6-Day Workout Split for Muscle Growth [Complete Guide + PDF]

If you want to use a 6 day workout schedule, but you’re not quite sure what muscle groups to train on which days, this page will show you what to do.

Here’s what’s covered:

• What Does a 6-Day Workout Split Involve?
• How Well Does a 6-Day Routine Work?
• Who Should Use a 6-Day Workout Routine?
• Are 6-Day Workout Routines Suitable for Beginners?
• What’s the Best 6-Day Workout Split?

Since you’re looking for advice about 6 day workout splits, I’m going to assume a few things are true about you.

First, you want more muscle than you have right now, and you’ve decided that training six days a week is the way to go. 

However, you’re not sure exactly what your workout schedule should look like.

Should you train each muscle group once, twice or three times a week? What muscle groups should be trained with what other muscle groups? Where does cardio fit in?

In this post, I’ll take a closer look at the pros and cons of a 6 day workout routine, so you can decide whether or not it’s right for you. 

Then I’ll lay out a complete 6-day workout schedule, so you can see which exercises you’ll be doing on which days, how many sets and reps to do, as well as how much rest to take between each set.

There’s also a 6 day workout schedule PDF, which you can download using the link near the bottom of this page.

What Is a 6-Day Workout Routine?

For the purposes of this post, I’m defining a 6-day workout split as a routine that involves a minimum of six training sessions per week, done on six different days.

There are 6 day workout routines that involve a mixture of both cardio and weights. That is, you might lift weights 3 times a week and do cardio on the other 3 days.

Or you might leave out cardio altogether, and focus solely on weight training 6 days a week. 

A typical 6-day split routine geared towards muscle growth will involve training different muscles on different days, with each muscle group trained between 1 and 3 times a week.

Who Should Use a 6-Day Split?

For the average lifter, especially beginners, a workout split that involves lifting weights 6 days a week will be too much.

That’s not to say it can’t be done. But most people will be better off lifting weights 4 or 5 days a week, rather than 6.

However, there are some cases where a 6-day routine is a viable option.

So, who should use a 6-day workout routine? And who should steer well clear?

If you’re someone who prefers shorter, more frequent workouts, and you can make it to the gym on a consistent basis six times a week, a 6-day split routine can work very well.

Dividing your training across six days, rather than four or five, means that your workouts are shorter, making them easier to fit them into your day.

Training more often can also make your workouts feel easier and less draining, which in turn makes it more likely that you’ll actually do them.

A 6-day body part split is also useful if you’ve got several years of serious training behind you, and you’re finding it hard to put on muscle mass.

They’re popular with bodybuilders, who typically need a large amount of training to ensure that every region of every muscle is developed to its full potential.

Competitive bodybuilders will often lift weights six days a week, sometimes twice a day, simply because that’s the only way to fit in all the exercises and sets they need to make their muscles grow.

Even if you have no plans to step on stage in a bodybuilding contest, but you’ve moved past the beginner and intermediate stages of training and your progress has come to a halt, a 6-day split can get things moving in the right direction.

There’s a link between the number of hard sets you do for a muscle and the speed at which that muscle grows. Put differently, a higher volume of training, up to a point at least, will lead to a faster rate of muscle growth.

For advanced lifters, increasing your weekly training volume (which I’m defining here as the number of hard sets you do for a muscle group) is sometimes all the stimulus your muscles need to start growing again.

If you’re getting enough rest between each set, which you should be if you want to maximize muscle growth, more sets will mean longer workouts. For a lot of people, longer workouts are neither practical nor convenient.

Moving to a 6-day routine allows you to get some extra volume in while still keeping the workouts down to a reasonable length.

6-Day Splits Can Be Very Effective

If you need rapid results in a short period of time, and you can devote many hours of time to training and recovery, hitting the gym 6 days a week is one of the best ways to go about it.

For example, I remember reading about the training Josh Brolin did when he was preparing for his role as Cable in Deadpool 2.

Brolin was in the gym 5-6 days a week for around three hours in total, split between two daily workouts.

The workout routine was designed by former bodybuilder Justin Lovato, who talks more about what he had Brolin doing in the video below:

Three hours of gym time, 5-6 days a week, comes to 15-18 hours a week.

