6 Day Push Pull Legs Planet Fitness Workout

About this workout

I get asked about six day push pull legs more than almost any other split, and most of the time the person asking wants me to tell them it is fine. So here it is straight. Six days a week works, but only if you earn it outside the gym. If your sleep is short and your food is random, this program will bury you by week five and you will blame the split. This is push pull legs run twice a week. Six sessions, each one 45 to 60 minutes, no barbell anywhere in it. Everything here uses machines, dumbbells, cables or the Smith machine, so it runs clean on a Planet Fitness floor or in any gym where the squat racks are always taken. Planet Fitness gets a lot of grief online. I do not care. A dumbbell rack and a cable stack will build a physique if you show up and add weight to the bar over time. The reason I like this frequency is simple. Every muscle gets trained twice a week instead of once. That second exposure is where a lot of intermediate lifters find another gear. Volume per session stays moderate, which is what makes twice a week possible. You are not doing 25 sets of chest and then trying to do it again on Thursday. Here is the honest part. If you cannot recover from six days, four days done well beats six days done tired. Every single time. A lifter running four hard sessions with full effort and real progression will out-build a lifter dragging through six half sessions on five hours of sleep. There is no prize for showing up more often. The prize is for getting stronger. If after three weeks your lifts are flat, your appetite is gone and your warm ups feel like work sets, drop to four days. That is not quitting. That is reading the data.

Who This Program Is For

Lifters with at least a year of consistent training who already know how to push a set close to failure without turning it into a circus.
Anyone training in a gym with no barbells, or a gym where the free weight area is a war zone at 6pm.
People whose schedule genuinely allows six sessions plus seven to nine hours of sleep most nights.
Lifters who have run a four day split, made progress, and are ready to add frequency rather than just adding sets.

Who this is NOT for: This is not a beginner program. If you have been training under a year, the extra frequency will not help you more than a good three or four day plan will, and the recovery cost is real. It is also not for anyone in a hard calorie deficit. Six days of lifting on low food is how you lose muscle and call it a cut. If you work nights, travel every week, or you are already run down, run the four day upper lower instead and come back to this when life settles.

What You'll Need

Access to a full dumbbell rack, a Smith machine, and cable stations with rope, straight bar and single handles.
Selectorized machines for legs: leg press, leg extension, lying leg curl and a calf station or hack squat.
A training log, on paper or in your phone, where you record load and reps for every work set. No log, no progression.

The Program

You train six days and rest one. The layout is Push A, Pull A, Legs A, Push B, Pull B, Legs B, rest. Most people run it Monday through Saturday with Sunday off. You can also split it into two three-day blocks with a rest day in the middle if that recovers better for you. The A and B sessions are not copies. A sessions lead with the heavier compound work in lower rep ranges. B sessions lead with a different angle, use higher reps, and change the exercise order so a muscle that got trained last on Monday gets trained first on Thursday. That is the whole point of running the split twice. Every work set listed is a real set. Warm up sets do not count toward the number in the Sets column. On your first exercise of each session take two or three progressive warm up sets, then start counting. Take your last set of each exercise to a point where you have one, maybe two reps left. Not zero. Not five. If you cannot tell the difference yet, you are not ready for six days a week.

Day 1
Push A
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Smith Machine Bench Press	4	6-8, two to three warm up sets first, stop each set with two reps left	2 min
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press	3	8-10, control the negative for three seconds	90 sec
Smith Machine Overhead Press	3	8-10, seated or standing, no leg drive	90 sec
Cable Crossover	3	12-15, squeeze and hold one second at the front	60 sec
Dumbbell Lateral Raise	4	12-15, last set is a drop set: strip to half the weight and go again	45 sec
Tricep Pushdown	3	10-12, elbows pinned to your sides	60 sec
Overhead Tricep Extension	2	12-15, full stretch at the bottom	60 sec

