Push-Pull Workouts: Routines and Guide for Building Muscle

Written by Gavin Van De Walle, MS, RD on September 29, 2020 — Medically reviewed by Danielle Hildreth, CPT

A push-pull workout is a style of training that targets muscles based on whether they involve a pushing or pulling action.

These workouts are popular among bodybuilders and other athletes because they optimize recovery time between workouts and help create a balanced physique.

This article explains everything you need to know about push-pull workouts and includes a routine that you can use for building muscle.

What is push-pull?

Push-pull is a style of training that structures workouts based on your muscles’ movement patterns.

With this training style, you train upper body muscles that perform pushing movements one day and upper body muscles that perform pulling movements another day — either on the following day or separated by a rest day, depending on your experience level.

Here are the muscles that perform pushing and pulling movements:

Pushing: chest, shoulders, and triceps
Pulling: back, biceps, and forearms

A day for training the lower body and core typically follows the push and pull upper body workout days — again, either on the following day or separated by a rest day.

The leg muscles include the muscles located on the front (quadriceps) and back (hamstrings) of the thigh, glutes, and calves.

The push-pull style of training allows you to exercise all the major muscle groups a maximum of twice per week — assuming you trained 6 days a week with 1 day off.