That’s a lot of training.

Very few people have the time or enthusiasm to spend 15-18 hours in the gym each week.

If you need rapid results in a short period of time, and you’ve got a team of experts – dietitians, trainers, psychologists, massage therapists and whatever else – whose sole purpose is to help you get in shape as fast as humanly possible, that type of thing can work well.

But if you’re not an actor being paid $10 million to get in shape for the next Hollywood blockbuster, it’s not realistic. 

Without the incentive of a multi-million dollar paycheck at the end of it all, most actors wouldn’t be training 6 times a week either. For them, it’s all part of the job.

So, those are the key benefits of a 6-day split. What are the drawbacks?

Why a 6-Day Workout Split Is Too Much for Most People

For the average lifter, a 6-day split will be too much. Lack of time and issues with recovery mean that many people who start out lifting weights six days a week will fall off the wagon before too long.

For one, going to the gym six times a week just isn’t practical.

Let’s say, for example, you’re training in a public gym three times a week, and you go there after work.

You’re already finding it a pain in the arse to drive there in the middle of rush hour, park, sign in, get changed, do your workout, have a shower, get changed again, then drive home.

The idea of repeating that six times a week is about as appealing as packing up all your belongings and moving to Afghanistan. If so, you may well be better off with longer training sessions done less often.

Not everybody wants to train six days a week, mainly because it limits what you can do with your spare time. You don’t even get the weekends free. Working out three or four times a week still leaves you with plenty of time to do other things.

Training 6 days a week, every week for months on end is going to be too much for most people to recover from.

And by recovery, I’m not just talking about individual muscle groups. Most 6-day splits will involve hitting a muscle group anywhere between one and three times a week. 

As long as the program is set up properly, individual muscles should have no problem recovering from one workout to the next.

Rather, what I’m talking about is systemic recovery.

What does that mean exactly?

Every exercise you do has an effect on the muscle or muscles involved in that exercise. A compound exercise like the barbell bench press, for example, is going to stimulate the muscles in your chest, shoulders and triceps.

This is known as a local effect. 

However, training also has what’s known as a systemic effect, which is the impact that a given workout has on your entire body.

When you’re deciding how to set up your training program, you need to consider the recovery requirements of your body as a whole, not just the individual muscles.

In one study, for example, 60 minutes of downhill running led to a reduction in muscle strength in the quads when it was measured 24 and 48 hours after exercise. 

No surprise there, as downhill running involves a large number of eccentric muscle actions, which are notorious for causing muscle damage, leading to a subsequent loss of strength.

However, the researchers also found that the biceps were significantly weaker when strength levels were measured immediately as well as 24 hours after the run. 

In fact, the biceps were, on average, 17% weaker the day after the run. That’s despite the fact that the biceps are not heavily involved in downhill running.

Recovery is about more than allowing enough time between training sessions for the same muscle group. Your body as a whole, from connective tissue to your central nervous system, also needs a break.

The ability of your body to recover is affected not just by the type of training you do (i.e. whether you’re training smaller vs larger muscle groups), but your diet, the amount of sleep you’re getting, as well as what else is going on in your life. 

Anything causing you an undue amount of anxiety, worry or some other form of psychological stress that you don’t want to feel has the potential to impair your gains.

Physical and psychological stress make withdrawals from the same account. Too much of the latter can make it harder to recover from and adapt to the former.

A high volume of training performed against the background of a low-stress lifestyle will produce very different results to the same amount of training paired with a high-stress lifestyle.

Let’s assume you’re on a mission to gain as much muscle as you can in the shortest time possible. 

You’ve moved beyond the beginner stages of training, there’s no great drama or stress going on in your life, your diet is sufficient in both calories and protein, and you’re getting plenty of sound, restful sleep each night. You also have the discipline and mental grit to eat right and train hard for months at a time.

If so, a 6-day workout routine is worth a try.

But how many people are in that position? Not many.

Are 6-Day Workout Routines Suitable for Beginners?

If you’re a complete beginner, you’re better off with a training program that involves lifting weights 3 or 4 times a week, such as a 3-day full-body workout, a 4-day upper/lower split or a 4-day push/pull routine.

Once you’ve built a solid foundation of strength and size, then you can think about adding a fifth or even a sixth training day.

