Upper/Lower vs. P/P/L: Which split is better?

Upper/Lower and Push/Pull/Legs: These are currently the most common training splits for people who lift weights, not counting the typical bro-splits where each muscle is trained only once a week.

Since we don't want to leave our muscle building results to chance, today we're considering which of the two splits is better.

To do this, we first take a detailed look at how these splits often look in practice, weigh up the advantages and disadvantages, and then come to a verdict as to which split is better suited to which athlete.

Upper/Lower split

Let's start with the Upper/Lower split. As the name implies, this split involves dividing the muscles of the body into upper body and lower body groups. One day all upper body muscle groups are trained and another day all lower body muscle groups are trained.

Usually people train 4 times a week - e.g. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. But there are also many people who train 3, 5, or even 6x a week with an Upper/Lower split.

An example of an Upper/Lower split with 4 training days per week might look like this:

You do 2 different upper body days and 2 different lower body days. You perform Upper day 1, then Lower day 1, then Upper day 2, and finally Lower day 2. How the 3 remaining break days are distributed throughout the week can vary from person to person. However, it is not ideal if all 3 break days are back-to-back, so try to break them up throughout the week.

You can structure Upper day 1 to have 2 push exercises for the pecs or anterior deltoids first, followed by 2 pull exercises for the back, 1 biceps exercise, 1 triceps exercise, and 1 exercise for the lateral or posterior deltoids.

On upper body day 2, you switch things up to do pull exercises BEFORE push exercises - even using somewhat different exercises than on the first day.

That way you focus once on the push and once on the pull muscle groups. This is because the muscle groups that you train at the beginning of the day can be used with a greater intensity, because you have the most energy at the beginning of your workout.

Lower body day 1, for example, can be started with 2 exercises for the quads, followed by 2 exercises for the hamstrings or the glutes, and then another exercise for the calves and possibly the abs.

Lower day 2 could then involve doing 2 exercises for the hamstrings or glutes first and then 2 exercises for the quads.

Push/Pull/Legs split

In the P/P/L split, the push muscle groups are trained on one day, the pull muscle groups on another day, and the legs on the final day. Usually you train 6 times a week - e.g. Mondays to Saturdays. However, there are also many who train according to a P/P/L split who only go to the gym 3, 4, or 5 times a week.

An example of a P/P/L split with 6 training days a week might look like this:

In a given week, you do 2 different push days, 2 different pull days, and 2 different leg days.

For example, on Push day 1, you could do 3 chest or anterior delt push exercises, followed by a triceps exercise and a lateral or posterior delt exercise.

Push day 2 could then simply include a different set of exercises - for example, you can start with the incline bench press instead of the flat bench press.

Pull day 1 could consist of 3 pull exercises for the back (e.g. 2 vertical and 1 horizontal pull exercise), followed by a biceps exercise and a lateral or anterior delt exercise.

On the 2nd pull day, do different exercises than on the 1st pull day - for example, start with 2 horizontal pull exercises and then do 1 vertical pull exercise.

The 1st leg day could be designed just like the Upper/Lower split - so 2 exercises for the quads, then 2 exercises for the hamstrings or glutes, and then an exercise for the calves and possibly the abs.

On the 2nd leg day you will do different exercises again and switch up the order in which you target the different muscles.

If you want access to detailed training plans, check out our advanced and elite sample training plans in the Facebook group. 3 of them are Upper/Lower splits and one - namely the elite plan for men - is a P/P/L split. You can also create your own plan using the Alpha Progression App.

Now you have an overview of what typical Upper/Lower and P/P/L splits look like. But the question still remains: Which is better?

Splits in comparison

Before we compare the two types of splits, an important piece of info up front: the sum of all the sets over a given period of time - say, over a week - is much more crucial than how those sets are split over that period.

For example, whether you do 15 or 30 sets in the weekly total for chest is much more important than whether you split those 15 or 30 sets into 2, 3, or 4 sessions per week.

