Legs / Pull / Push / Lower / Upper — a balanced 5-day split that hits every muscle twice per week with a quad-led leg day and a posterior-chain Lower mid-week.
Intermediate lifters who want twice-weekly frequency without committing to 6 sessions.
Expected commitment: 60-75 min per session, 5 sessions per week.
Prerequisites: Comfortable with the squat, deadlift, bench press, and overhead press. Access to a full gym.
Quads, glutes, calves, abs. Squat-led.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Intensity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barbell Back Squat | 4 | 5-7 | RPE 8 |
| Hack Squat | 3 | 8-10 | RPE 8 |
| Walking Lunge | 3 | 10-12 per leg | RPE 9 |
| Leg Extension | 3 | 12-15 | RPE 9 |
| Standing Calf Raise | 4 | 8-12 | RPE 9 |
| Hanging Leg Raise | 3 | 8-12 | RPE 8 |
Back, traps, biceps, forearms.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Intensity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weighted Pull-Up | 4 | 6-8 | RPE 8 |
| Barbell Row | 3 | 6-8 | RPE 8 |
| Chest-Supported T-Bar Row | 3 | 8-10 | RPE 8 |
| Lat Pulldown | 3 | 10-12 | RPE 9 |
| Face Pull | 3 | 15-20 | RPE 9 |
| EZ-Bar Curl | 3 | 8-10 | RPE 9 |
| Hammer Curl | 3 | 10-12 | RPE 9 |
Chest, shoulders, triceps.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Intensity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barbell Bench Press | 4 | 5-7 | RPE 8 |
| Standing Overhead Press | 3 | 6-8 | RPE 8 |
| Incline Dumbbell Press | 3 | 8-10 | RPE 8 |
| Cable Lateral Raise | 4 | 12-15 | RPE 9 |
| Pec Deck | 3 | 12-15 | RPE 9 |
| Overhead Triceps Extension | 3 | 10-12 | RPE 9 |
| Triceps Pushdown | 3 | 12-15 | RPE 9 |
Hamstrings, glutes, quads, calves. RDL-led.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Intensity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Romanian Deadlift | 4 | 6-8 | RPE 8 |
| Hip Thrust | 3 | 8-10 | RPE 8 |
| Leg Curl | 3 | 10-12 | RPE 9 |
| Bulgarian Split Squat | 3 | 8-10 per leg | RPE 9 |
| Seated Calf Raise | 4 | 12-15 | RPE 9 |
| Cable Crunch | 3 | 12-15 | RPE 8 |
Combined push + pull. Hypertrophy emphasis.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Intensity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incline Barbell Bench Press | 4 | 8-10 | RPE 8 |
| Seated Cable Row | 3 | 8-10 | RPE 8 |
| Dumbbell Shoulder Press | 3 | 10-12 | RPE 9 |
| Single-Arm Dumbbell Row | 3 | 10-12 | RPE 9 |
| Dumbbell Lateral Raise | 3 | 12-15 | RPE 9 |
| Incline Dumbbell Curl | 3 | 10-12 | RPE 9 |
| Cable Triceps Pushdown | 3 | 12-15 | RPE 9 |
LPPLU is the 5-day variant MuscleBuddy ships as its canonical split. It puts a quad-dominant Legs day at the start of the week, sandwiches Pull and Push around recovery, then splits the second wave into a posterior-chain Lower (RDLs, hip thrusts, hamstring curls) and a combined Upper. Every major muscle group is trained twice — once heavy, once with a hypertrophy bias.
Splitting "leg work" into Legs (quad-led) and Lower (posterior-led) lets you train both halves of the lower body with full intensity. Squatting heavy on Monday and RDLing heavy on Thursday is easier on knees and lower back than two near-identical leg days, and the differing movement patterns drive better stimulus on each.
Use double progression on the working sets: hit the top of the rep range with form before adding weight. Main compounds (squat, RDL, bench, OHP, pull-up) anchor each day at RPE 8, with isolation and machine work pushed to RPE 9 to bias hypertrophy.
Mesocycles default to four hard weeks plus one deload. The MuscleBuddy engine watches your weekly RPE drift and either deloads everything, or — if only certain muscles are accumulating fatigue — uses a targeted deload that cuts volume just where you need it.
MuscleBuddy auto-advances weights, tracks every set, and adjusts when you stall.
Start this program for free with MuscleBuddy