Best Push Workout for Mass [PPL Split]

You’re here to find the best push workout for mass gains, right?

I’m going to show you the three most important things to consider for a stellar push workout.

Then I’m going to give you my best version of a push workout for mass, so you can get in the gym and get lifting.

Get ready to do some pushing!

What Makes a Good Push Workout?

The push workout is one of three days within a push pull legs (PPL) workout split. “Push” refers to the pushing muscles in your upper body, generally the chest, shoulders, and triceps.

There are three important factors you need to consider when planning your push workout for mass gains. They are:

• Hitting the right muscle groups
• Choosing the right exercises
• Using the right set scheme

Let’s take each one in turn.

Hitting the Right Muscle Groups

In a push workout, there are three main muscle groups we will be targeting:

• Chest
• Shoulders
• Triceps

A properly designed push workout will thoroughly target each one of these muscle groups so as to maximize hypertrophy (muscle growth) gains in each of them.

It is best to prioritize muscle groups from largest to smallest, and train them in that order. The reason being, the larger muscle groups require more focus, attention, and effort. Thus, they should be trained first in your workout when you have the most energy.

The focus in a push workout should be first on the chest, since it is the largest push muscle group. There is one exception to this, that being the overhead press, a shoulder dominant exercise which deserves equal footing with your chest training.

Shoulders will be your number two priority, and triceps will be third since they are the smallest muscle group (and thus require the least attention).

Choosing the Right Exercises

Just as important as knowing which muscle groups to target and in which order is choosing the right exercises. Many people in the gym waste time with exercises which aren’t ideal for mass gains. We will not do that here. I’m going to give you what I consider to be some of the best options for your push workout.

Note on rear delts and traps: Some people like to train rear delts and traps with shoulders and some like to train them with back. Personally, I like to train rear delts with back and traps with shoulders.

Chest Exercises

For chest training, I prefer dumbbell bench presses to barbell bench presses for three reasons:

1. You can feel your pecs working more with dumbbells than barbells (check this 2017 study which measured Electromyography (EMG) activity in various muscles between the dumbbell, barbell, and machine bench press. It found significantly increased activity in the pecs with the dumbbell bench press in comparison to the barbell bench press).
2. Dumbbells are generally safer on your shoulders, due to being able to use a more ergonomic grip and range of motion
3. Less chance of a freak accident with dumbbells (like the barbell falling on your neck)

Flat Dumbbell Bench Press – Put your hands at a 45 degree angle to bring your elbows in a bit in order to generate more power. Make sure to keep your shoulder blades together to form a stable “shelf” to bench from.

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press – Keep the incline fairly low. I like to go 30 degrees to limit anterior deltoid involvement. Follow the same guidelines as with the flat dumbbell bench press.

Decline Dumbbell Bench Press – Don’t go too low with the decline or you could hurt your lower back. This is a great exercise to really learn how to feel your pecs working in the bench press.

Dumbbell Fly – Be really careful to keep your elbows bent throughout the movement and not let them dip below your chest. The shoulder is compromised when you let them sink that low.

Dumbbell Pullover – Keep your arms relatively straight and stop when the dumbbell is over your lower chest.

Shoulder Exercises

Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press – Keep your elbows in front of you a little bit so your shoulders have more stability.

Military Press – Press the weight up and back to get full range of motion and activate your side (medial) deltoids. Do not use leg drive.

Dumbbell Front Raise – Raise the dumbbell to shoulder height, but not above, as that would put unnecessary stress on the shoulders

Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raise – Go slow with this one, keep a slight bend in the elbows, and really try to feel the medial delt working.

Triceps Exercises

Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extensions – Pause at the bottom for a half second to feel the long head of the triceps working. You can do these seated or standing.

Rolling Dumbbell Triceps Extensions – You want to let your elbows roll back a little bit with this one to get an increased range of motion.

Triceps Pushdowns (Band or Cable) – As Dave Tate once said, just push the damn weight down! I really like bands for this one.

Traps Exercises

Barbell Shrugs – Go slow and squeeze at the top. Really try to feel your traps working. Straps are necessary at higher weights.

Dumbbell Shrugs – Same advice as barbell shrugs.

Using the Right Set Scheme

There are three set schemes we will be employing in our push workout for mass:

• Ramping sets
• Straight sets
• Supersets

For our main exercises, we will employ ramping sets. These types of sets are better for pure strength gains.

With ramping sets, you move up in weight each set, while keeping the reps constant throughout all sets.