Nevertheless, the split is of course not entirely unimportant. Let's compare these two splits and then judge which split is better for you under which circumstances.

First, you need to know if you want to focus on your legs or your upper body. With the Upper/Lower split you do proportionally more sets for your legs than with the P/P/L split. 50% of the training sessions consist of leg days. Accordingly, you have to train your legs more often.

This is important to mention, because many have trouble with it. Leg training is - viewed objectively - much more strenuous than upper body training. You are stimulating much larger muscle groups. You need a lot of willpower if you want to do this every other training session.

So you must really WANT your legs to grow.

Sure, now you might say that you can do an Upper/Lower split with relatively long upper-body days and very short leg days. And the other way around - you could do a P/P/L split with super long leg days and very short upper body days...

However, realistically, this only works up to a certain point, after which the training sessions for the focused muscle groups become much too long. In addition, with the Upper/Lower split, you simply train the legs more often and therefore implicitly focus on the legs.

So you can reduce the leg focus a bit in the Upper/Lower split or reduce the upper body focus a bit in the P/P/L split, but you won't get rid of it completely. Therefore, be aware of whether you want to focus on your legs or your upper body.

If you want to focus on your legs, you should choose the Upper/Lower split, and if you want to focus on your upper body, you should choose the P/P/L split instead. But this is only one point you should consider when choosing your training split.

Another point is the training frequency per muscle group - that is, how often you train the same muscle group within a week. With an Upper/Lower split, each muscle group is trained more often than with the P/P/L split.

Of course, we are now comparing the two splits assuming the SAME number of workouts per week. If you train 4 times a week, then with the Upper/Lower split you will work the same muscle groups 2 times a week. With the P/P/L split and 4 workouts per week, you would be working the same muscle groups only about 1.3x per week.

Which is better? Most studies on the optimal training frequency go in the direction that it is better if a muscle is stimulated at least 2x per week than if it is stimulated less than 2x per week.

From this point of view we can conclude: if you train only 3 or 4x per week, then you should probably lean towards the Upper/Lower split.

If you train 5 or 6 times a week, it probably won't make much difference if you train with an Upper/Lower or P/P/L split.

If you train 5 or 6 times a week AND want to focus on your legs, then the choice is clear: Upper/Lower split. If you train 5 or 6 times a week and want to do an upper body focus, then it's better to choose the P/P/L split.

The question of whether you want an upper body or leg focus and how high the training frequency per muscle group is, are already 2 quite good criteria to use when choosing your training split, but you should also not neglect the fun factor.

After all, what's the point if the split looks optimal on paper, but you don't enjoy it at all and then after a few weeks you end up training half-heartedly or stop training altogether. This is useless. You have to put your heart and soul into your training to achieve really good results.

Which split do you enjoy more? If you like to pump the entire upper body during a workout and don't mind doing a lot of leg work, then probably the Upper/Lower split.

However, if you want to "really destroy" your chest or back during a training session and also don't feel like training your legs every other training session, then you'll probably enjoy the P/P/L split more.

Now if we consider all 3 criteria, we come to the following verdict: If you train 3-6x per week, want to focus on legs, and enjoy having a pump throughout your upper body, then choose the Upper/Lower split.

If you work out 5-6x per week, want to set an upper body focus, and enjoy properly stimulating your chest or back during a training session, then choose the P/P/L split.

You can of course also train with a P/P/L split, but if you only go to the gym 3-4x a week, then the upper body focus should really be worth a lot to you. A training frequency of 1 to approx. 1.3x per muscle group per week is not exactly optimal from a physiological point of view.

By the way, this is not meant to sound like a choice with only two options. It's not like there are only Upper/Lower and P/P/L splits. There are many other good splits as well. But as mentioned at the beginning of the article, the Upper/Lower and P/P/L splits are just very popular.

Alternatively, you could also combine the two splits. Assuming you train 5x a week, you could train as follows: Upper/Lower/Rest/P/P/L/Rest. This is also a relatively popular split and makes perfect sense.