Day 2
Pull A
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Lat Pulldown	4	8-10, wide grip, pull to the collarbone not the chin	90 sec
Seated Cable Rows	4	8-10, neutral grip, do not lean back past vertical	90 sec
One Arm Dumbbell Row	3	10-12 per side, drive the elbow to the hip	60 sec
Straight Arm Pulldown	3	12-15, arms stay locked, this is lats not triceps	60 sec
Face Pulls	3	15-20, pull to the forehead, external rotation at the end	45 sec
Dumbbell Curls	3	10-12, no swinging, if you are swinging the weight is wrong	60 sec
Cable Hammer Curl	3	12-15, last set rest pause: fail, rest 15 seconds, go again	45 sec

Day 3
Legs A
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Smith Machine Squat	4	6-8, feet slightly forward, depth to parallel or below	2-3 min
Leg Press	3	10-12, mid stance, do not lock the knees out hard	2 min
Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift	3	8-10, soft knees, feel the hamstring stretch before you reverse	90 sec
Lying Leg Curl	3	12-15, two second squeeze at the top	60 sec
Leg Extension	3	12-15, last set is a drop set, cut the weight and get 10 more	60 sec
Standing Calf Raise	4	10-12, three second stretch at the bottom of every rep	60 sec

Day 4
Push B
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Dumbbell Shoulder Press	4	8-10, shoulders lead today, this is the priority lift	90 sec
Dumbbell Bench Press	4	10-12, higher reps than Push A, chase the stretch	90 sec
Incline Dumbbell Flys	3	12-15, wide arc, elbows soft and fixed	60 sec
Cable Lateral Raise	4	15-20 per side, light weight, no body English	45 sec
Chest Dips	3	As many as you can with good form, lean forward, add weight when you clear 15	90 sec
Cable Rope Overhead Tricep Extensions	3	12-15, elbows high and still	60 sec
Bench Dips	2	15-20, finish the triceps off, stop two reps short of failure	45 sec

Day 5
Pull B
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Bent Over Dumbbell Row	4	8-10, rows lead today instead of pulldowns	90 sec
Close Grip Pulldown	4	10-12, underhand or neutral, drive elbows down and back	90 sec
Dumbbell Incline Row	3	12-15, chest supported so you cannot cheat with your hips	60 sec
Dumbbell Rear Delt Row	3	15-20, elbows flared wide, this is rear delts not lats	45 sec
Dumbbell Shrugs	3	12-15, straight up and down, one second hold at the top	60 sec
Incline Dumbbell Curls	3	10-12, lay back and let the arms hang behind you	60 sec
Reverse Cable Curl	3	12-15, forearms and brachialis, keep the wrists neutral	45 sec

Day 6
Legs B
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Dumbbell Stiff Leg Deadlift	4	8-10, hamstrings lead today, hips back not knees bent	90 sec
Hack Squat	4	10-12, higher reps than Legs A, controlled on the way down	2 min
Bulgarian Split Squat	3	10-12 per leg, dumbbells at your sides, front foot flat	90 sec
Standing Cable Leg Curl	3	12-15 per leg, slow on the return	45 sec
Hip Thrust (Weighted Hip Extension)	3	12-15, chin tucked, squeeze hard at lockout	60 sec
Seated Calf Raise	4	15-20, soleus work, pause at the top and the bottom	45 sec

How to Progress

Twelve weeks. The plan does not change every week; the load and the effort do. Log every work set so you know whether you are actually progressing or just showing up. Two deloads are built in. Take them. On a six day split the deload is not optional, it is the thing that lets you keep training six days.

Weeks 1-2: Set the baseline Run every session as written but stop three reps short of failure on everything. Yes, three. You are learning the exercises, finding your loads and writing them down. Most people go too hard in week one and are cooked by week four. Do not be most people.

Weeks 3-5: Add load Now push to one or two reps left in the tank on the last set of each exercise. Add weight any time you hit the top of the rep range on all sets. Small jumps: 5 pounds on dumbbells, one pin on a stack. This is where the split starts paying.

