The Ultimate Push Pull Split Workout Routine

Want to build serious muscle and strength training just 4 days a week? The push-pull workout split is one of the most efficient and proven training methods out there—perfect for lifters of all levels. This guide shows you exactly how to do it with a fully structured plan, video demos, and tips to keep progressing.

What Is Push-Pull Training?

The push pull split is a highly effective yet simple training split that’s perfect for putting on muscle mass. It uses a basic split by dividing your muscles into two groups based on function.

• Pushing muscles (both upper/lower body push muscles) 

• Pulling muscles (both upper/lower body pull muscles). 

It’s then used across a 4-day split, meaning you have 2 push sessions and 2 pull sessions per week. This is what it could possibly look like during the week.

• Push Session 1

• Rest

• Pull Session 1

• Rest

• Push Session 2

• Pull Session 2

• Rest

What Are The Push Muscle Groups?

Your pushing muscles are those that extend during the concentric contraction. In other words, they’re “pushing” the resistance away from the body. These include;

Upper Body Pushing Muscles:

• Chest
• Shoulders
• Triceps

Lower Body Pushing Muscles:

• Quadriceps
• Calves

What Are The Pull Muscle Groups?

Your pulling muscles are those that will flex a joint during the concentric contraction – they are “pulling” the resistance towards you. 

These include;

Upper Body Pulling Muscles:

• Entire Back

• Biceps 

Lower Body Pulling Muscles:

• Glutes
• Hamstrings

Best Way To Program A Push Pull Workout Routine

Programming a Push Pull Routine can be a bit tricky as you want to ensure you train both your upper and lower body evenly as well as using the entire rep range. 

Within the two main days (pushing, pulling) there will be two body parts (upper, lower)

Therefore, in order to utilize the entire rep spectrum, you will concentrate on a different variable for each body part, swapping between strength and hypertrophy. For example;

• Pulling Session 1- Lower (Strength) & Upper (Hypertrophy)

• Pushing Session 1- Upper (Strength) & Lower (Hypertrophy) 

• Pulling Session 2- Upper (Strength) & Lower (Hypertrophy)

• Pushing Session 2- Lower (Strength) & Upper (Hypertrophy)

As you see, this gives us a very clear and organized plan to work off of. This is a crucial component of an effective program.

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The Best 4-Day Push-Pull Workout Split For Strength And Muscle Mass

Below is your 4 day push pull workout program. After, we will provide more information on progressive overload and how to progress with this push pull workout split.

Session 1 Pushing

Session 2 Pulling

Session 3 Pushing

Session 4 Pulling

Push Pull Workout Routine: Exercise Example          

Session 1 Pushing

Back Squat - 5X5

No better way to start your first pushing session than with the king of leg exercises, the back squat. Focus on form and load the bar with a weight you can use with good form.

1. Set the bar just below shoulder height in a squat rack. Step under it so it rests across your upper traps and rear shoulders.

2. Stand up to unrack the bar, then take two steps back. Set your feet shoulder-width apart with toes slightly out.

3. Brace your core, keep your chest up, and look forward.

4. Sit your hips back and squat down, keeping your spine neutral and knees tracking over your toes.

5. Lower until your hips are just below your knees, then drive through your heels to stand back up, pushing your knees outward.

Hack Squat - 3X6

The hack squat is one of the best exercises to target your quads with loads.

1. Stand in the machine and get your shoulders snug.

2. Push upward slightly to disengage the safety handles, then move them out of the locked position.

3. Slowly bend your knees and hips to lower yourself. Keep your chest up and back flat.

4. Lower until your thighs are at least parallel to the platform or just below, depending on flexibility.

5. Keep your heels flat to protect your knees and maintain pushing power.

6. Press through your heels and extend your knees and hips to return to the starting position.

7. Avoid locking out the knees at the top by keeping a slight bend to maintain tension.

Seated Dumbbell Press - 3X8-10

We love the seated dumbbell press for two reasons. The first is you can push more weight as you’re sitting. Secondly, the dumbbells demand more stabilization which means more muscle activation.

1. Set the bench to 75–90° and sit with feet flat on the floor.

2. Hold dumbbells at shoulder height, palms facing forward, elbows slightly in front of your body.

3. Brace your core and press your back against the bench.

4. Press the dumbbells overhead in a controlled motion, stopping just before locking out.

5. Lower the weights back to shoulder level with control, then repeat.

Cable Fly - 2X10-12

Next up, you’re going to isolate your pecs with cable flies. Really concentrate on the stretch followed by a big squeeze.