If you are just starting out, and you’re adamant about wanting to train 6 times a week, do 3 or 4 main lifting sessions, combined with some light feeder workouts, or even some low-intensity cardio on the other 2 or 3 days.

However, let’s assume that after reading everything I’ve just written, you’ve decided to give a 6-day routine a try.

What’s the best way to put that routine together? What days of the week should you train? Where do you put your rest days? How many compound and isolation exercises should you be doing? And what specific muscle groups should be worked together on a 6-day split?

6 Day Gym Workout Schedule

One of the best ways to set up a 6-day split is to use a push/pull/legs routine, also known as PPL. This involves hitting each muscle group twice a week. The schedule is as follows:

• Monday: Push
• Tuesday: Pull
• Wednesday: Legs
• Thursday: Push
• Friday: Pull
• Saturday: Legs
• Sunday: Off

It’s an efficient way to train, mainly because muscle groups that work together are trained in the same workout, while the other muscles get a chance to recover and grow.

On a PPL routine, one training day is devoted to upper body pushing movements (chest, shoulders and triceps), a second day to upper body pulling movements (back, and biceps), and a third day to leg exercises (quads, glutes, hamstrings and calves).

This is what it looks in terms of which muscle groups are being trained on which days:

• Monday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
• Tuesday: Back, Biceps
• Wednesday: Quads, Hamstrings, Calves, Glutes, Abs
• Thursday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
• Friday: Back, Biceps
• Saturday: Quads, Hamstrings, Calves, Glutes, Abs
• Sunday: Off

Here’s what each workout looks like. The numbers in brackets tell you how long to rest between each set.

Workout 1: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps (Push A)

• Flat Bench Press 4 sets x 5-8 reps [2 minutes]
• Incline Dumbbell Press 3 sets x 8-12 reps [2 minutes]
• Dumbbell Flyes 2 sets x 12-15 reps [90 seconds]
• Lateral Raise 4 sets x 10-15 reps [90 seconds]
• Triceps Pressdown 3 sets x 10-15 reps [90 seconds]
• Overhead Triceps Extension 2 sets x 10-15 [90 seconds]

Workout 2: Back, Biceps (Pull A)

• Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown 4 sets x 8-12 reps [2 minutes]
• Single-Arm Dumbbell Row 3 sets of 5-8 reps [2 minutes]
• Kneeling Cable Pullover 2 sets x 12-15 reps [90 seconds]
• Face Pulls 4 sets x 15-20 reps [90 seconds]
• Standing Dumbbell Curl 3 sets x 8-12 reps [90 seconds]
• Hammer Curl 2 sets x 12-15 reps [90 seconds]

Workout 3: Legs, Abs (Lower Body A)

• Barbell Squats 4 sets x 5-8 reps [3-5 minutes]
• Leg Press 3 sets x 8-12 reps [2-3 minutes]
• Leg Extension 2 sets x 12-15 reps [90 seconds]
• Seated Leg Curl 4 sets x 8-12 reps [2 minutes]
• Standing Calf Raise 4 sets x 5-8 reps [2 minutes]
• Incline Reverse Crunch 3 sets x 12-15 reps [90 seconds]

Workout 4: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps (Push B)

• Shoulder Press 4 sets x 5-8 reps [2 minutes]
• Flat Dumbbell Press 4 sets x 8-12 reps [2 minutes]
• Cable Crossover 3 sets x 15-20 reps [90 seconds]
• Lateral Raise 3 sets x 15-20 reps [90 seconds]
• Triceps Pressdown 2 sets x 15-20 reps [90 seconds]
• Lying EZ Bar Triceps Extension 3 sets x 12-15 reps [90 seconds]

Workout 5: Back, Biceps (Pull B)

• Wide Grip Front Lat Pulldown (or Pull-Ups) 4 sets x 8-12 reps [2 minutes]
• Wide Grip Seated Cable Row 3 sets x 8-12 reps [2 minutes]
• Rear Delt Row 2 sets x 10-15 reps [90 seconds]
• Incline Dumbbell Shrugs 3 sets x 15-20 reps [90 seconds]
• Incline Dumbbell Curl 3 sets x 8-12 reps [90 seconds]
• Dumbbell Preacher Curl 2 sets x 12-15 reps [90 seconds]

