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Push Pull Legs (PPL) Strength & Hypertrophy Program

The Struggle Standard

Bodybuilding, Weightlifting, General Fitness, Strength & Conditioning, Tactical / Military

Coach

Alexander Burgoyne

You've run push/pull/legs before. This one has an answer for the day it stops working.

Every free PPL routine is six lifts and a rule that says add five pounds. It works for months. Then one Tuesday you miss the reps, you miss them again Friday, and nothing in the file tells you what to do next.

This is a 48 week rotation built for what happens after that.

Six training days and two rest days in every eight-day cycle. The rest days are the give in the system, slide them where your week needs them and the cycle closes the same. You run push, pull and legs twice per cycle, and the two passes are not copies of each other.

HEAVY ROTATION (days 1-3): the main lift at a percentage of your training max. Low reps, long rests, a number you're chasing.

PUMP ROTATION (days 5-7): the same three patterns at 40-55%, or as heavy as possible for sets of 15 and 20. Short rests, named methods, taken into the burn on purpose.

Heavy makes you strong. Volume makes you big. The cycle refuses to choose between them.

Six patterns are trained all year: horizontal press, vertical press, squat, hinge, horizontal pull, vertical pull. Which lift expresses each one changes every 24 days. Inside those days the METHOD progresses, not just the load - tempo work, then rest-pause clusters, then a wave to 92.5%. Then the lift rotates out before it goes stale and comes back 56 days later so you can measure exactly what it bought.

Eleven different squats across the year, and still six comparable back squat peaks.

75-90 minutes, ten blocks: prep, potentiation, the main lift, a second pattern, accessory supersets, a pump block taken to failure, conditioning matched to what the day already cost you, mobility. When the clock gets tight you drop a set, never a movement.

Barbell, rack, bench, dumbbells, pull-up bar. Machines if you want them. Everything else has a printed alternative.

It opens with Cycle Zero, an eight-day ramp-in that sets your six training maxes off one honest set of five. Nobody maxes out on day one. The app computes every working weight from those numbers. Download Cycle Zero free at https://thestrugglestandard.com/

At twelve months your peaks become next year's training maxes and the program reseeds. Year two is a different program at higher percentages, not a repeat.

Suffer Forward.

$20 / mo

Start My 7-Day Free Trial

Get Strong and Get Big. Same Cycle.

You stop choosing. Every eight days you run push, pull and legs twice - once heavy at a percentage of your training max, once at 40-55% for sets of fifteen and twenty. The heavy rotation puts weight on the bar. The pump rotation puts size on you. Most programs make you pick one and come back for the other next block. This one refuses.

Progress That Doesn't Stall Out

Free routines run on add five pounds until the day you can't, and then they have nothing for you. Here the method progresses, not just the load: tempo work, then rest-pause clusters, then a wave to 92.5%. The lift itself rotates every 24 days - out before it goes stale, back 56 days later so you can measure what it bought. Week twenty still feels like something.

Proof It's Working, Six Times a Year

Bench, overhead press, back squat, deadlift, bent-over row, weighted chin-up. Every 56 days you put a real number on one of them, so you finish the year with six honest peaks per lift instead of a vague sense that things are going alright. Clear the gate and the program advances you. Miss it and it repeats the cycle instead of shoving you forward.

A Program That Bends to Your Week

Six training days and two rest days in every eight - and the rest days are yours to place. Long shift Thursday, family thing Saturday, a week that went sideways: slide the off days where you need them and the cycle closes exactly the same. There's no calendar to fall off. You lose a day, not the program.

No Special Equipment. No Excuses.

A barbell, a rack, a bench, dumbbells and a pull-up bar. That's the floor. Cables and machines get used where your gym has them, and every one of those has a printed alternative. No specialty bars, no chains, no sled required. A garage runs it. A commercial gym runs it better. Travel doesn't break it.

Features

Access to your coaches

Coaches who will hold you accountable and provide the feedback you need to grow

Programming 7 days per week

Daily strength, conditioning, and skill training that’s accessible and challenginG

Exercise Video Guidance

Instructional videos to guide your practice and make execution easy

Delivered through TrainHeroic

Train with coaches who push you, understand your goals, and keep you progressing.

Equipment

Required

Barbell // Weight Plates // Rack // Bench // Pull-up Bar // Dumbbells // Bands

Recommended

Incline Bench // Machines // Rower, Bike, Treadmill, Sled

Sample Week

I will write fresh programming weekly. You’ll get notifications when they’re ready

Wednesday

Cycle 1 Day 4 - Recovery

Run

@ 30:00

Saturday

Cycle 1 Day 7 - Legs Hypertrophy

Circuit

2 × 8 controlled reps Each 90/90 Hip Stretch (seated, both sides Adductor Rock-Back Half-Kneeling Ankle Mobilization (to wall) Cossack Squat (BW) World's Greatest Stretch (lunge + rotation)

Box Jump

5 x 2

Deadlift Sumo

15, 13, 11

Back Squat

15, 12, 10

Single Leg RDL

15, 12, 10

Leg Extension

3 x 12

Back Extension

3 x 15

DB Step Up

3 x 12

Calf Raise

3 x 18

Seated Cable Good Morning

3 x 12

Glute Bridge

7 x 10

Prowler Push

6 x 0:15

Circuit

M O B I L I T Y Pigeon Stretch (passive) 60-90s Deep Squat Hold (prying, breath-driven) 60-90s Calf Stretch — Wall (static) 60-90s

Coach

More from The Struggle Standard

Alexander Burgoyne

“Coach with a B.S. in Kinesiology (Exercise Science) and 18 years of experience as an athlete. I’ve trained, competed, and learned through trial, error, and consistency. My coaching is built on discipline, intelligent programming, and preparing athletes for long-term progress—not shortcuts.”

The best program is the one you'll actually run.

Not the cleverest one. The one you're still running in month nine, in the gym on your way home, on lifts you already trust. Forty-eight weeks. Six on, two off. Heavy, then pumped. Start with Cycle Zero - eight days, free, before you pay a cent. Suffer For

Start My 7-Day Free Trial

FAQs

Six days a week? I can't commit to that.

It's six sessions every eight days, not six every seven - about five and a quarter a week on average. And the two rest days move. Put them where your week needs them, and the cycle still closes.

How long is each session?

75-90 minutes, honest, not padded. Ten blocks, and the accessory and pump work is where the size comes from. If you've got 45 minutes a day this is the wrong program, and I'd rather tell you now than take your money.

What equipment do I need?

A barbell, a rack, a bench, dumbbells and a pull-up bar. That's the floor. Cables and machines get used where your gym has them, and each one has a printed alternative. A garage runs it. A commercial gym runs it better.

Is this for beginners?

No. Get a year of consistent barbell training behind you first - this assumes you know what an honest set of five feels like. What it doesn't assume is skill work: there's no snatch, clean or jerk. Every lift in it is one you already know how to do.

Do I have to max out to start?

No, and you shouldn't. It opens with Cycle Zero, an eight-day ramp-in. One quality set of five on each of the six anchor lifts, add five percent, round down. That's your training max, and every percentage in the year runs off it.

What happens if I miss a session?

You pick it up where you left it. There's no calendar to fall off - the cycle is eight days long and it doesn't care what the date is. The program is 336 training days against 365, so the year still closes when life takes some.

Is year two just year one again?

No. At twelve months your six peaks become the new training maxes and the program rebuilds - new variant order, new methods, new accessory pools. Same architecture, different program, higher percentages. You're not paying to repeat work.

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Push Pull Legs (PPL) Strength & Hypertrophy Program