Most push pull legs plans are written as six days on and one off, or three on and one off. Plenty of people can't train like that. Work, kids, shifts or joints that need a day to settle all get in the way. So a common way to run it is a rest day between every session:
Push – rest – Pull – rest – Legs – rest – repeat.
Does that break the programme? No. It changes how often you hit each muscle, and that's worth understanding so you can set the plan up properly.
What actually changes
Each workout plus its rest day takes two days, so one full Push–Pull–Legs round takes six days. That means each muscle group gets trained about once every six days, a bit more than once a week.
A classic six-day PPL hits everything twice a week. Your version hits everything roughly 1.2 times a week. The research on training frequency is fairly consistent here. What matters most for muscle growth is the total hard sets per muscle per week. How you split those sets across days matters much less. Training a muscle twice a week tends to edge out once a week when the total volume is the same, but the gap is small.
How to make it work
- Give each session enough work. You see each muscle less often, so each session has to carry more of the week's volume. Aim for roughly 10–20 hard sets per muscle group per week. In practice that means 6–10 sets for chest on push day, not 3.
- Stay close to failure. Most working sets should finish with 1–3 reps left in the tank. Easy sets don't count for much.
- Keep the main lifts heavy. Bench or overhead press on push, rows and pull-ups on pull, squats or leg press on legs. Add weight or reps whenever you can.
- Use the rest days. Walk, sleep and eat your protein. Recovery is where the muscle actually gets built, and your setup gives you plenty of it.
Who this suits
A rest day between sessions is a good fit if you're older, newer to lifting, working physical jobs, or someone who feels beaten up by back-to-back gym days. It's also easy to stick to, and sticking to it for months beats a "perfect" plan you quit after three weeks.
If you later want to bump the frequency, you can run two sessions back to back before each rest day (Push–Pull–rest–Legs–Push–rest…). That gets each muscle closer to twice a week without training every day.
The short answer
Push pull legs with a rest day between each session works. It's lower frequency, so make every session count and track your lifts so you can see the numbers going up.
Want the sessions laid out for you, with sets, reps and a log to track them? Have a look at our Push Pull Legs Programme. To set your food around it, start with our free beginner plan.