Week 6: Deload Same exercises, same sets, cut every load by 40 percent and stop five reps short on everything. It will feel pointless. That is the feeling of recovering. Do not skip this week and do not turn it into a heavy week because you feel good on Tuesday.

Weeks 7-9: Push the top sets Back to full load and beat your week five numbers. On the first exercise of every session, add one work set if your recovery is holding. If it is not holding, keep the sets the same and just add weight. Honest self-assessment beats extra volume.

Weeks 10-11: Intensity techniques Add the drop sets and rest pause sets listed in the Reps column, and only on the last set of an exercise. Never on the first compound movement. This is the hardest stretch of the program and it should feel like it.

Week 12: Deload and retest Cut volume in half, keep the loads moderate, and finish the week by retesting your top set on Smith Machine Bench Press, Smith Machine Squat and Lat Pulldown. Compare against week three. Those numbers tell you whether six days was the right call for you.

Warm-Up and Recovery Notes

Five minutes on a bike, treadmill or rower to get warm, then two or three progressive warm up sets on the first exercise of the session. On push days add 20 slow arm circles and a set of Push Ups before you touch a dumbbell. On pull days add a light set of Face Pulls. On leg days do a set of Body Squat for 15 reps and a set of Glute Bridge for 15 before you load anything. That is it. A warm up should get you ready to train, not become the workout.

This is the section that decides whether the program works. Seven to nine hours of sleep, most nights, not just weekends. One full rest day where you do not train, and walking does not count as breaking that rule. If you want cardio, keep it to two or three easy sessions of Incline Walking for 20 to 30 minutes and put them on push or pull days, never before legs. Watch for the warning signs: your warm up weights feel heavy, your appetite drops, your sleep gets worse, you stop looking forward to training. One of those is noise. Three of those together means cut to four days for two weeks. Run Push A, Pull A, Legs A and Push B, then come back to six when you feel like a lifter again. I would rather you finish twelve weeks at four days than quit at week seven at six days.

Nutrition and Supplementation

Six days of lifting needs food. At minimum eat at maintenance calories; if you want to build, eat 250 to 400 calories above it and expect to gain half a pound a week. Protein at one gram per pound of goal body weight, spread across four or five meals. Carbohydrates are not the enemy here, they are the fuel for session number five of the week, so keep them high on training days. If you are trying to lose fat on this split, keep the deficit small, 300 to 500 calories, and accept that your top sets will stall. That is normal in a deficit. Do not add sessions to fix it. Add walking and be patient. Drink water like it is part of the program, because it is.

Nothing in a bottle fixes bad sleep, but a few things help you get more out of six sessions a week: whey protein to make hitting your protein target easy, creatine monohydrate at five grams a day, and an electrolyte drink if you sweat hard. I run MTS Whey and MTS Creatine because I formulated them, but any honestly dosed product works. Get the food and sleep right first.

FAQ

Is training six days a week too much? For most people, yes. For some people, no. The split itself is not the problem; total workload and recovery are. Each session here is 45 to 60 minutes with moderate volume, so it is manageable if you sleep seven to nine hours, eat enough and take your rest day. If you are sleeping five hours and eating one real meal a day, six days is too much for you right now and no split will change that. Run four days well instead.

Can you run push pull legs without a barbell? Yes. Nothing about push pull legs requires a barbell. The Smith machine covers heavy pressing and squatting, dumbbells give you a longer range of motion and fix side to side imbalances, and cables keep tension on the muscle through the whole rep. Powerlifters need a barbell because the barbell lifts are the sport. If your goal is building muscle, machines and dumbbells get you there.

What do I do if I miss a session? Do not try to make it up by doubling on another day. Just slide the schedule forward one day and keep the order intact. Missing Legs A on Wednesday means Wednesday becomes your rest day and Legs A moves to Thursday. Missing one session in twelve weeks changes nothing. Missing two a week for a month means the six day split is not fitting your life and you should switch to four days.

6 Day Push Pull Legs Planet Fitness Workout

6 Day Push Pull Legs Planet Fitness Workout