1. Stand in the middle of the two pulleys and hold one handle in each hand.

2. Step forward a few feet in front of the cable machine, one leg in front of the other, to create a staggered stance. Your back foot should be on tiptoes, but your front foot should be planted firmly on the floor.

3. Let your arms be pulled back. They should be almost extended with a slight bend at the elbow.

4. Keeping the same bend in your arm, pull them out in front of you like a giant hug.

5. It’s important to keep the same angle at the elbow joint. Pull until your hands touch. Give a squeeze and return. 

Lateral Raises - 2X10-12

The lateral raise is the best exercise to train the delts to get capped shoulders. Perform these on the cable machine to optimize the stretch.

1. Set the cable machine at around thigh level with single attachment.

2. Grab the handle with your outside arm.

3. Grab the machine with your other arm and let your body lean out.

4. Let your working arm stretch all the way across your body.

5. Pull your hand out  in a controlled motion

6. Focus on pulling your elbow up to target the shoulders.

Triceps Extension - 2X10-15

You’re going to finish up your pushing muscles by blasting your triceps.

1. Attach the straight bar (or rope) to the pulley system and raise the cable to the highest setting. 

2. Stand up close to the pulley to make the cable as vertical as possible. This will ensure that the triceps are being isolated as standing back will involve the lats more. 

3. Grab the bar with a pronated grip approximately shoulder-width apart.

4. Pull your elbows close to your body.

5. Keeping your elbows stationary, extend your elbows and pull the load down.

6. Be sure to hit full extensions.

Barbell Rollout - 3X5

You’ll finish up with the best core exercise there is, the barbell rollout.

1. Load a barbell with 5-10kg plates.

2. Get on your knees with the barbell in front of you.

3. Grab the bar with an overhand grip, shoulder-width apart.

4. Now slowly roll the bar forward.

5. Roll the bar as far forward as you can. Ideally, your shoulders will be near your ears with your body almost parallel with the floor. 

6. Pause in the extended position, then roll the barbell inward by flexing your abs and bringing your hips back. When the barbell is about in line with your head/shoulders, that is one rep.

7. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Session 2 Pulling

Chin-ups - 5X5

Start your first pulling day with some nice, heavy chins. Use weighted if needed or go with your body weight. “5” reps is an estimate so just keep your reps in that range.

1. Grab the bar with both hands about shoulder width apart and your palms facing you (supinated grip).

2. From a dead hang, retract your shoulder blades and lean back slightly.

3.  Pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar.  Think about pulling your elbows down to the ground. 

4. Your elbows should be fully bent (like they would be if you did a bicep curl).

5. Pause for a second at peak contraction and squeeze your shoulder blades down and in.

6. In a controlled manner, slowly lower yourself all the way back down until your arms are completely straight.

Bent Over Row - 3X6

You’ll then move on to some horizontal pulling with bent over rows, a classic mass builder for the back.

1. Put a loaded barbell on the floor stand with your feet slightly more than hip-width apart with your ankles underneath the barbell.

2. Hip hinge down to the barbell and take a firm grip of the barbell with a shoulder-width grip.

3. Lift up to knee level with back straight and torso bent at 45 degrees with your chest up and shoulders down.

4. Pull the barbell between your navel and sternum.

5. Then pause for a second and slowly lower the barbell back down and reset and repeat

Barbell Front Shrugs - 3X5

You’ll finish your upper pulling strength with heavy shrugs. You’re only doing 5 reps but hold 3-5 seconds at the top of each one.

1. You can deadlift off the ground but ideally you can set up a low rack to rest the barbell.

2. Load the barbell with the desired weight

3. Grab the barbell with a double overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder width apart.

4. Allow your shoulders to come forward and drop.

5. Retract your scapula and perform a shrugging motion.  Try to bring your shoulders to your ears.  

Barbell Good Morning - 3X8-10

Start your lower body pulling with some good mornings to really isolate the hamstrings and glutes.

1. Rack the bar low on your upper back, grip slightly wide, and step out with feet shoulder-width apart.

2. Keep knees slightly bent, brace your core, and keep your back tight.

3. Hinge at the hips, pushing your butt back as your torso leans forward.

4. Lower until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, keeping your back straight.

5. Drive your hips forward to return to standing.

GHD/Hyper - 3X8-12

Next, some GHD or Hyper work. Feel free to use bodyweight or hold some weight.

1. Set up the GHD so that your feet can be anchored in the foot holders with your knees located towards the bottom of the hip pad.

