Monday to Friday Workout Routines – A vs B vs C

Most 5 day workout routines recommend taking two rest days through the week, typically after a leg or lower body day. This means you'll be training on either Saturday or Sunday, which might interfere with your social or family commitments.

Instead of dropping down to a 4 day split, you can instead shift both rest days to the weekend. This means you'll be doing 5 workouts back-to-back between Monday and Friday.

Training every day Monday to Friday does compromise your rest and recovery to an extent, but if you're smart about your workout split you can easily avoid any issues.

In this guide, we look at 3 workout splits based on our ULPPL, 5 day PPL and PHAT workout routines. We've tweaked those routines to fit into a regular Monday to Friday schedule, thinking about the required rest between similar exercises and the appropriate amount of volume in each routine.

Jump to

• Workout A - PPL (Push Pull Legs)
• Workout B - ULPPL (Upper Lower Push Pull Legs)
• Workout C - PHAT (Power Hypertrophy Adaptive Training)

Why train Monday to Friday?

Apart from the bro split, all 5 day splits divide your body into muscle groups that are trained twice per week. For example, an upper-lower split has two upper body days and two lower body days per week; and a PPL split divides your days into Push, Pull or Legs.

The optimal way to train 5 days per week is with a rest day in the middle of the week (e.g. Wednesday), splitting your workouts into two blocks. In a 5 day PPL, you'll do a first block of Push, Pull, Legs, then a rest day, then a final block of Push/Pull (combined) and Legs, followed by a final rest day.

Taking separate rest days maximizes the amount of rest and recovery in your training program. Think about what happens if you take your rest days back to back. Most of the muscle repair and growth is happening on Rest Day #1. There's nothing much happening on Rest Day #2.

However, there are some very good reasons you might want to train Monday to Friday, taking Saturday and Sunday as rest...

Reason 1 - Consistency

Some people find that having a rest day in the workweek can break their momentum and motivation. If you work Monday to Friday, taking a rest day on Wednesday might make your daily routine feel less consistent, making it difficult to keep a regular routine.

For example, if you train after work, you might find it easier to align your training with your work days. That way you are 'keeping regular hours' through the week, rather than having to fit an 'odd' training day in to your weekend.

If this motivates you to keep a regular habit, it's a great reason to train Monday to Friday, even if it isn't strictly optimal in terms of recovery. Keeping a regular habit and routine is more important!

Reason 2 - Social and family commitments

The other obvious benefit of training Monday to Friday is that it leaves your weekends completely free. For many people, keeping the weekend free better suits their work-life balance. It makes it easier to plan social and leisure activities without worrying about fitting in a workout.

Structure of a Monday to Friday routine

Our Monday to Friday routines are based on our ULPPL, 5 day PPL and PHAT workout routines.

Workout A - PPL (Push Pull Legs)

A PPL split divides your routine into 3 types of workout:

• Push days – Exercises targeting your chest, shoulders and triceps, including bench press, shoulder press and tricep extensions.
• Pull days – Exercises targeting your back, biceps and rear delts, including lat pulldowns, pull-ups and face pulls.
• Leg days – Exercises that work your lower body, including deadlifts, squats, lunges and calf raises.

A traditional PPL split is performed 3 or 6 days per week, but it's also possible to workout with a PPL 5 days per week. You can of course simply alternate your push/pull/legs day each week. For example, in week 1, you could start with Push, meaning you'll do Push-Pull-Legs-Push-Pull in the first week. In week 2, you'll then start with Legs, and repeat.

However, if you favor consistency, you can also combine your second Push and Pull days into a single workout. That's the approach we've taken. The 5 day Monday to Friday PPL is structured like this:

• Monday – Push
• Tuesday – Pull
• Wednesday – Legs
• Thursday – Push/Pull
• Friday – Legs
• Saturday – Rest
• Sunday – Rest

Workout B - ULPPL (Upper Lower Push Pull Legs)

Upper-lower splits are an alternative method of training that split your workouts into two types:

• Upper body days - Chest, back, shoulders, biceps and triceps.
• Lower body days - Quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves.

Most people follow either an upper-lower split or a PPL split, but you can combine both into a ULPPL split. The nice thing about this routine is adding 2 upper-lower workouts with 3 PPL workouts naturally sees you train 5 days per week. This fits nicely with our Monday to Friday workout plan:

• Monday – Upper
• Tuesday – Lower
• Wednesday – Push
• Thursday – Pull
• Friday – Legs
• Saturday – Rest
• Sunday – Rest

Workout C - PHAT (Power Hypertrophy Adaptive Training)

The PHAT workout routine is a 5 days per week training program. The aim of PHAT is to focus on both power and hypertrophy, and so its structure is divided into two distinct phases:

• Power Days – The first two days of the routine are the Power Days. In this phase, you are focusing on heavy lifting with fewer reps per set. The goal of this phase is to increase your overall strength and power.
• Hypertrophy Days – The remaining three days of the routine are the Hypertrophy Days. In this phase, you are lifting lighter weights with a higher number of reps per set. This phase promotes muscle growth.

