A push day workout is a strength training routine targeting all the muscles involved in pushing movements.

Compared to training routines that focus on just one muscle group per workout, push day workouts allow you to train harder in less time and don’t cause as much soreness, making them excellent for gaining mass and strength.

A common problem with push day workout routines, however, is that people program them poorly. They choose exercises that overemphasize some muscles and neglect others, or they try to do too much in each session.

In this article, you’ll learn to avoid these common missteps.

You’ll discover which muscles push day workout routines train, the best push workout for gaining upper body size and strength, tips for making your workouts more productive, and more. 

What Is A Push Day Workout Routine?

A push day workout routine trains the main upper body muscles involved in pushing things away from your torso: the chest, shoulders, and triceps. Typically, they emphasize compound pushing exercises, including the flat and incline barbell bench press and overhead press.

They also often include isolation exercises to target the parts of your pushing muscles that compound push exercises may not fully develop.

For example, while the bench press effectively trains the medial and lateral triceps heads, it doesn’t target the triceps long head as well. To address this, a push day routine might include the overhead triceps extension, which trains the long head to a high degree.

Push workout plans are usually part of “push pull legs split,” which is a method of organizing your training that dedicates specific days to exercises that focus on either pushing, pulling, or training your lower body.

Find the Perfect Supplements for You in Just 60 Seconds

You don’t need supplements to build muscle, lose fat, and get healthy. But the right ones can help. Take this quiz to learn which ones are best for you.

Take the Quiz

Muscles Worked in a Push Day Workout

The main muscle groups worked in a push day workout are:

Here’s how these muscles look on your body:


Push Day Workout Muscles

The Best Push Day Workout Routine for Size and Strength

Below is a top-tier push day workout routine for gaining mass and strength.

It works well because it includes exercises that are easy to progressively overload and let you safely train with heavy weights.

It also contains the perfect amount of volume (sets) to stimulate growth without wearing you to a frazzle: 

  1. Bench Press: 3 sets of 4-to-6 reps with 2-to-4 min rest
  2. Overhead Press: 3 sets of 4-to-6 reps with 2-to-4 min rest
  3. Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 3 sets of 4-to-6 reps with 2-to-4 min rest
  4. Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise: 3 sets of 6-to-8 reps with 2-to-3 min rest
  5. Overhead Triceps Extension: 3 sets of 6-to-8 reps with 2-to-3 min rest

Now let’s look at how to perform each exercise and why they’re so effective.

1. Barbell Bench Press


Bench Press gif

Any good push day workout routine revolves around the bench press because it allows you to handle heavy weights, progress regularly, and train almost every major muscle in your upper body, particularly your pecs, triceps, and deltoids.

How to:

  1. Lie on a flat bench and place your feet flat on the floor. 
  2. Pull your shoulder blades together and down, and without lifting your butt or shoulders off the bench, slightly arch your back. 
  3. Grab the bar with a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip and unrack the barbell.
  4. Lower the barbell to your chest, keeping your elbows tucked 6-to-8 inches from your sides.
  5. Press the bar back to the starting position.

2. Overhead Press

In addition to improving upper-body strength and shoulder, triceps, and upper chest mass, the overhead press develops your whole-body balance and coordination. 

How to:

  1. Set a barbell in a rack at the same height as your upper chest. 
  2. Grip the bar with a shoulder-width grip and your palms facing away from you.
  3. Unrack the barbell, step backward, and plant your feet just outside of shoulder width.
  4. Push the bar toward the ceiling until your arms are straight.
  5. Reverse the movement and return to the starting position.

3. Incline Dumbbell Bench Press


Incline Dumbbell Bench Press gif

The incline dumbbell bench press is a worthy inclusion in a push day workout routine for mass because it emphasizes your “upper pecs,” which is vital for developing overall chest size. It also allows you to stretch your chest muscles slightly more than the barbell bench press, which benefits muscle growth. 

How to:

  1. While lying on a bench angled at 30-to-45 degrees, hold a dumbbell in each hand and rest them on your thighs. 
  2. Lie back, hoisting the dumbbells up so you’re holding them on either side of your chest by giving them a nudge with your thighs.
  3. Press the dumbbells over your upper chest until your arms are straight and your elbows are locked.
  4. Lower the dumbbells to the starting position.

4. Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise


Side Lateral Raise gif

The dumbbell side lateral raise isolates the lateral (side) head of the deltoids, which is important if you want to develop proportional shoulder mass.

How to:

  1. Stand up straight with a dumbbell in each hand. 
  2. Raise the dumbbells out to your sides until your upper arms are parallel to the floor.
  3. Reverse the movement and return to the starting position.

5. Overhead Triceps Extension


Overhead Triceps Extension gif

The overhead triceps extension trains the entire triceps (especially the long head) when fully stretched, which maximizes growth.

How to:

  1. Sit up straight on a bench. 
  2. Grip one end of a dumbbell using both palms and lift it overhead so your arms are straight. Your palms should be flat against the end of the dumbbell and facing the ceiling. 
  3. Lower the weight until it’s behind your head by bending your elbows, then straighten your arms and return to the starting position.

Find the Best Diet for You in Just 60 Seconds

How many calories should you eat? What about “macros?” What foods should you eat? Take our 60-second quiz to get science-based answers to these questions and more.

Take the Quiz

What Are the Benefits of Push Day Workouts?

The main benefits of push day workout routines are:

  1. Time Efficiency: Push day routines train your chest, shoulders, and triceps in one session, eliminating the need for separate workouts for each muscle group and making it ideal for those with limited time.
  2. Higher-quality training: When you train one muscle group per workout, its performance decreases as the workout progresses. To compensate, you have to use lighter weights or do fewer reps, which isn’t ideal for muscle and strength gain. Push day workouts avoid this issue by distributing the effort across several muscle groups.
  3. Less Soreness: Since you never train any single muscle group to the point of exhaustion, most people find they’re less sore from push day workouts and can recover faster, making it easier to maintain training intensity across the week without one session negatively affecting the next.

3 Tips for More Productive Push Day Workouts

1.   End every set 1-to-3 reps shy of muscle failure.

As I explain in my fitness books for men and women, to maximize your results, you must take most of the sets in your push workouts to within a rep or two of failure.

Ask yourself at the end of each set, “If I had to, how many more reps could I have gotten with good form?” If the answer is more than two, increase the weight or reps to make your next set more challenging.

2.  Once you hit the top of your rep range for a set, move up in weight. 

If your push workout plan calls for 4-to-6 reps of the bench press and you get 6 reps for a set, add 10 pounds to your next set.

If you manage 3 or fewer reps with the new weight, reduce the weight by 5 pounds to ensure you stay in the 4-to-6 rep range. 

Follow this pattern of trying to add reps or weight to every exercise in every workout.

3. Take the right supplements. 

These supplements can help you optimize your push day workout performance and gains:

  • Protein powder: Protein powder provides your body with the nutrients needed to build muscle tissue and recover from workouts.
  • Creatine: Creatine boosts muscle and strength gain, improves anaerobic endurance, and reduces muscle damage and soreness from your workouts. 
  • Pre-workout: A high-quality pre-workout enhances energy, mood, and focus, increases strength and endurance, and reduces fatigue.

(If you’d like even more specific advice about which supplements you should take to reach your health and fitness goals, take the Legion Supplement Finder Quiz, and in less than a minute, you’ll know exactly what supplements are right for you. Click here to check it out.)

+ Scientific References