Push/pull/legs split: a 6-day plan for building muscle, 8 weeks

Reps first, then weight. Every exercise starts at the bottom of its range with a weight you could lift two more times (one more on the small lifts). Each hard week the target climbs by one rep at the same weight, so a 6–10 bench goes 6–10, 7–10, 8–10 in weeks 1 to 3 and reaches 10 by week 6. When every set hits the top of the range, the weight goes up by one step: 5 lb on presses, rows and dumbbells, 10 lb on the squat, deadlift, Romanian deadlift and leg press. That's double progression, the way most bodybuilding coaches run it.

One more set from week 5. After three hard weeks, every second-and-later exercise gets one more set. That's the plan's volume peak, and the table above shows where it lands per muscle: inside the 10 to 20 hard sets a week Coachh aims for on a bodybuilding plan, never over.

Two lighter weeks. Weeks 4 and 8 cut the sets roughly in half at about 90% of the weight, with no weight jumps. On a six-day split don't skip them: fatigue from this much volume tends to show up as lifts that stall, not as soreness, and by then you've lost a week anyway.

Six days a week means a bad night always lands on a session. Coachh doesn't skip it; it shrinks it. After a rough night the accessories lose a set, the main lift comes down about 5%, nothing goes up in weight and sets stop around RPE 8. A really bad night takes a set off every lift and 10% off the weights. Several short nights in a row cost the big compound lifts more than the small ones: in a review of 17 studies, repeated sleep restriction reduced force on multi-joint lifts but not single-joint ones (Knowles and colleagues, 2018). That's one reason the B days lean on machines and cables.

Sore from Legs A when Legs B comes round? Say which part. Coachh goes easy on that area today and leaves the rest of the session as written. A sore lower back means no deadlifts or rows that day: split squats, the leg press and supported rows instead.

If the week breaks, don't cram six sessions into four days. Coachh picks up the next session you missed, one only, and a new week starts clean. If you're regularly getting four sessions in, that's information: tell Coachh you train four days and it rebuilds every week of the plan around them.

A rough night after time off counts once: Coachh takes the more cautious of the two changes, never both.

Why six days, when four would cover every muscle twice?

Because six shorter sessions fit more total sets without any session running long, and muscle growth tracks weekly sets. In a meta-analysis of 15 studies, each extra weekly set added a little more growth (Schoenfeld and colleagues, 2017). Training a muscle twice a week beat once a week for growth with total work matched (Schoenfeld and colleagues, 2016), and push/pull/legs hits each muscle twice only if you run it six days. The American College of Sports Medicine's position stand puts advanced lifters at 4 to 5 sessions a week and recommends higher-volume, multiple-set programs for muscle (ACSM, 2009); six days is at the top of that, which is why the plan is for people with a year or more behind them.

Why sets of 12 to 20 on the small lifts?

Lateral raises, curls and flyes don't load well heavy, and they don't need to. Across 28 studies with sets taken to failure, muscle growth was similar with light, moderate and heavy loads; heavy loads mattered for maximal strength (Lopez and colleagues, 2021). So the plan keeps the heavy, low-rep work for the barbell lifts and takes the isolation work close to failure with lighter weights that joints tolerate better.

Why rest two to three minutes on the main lifts?

Because a rushed main lift is a weaker set. In trained men, 3-minute rests built more strength and more thigh muscle than 1-minute rests (Schoenfeld and colleagues, 2016). Supersets on the accessories give back the time.

Why a lighter week every fourth week?

Competitive lifters in a survey of 246 took a lighter week about every 5 to 6 weeks, cutting sets and load and stopping further from failure (Rogerson and colleagues, 2024). Coachh plans one every fourth week of a phase. On a six-day split, earlier is safer than later.

After week 8, run it again with the weights you've earned, or switch to a strength block on an upper/lower split for four to six weeks and come back. In Coachh the phase carries on after week 8 until you ask for the next one.