Workout 6: Legs, Abs (Lower Body B)

• Romanian Deadlift 4 sets x 8-12 reps [2-3 minutes]
• Bulgarian Split Squats 3 sets 8-12 reps [2-3 minutes]
• Leg Press 3 sets x 8-12 reps [2-3 minutes]
• Seated Leg Curl 3 sets x 8-12 reps [2 minutes]
• Standing Calf Raise 4 sets x 15-20 reps [90 seconds]
• Rollouts/Fallouts 3 sets x 12-15 reps [90 seconds]

You also have the option of taking a day off after training your legs, turning it into a 3-on, 1-off split. This way, 3 out of every 4 weeks involve 5 training days rather than 6 (see the table below), which is going to be a better fit for most people anyway.

Day	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4
Mon	Push	Off	Legs	Pull
Tue	Pull	Push	Off	Legs
Wed	Legs	Pull	Push	Off
Thu	Off	Legs	Pull	Push
Fri	Push	Off	Legs	Pull
Sat	Pull	Push	Off	Legs
Sun	Legs	Pull	Push	Off

In the fifth week, the push workout ends up back on Monday and you start the cycle all over again. The main downside is that the workouts aren’t on set days, so you will need a flexible schedule to pull this one off.

Other 6-Day Workout Plans

• 6-Day Dumbbell Workout Plan
• The Arnold Split Routine: 6-Day Workout Plan

How To Progress on a 6-Day Split

No matter how your training week is set up, it’s important to train hard and focus on improving your workout performance over time.

Do the same exercises, for the same number of sets and reps, while lifting the same amount of weight, for the next five years. Nothing much is going to happen.

That’s because the training you’re doing is a challenge your body has already adapted to. As a result, no new muscle will be gained.

I’m not saying you’ll make progress in every single workout. To do so indefinitely would be impossible, and there’ll be times when you end up lifting the same amount of weight, for the same number of sets and reps you did before.

However, your focus should always be on pushing yourself to increase the amount of work your muscles are doing, whether that’s lifting heavier weights, doing more reps with the same weight, or doing more sets.

You need to give your muscles a reason to get bigger, or you’ll remain stuck at the same size you are right now.

So make sure to keep a training diary, write down your numbers, and always try to beat your previous workout in some way.

You’ll notice that the workouts use rep ranges, such as 5-8 or 8-12, rather than a fixed number of reps in each set.

For example, let’s say that a particular exercise involves doing 3 sets of 5-8 reps.

In this case, the idea is that you select a weight that allows you to perform at least 5 reps in each set, but no more than 8.

Every time you go to the gym, you try to do more reps than you did the workout before. Once you’re able to do 8 reps in every set, increase the weight for the following workout.

It’s a form of progression known as the double progression method. Here’s an example of how it might look in practice:

Workout 1

• Set 1: 100 pounds x 8 reps
• Set 2: 100 pounds x 7 reps
• Set 3: 100 pounds x 5 reps

Workout 2

• Set 1: 100 pounds x 8 reps
• Set 2: 100 pounds x 7 reps
• Set 3: 100 pounds x 7 reps

Workout 3

• Set 1: 100 pounds x 8 reps
• Set 2: 100 pounds x 8 reps
• Set 3: 100 pounds x 7 reps

Workout 4

• Set 1: 100 pounds x 8 reps
• Set 2: 100 pounds x 8 reps
• Set 3: 100 pounds x 8 reps

Workout 5

• Set 1: 105 pounds x 7 reps
• Set 2: 105 pounds x 6 reps
• Set 3: 105 pounds x 5 reps

As you can see, in workout four, once you’re able to do 8 reps in all 3 sets, you add weight in the fifth workout and repeat the cycle. 

This simple double progression method can work well for most exercises, and will produce decent gains in muscle mass over several months, just as long as you stay consistent and work hard.

It’s also important to make sure that your technique remains solid from one workout to the next. Don’t kid yourself into thinking that you’ve gotten stronger, when all you’re doing is cheating on those last few reps to get the weight up.

The exact number of workouts it takes to reach this point will vary from person to person, and from exercise to exercise.