2. Start the exercise with your knees bent and torso vertical and arms across your body.  Location is not too important but they should not be holding onto the machine

3. Let the body come down by extending your knee.  You will end when your body is erect and parallel to the ground.

4. Pull your body up by flexing your knees.

Leg Curls - 3X12-15

You’ll end this session with some leg curls. Use either lying or standing.

1. Take the time to set up the machine properly. Every machine is different so you’ll need to look at the specific instructions.

2. If you use a sitting machine:

1. Set the backrest so your knee sits just off the seat

2. Place the upper thigh pad just behind your knee

3. The lag pad should on your lower calf near your ankle

3. If you use a pron machine (laying down)

1. Lay down so you knee hangs just off the pad

2. Place the leg pad on your lower calf near your ankle

4. Grab the handles and curl your legs as far as you can go.

Session 3 Pushing

Bench Press - 5X5

Start your pushing with the classic barbell bench press. This will improve your total upper body strength.

1. Lie on the bench with your eyes directly under the bar, feet flat on the floor, and a slight arch in your lower back.

2. Grip the bar evenly with an overhand grip, using the bar markings to guide your hand placement.

3. Retract your shoulder blades and press your upper back into the bench.

4. Brace your core, unrack the bar, and move it over your upper chest.

5. Lower the bar in a slight arc to your nipple line, keeping your elbows at about a 45-degree angle.

6. Press the bar back up until your arms are fully extended, then repeat.

7. After your set, re-rack the bar carefully.

Military Press - 3X6

Next up, your overhead pushing. Start building your shoulder pressing strength for massive delts.

1. Grip the bar just outside shoulder-width with a pronated grip, thumbs near your shoulders.

2. Position the bar on your upper chest, resting across your front delts and collarbone. Elbows should be in front of the bar.

3. Unrack the bar and take one or two steps back.

4. Brace your core, squeeze your glutes, and press the bar straight up.

5. Pull your head slightly back as the bar passes, then bring it forward once the bar is overhead.

6. Finish with arms locked out and the bar directly over your head. Eyes looking forward.

Dips - 3X6

The upper body squat, dips. These are perhaps the best exercise to build strength and mass at the same time in your chest and triceps.

1. Grab both grips with your hands, palms facing each other, wrists in line with your forearms and arms straight

2. Start the dip by lowering your body until your upper arms are parallel with the floor

3. Push through the palms to return to starting position

4. Repeat for desired reps

Walking Lunges - 100 Total

Don’t go crazy heavy with these – you can even do body weight. Then, just perform lunges until you get to 100.  Don’t add weight until you can get it done in at least 5 sets.

1. Stand upright with your feet hip-width apart, chest up, and core engaged.

2. Step forward with your right leg, landing heel-first.

3. Lower your body by bending both knees.

1. Front knee: Should be above your ankle or slightly behind.

2. Back knee: Should hover just above the ground, not touch it.

4. Drive through the front heel to bring your back leg forward.

5. Step into the next lunge with your left leg and repeat the motion, walking forward.

Bulgarian Split Squat - 3X8-10

Your legs will already be burning so these should bring them overboard.

1. Set up a bench behind you and place your back foot on it, top of the foot resting on the bench.

2. Step your front foot forward about a stride’s length—adjust as needed to keep your knee over your foot during the movement.

3. Pick up your dumbbells and hold them by your sides.

4. Lower your body straight down, keeping your chest up and torso upright.

5. Stop when your back knee is just above the ground, then push through your front heel to return to standing.

6. Repeat for reps, then switch legs.

7. Once you travel down as far as possible, drive your body up by pushing your foot into the ground.

Seated Calf Raise - 12-15

Next, give your calves some love. These have short ROM so slow down and really focus on the contraction.

1. Choose an appropriate weight and set up your machine so that you are able to lift off with a calf raise.  However, be sure you choose a lower setting so that you don’t need to do a full calf raise at the end.

2. Grab the handle

3. Unrack the load and first let the load sink by allowing your heels to drop.

4. Come up on your toes as high as you can go.

5. Hold for about two seconds at the top to give your calves more time under tension.

Leg Extension - 12-15

Finish up by blasting your quads with leg extensions!

1. Set the backrest to a position where your back will be firmly against the back pad with your knee just hanging off.

2. Next, set the ankle pad so that it sits above your ankle. 

3. Hold the handles and keep your body planted the entire movement by holding your butt to the floor and back firmly against the pad

4. Lift the weight by extending your knees until they are fully extended.

5. Slowly let the weight back down. 

6. DO NOT perform these quickly or use excessively heavy loads!

Session 4 Pulling

Deadlift - 5X5

You’ll start your pulling strength session with the king of exercise – the deadlift. Go heavy with good form.