Let’s say you want to do 5 ramping sets of 5 reps with the barbell row. Your top set goal is 275 pounds. It would look like this:

Set 1: 85×5
Set 2: 135×5
Set 3: 185×5
Set 4: 225×5
Set 5: 275×5

For our secondary exercises, we will be using straight sets. Straight sets are excellent for pure hypertrophy gains.

With straight sets, you choose a number of sets and reps to do and then keep the weight constant throughout that set/rep range.

Let’s say you want to do 4 sets of 10-12 reps with dumbbell rows using the 85 pound dumbbells. It would look like this:

Set 1: 85×12
Set 2: 85×11
Set 3: 85×10
Set 3: 85×10

For some of our exercises, we will be employing supersets. Supersets are excellent for decreasing time in the gym, increasing intensity, and exhausting muscle groups.

With supersets, you combine two exercises and perform them back-to-back with minimal rest in between. Normal rest time is taken after both sets are completed for each exercise.

Let’s say you want to do 3 supersets of 10 reps with dumbbell curls and overhead dumbbell triceps extensions. It would look like this:

Set 1:
A1) Dumbbell Curl 10 reps
15 seconds of rest in between
A2) Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension 10 reps
2 minutes of rest

Set 2:
A1) Dumbbell Curl 10 reps
15 seconds of rest in between
A2) Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension 10 reps
2 minutes of rest

Set 3:
A1) Dumbbell Curl 10 reps
15 seconds of rest in between
A2) Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension 10 reps
Move on to next exercise

Best Push Workout for Mass

It’s time to unveil the routine!

Drum roll please…

I’m going to give you an A and B workout, each one being designed to thoroughly hit all your push muscles.

That’s all there is to it! Not too complicated right? You can always feel free to mix and match exercises to your liking. The basic format is this:

1. Chest or Shoulder Exercise (Presses Only)
2. Chest or Shoulder Exercise (Presses Only)
3. Chest or Shoulder Exercise (Raises, Flys, or Pullovers)
4. Chest or Shoulder Exercise (Raises, Flys, or Pullovers)
5. Traps Exercise
6. Triceps Exercise

You don’t have to use supersets either. But, if you do, you can pair two smaller exercises (like front and lateral raises) or a compound exercise followed by an isolation exercise which both hit the same muscle group (like incline dumbbell bench press and incline dumbbell fly).

How to Make Gains With Your Push Workout

However great a routine might be, it is completely useless without these three principles:

Progressive Overload

The principle of progressive overload simply states that you must continually increase the stress on your muscles in new ways in order to stimulate strength and growth (hypertrophy).

The primary method to achieve this is through adding weight to your lifts every week. The second best way to achieve it is through adding reps to your lifts. However, there are other methods, such as:

• Increasing sets performed
• Decreasing rest time in between sets
• Incorporating intensity techniques like drop sets, rest pause, cluster sets, and eccentric training

To make your push workout for mass actually work, you need to ALWAYS be striving to achieve progressive overload. Every. Single. Workout.

Of course, you won’t always be able to, but it should always be your goal.

Eat Enough to Grow

If your goal is muscle growth and you aren’t taking in more calories than you expend (usually a 250-500 caloric excess), then you literally CANNOT grow muscle. I don’t care how good your damn genetics are! It won’t happen.

This is more of a problem for hardgainers (skinny folk), but it’s worth mentioning. There’s been a growing trend in the fitness industry of “gaintaining”, eating as little as possible in order to stimulate growth and not put on any unnecessary fat.

I think this philosophy could be limiting for some people. Many people will tend to gaintain too close to their caloric expenditure for the day and may miss out on gains.

Your body doesn’t grow linearly. You always need to be in a caloric surplus when trying to add mass.

Make Sure to Deload When Necessary

Deloading is one of those hotly debated concepts in weight lifting. Personally, deloads have been invaluable to my overall training. I used to push myself way too hard when I was a newbie. I didn’t ever deload and I paid the price in burnout.

You don’t want to deload too often either. Later in my lifting career, I swung too far the other way and was deloading every fourth week. This stunted my phyisque and strength gains because I wasn’t giving myself enough time to adapt to my training and make significant progress.

It’s going to be a game of trial and error for you, but I recommend deloading every 2-3 months or when you start plateauing. This doesn’t mean you sit on the couch and eat potato chips though!

Rather, you tone down your training for that week. Maybe you only go into the gym 2 days that week and go light. You can read more about how to deload properly here.

Remember, the push workout is only one of three elements of a PPL split. However, you can apply the principles I outlined here to your pull and leg days as well.

Curious how a PPL compares to an upper lower split? Read this post for an in-depth analysis to find out which split is better!

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