How to Plan a Push Day Workout Split for Upper Body Gains

This balanced approach—with a Beginner and Advanced track—can help you build strength and muscle with a smart strategy.

SMART GUYS DON'T just hit the gym without a plan. No, ripping through round after round of biceps curls, bench presses, or squats on their own, half-heartedly puttering around a few other accessory movement, and then calling it a day doesn't count. Successful training regimens have structure. While there are many different strategies you can use to organize your workout routine, one of the most balanced training splits for general fitness and muscle building goals is known as the push-pull-legs plan.

The idea behind the plan is fairly simple. You dedicate one day of training to pushing movements (think presses), one day to pulling movements (rows of all varieties), and one day to lower body-focused movements. That way, you'll be able to train your whole body in a more balanced and efficient manner than simply dedicating an entire workout to one single muscle group at a time, as is common in bodybuilding-style splits. Instead, you're planning around movement patterns, which can make it easier to guarantee that your training plan hits every mark you need for a healthy, functioning body.

Depending on your goals and experience level, it's the type of routine that you can use once in a week for a three-day split or even double-up for a six-day split, hitting each workout twice.

You'll need to understand a bit more about the makeup of each day before implementing this type of split.

"Push day workouts utilize chest, triceps, and shoulders and focus on movements that involve pushing loads away from your torso, such as bench presses, overhead presses, and triceps skull crushers," says Men's Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. "Almost every pushing movement will end with your arms straightening at the elbow. Your abs and glutes will also get underrated work in push day workouts, providing stability to your spine on overhead pressing movements."

In other words, this will be a big upper body training day.

Just remember, there is no "push" day without the counterbalance of the pull. "Push day workouts are generally performed as part of a push/pull/legs training split (or, as we’ve explained before, a pull/push/legs training split)," Samuel continues. "That helps you train your upper body with balance, instead of over-focusing on mirror muscles. Aesthetically, this will promote a more symmetrical, complete physique, and it’ll also help bulletproof your shoulders and lower back."

This type of structure allows you to train efficiently while still hitting just about every mark you could want for general fitness goals.

Samuel designed two distinct push day program templates: One for beginners, and one for more advanced lifters. The difference between the two is mostly volume, or the total amount of work you'll fit into each session.

The beginner push day is designed to hit all the major muscle groups involved in pushing (the chest, triceps, and shoulders) with three exercises. Samuel notes that advanced pushing workouts are often more closely focused on the chest, the largest and most powerful of your pushing muscles. He designed this beginner workout to be more concerned with function, however, hitting three critical ideas.

"Do one round for each arm to protect your shoulders and set yourself in good position to dominate your push exercises," Samuel advises. You'll need a light resistance band for this one.

How to Do It:

Samuel suggests that you start with the exercise that will allow you to move the most weight. For just about everyone, that means some form of bench pressing. "This will be your most natural pushing motion," he says. "If you’ve ever pushed anything away from your body, you’ve worked through this pattern.

Sets and Reps: 4 sets of 8 to 10 reps

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Shift your focus from your chest to your shoulders and hone your ability to move overhead with this next exercise. Samuel prefers the half-kneeling single-arm shoulder press, but other overhead variations (like the dumbbell military press) will do.

"If you have shoulder issues, do a seated dumbbell overhead press instead, and set the incline of your bench as high as it can go while stopping short of perpendicular with the ground," he advises.

Sets and Reps: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps (per side, when applicable)

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Finish the workout with your lone isolation exercise, focusing on your triceps. Keep the weight lighter here, and focus on mind-muscle connection.

Sets and Reps: 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps

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Leveling up means expanding the workout from three exercises to five. Since you're working with a higher overall volume, Samuel notes that it's important to tweak the positioning of shoulder-focused movements. "You’ll do your shoulder training near the end of each session, when you’re weakest, and you’ll focus on rear delts, incorporating some light pulling into push day to help safeguard your shoulders in the long term," he says.

You’ll still lead off with a bench press variation after your warmup, ensuring you’ve hit your largest pushing muscle (your chest) and challenge both shoulders and triceps with load to get things started.

Sets and Reps: 4 sets of 8 to 10 reps

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Your chest muscles function to push load away from you. They also adduct your upper arm (essentially bringing your upper arm toward the midline of your body), as they do in any chest fly variation. Attack this movement as your second exercise.

Sets and Reps: 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps

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You’ve focused on the chest on your first two motions. Before you shift to the shoulders, work to fire up your mid-back muscles and rear delts with a rear delt fly. This will also help with shoulder symmetry, according to Samuel, who says most guys overtrain their front shoulders.

Sets and Reps: 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps

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Now shift to attacking your overall shoulders with an overhead press variation.

Sets and Reps: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps

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Sets and Reps: 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps

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Brett Williams, a fitness editor at Men's Health, is a NASM-CPT certified trainer and former pro football player and tech reporter who splits his workout time between strength and conditioning training, martial arts, and running. You can find his work elsewhere at Mashable, Thrillist, and other outlets.

Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., is the fitness director of Men's Health and a certified trainer with more than 10 years of training experience. He's logged training time with NFL athletes and track athletes and his current training regimen includes weight training, HIIT conditioning, and yoga. Before joining Men's Health in 2017, he served as a sports columnist and tech columnist for the New York Daily News.

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