Push day workout: exercises, sets, reps and free spreadsheet

How Push day workout works

A push day trains the muscles you use to push: chest, shoulders and triceps. StrengthLog describes it as compound presses such as the bench press, overhead press and push-ups, plus isolation work such as triceps extensions and lateral raises. In a push pull legs split it sits beside a pull day for the back and biceps and a leg day for the legs.

We give you two push days. Push A leads with the bench press and leans on the chest: bench press, incline dumbbell press, dips, cable flyes, lateral raises and triceps pushdowns. Push B leads with the overhead press and leans on the shoulders: overhead press, incline bench press, dumbbell shoulder press, lateral raises, skull crushers and face pulls.

Each session opens with one heavy press for 4 sets of 6 while you are fresh. Two more presses follow for 8 to 10 reps, then isolation lifts for 10 to 15 reps. StrengthLog's push day uses the same order: heavy compound lifts first, lighter isolation lifts after, with 6 to 15 reps across the session.

Push B ends with face pulls. They work the rear delts and upper back, which pressing barely touches. StrengthLog leaves the rear delts to the pull day. We keep three sets here to balance a week with a lot of pressing. If your pull day already has rear delt work, you can drop them.

Run push day once or twice a week. Doing both sessions doubles your weekly sets for the chest, shoulders and triceps, and the 2017 meta-analysis by Schoenfeld, Ogborn and Krieger found that more weekly sets produced more growth. Their 2019 follow-up with Grgic found that, for the same number of sets, splitting them over more sessions made no meaningful difference. StrengthLog adds that you do not have to keep to a seven-day cycle: repeat a push session every four to five days if you have recovered.

Where it fits: in a six-day push pull legs week, Push A and Push B are your two push days, three days apart. In a three-day week with one push, pull and leg day each, alternate them: Push A one week, Push B the next. For the full week, read our Push/Pull/Legs guide.

The in-app templates carry the same lifts, sets and reps, so the sample week and Start-it agree.

The schedule

Train on Monday, Thursday, or any other days with rest between. Every set uses the same weight, the one you can lift for the written reps.

Push A: bench press and chest

Push B: overhead press and shoulders

Progression and stall rules

Weekly volume

Work sets per lift, counted from the schedule above (warm-ups not included).

Who it suits

Common mistakes

Starting with the small lifts

Flyes, lateral raises and pushdowns tire the muscles the heavy press needs. Do the bench press or overhead press first, while you are fresh, and leave the isolation lifts for the end.

Going to failure on every press

Grinding out every set of the bench press leaves little for the incline press and dips that follow. Keep a rep or two in reserve on the heavy presses and push the last set of the isolation lifts closer to failure.

Swinging heavy lateral raises

StrengthLog's advice for lateral raises is light weights and full control. If you have to swing the dumbbells up, they are too heavy for the side delts to do the work.

Back-to-back push days

Two push sessions on consecutive days give your shoulders and triceps no time to recover. Put at least two days between Push A and Push B.

Not writing anything down

Progress means more reps or more weight than last time. If you do not log your sessions, you are guessing what to beat.

Your sample week

For each lift, enter: Weight you use for your working sets. The weights below update as you type. Your numbers stay in your browser and are not saved. The numbers shown are an example lifter.

Units lb kg

Bench press

Incline dumbbell press (per hand)

Dip added weight (0 for bodyweight)

Cable fly (per side)

Lateral raise (per hand)

Triceps pushdown

Overhead press

Incline bench press

Dumbbell shoulder press (per hand)

Skull crusher

Face pull

Push A: bench press and chest

Push B: overhead press and shoulders

The spreadsheet

The file has three sheets: your numbers, the full week with every weight as a formula, and a progress table that carries the weights forward. It opens in Excel, Numbers and LibreOffice. The weights in the link below use the numbers you typed above.

Download the .xlsx

Want the weights to follow you into the gym? Create a free account and the program loads into Train for you.

How it compares

Push day workout vs Push/Pull/Legs

The full split a push day belongs to, written up as the Reddit PPL routine, six days a week with a pull day and a leg day beside each push day. Pick it if you want the whole week planned. Pick this page if you only need the push sessions, or want two push days with different main lifts. Read the Push/Pull/Legs guide.

Push day workout vs Upper/lower split

Four days, with presses and pulls in the same upper body session. Pick it if you train four days a week and want every muscle twice. Pick this push day if you run a split that keeps pushing and pulling apart. Read the Upper/lower split guide.

Push day workout vs Bro split

Five days with one muscle group per day, so chest, shoulders and triceps get separate sessions. Pick it if you like one body part per day. A push day trains all three in one session, so Push A and Push B work each of them twice a week in two sessions instead of three. Read the Bro split guide.

Common questions

What exercises should a push day include?

One heavy compound press, two more presses at other angles, and isolation work for the side delts and triceps. Push A here is bench press, incline dumbbell press, dips, cable flyes, lateral raises and triceps pushdowns. Push B is overhead press, incline bench press, dumbbell shoulder press, lateral raises, skull crushers and face pulls.

How many exercises and sets should a push day have?

StrengthLog's push day has six exercises with 2 or 3 sets each. Ours also has six, with 3 or 4 sets each, for 20 work sets per session. If that is more than you can recover from, drop one set from each isolation lift.

How many times a week should I do push day?

Once or twice. Running both Push A and Push B doubles your weekly sets for the chest, shoulders and triceps, and more weekly sets produced more growth in the 2017 meta-analysis by Schoenfeld, Ogborn and Krieger. Leave at least two days between them.

Why are face pulls on a push day?

Pressing works the front of the shoulder hard and the rear delts hardly at all. Three sets of face pulls on Push B balance that. Many plans, StrengthLog's among them, leave rear delts to the pull day, so drop them here if your pull day already covers them.

Can I do this push day with only dumbbells?

Yes, with swaps. Use the dumbbell bench press for the bench press, a standing dumbbell press for the overhead press, the incline dumbbell press for the incline bench press, push-ups for dips if you have no bars, dumbbell flyes for cable flyes, a bent-over reverse dumbbell fly for face pulls, and an overhead dumbbell triceps extension for pushdowns and skull crushers. Keep the same sets and reps.

What do I train on the other days?

In push pull legs, the pull day trains the back and biceps with rows, pulldowns and curls, and the leg day trains the quads, hamstrings and calves. Our Push/Pull/Legs guide lays out the full week.

Do the in-app templates match this?

Yes. Start-it loads the Push A and Push B workouts from our push pull legs templates, with the same lifts, sets and reps as the sample week. If you have already loaded those workouts, Start-it reuses your copies.

Know where you stand

Before you start, check how your lifts compare on the strength standards, estimate a max with the one-rep max calculator, or score your total with the DOTS calculator.

Sources and credit