It’s terribly convenient.
Normally, when I pitch it, I claim that it is basically food prep combined with being lazy. But there is another view, and one that I believe is more swaying. Furthermore, it is more in-line with my own experience as I for one genuinely enjoy cooking.
Consider that even with a stream-lined meal-prep (i.e., something you do every week) there is still an associated time-cost. And, extrapolated over a life-time that’ll hopefully be several decades-long then there is an immense compound cost. This is analogous to spending say 10 euro on something every month. That’s 120 euro a year, and a lot of euros by the time you are retired.
So, I usually do lazy as cooking for my weekly meals, and bust out my chef skills for the weekend. Perfect combo. Keeps cooking fun. Keeps me fed.
Doing just dandy, did squats a bit too often when I tried following Arnold’s program Full-Body Workouts of the Legends - Bigger Stronger Leaner - COMMUNITY - T NATION (3x a week, 2x seems to be my sweet-spot), so my hip is acting up again but it’ll be better soon. Don’t really keep my log up, I’m so into extremes that it either takes way too much time to maintain or I don’t maintain it at all - and evidently, we are in the latter phase currently.
Before that, I was doing 5 Years of Insane Gains which showed me that I can back squat two times a week, possibly thanks to all of the lunges. However, as my climbing prowess improves and I routinely overwork myself I’ve decided that I shouldn’t be in the gym more than 3x a week, and have an honest rest day with no planned exercise.
I did 5/3/1 for a while before that split, but it’s not really my jam at the moment. I didn’t feel properly stimulated from my work-sets and overdid my assistance instead to make up.
And so now, I’m a bit in the wind.
Was reading a bunch of Charles Staley’s stuff on full-body workouts, and it’s almost a perfect fit. However, while these sessions are programmed around the primary movement patterns (squat/hinge/push/pull) I believe that the movements change more often than is necessary for a trainee at my level. There is something to be said for the SAID-principle after all.
And so, I’ve made myself an amalgam of Charles Staley, 5/3/1, this article How I Added 100 Pounds to My Deadlift in 2 Weeks and taking into account the reduced need for vertical pulling as I climb so often (hence added emphasis on horizontal rowing and triceps). Feel free to criticize,
Monday:
A1. Back squat 4x6-8
A2. RDL 3x9-12
B1. Alternate bench/military press 3x8-10 (on a session by session-basis, so BP one Monday, MP the next)
B2. Horizontal row
Assistance (lunges)
Tuesday: Climbing, strength-stamina.
Wednesday:
A1. Leg Press 3x12-15
A2. Dip 3xAMRAP
B1. GHR 4x8-10
B2. Tricep pushdown 4x10-12
Abs
Thursday: Climbing, max-effort bouldering.
Friday:
A1. RDL 4x6-8
A2. Back squat 3x9-12
B1. Alternate bench/military press 3x8-10 (as described before)
B2. Horizontal row
Assistance (lunges or abductor/adductor)
Saturday: Rest-day. Might be a fasting day eventually. We’ll see.
Sunday: Climbing, strength-endurance.
Trying to keep the time duration that I’m in the gym down so I can slot it in over lunch. I like the symmetry with how the rep ranges move towards one another.
Add weight when I reach the top of a rep-range. If this ends up being time-efficient enough I can imagine that a secondary progression would be adding an additional work set, so that when doing 6-8 reps the sets go from four to five and that for 9-12 reps the number of work sets increases from three to four.