What is a Push/Pull/Legs split?
PPL groups your training by movement pattern across three distinct days: Push (chest, shoulders, triceps), Pull (back, biceps), and Legs (quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves). Most people run it on a 6-day rotation (each day twice a week) or a simpler 3-day-a-week version, cycling through in order.
What is a Full Body split?
Full Body training hits most of your major muscle groups in every single session — typically 3 times a week with a rest day between each. Instead of specializing each day, every workout touches legs, push, and pull movements together.
The tradeoffs
PPL lets you go harder on each muscle group per session, since you're not splitting your energy across the whole body — great if you can commit to 5–6 days a week and want more volume per muscle group. The tradeoff: each muscle group only gets trained once (or twice, on the 6-day version) a week, so missing a session means a full week without training that area.
Full Body trains every major muscle group more frequently — usually 2–3 times a week — which research generally favors for strength and muscle growth, especially for anyone training 3 days a week or fewer. It's also more forgiving: missing one session doesn't leave an entire muscle group untouched for a week. The tradeoff: each session covers more ground, so per-muscle volume per workout is usually lower.
Which one should you choose?
- 3 days a week available → Full Body. You get more frequency per muscle group without needing extra gym days.
- 5–6 days a week available → PPL. You have the time to dedicate full sessions to each movement pattern and recover between them.
- New to lifting → Full Body is usually simpler to learn and more forgiving of an inconsistent schedule while you build the habit.
- Training for years, chasing specific muscle growth → PPL's extra per-session volume tends to suit more advanced goals.
Neither is "wrong" — the split that actually gets followed consistently will always beat the theoretically optimal one you skip half the time.
Build either split in minutes
LockedIn — Gym Workout Tracker lets you build custom templates for any split, PPL or Full Body, and reuse them every session.
The bottom line
Full Body if you train 3 days a week or you're just starting out. PPL if you can commit to 5–6 days and want to specialize. Either way, the split matters less than actually showing up and applying progressive overload week after week.