Mountain Dog PPL is a push, pull, legs program you run every other day. You rotate three sessions, train a day, rest a day, then move to the next workout, and you keep that cycle going for four to six weeks. Each session is built around one big lift plus pump and heavy waves and a finisher, so push day leads with decline dumbbell press and leg day opens with leg curls before the spider bar squats.
The program comes from the late John Meadows, the bodybuilding coach behind Mountain Dog Training, and Muscle & Strength published it for free. It carries his style: heavy triples and back-off work paired with brutal pump sets and sets taken to failure. Think of it as a bodybuilding take on push, pull, legs that runs by feel instead of percentages, which is why people who want size and a hard pump run it.
It’s a good fit for intermediate and advanced lifters who recover well, since you can push it to four or five days a week by dropping the rest days. Skip it if you want percentage-based strength work, because there are no percentages here. And if you can’t handle high-failure volume like double drop sets and dips to failure, this one will bury you.
Table of Contents
Mountain Dog PPL Workout Spreadsheet
Spreadsheet via Muscle & Strength
This one runs by feel, the way Meadows coached it. There are no percentages, so pick a weight that makes the listed reps genuinely hard and log what you used in the green cells. A couple of lifts wave the weight inside a single exercise, like the Decline DB Press and Spider Bar Squat.
How the Program Works
Three workouts, push, pull, and legs, cycle on repeat. As written it’s three sessions, but Meadows noted you can run it four or five times a week by dropping the rest days.
The Push Day
Decline dumbbell press leads off with pump sets, heavy triples, then a back-off set, followed by incline dumbbell press, pec minor dips to failure, overhead Smith press, Y-raises, and rope triceps work.
The Pull Day
Meadows rows and single-arm barbell rows do the heavy lifting, then assisted pull-ups, high-rep rear delt flyes, and seated hammer curls.
The Leg Day
Leg curls open with a hard finishing set, then spider bar squats run the same pump-then-heavy wave. You superset inverted leg press with sissy squats and close with Smith machine split squats.
The Meadows Techniques
The leg curl finisher is a double drop set, then partials, then a 10 second iso hold. The A1 and A2 lifts are a superset done back to back, and pec minor dips are taken to failure. Push quality reps and add weight once a load stops being a fight.
FAQ
Is this the real Mountain Dog program?
It’s the free push, pull, legs routine John Meadows wrote for Muscle & Strength. His other Mountain Dog programs were paid products, but this PPL is one he published for free.
How many days a week is it?
Three as written, trained every other day. If you recover well you can run it four or five times a week by removing the rest days.
What is a Meadows Row?
It’s a single-arm landmine row Meadows popularized, done with a barbell wedged in a corner and a pronated grip on the sleeve. It hammers the lats and upper back through a long range of motion.
Is it free?
Yes. The program is free on Muscle & Strength, and our spreadsheet is free to copy. Open the sheet, then choose File then Make a Copy.
