Programme guide
Push · Pull · Legs: how the block runs
Push · Pull · Legs is a 3-day-per-week intermediate programme built for muscle growth. Classic 3-day split for balanced hypertrophy. Across the week it covers 9 exercises and roughly 30 working sets, loading chest, back, quads, shoulders, biceps and triceps, with rest periods between 60 and 120 seconds depending on how heavy the movement is.
Who this programme suits
It is written for intermediate trainees who can commit to 3 sessions a week in a fully equipped gym. Age bands 20s-30s and 40s-50s are supported, and the app scales volume and tempo to the band you selected during calibration rather than handing everyone the same numbers.
If you miss a session, run it on the next available day rather than doubling up. Missing one session in a week costs almost nothing; two heavy sessions back to back costs recovery you will pay for later in the block.
Day 1 — Push
Bench Press: 4 × 8, 90s rest. Overhead Press: 3 × 10, 75s rest. Cable Fly: 3 × 12, 60s rest.
Bench Press — Drive elbows at 45°, brace core. Overhead Press — Squeeze glutes, ribs down. Cable Fly — Slight elbow bend, meet at chest line.
Day 2 — Pull
Deadlift: 4 × 5, 120s rest. Pull Up: 3 × 8, 90s rest. Barbell Row: 3 × 10, 75s rest.
Deadlift — Bar over midfoot, lats tight. Pull Up — Chest to bar, no swing. Barbell Row — Hinge to 45°, pull to sternum.
Day 3 — Legs
Back Squat: 4 × 8, 120s rest. Romanian Deadlift: 3 × 10, 90s rest. Walking Lunge: 3 × 12, 60s rest.
Back Squat — Knees track over toes. Romanian Deadlift — Push hips back, soft knees. Walking Lunge — Long stride, torso tall.
Progressing the block
Keep the prescribed sets and reps for the first two weeks and treat that as your baseline. From week three, add load when you finish every set of an exercise at the top of its rep range with clean technique — roughly 2.5kg on upper-body lifts and 5kg on lower-body lifts, or one extra rep per set on bodyweight movements.
Rest matters as much as load. The 120-second rests on the heaviest movements exist so the following set is not compromised; cutting them short turns a muscle growth session into a conditioning session. The in-app countdown handles this automatically and rolls straight into the next block.
Recovery and fuel around the session
Drink through the session — the runner prompts you between exercises — and eat a protein-led meal within a couple of hours of finishing. The Fuel section carries matching meal blocks, macro targets and a one-tap grocery list, and the Recovery dashboard tracks sleep alongside your completion meter.
Frequently asked
- How long does one Push · Pull · Legs session take?
- Most sessions run 35 to 55 minutes including warm-up and prescribed rests, depending on how quickly you set up between exercises.
- Do I need to sign in to run it?
- The programme is free, but an account is required so your sets, completion percentage and resume point sync across devices.
- What if an exercise is not available to me?
- Open the exercise card and use the substitute suggested for the same movement pattern, or generate a replacement session in Session Forge with the equipment you actually have.
- How long should I run this block before changing?
- Run it for four to eight weeks. Change programme when progress stalls for three consecutive sessions, not because the sessions started to feel familiar.