, heavier weights. If the upper day turns into a pump session, you lose the strength half of the split.
Skipping the fifth day
If Saturday keeps falling through, this isn’t your split. Run upper/lower four days and be consistent.
Running it in Splyt
Five templates in Splyt: Push, Pull, Legs, Upper and Lower. Each carries forward your last weights, so the heavy upper day shows you what to beat on the bench, and the PPL days show where you are in each rep range.
Splyt’s weekly per-muscle volume is useful on a hybrid like this, because it shows whether chest is getting 10 sets or 22 once the overlap is counted.
Questions
Is PPLUL better than PPL?
It is not better, it is shorter: five days instead of six, at roughly the same weekly frequency. PPL gives slightly more total volume; PPLUL gives a heavier day for each half of the body and an extra rest day.
What is the difference between PPLUL and ULPPL?
Only the order. ULPPL puts the upper and lower days first in the week. Run whichever lines up best with your rest days.
Is PPLUL good for strength?
Yes. The upper and lower days are built around heavy compound lifts, and every main lift is trained twice a week, once heavy and once lighter.
How long are PPLUL workouts?
The push, pull and legs days take 60 to 75 minutes. The upper and lower days take 50 to 70 minutes, with fewer exercises but longer rests between heavy sets.
Can I add a sixth day?
If you do, you are running a different split. Push pull legs twice a week is the six-day version of this idea.
Other splits
- Push pull legs split — 3 or 6 days
- Upper lower split — 4 days
- 5 day workout split — 5 days
- Every workout split, compared
Exercises by muscle
How to do every lift above, and the alternatives when a machine is taken: Chest · Shoulders · Triceps · Lats · Upper back · Biceps · Quads · Hamstrings · Glutes · Calves · Abs · The full exercise library
Ready-made workouts for each day
Sessions with sets, reps and rest you can drop into this split: Push day · Pull day · Leg day · Upper body · Lower body · Full body · At home · All workouts
Free tools for this split
- Workout split generator — Days, time and goal in; a week of training out.
- Training volume calculator — Hard sets per muscle against the ranges that build it.
- One-rep max calculator — Your best set in, a max and every percentage out.
- Strength standards calculator — Where your bench, squat, deadlift and press sit for your size.
Splyt is a workout tracker for iPhone and Apple Watch with templates that remember what you lifted. Get Splyt free on the App Store · How templates work