Advice.

16-12-2011 11:03am #1

Hi everyone,

For the forseeable future I will only be able to train two days a week in the gym, However I'm at a loss.

I normally spend an hour in the gym four days a week and I base my training around the compound lifts.

I'm planning on training on Monday and Friday evenings. My thinking was to squat, dead, bench and overhead press in one go and repeat on the Friday but I do think it may be a bit taxing on the body as I am moving alot of weight in each lift.

Any advice much appreciated.

ray jay · 16-12-2011 11:49am

You could try something like

Monday: Squat, bench, row.
Friday: Deadlift, press, pull ups.

That way you can include some work on your back. I don't think you should have too much trouble working the same body parts twice in one week though if you want to use the same routine on both days.

Hanley · 16-12-2011 12:43pm

How much weight are you moving?

The great thing about training is that it drives positive adaptation. So if you want, and program accordingly you can almost certainly work to the point where you can do it.

squod · 16-12-2011 1:12pm

I used to train on my only day off. For years I did squat, bench then deadlift. a)You'll adapt or b) you won't and end up splitting your routine. One heavy, one light day might work.

kevpants · 16-12-2011 10:44pm

How much weight we talking about?

BossArky · 23-12-2011 7:43am

47 wrote: »

For the forseeable future I will only be able to train two days a week in the gym, However I'm at a loss.

What are your goals? General fitness? Getting stronger? Compete in Powerlifting?

If you are interesting in getting stronger/competing in Powerlifting then FYI I've trained two days a week for the best part of 2 years. Check my log and you'll see the standard template I use.

Monday:
Heavy Bench (followed by Curls, DB Bench, Tri's)
Light Deadlift
Heavy Squat

Thursday:
Light Bench
Heavy Deadlift (followed by Pull Ups, Glute Ham Raise, Abs)
Light Squat

Generally a cycle runs over 3 months and the sets/reps on the big 3 go as follows as the weight goes from very light to very heavy.

week 1: 3x10
week 2-3: 3x8
week 4-7: 3x6
week 8-11: 3x5
week 12: 2x2
week 13 deload, then competition at end of week

Generally I've added something like 5-10kg on squat/deadlift per cycle using this method and 2.5kg ish on bench. As you get closer to 2 x bodyweight squat and 2.5 x bodyweight deadlift the increments come down and then you're fighting for any gain... but hey... life is tough

Assistance should aim to peak at the end of week 7 and then go into maintainence whilst the big 3 get heavy in the 3x5 weeks.

I've got a template which will calculate a cycle, if you know your current 1 rep max. PM me if you want it (I'll be offline until the new year). Otherwise just browse my log from Feb 2010 to August 2011.

JohnMc1 · 27-12-2011 9:24pm

47 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

For the forseeable future I will only be able to train two days a week in the gym, However I'm at a loss.

I normally spend an hour in the gym four days a week and I base my training around the compound lifts.

I'm planning on training on Monday and Friday evenings. My thinking was to squat, dead, bench and overhead press in one go and repeat on the Friday but I do think it may be a bit taxing on the body as I am moving alot of weight in each lift.

Any advice much appreciated.

Not sure if if this is much help but I was doing Bodybuilding training twice a week up until Sept. Here is how it went:

Day 1
Chest [Bench Press, and another exercise]
Back [Deadlifts and another exercise]
Biceps [Preacher Curls, 21s, basically varied]

Day 2
Legs [Squats and another exercise ie lunges or speed squats]
Shoulders [shoulder press,side lateral raises,etc]
Triceps [Triceps pull down, a variety of workouts]

We also varied the reps week. One month we would have a 15 rep week, 12 rep 10 rep, 8 reps. Second month we would vary it down to 4 reps.

21-04-2012 12:47am

My apologies for digging the thread back up after all this time, I'd just like to say thanks for the contributions and to Bossarky for the advice.

The last few months have been fairly crap training wise. Over the last year I've lost 6 stone of fat.I was always big into strongman/powerlifting and since I've started on my weight loss journey my numbers in the big 3 have fluctuated. As you can imagine when I was "FUSCULAR" and I use that term loosely I was moving bigger numbers ie a 200 dead, 140 bench and 180 squat as a ORM.

When I decided to stop being a fat bastard I became interested in crossfit although I was training at home and the workouts where scaled to meet my "fatlethic" abilities.

I became a bit confused with the aparent lack of programing and decided that crossfit was not right for me at this time because I'm training to become a fulltime firefighter and am a volunteer at the moment so my training needs to be based around strenght work and conditioning.

However, I do like metcons and incorporate them into my training which brings me to my next point. I'm sitting aroung 18 stone with 24% bodyfat and have stalled completely in my weight loss as I've said. I dropped down to 17.5 in early February and as mentioned gained weight again and am now at 18 stone and simply cannot shift a pound. I became a metcon whore and was doing them 5 days a week and lifitng twice a week as mentioned in my first post.

My diet was as follows

Breakfast - 4 boiled/scrambled eggs with a small amount of houmous and a piece of fruit and a litre of water.

Snack - was a paleo bar got the recipe from transforms site they're fairly delish

Lunch - was one of the following two chicken breasts wrapped in parma ham and veg, Steak and veg, chicken with mexican spice mix and veg, paleo chicken curry not arsed listing the ingredients or some other concoction of lean meat and veg.

Snack - A handful of nuts or an oatcake or two with some nut butter.

Dinner - I always mad double portions so it was whatever I had for lunch.

I was sipping water throughout the day and carbs where limited so no spuds,rice pasta etc

So, I wasn't losing the weight and my morale hit an all time low. After a two week break from training and diet my motivation has returned and am raring to go and lose the last 3 stone.

So I'm going to outline my new training/diet plan now so if anyone has any input I'd appreciate the comments.

Training. As I've said i'm hoping to become a professional firefighter and am currently an AFS member. So, my goals are to continue to get stronger and return my lifts to there former numbers and then to continue to get stronger and to improve my anaerobic fitness through interval training/metcons etc This time I wont be going ape**** with the metcons everyday.

Monday
Every morning I'm going to do some mobility work.
I'm going to do Wendler's 5/3/1 adapted to two days a week and a metcon directly after lifting

Deads and Press with the relative assistance work which will be no more than 4 lifts two for each compounf lift both done in the 5x10 rep range. Followed by a short metcon.

Tuesday

This will be balls to the wall conditioning work. I'm no expert in conditioning so this is where I'll need the most advice. I was thinking of ten burpees on the minute every minute for ten minutes initially and then adding two minutes a week till I can go for 30, overkill?

Wednesday

Off except for mobility work

Thursday

Same as Tuesday, conditioning.

Friday

Squat and Bench plus the same assistance template as monday. And a metcon to finish up.

Saturday

Light CV work of some sort probably a jog or a long walk.

Sunday.

Chill.

Diet will be as follows.

Breakfast

4 eggs, scrambled,boiled or an omelete with a ton of veggies and a piece of fruit.

Snack

2 scoops protien in water.

Lunch

Lean meat and Veg

Snack

either a scoop of protien and a piece of fruit or some oatcakes with nut butter

Dinner

Lean meat and veg.

Pre bed.

small serving of biltong/jerky.

I havent worked out the macro's yet but it'll be high protien, low carb, medium fat.

I'll be sipping water throughout the day.

Saturdays I'm going to mix it up by eating only raw veggies,fruits and homemade vegetable soup and plenty of water with lemon squeezed in and Sunday will be a cheat day. Hopefully this should help me lose the last of the weight and get me in the physical condition to become a full time firefighter.

Any input welcome and once again thank you for the advice and my apologies to the mods digging up the thread.

Advice.

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