It might take 10 workouts or it might take 5. But wait until you can do 3 sets of 8 reps before adding weight.

How to Warm Up

The number of sets listed are the actual work sets only, and don’t include warm-up sets.

It’s always a good idea, especially if you’re using heavy weights, to do several progressively heavier warm-up sets. This will prepare the joints, the muscles and the nervous system that controls those muscles for the heavy work to come.

In most cases, somewhere between 1-3 warm-up sets will do the job. However, the exact number of warm-up sets you do will vary depending on a number of factors, including the temperature of the gym you’re training in, how your joints feel, the amount of weight you’re lifting, and where that exercise is placed in the workout.

There have been times when I’ve been training in a cold gym, it’s early in the morning and my joints are feeling a bit stiff, where I’ve ended up doing 7-8 warm-up sets before getting into the heavy stuff.

On the flip side, with some of the exercises that come later in the workout, the muscles being worked are already warm, so you won’t need many, if any, warm-up sets.

What about stretching?

In most cases, there’s very little benefit in stretching, be it dynamic or static, as part of a warm-up.

While the adverse effects of stretching on strength and power have been exaggerated, most studies show that pre-exercise stretching does little for injury prevention and has no beneficial effects on lifting performance.

Can you stretch as part of your warm up? Yes. Do you have to? No. It’s certainly not mandatory, and many people will do just as well without it.

You can read more about how to warm up for weight training here.

What About Cardio?

Lifting weights six days a week doesn’t leave a lot of room for cardio, unless you’re willing to train twice a day, which isn’t an option for most people.

And even if you do have the time and motivation to train twice a day, it’s important to consider the impact that cardio can have on your ability to grow.

Just like weight training, cardiovascular exercise (particularly of the high-intensity variety) needs to be recovered from and adapted to. This can eat into your body’s limited resources without making any meaningful contribution to muscle growth. 

If you do want to do cardio as part of a 6-day workout split, you’ve got a few options.

OPTION 1: Low-Intensity Steady-State (LISS) Cardio

The first is to carry on lifting weights 6 days a week, but do some form of low-intensity steady-state (LISS) cardio, such as brisk walking or riding a bike, at a different time of day.

For example, first thing in the morning you might go for a brisk walk. Then, in the late afternoon or early evening, you lift weights.

Here’s how it might look:

• Monday: AM – Brisk Walk (30-40 minutes) PM – Push
• Tuesday: AM – Brisk Walk (30-40 minutes) PM – Pull
• Wednesday: AM – Brisk Walk (30-40 minutes) PM – Legs
• Thursday: AM – Brisk Walk (30-40 minutes) PM – Push
• Friday: AM – Brisk Walk (30-40 minutes) PM – Pull
• Saturday: AM – Brisk Walk (30-40 minutes) PM – Legs
• Sunday: Off

One of the benefits of LISS is that it’s less likely to interfere with post-training repair and recovery than high-intensity cardio.

OPTION 2: Bike Sprints

The second option is to use cardio, specifically sprint interval training (SIT) on a bike, to supplement your lower body workouts.

Doing SIT after training your legs can help to improve your cardiovascular fitness without putting the brakes on (and potentially even contributing to) muscle growth. Think of it like a finisher for your quads.

Cycling is also the ideal companion to resistance training, mainly because it’s a lot easier on your joints than running or sprinting.

• Monday: Push
• Tuesday: Pull
• Wednesday: Legs + SIT (10-15 minutes)
• Thursday: Push
• Friday: Pull
• Saturday: Legs + SIT (10-15 minutes)
• Sunday: Off

You can read more about the potential benefits of combining bike sprints and resistance training here.

OPTION 3: Cardio Hybrid

Option three is a hybrid approach, which involves combining several different types of cardio. 

For example, here’s how you might combine a 5-day push/pull/legs routine with LISS, moderate-intensity steady-state cardio (MISS) and SIT.

