This 30-Day Workout Split Reshaped My Entire Body

Newbies, intermediate, and advanced lifters all have one thing in common: they will all hit a strength or muscle plateau at some point or another.

Elite athletes are the most prone to getting stuck in a rut, as making minor improvements at the highest levels gets increasingly challenging.

As a personal trainer with almost two decades of hands-on experience, I’ll be the first to admit that I have had my fair share of slumps. In fact, I had been dealing with one for the last seven months until I decided it was time to make a significant change in my routine to break through this overhead ceiling.

The bro split has served me well over my long lifting career, but it wasn’t doing it for me anymore.

My training routine mostly consisted of hitting every muscle group once a week, but this was turning out to be not enough. After analyzing my current fitness progress and researching the most effective splits for my goals, I decided to adopt a push-pull-legs routine.

In this article, I’ll take you through my 30-day PPL workout split that helped unlock new gains for me. You’ll also learn how you can implement it into your own routine. We have a lot to unpack, so sit tight and read on.

Why a 30-Day Workout Split Works

Limiting myself to one workout per muscle group per week was holding me back.

A meta-analysis concludes that increasing your training frequency can significantly improve your hypertrophy results, as it delivers greater muscle stimulation and promotes muscle protein synthesis. (1)

Here is an overview of the PPL routine:

• Push: Chest, shoulders, and triceps
• Pull: Back and biceps
• Legs: Cords, hamstrings, glutes, and calves

Since we train multiple muscle groups on each day, it allows us more opportunities to train the same muscle group again.

In my opinion, this is also one of the most effective training routines to fix muscle imbalances. It enables you to significantly increase your training volume as you can hit the same muscle group with more sets, reps, and weights multiple times each week.

I did the push days on Mondays and Thursdays, allowing my muscles 48 hours to recover between workouts.

Taking up this push, pull, and legs routine as a 30-day challenge creates a sense of urgency, and you need to make every workout count to achieve measurable progress.

My Starting Point: The Before

I spend most of my days in the gym coaching clients with varying experience levels and objectives. However, all my energy goes into training others, and lately, my own body wasn’t reflecting the expertise I’d built.

I could deadlift 315 pounds on a good day, but my workout started to lack structure as I began doing any exercise I could, so I could make more time for personal training.

My endurance also went for a spin as a low-intensity 20-minute run left me gassed. I had not experienced an improvement in my strength for a long time, and my body fat hovered around the 18 percent mark.

And this is how this 30-day push/pull/legs split was born.

I was keen on getting back the definition in my chest, arms, and midsection, and fixing the muscle imbalances that had started to creep over time.

 My goal was pretty simple:

• Achieve 10% body fat
• Boost strength by 10% across all major lifts

30-Day Push/Pull/Legs Workout Plan

With all that out of the way, here is the four-week push, pull, and legs routine that I designed to help transform my body. It involved training the same muscle groups twice a week to maximize hypertrophy.

Week 1: Building the Foundation

Since I was switching to a PPL routine after a very long time, I decided to use the first week to get used to this new split and focused on performing exercises with a picture-perfect form to deepen the mind-muscle connection and maximize muscle pumps.

Workout 1: Push (Monday)

Boredom is one of the biggest reasons most people cannot stick to their new training routines. To ensure that this did not plague my progress, I did a new workout each week. This also ensured that I was training my muscles from every angle imaginable, maximizing growth.

