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Metallicdpa's PPL
Metallicdpa's PPL is the six-day push/pull/legs r/Fitness recommends to beginners who want to train most days without giving up linear progression. It is built into Ægir Iron and free to load for individual lifters and for athletes on a coach's roster.
What this program is
u/Metallicdpa wrote it to settle an argument. Beginners are told to run a three-day full-body linear progression; what beginners actually want is to be in the gym six days a week training arms. This gives them both by putting a heavy barbell lift at the front of every session and progressing it linearly, then filling the rest of the day with the higher-rep work that made them want to train in the first place.
Two progressions running side by side
This is the part worth understanding before you start, because the two halves of every session progress differently. The barbell lift at the front climbs by WEIGHT every session: 5 lb on the presses, the row and the squat, 10 lb on the deadlift. Everything after it climbs by REPS, working in the 8 to 12 range, and you add weight once you can do three sets of twelve with good form.
The main lift on the pull and push days alternates between the two sessions of the week, which is why the deadlift and the row each come round once a week and each push day leads with a different press. The squat is on both leg days, so it climbs twice a week.
At a glance
| Discipline | Hypertrophy, with real strength progression on the main lifts |
| Experience level | Beginner, for someone who wants to train six days a week |
| Length | 12 weeks, or until the jumps stop working |
| Training days | 6 per week, one rest day |
| Equipment | A full gym: barbell, dumbbells, cables and machines |
| Loading | Percentage of your max on the barbell lifts, climbing every session. The accessories carry no percentage: you pick the load and chase the rep target. |
| Price | Free for individual lifters and rostered athletes |
Free for individual lifters and for athletes on a coach's roster. Coaches pay only for roster tools.
How it works in Ægir Iron
The main lifts are written in pounds added to the bar, so Ægir Iron carries the same climb as a percentage step and prices every set off your maxes, rounded to the plate. You choose where to start and how fast it climbs, because 5 lb is a much bigger share of a 135 lb bench than of a 225 lb one. The climb stops rather than running past anything twelve weeks could deliver.
The accessories deliberately carry no percentage at all. Putting one on them would be inventing a prescription the author did not write: his rule is the rep range, and the app shows the top of that range because hitting it is the signal to go up. The last set of each main lift is flagged all-out, so the reps you log there are recorded rather than lost.
If you do not have a barbell
The same six-day shape exists with dumbbells: Dumbbell PPL needs only a range of dumbbells, a bench and a pull-up bar. If you would rather have a push/pull/legs week built around your own equipment and days, the Program Wizard will generate one.
Start Metallicdpa's PPL
Open Ægir Iron, go to Program and choose New Program, then the Program Wizard. On the first screen pick Strength & Muscle, then choose Metallicdpa's PPL from the cards under WHAT DO YOU WANT TO RUN? Its own page shows how the loading runs and which lifts it needs a max for before you commit. It is free on iOS, Android and the web, with your data synced across all three.