5-day split: push, pull, legs, upper, lower
Push, pull and legs, then an upper-body day and a leg day: five workouts of an hour a week, every muscle trained twice. A split for regular training.
The upper and lower days take other exercises than push, pull and legs, so no exercise repeats in the week. Every exercise has two or three working sets close to failure, and Liftava suggests the next weights and reps every workout.
- workouts a week
- 5
- minutes a workout
- 60
- exercises
- 34
- sets a week
- 87
- MonPush
- TuePull
- WedLegs
- ThuRest
- FriUpper
- SatLower
- SunRest
A week as an example. Train on any days: the plan goes on in its order.
Push
- Barbell Bench Press3 × 6–8+ 2 warm-up
- Dumbbell Overhead Press2 × 8–10+ 1 warm-up
- Machine Incline Chest Press3 × 8–10+ 1 warm-up
- Pec Deck Fly3 × 10–12
- Dumbbell Lateral Raise2 × 12–15
- Triceps Pushdown3 × 10–12
Pull
- Lat Pulldown3 × 6–8+ 2 warm-up
- Seated Cable Row (V Grip)3 × 8–10+ 1 warm-up
- Reverse Pec Deck2 × 12–15
- Dumbbell Bicep Curl3 × 10–12
- Straight Arm Pulldown3 × 10–12
- Machine Lateral Raise2 × 12–15
- Ab Crunch Machine2 × 12–15
Legs
- Barbell Back Squat3 × 6–8+ 2 warm-up
- Barbell Romanian Deadlift3 × 8–10+ 1 warm-up
- Horizontal Leg Press2 × 8–10+ 1 warm-up
- Leg Extension2 × 10–12
- Lying Leg Curl3 × 10–12
- Machine Standing Calf Raise2 × 12–15
- Hanging Leg Raise2 × 8–12
Upper
- Dumbbell Incline Bench Press2 × 6–8+ 2 warm-up
- Chest Supported T-Bar Row3 × 8–10+ 1 warm-up
- Pull Up3 × 4–8
- Cable Lateral Raise2 × 12–15
- Cable Overhead Triceps Extension3 × 10–12
- Bayesian Curl3 × 10–12
- Cable Crossover Fly2 × 10–12
Lower
- Leg Press3 × 6–8+ 2 warm-up
- Barbell Hip Thrust3 × 8–10+ 1 warm-up
- Seated Leg Curl3 × 10–12
- Single Leg Extension3 × 10–12
- Leg Press Calf Raise2 × 12–15
- Hip Abduction Machine2 × 12–15
- Cable Crunch2 × 12–15
Rest after a set: 3 min after the day’s first exercise, 2.5 min after the other big ones, 1.5 min after the rest.
Hard sets a week
Sets close to failure each muscle gets in a week: a working set counts whole for each muscle the exercise mainly trains, half for one that helps.
Rest days
The order is Push, Pull, Legs, Upper, Lower. The legs are trained on the third and the fifth day, the upper body on the first, second and fourth day. In the example week the two rest days come after each leg day, on Thursday and Sunday. If you need them elsewhere, the plan waits: the next workout is always the day after the last one you trained.
When your gym lacks a machine
The plan mixes machines and free weights. If your gym has no pec deck or leg press, tick them in the plan builder and the plan takes the next exercise of the same movement instead. The builder also makes the plan with free weights only, or with machines wherever there is one.
Open the plan builder →How the plan is built
- With two days a week or more, every split trains each muscle at least twice a week.
- A day starts with the big movements (a squat or leg press, a press, a row, a hinge) and ends with smaller exercises for shoulders, arms, calves and abs, as many as fit the time you chose.
- Each movement has a list of exercises from the best to the furthest alternative. The main lifts keep to the best one or two all week, so a beginner learns their lifts; the smaller exercises take the next one each time, so two days do not repeat each other.
- Every exercise starts with two working sets close to failure. A workout longer than an hour adds a third, and once you train regularly so does an hour in a gym three days a week or more, for the exercises of the big muscles. A muscle you want to bring up gets a set more.
- Extra exercises and sets stop at a weekly ceiling for each muscle: 14 hard sets for a beginner, 18 for regular training, 20 when experienced (4 more for a muscle you bring up), counting what the presses and pulls give it too. The table under the plan shows how many each gets.