Contrary to what most people think, you don’t need to switch your workouts in each session. I did the same workout twice a week. The first helped me get comfortable with the movement, and in the second session, I pushed myself harder to ignite new gains.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Flat Barbell Bench Press	3	10-12	90s
Incline Dumbbell Press	3	10-12	90s
Overhead Barbell Press	3	8-10	90s
Cable Tricep Pushdowns	3	12-15	60s

Workout 2: Pull (Tuesday)

In my experience, many lifters forget to train their rear delts during the push-pull-legs split. However, missing this one small muscle group can lead to significant issues over time, in terms of aesthetics and functionality.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Lat Pulldown	3	10-12	90s
Seated Cable Row	3	10-12	90s
Dumbbell Rear Delt Fly	3	12-15	60s
Barbell Bicep Curl	3	10-12	60s

Workout 3: Legs (Wednesday)

Beginners should start with a lighter weight and focus on learning the movement mechanics. The weights can come later when the exercise becomes muscle memory and you are able to contract the muscles throughout the range of motion.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Barbell Back Squat	4	8-10	120s
Romanian Deadlift	3	10-12	90s
Leg Press	3	10-12	90s
Seated Calf Raise	3	15-20	60s

Week 2: Increasing Intensity

Since my body started adapting to the new routine, the second week was all about progression. I gradually increased the number of reps and weights while limiting rest time to challenge my muscles further.

Workout 1: Push (Monday)

I begin the second push workout of the week with an incline barbell press variation because the upper pecs are a weak muscle group for me. Overlooking this section of the chest can significantly hamper your physique proportions.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Flat Dumbbell Bench Press	4	8-10	90s
Incline Machine Press	3	10-12	90s
Arnold Press	3	8-10	90s
Skull Crushers	3	12-15	60s

Workout 2: Pull (Tuesday)

Spend at least 5-10 minutes performing dynamic stretches, like arm circles and leg swings, before your training session. This ensures that your muscles are aptly warmed up and can help boost performance and limit the risk of injury.

Similarly, end with a short static stretching routine to flush the metabolites out of your muscle tissues, improve mobility, and kick-start recovery.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Neutral-Grip Pull-Up	3	8-10	90s
Single-Arm Dumbbell Row	3	10-12	90s
Cable Rear Delt Fly	3	12-15	60s
Preacher Curl	3	10-12	60s

Workout 3: Legs (Wednesday)

This week also saw me add new variations for the same movement pattern to limit the risk of hitting a plateau. I experienced significant delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). During the second half of the week, I had to employ recovery strategies like foam rolling and contrast showers to fight the inflammation.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Barbell Squat (High Bar)	4	8-10	120s
Bulgarian Split Squat	3	10-12	90s
Leg Extension	3	10-12	90s
Seated Calf Raise	3	15-20	60s

Week 3: Pushing Limits

I highly recommend logging your workouts, as it will give you benchmarks to beat in your subsequent sessions. You don’t need a special app for this, and can do this in your phone’s notes app.

Use progressive overload techniques like super-sets, drop sets, and intraset stretching to challenge your body and optimize muscle protein synthesis.

Workout 1: Push (Monday)

I used drop sets in the second exercise of each workout and did a superset for the final movement of the session to bump up my training intensity. Beginners should limit themselves to one advanced training technique in the workout, whereas elite athletes can do up to three.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Barbell Bench Press (Superset with Push-Ups)	4	8-10	90s
Incline Dumbbell Press	3	8-10	90s
Seated Machine Shoulder Press	3	8-10	90s
Dips (Triceps Focus)	3	12-15	60s

Workout 2: Pull (Tuesday)

Use a strict military form while performing chin-ups to maximize upper back (lats) and bicep engagement. Avoid using momentum by swinging your legs, as it can limit the strain on the target muscles and switch the focus to secondary movers.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Chin-Up	4	8-10	90s
Pendlay Row	3	8-10	90s
Cable Face Pull	3	12-15	60s
Concentration Curl	3	10-12	60s

Workout 3: Legs (Wednesday)

Tweak your workouts depending on your weaker muscle groups and aim to deploy more volume to bridge the gaps in your physique. For instance, lifters with weak hamstrings should do an additional three sets of Romanian deadlifts.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Barbell Squat (Low Bar)	4	6-8	120s
Dumbbell Step-Up	3	10-12	90s
Seated Leg Curl	3	10-12	90s
Calf Press on Leg Press	3	15-20	60s

Week 4: Maximizing Results

The final week of any fitness challenge is always the most thrilling for me. This split was no different. I turned things up a notch by switching to a 3:1:1:1 rep tempo to increase the demand on my muscles.