We normally recommend taking a rest day between the two training blocks. To make this suitable for Monday to Friday, we've lowered the intensity of the routine slightly. Here's how the Monday to Friday PHAT is structured:

• Monday – Upper Body Power Day
• Tuesday – Lower Body Power Day
• Wednesday – Back and Shoulders Hypertrophy Day
• Thursday – Lower Body Hypertrophy Day
• Friday – Chest and Arms Hypertrophy Day
• Saturday – Rest
• Sunday – Rest

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Okay, let's get to the routines... Compare all three routines to see what works best for you and your goals. Let us know in the comments what you think 👇

Monday to Friday Workout A - PPL (Push Pull Legs)

Monday – Push

• Barbell bench press – 3 sets of 5-8 reps
• Shoulder press – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Incline dumbbell press – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Side Lateral Dumbbell Raises – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Cable crossover – 3 sets of 10-15 reps
• Overhead tricep extensions – 3 sets of 8-12 reps

Tuesday – Pull

• Lat pulldowns – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Bent over rows – 3 sets of 6-10 reps
• Pull-ups – 3 sets of 6-10 reps
• Cable face pulls – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Preacher curls – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Hammer curls – 3 sets of 8-12 reps

Wednesday – Legs

• Deadlifts – 3 sets of 5-8 reps
• Barbell squats – 3 sets of 5-8 reps
• Cable pull-throughs – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Dumbbell lunges – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Glute ham raises – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Calf raises – 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps

Thursday – Push/Pull

• Incline dumbbell press – 3 sets of 5-8 reps
• Upright rows or Side lateral dumbbell raises – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Chin-ups – 3 sets of 6-10 reps
• Single-arm dumbbell rows – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Concentration curls – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Skull crushers – 3 sets of 8-12 reps

Friday – Legs

• Deadlifts – 3 sets of 5-8 reps
• Barbell squats – 3 sets of 5-8 reps
• Cable pull-throughs – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Dumbbell lunges – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Glute ham raises – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Calf raises – 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps

Saturday & Sunday - Rest Days

Monday to Friday Workout B - ULPPL (Upper Lower Push Pull Legs)

Monday - Upper body

• Barbell bench press - 3 sets of 5-8 reps
• Bent over rows - 3 sets of 6-10 reps
• Chin-ups - 3 sets of 6-10 reps
• Side Lateral Dumbbell Raises - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Preacher curls - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Straight bar tricep extensions - 3 sets of 8-12 reps

Tuesday - Lower body

• Romanian deadlifts - 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Leg press - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Barbell squats - 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Calf raises - 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps

Wednesday - Push

• Incline dumbbell press - 3 sets of 5-8 reps
• Cable crossover - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
• Shoulder press - 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Triceps pushdown - 3 sets of 10-15 reps

Thursday - Pull

• Lat pulldowns - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Pull-ups - 3 sets of 6-10 reps
• Concentration curls - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Cable face pulls - 3 sets of 8-12 reps

Friday - Legs

• Barbell squats - 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Leg press - 3 of -12 reps
• Dumbbell lunges - 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Leg curls - 2 sets of 8-12 reps
• Calf raises - 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps

Saturday & Sunday - Rest Days

Monday to Friday Workout C - PHAT (Power Hypertrophy Adaptive Training)

Monday – Upper Body Power Day

• Bent-over row – 3 sets of 3-5 reps
• Weighted pull-ups – 2 sets of 6-10 reps
• Flat bench dumbbell press – 3 sets of 3-5 reps
• Weighted Tricep dips – 2 sets of 6-10 reps
• EZ bar curls – 3 sets of 6-10 reps
• Lying dumbbell tricep extension – 3 sets of 6-10 reps

Tuesday - Lower Body Power Day

• Squats – 3 sets of 3-5 reps
• Hack squats – 2 sets of 6-10 reps
• Romanian deadlifts – 3 sets of 5-8 reps
• Lying leg curls – 2 sets of 6-10 reps
• Raised step calf raises – 3 sets of 6-10 reps
• Seated calf raises – 2 sets of 6-10 reps

Wednesday – Back and Shoulders Hypertrophy Day

• Bent-over row (at 60% of 1RM) – 6 sets of 3-5 reps
• Wide-grip lat pulldowns – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Seated cable row – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Dumbbell rows – 2 sets of 10-15 reps
• Seated dumbbell shoulder press – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Side lateral raises – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Face pulls – 3 sets of 8-12 reps

Thursday – Lower Body Hypertrophy Day

• Squats (at 60% of 1RM) – 6 sets of 3-5 reps
• Hack squats – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Leg press – 2 sets of 12-15 reps
• Leg extensions – 3 sets of 15-20 reps
• Seated leg curls – 2 sets of 15-20 reps
• Raised step calf raises – 3 sets of 15-20 reps
• Seated calf raises – 3 sets of 15-20 reps

Friday – Chest and Arms Hypertrophy Day

• Flat bench dumbbell press (at 60% of 1RM) – 6 sets of 3-5 reps
• Incline dumbbell press – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Incline cable flyes – 2 sets of 15-20 reps
• Preacher curls – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Dumbbell concentration curls – 2 sets of 12-15 reps
• Seated overhead tricep extension – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Tricep pushdowns – 2 sets of 12-15 reps

Saturday & Sunday - Rest Days