Hey everyone. I am looking to do a program where I can train on my weekends. Most programs I have seen Offer 2 days but require rest in between the days. I am about to be in a situation where I wont be able to train until my weekend for a few months. I was thinking of doing a 5/3/1 type program where I can use two workouts (A and B) and use them on my weekends. It would be like an upper lower split. Here is what I was thinking of doing;
Workout A
Bench press
OHP
Assistant work- rows, chin ups
A
Bench-heavy
Deadlift-light
Rows - whatever variation
B
Squat-heavy
OHP-light
Abs/posterior chain work
On the following weekend go heavy pulls/light bench and heavy OHP and light squat.
Or
A
Bench heavy + assistance
B
Deadlift heavy + assistance
Following week do heavy OHP and heavy squat.
I prefer the latter because I would not recover well from the first program, but you may be different. Essentially breaking it up either program will allow full body training. The latter will allow you to push heavier and more focus on the main lift than if you try and do two main lifts in one day or run two weeks with the first program and 4 weeks on the second program giving you a nice little 6 week cycle.
I’m pretty sure there’s a 2 day template in the Beyond 5/3/1 book. You might consider buying the Lilliebridge Method book, they use one bench day and one lower body day a week and from what I hear there are different templates including a 2 day template rather than separate assistance days.
If I was in your situation I would bench heavy on Saturday, followed by upper body assistance work but if you are planning to do barbell rows or t-bar rows then put them on Sunday because they will fatigue your back. Then Sunday alternate between heavy squat/light deadlift and light squat /heavy deadlift, maybe have different assistance work depending on which lift you are training heavy like something DL-specific after heavy squats (RDL, GM, SLDL) and vice versa (leg press, hack squat, whatever else). I’m not a fan of squatting right after deadlifting, I would do something like 60%x2x6 sets of squats before deadlifts on the light squat day but that’s me. If you want to focus on OHP then do the same thing for upper body days, but if you plan to compete in powerlifting then I don’t recommend making OHP a main lift.
On a two day a week (weekend only program) you will find that you will decondition fom week to week and will probably end up chasing your tail. The way to prevent this would be to do enough muscular damage that it would take you 6 days to recover, but if you do that on Saturday, Sunday’s session would likely be toast.
My solution would be to add one or two mini workouts during the week. You could do some of the following: Banded good mornings, banded squats, banded hammer curls, banded close grip bench, etc. - get creative. You could use a few light dumbbells or kettlebells, forerm work with sledgehammers, one arm rows with water bottles. People did build strength before barbells.
The idea with these workouts is to work enough to delay adaptation so you don’t decondition by the following weekend. I assume after the few months you willr eturn to a somewhat normal program.
Thanks everyone. I went back through the beyond 5/3/1 and found the six week 2 day program. I’m going to start there and by the end of the 6 weeks it looks like I will be able to get back into a better place and hit the gym more often.