This involves using a three-second lowering phase in each exercise and spending one second each at the top, bottom, and during the lifting phases.

Workout 1: Push (Monday)

Feel free to switch the exercise based on your training experience, goals, and equipment availability. If you don’t have access to an incline chest press machine, you could perform incline dumbbell presses in its place.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Barbell Bench Press (Tempo: 3:1:1:1)	4	6-8	90s
Incline Machine Press	3	8-10	90s
Overhead Dumbbell Press	3	8-10	90s
Rope Tricep Pushdown (Drop Set)	3	12-15	60s

Workout 2: Pull (Tuesday)

While performing these back movements, focus on driving with your elbows. Pulling with your biceps can take tension away from the back muscles and put the strain on this relatively smaller muscle group.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Weighted Pull-Up	4	6-8	90s
Dumbbell Row (Tempo: 2-1-2)	3	8-10	90s
Cable Rear Delt Fly	3	12-15	60s
Barbell Curl (Rest-Pause)	3	10-12	60s

Workout 3: Legs (Wednesday)

Pushing yourself in the lower-body workouts demands mental resilience and grit. Ensure that you are not compromising form in favor of lifting heavier weights. On the other hand, avoid going through the motions for the sake of it. Prioritize a deep stretch and contraction with each rep for optimal adaptations.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Barbell Squat (Tempo: 3:1:1:1)	4	6-8	120s
Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift	3	8-10	90s
Bulgarian Split Squat	3	10-12	90s
Standing Calf Raise (Drop Set)	3	15-20	60s

Nutrition to Support the Transformation

When it comes to a physique transformation, your nutrition and recovery are just as important as your workouts.

I used this total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) calculator to determine my ideal daily calorie and macronutrient intake. Then, I divided these targets into 3-4 equal meals throughout the day to ensure my body had enough raw materials at all times for optimal recovery.

Besides this, I ensured that I got eight hours of sleep each night. Your muscle tissues recover, and your body regulates its hormonal balance while you are fast asleep. Skimping on sleep will not only hamper your strength training goals, but it can also jeopardize your immunity and overall health.

Although you don’t necessarily need sports supplements to build your dream physique, I used a whey protein supplement to plug the gaps in my whole food diet.

My Results: The After

Thirty days of grinding through this PPL split reshaped my body in ways that stunned even me.

Switching to this high-volume and frequency routine and entering a 500 daily calorie deficit helped me slash my body fat from 18% to 11%. My weight dropped from 185 to 178 pounds, and I could see a significant shift in my body composition. 

Best of all, I saw my strength improve across the board. My deadlift climbed from 315 to 350 pounds, and all other big lifts, like the bench press and squats, saw at least a 10 percent boost.

Training each muscle group twice weekly also helped fix physique imbalances as my quads finally started catching up to my hamstrings.

The results didn’t stop at better physics symmetry. My overall energy level surged, and it helped improve my mental clarity and sharpness throughout the day.

Make no mistake, the PPL routine is not the only effective routine. It fit my daily schedule and training objectives perfectly, which is why I decided to go with it. Consistency, dedication, and discipline are the most important factors for achieving your fitness goals.

Find a training program that you can follow for the long term, and stick to it to unlock your maximum fitness potential.

Conclusion

Adopting this 30-day push, pull, and legs split delivered better results than I had initially imagined. It helped improve my overall body composition and overall strength levels without straining any muscles or joints.

This is a reminder that you should be open to tweaking your training split as soon as you notice your gains plateauing. Start small and gradually increase your workout demands as you get comfortable. Best of luck!

References:

1. Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med. 2016 Nov;46(11):1689-1697. doi: 10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8. PMID: 27102172.

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