1. Stand with the bar over midfoot, feet hip to shoulder-width apart, toes slightly turned out.

2. Grab the bar just outside your legs with a double overhand or mixed grip.

3. Lower your hips and bring your chest up—your shoulders should end up just over or slightly in front of the bar.

4. Keep your back straight, arms vertical, and shins close to the bar.

5. Create full-body tension and pull the slack out of the bar.

6. Drag the bar up along your legs, extending your hips and knees at the same time until you’re standing tall.

Hip Thrust - 3X6

Now it’s time to hit your glutes with the single best exercise, the barbell hip thrust.

1. Place a bench on the ground. Make sure it’s padded!

2. Sit with your back against the pad and your knees bent out in front of you.  

3. Before you use a barbell, perform a hip thrust with just your body weight to check foot placement.  

4. At the top of the motion where your hips are extended and torso is parallel to the ground, your shins should be vertical with your knees directly above your feet.

5. Come down and now place a loaded barbell in the crease of your hips.  You may want to use a yoga mat to wrap around the bar to soften the bar.

6. Drive your feet into the ground and thrust your hips up until full extension.  You can use your hands to help stabilize the load.

7. Focus on driving your knees out during the entire movement.

Barbell Romanian Deadlift - 3X6

Next up, you’re going to move to the Romanian deadlift with some heavier loads that has you in the 6 rep range.

1. Stand with feet just wider than shoulder-width and grip the bar with a shoulder-width pronated grip. Start standing upright with the bar.

2. Keep knees slightly bent, brace your core, and push your hips back to lower the bar down your legs.

3. Keep your back flat and shoulder blades pulled back as the bar lowers past your knees.

4. Stop when you feel tension in your hamstrings and can’t go lower without losing form.

5. Drive through your feet and push your hips forward to return to standing.

Seated Row - 3X8-10

First back exercise in this session is the seated back row. We love this exercise as you can go relatively heavy and get good reps in.

1. Choose your attachment

2. Sit down on the seat with your feet on the foot placement

3. Maintain a slight bend in your knees

4. Lean forward and grab your attachment and pull back.  Maintain an erect torso the whole time.

5. Keep your scapula pulled back and concentrate on driving your elbows back.

6. Pull the attachment to your chest.  

7. Let the attachment back slow and under control

Reverse Fly - 3X10-12

Next up, reverse flies to really isolate your back, especially those that control your scapula.

1. Set up the cable pulley machine with two cables using single handles

2. Stand in the middle of the two pulleys a couple and a couple feet back.

3. You will grab the handles with opposite hands.

4. Let your arms cross with minimal bend at your elbows.

5. Perform a “reverse hug” by spreading your arms out to your side. Keep the same bend in your elbows.

6. Pull the way until your upper arms become aligned with your back.

Face Pulls - 3X10-12

One of the most important exercises for shoulder mobility and upper back strength. Be sure to spend time here and and really focus on form.

1. Set up a cable pulley with a rope attachment and place it so it’s slightly above head level

2. Stand back and use both hands to grab the rope with thumbs facing towards you (pinkies pointing down the rope)

3. Let the pulley fully extend your arms and raised

4. Keeping your elbows raised, pull the rope towards your face

5. Important! When pulling back, attempt to have your “hands beat your elbows”.  This will require your shoulder to rotate so your hands raise.  At the end of the movement, your arms should be in a position that looks similar to posing.

Arm Curls - 3X10-15

Last, time for your biceps! We are giving instructions for dumbbell curls but feel free to use variations.

1. Stand upright with a dumbbell in each hand, arms fully extended, palms facing forward.

2. Keep your elbows close to your sides and your core engaged.

3. Curl the dumbbells up by bending at the elbows—don’t swing your body or move your upper arms.

4. Squeeze your biceps at the top, then slowly lower the weights back to the starting position.

5. Repeat for your desired number of reps.

How To Run This Program

This program is meant to be trained 4 days a week, and you should spread your sessions out over the week.

You can run this program using two different strategies:

1. Include three 1-day rest periods each week.
2. Have one 1-day rest period and one 2-day rest period each week.

Here's how each option would look like for your weekly training days.

• Option 1: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
• Option 2: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday

Some trainees tend to train better with shorter rest durations so having three 1-day rest periods is ideal; some like two. And remember, you can alter this as you go depending on the situation. 