WEEK 1

• Monday: AM – Brisk Walk (45-50 minutes) PM – Push
• Tuesday: Pull
• Wednesday: Legs + SIT (10-15 minutes)
• Thursday: Off
• Friday: Push
• Saturday: AM – Brisk Walk (45-60 minutes) PM – Pull
• Sunday: MISS (30-45 minutes)

WEEK 2

• Monday: Legs + SIT (10-15 minutes)
• Tuesday: AM – Brisk Walk (45-50 minutes) PM – Push
• Wednesday: Pull
• Thursday: Off
• Friday: Legs + SIT (10-15 minutes)
• Saturday: Push
• Sunday: MISS (30-45 minutes)

WEEK 3

• Monday: Pull
• Tuesday: Legs + SIT (10-15 minutes)
• Wednesday: Push
• Thursday: Off
• Friday: Pull
• Saturday: Legs + SIT (10-15 minutes)
• Sunday: Brisk Walk (45-50 minutes)

It takes three weeks before the program repeats itself, and the push workout ends up back on Monday.

SEE ALSO: Did Arnold Schwarzenegger Do Cardio?

How to Eat for Muscle Growth

If you want to train six days a week, you’ll need to make sure your diet is on point. Here’s a quick overview of how to set up a diet geared towards muscle growth.

First, make sure you’re getting enough calories. Your daily calorie intake should provide somewhere between 300-500 calories over and above your maintenance calorie requirements.

How much protein should you eat to gain muscle? Aim for around 0.7 grams of protein per pound (1.6 grams per kilogram) of bodyweight per day. If you weigh 200 pounds, for example, that would mean eating 140 grams of protein per day.

Use protein shakes if necessary to bridge the gap between your daily protein requirements and the amount you get from food.

As for dietary fat, it can vary from between 20 and 40% of your daily calorie intake. Some days you might eat a little more fat, some days a little less. As long as total calories and protein are set at the right level, it doesn’t matter too much.

Finally, once protein and fat are taken care of, the rest of your calories should come from carbohydrate.

6 Day Gym Workout Schedule PDF

Click here to download the 6 day gym workout schedule PDF.

Popular Questions

Can I use a 6 day workout schedule for weight loss?

When it comes to weight loss, the most important thing is to get your diet set up properly (which I cover in detail in my Gutless nutrition manual).

Exercise, be it weight training or cardio, can certainly make a contribution to the calorie deficit required for weight loss. But the food you eat is a lot more important than what you do in the gym.

If you do want to use a 6 day workout schedule for weight loss, I’d suggest something like this:

• Monday: Upper Body
• Tuesday: Lower Body
• Wednesday: Bike (30-45 minutes)
• Thursday: Upper Body
• Friday: Lower Body
• Saturday: Bike (30-45 minutes)
• Sunday: Off

It combines an upper lower split with moderate-intensity, steady-state (MISS) cardio, which is typically done at somewhere between 60-70% of your maximum heart rate.

What split do most bodybuilders use for building muscle?

While there’s no single training split used by all bodybuilders all of the time, most of their training programs do have a few things in common.

In a survey of competitive bodybuilders published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, results showed that most respondents trained 4–7 times per week, hitting the major muscles twice a week, with each workout lasting 60–90 minutes.

Off-season training sessions mostly involved targeting 2–3 muscle groups, 2–3 exercises per muscle group, 3–4 sets per exercise, 7–12 reps per set, and 1-3 minutes of recovery between sets and exercises.

What is the 6 day Arnold split?

The Arnold split is a 6-day muscle building routine that involves training your chest and back, shoulders and arms, and legs twice per week. 

It’s one of a number of routines that Arnold Schwarzenegger lays out in his Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding.

Here’s what it looks like:

• Monday: Chest/Back
• Tuesday: Shoulders/Arms
• Wednesday: Legs
• Thursday: Chest/Back
• Friday: Shoulders/Arms
• Saturday: Legs
• Sunday: Off

You can read more about the Arnold split here.

Is 6 sets a week enough for hypertrophy?

There’s no single correct number of sets that’s going to work equally well for all people, all of the time.

In fact, some folks will do just fine with 6 sets per muscle group week, while others will need higher volumes to maximize muscle growth.

On average, beginners don’t need as many sets as intermediate and advanced lifters in order to build muscle. If you’re just starting out, 5-10 sets a week for the major muscle groups will do the job just fine.

But over time, your body adapts, making the acquisition of additional muscle mass progressively slower and more difficult. To continue gaining size will typically require a higher number of sets.