Consecutive Training Days?

Hey guys,

I’m kind of new to the lifting game. I’ve taken a break from boxing, and decided that power lifting might be fun to try. Here’s just some general info:

I have been lifting for 2 months now, I’m 20yo and 1.82m / 6ft and my PR’s (if any are valid so soon?) with a bodyweight of 86 kg are:

  • benchpress: 95 kg / 209.5 lbs
  • deadlift: 130 kg / 286.6 lbs
  • oly-squat: 75 kg / 165.3 lbs (obviously I’m holding back on the oly-squat, since we haven’t got a cage and the plates are ironcast so can’t be dumped…)

Anyway, I am currently training 3-days a week with 1 day off in between trainingdays. But due to some unfortunate changes in schedule of me and my training partner, we will only be able to train fridays - mondays.

So the training days would be:

  • Friday
  • Saturday
  • Sunday
  • Monday

Has anyone got any tips on how to plan a training schedule, so that I can train 4 days consecutively?

With Newbie-Regards,
K.

If your training partner’s obligations are preventing you from spreading things out more, drop your training partner. Training 4 days in a row as a powerlifter isn’t going to allow for optimal recovery.

[quote]LiquidMercury wrote:
If your training partner’s obligations are preventing you from spreading things out more, drop your training partner. Training 4 days in a row as a powerlifter isn’t going to allow for optimal recovery.[/quote]

No, it are my obligations haha. That’s what makes things difficult. Also, we are ‘clan-related’, so even if it was his ‘fault’, dropping him wouldn’t be an option :).

I do find it difficult to comprehend though that nobody withing the PL-community would train 4 days in a row!

[quote]Kardash wrote:

[quote]LiquidMercury wrote:
If your training partner’s obligations are preventing you from spreading things out more, drop your training partner. Training 4 days in a row as a powerlifter isn’t going to allow for optimal recovery.[/quote]

No, it are my obligations haha. That’s what makes things difficult. Also, we are ‘clan-related’, so even if it was his ‘fault’, dropping him wouldn’t be an option :).

I do find it difficult to comprehend though that nobody withing the PL-community would train 4 days in a row![/quote]

I had the same problem but switched my training to Friday, Saturday and Monday.

Friday - ME Upper body and some assitance
Saturday - ME Lower body, squat and deadlift along with assistance this is a long one but I’ve never done a meet that lasts a couple of hours!!
Monday - Assistance & recovery session

the Friday/Saturday sessions always kick my ass but the 3 day recovery period always has me fired up for next weekend. Definitely drop the 4 in a row or you won’t be pl’n for very long

[quote]irishlifting wrote:

I had the same problem but switched my training to Friday, Saturday and Monday.

Friday - ME Upper body and some assitance
Saturday - ME Lower body, squat and deadlift along with assistance this is a long one but I’ve never done a meet that lasts a couple of hours!!
Monday - Assistance & recovery session

the Friday/Saturday sessions always kick my ass but the 3 day recovery period always has me fired up for next weekend. Definitely drop the 4 in a row or you won’t be pl’n for very long[/quote]

Hey thanks for the reply! What do you mean with “ME” btw? And with the assistance and recovery session?

And no don’t worry, the 4 days in a row training will just be for 6 weeks, due my college-semester. So it will be like 6 weeks = 4 days in a row, and then 4 weeks = ‘normal’. It will be my cycle through out the year.

ME = max effort

[quote]Kardash wrote:

[quote]irishlifting wrote:

I had the same problem but switched my training to Friday, Saturday and Monday.

Friday - ME Upper body and some assitance
Saturday - ME Lower body, squat and deadlift along with assistance this is a long one but I’ve never done a meet that lasts a couple of hours!!
Monday - Assistance & recovery session

the Friday/Saturday sessions always kick my ass but the 3 day recovery period always has me fired up for next weekend. Definitely drop the 4 in a row or you won’t be pl’n for very long[/quote]

Hey thanks for the reply! What do you mean with “ME” btw? And with the assistance and recovery session?

And no don’t worry, the 4 days in a row training will just be for 6 weeks, due my college-semester. So it will be like 6 weeks = 4 days in a row, and then 4 weeks = ‘normal’. It will be my cycle through out the year.[/quote]

ME = Max Effort

this would be all your heavy lifting for the week, squat bench and deadlift.

Assitance and recovery work is jus that, all the movements you feel you need to bring up max lifts & help prevent/recovery injuries but I usually lint this to no more than hour to hour & half as the me days are longer and you should be hiring from them

While it is not optimal as many say I have been training 4 days in a row for 4 years. It is the only days I can train and it so happens to be the only days my partner can train. For the last year + we have done 5/3/1 (now 5/3/1 for powerlifting) and we have had great gains and before that we did a westside program…

Just for reference my actual 1rm for bench is 505, squat 675, dl 605 and military I have never done a true 1rm but the 5/3/1 numbers show 285.

What we did with the standard 5/3/1 was one week Mon-Squat, Tues-Bench, Wed-DL, Thur-Military then the next week Bench/Squat/Military/DL and the 3rd week back again to S/B/D/M then deload week anyway we want. The next month starts with Mon-Bench Tues-Squat and so on…This lets us rotate and be fresh on monday for either Squat or Bench at least one week of every cycle month. I have made great gains this way and yes sometime you can feel a bit taxed but I listen to my body and to be honest just got used to training like this. The thing I always remember is what Wendler says in his ebooks… that is, pick you battles… On a good day I’ll go for a PR on reps or even a 1rm but on a bad day I’ll just do the prescribed reps and move on to assistance work.

IMHO our bodies can take alot of work and I do plenty of active recovery and gpp and so far I continue to make gains and at 46 I don’t plan on that stopping any time soon.

So do what you can do and make do…

I train everyday. Sometimes 2 days in a row with 2 workouts a day. As long as you arent an idiot about it, you can get very strong training everyday.