How To Apply Progressive Overload 

It doesn’t matter how well a program is written; it’s worthless if the person following it doesn’t apply progressive overload. Progressive overload simply refers to gradually adding weight to an exercise or performing more reps as a method to produce a greater stimulus.

This is the driving force behind any program and is what invokes adaptations to occur. That being said, there are several ways to apply progressive overload, which we’ll explain now. To make it simple, we will divide the different methods so that they apply to strength or hypertrophy. 

1) Progressive Overload For Strength Movements:

Your strength movements are all of your primary movements. These are the movements that we want to focus on and see improvement. 

The reason being is these are your foundational movements, and if these are getting stronger, all of your other lifts will get stronger and your muscles will get bigger. 

For example, if your bench press improves, your chest, triceps, and shoulders will all receive a larger stimulus for growth. This is because when it comes to strength gains, increasing the load is the most critical factor. 

While volume does play a role, it comes from putting weight on the bar.

2) Progressive Overload For Hypertrophy Movements:

After the first half of each training session, you’re going to move on to your hypertrophy work. 

For these, you will have a range of reps to work in for your hypertrophy work such as;

• 3 X 8-10

• 3 X 10-12

Use a weight that brings you close to failure within the rep range. Then, over time, you should still be attempting to put more weight on the bar.

One factor to consider is that these movements come later in the session so you will be at varying places of fatigue.  This means that you might find you are able to lift more or less weight during different sessions.

How To Continue To Progress

You can follow the above program for some time, but adding some variance is critical when things begin to slow down. There are a few very simple ways to do this. 

1. Change The Exercise Order: The first method you can use is to swap the exercise order simply. However, only swap with the movements in the same section. In other words, alter the exercise order for the strength movements with the other strength movements; don’t alter the hypertrophy movements. 

For example, on the upper body pushing day, you can start with military press instead of doing bench press first.  As you are less fatigued, you should be able to use a greater load.

2. Swap Out Movements: Another very effective method is simply swapping movements with the same biomechanics. 

For example, you can swap out the bench press for the incline bench press. Both of those movements are horizontal pushing exercises, yet they are different enough to cause slightly different muscle activation. 

The same concept applies to pulling exercises. If you’re not sure what movements to swap out, one of the easiest methods is to swap the barbell and dumbbell.

3. Alter The Rep Scheme: The last method is to alter the reps scheme. For example, if you find that your bench press begins to stall using 5x5, you can choose to lift heavier loads with a 3x3 rep scheme. You could even go higher to a 3x8 rep scheme for a month or so. 

Remember that it will not be linear forever when it comes to progressive overload. This means that it’s not a straight path. There will be moments when you’ll need to back off and lift a lighter weight. However, you should be able to notice an overall trend over time.

Benefits Of A Push-Pull Split

The push pull split is ideal for lifters for quite a few reasons. These are the top reasons you should try a 4-day push pull split:

Easy Organization: Ease and organization are key to an effective training program. The push pull handles this nicely as you can see the organization in the name: pushing movements and pulling movements. This makes it easy to know what to do.

Manages Fatigue: This push-pull split operates on four days a week. This allows 3 full days of recovery – this is great for managing fatigue.

Easy To Personalize: You can personalize the push pull program by choosing what exercises you do and what type of rep scheme to use. This can be great as a trainee of any level can use it to reach the goals they want. Beginner, elite, bodybuilder, powerlifter…all populations can use a push pull split.

Simple To Modify: Similar to above, you can alter this split for your goals.  Or, you may find that you are having an issue when you run it and need to change some things. As long as you stay within the exercise group, you have a bit of freedom to alter as you

Push-Pull: The Best 4-Day Split There Is?

So is this push-pull split the best 4 day split there is for strength and hypertrophy? That’s a bit hard to say as there’s really no such thing as “best” when it comes to training programs. But, it’s pretty damn effective.

You will notice that it has everything you need to progress. All of the major movement patterns are included across a wide rep range. Plus, there are options for variability so that you have a path to follow in case you get stuck. We included great methods for you to continue progressing and never stall.

If you have four days a week that you can dedicate to running this program, you’re definitely going to see results.

Interested in more push-pull training content? Check out the best Push Day Workout and Pull Day Workout!

BEST STRENGTH PROGRAM

SFS Strength Program

Prepare to maximize your strength with our exclusive 13-week strength training program. 3, 4, and 5 day per week programming options.

View Now

References: