The Age Old “2 Per Week” Question

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Housing fixes, work stress, a newborn son and many other things have all piled up and are leading me towards looking at weight training only 2 days a week.

Current toying with this set-up:

Day 1

  • Power clean
  • Front squat & back squat superset
  • Dumbbell row

Day 2

  • Power clean & jerk
  • Press & push press superset
  • Bench

Goals

  • I want to continue to get “generally” stronger. Not “specifically” stronger; I have no desire to enter a powerlifting or weightlifting competition, I just want to be that guy who people know is strong.
  • I want to pack on more size. Again, not looking to be the next Mr. Olympia, but I want people to clearly recognize that I train.
  • Most of all, I would love the above two goals to be achieved on a minimalist routine so that, one day, my son can look back and recognize that it’s possible to continue to work toward your goals despite your circumstances.

Routine Reasoning
I’ve laid out my theoretical routine this way because 1) it covers most of my favourite lifts, and 2) I suck at full body workouts; I need to, for the most part, stick with similar movement patterns within the same workout, or else I lose focus and my lifts suffer.

The power clean is my all-time favourite lift, and on day 1 it leads naturally into the front squat. On day 2, the jerk leads naturally into OH pressing, followed by benching. The DB row is a bit of an outlier, but I needed back work, and I like heavy DB rows. This exercise progression means I’ll be able to stay more focused and work hard.

Structure
I’d be using mostly 5/3/1 for progression, as I’ve found it works best for me and because I’m super basic and vanilla.

The power clean/power clean & jerk will probably not be using AMRAP sets. The front squat and press WILL use AMRAP sets and the “28 Weeks of 5/3/1” variations from Beyond. All AMRAP sets of front squats will be immediately followed by a back squat AMRAP set at the same weight, and OHP will be followed immediately by push press in the same fashion.

Bench will probably be the 5/3/1 BBB progression found in Beyond. DB rows will probably be in a Kroc row style, because I love heavy, high rep DB rows.

Conditioning
I’ll do conditioning whenever I have time. Sprints, jump rope, sled dragging, etc etc. All possible for me to do at home whenever I have 15-20 minutes to spare.

Any feedback is appreciated!

2

Check out some of the 5/3/1 two day a week setups. They’re in the original or second edition I think.

3

This sounds super intense, especially followed with BBB work (presumably for both lifts supersetted still). Interested to see how it goes.

4

I need to open my GD eyes when I read.

It looks ok. Definitely worth a short. Your AMRAP supersets could be iffy, but you’re starting with the harder exercise first so as long as you’re smart you’ve got a shot at getting away with it.

5

Looks pretty good. Only change or comment I would make would be to add some single leg work to your second session of the week. I have trained predominantly 2 days a week for the last few years and I found squatting on both days worked really well for me. Maybe add some Bulgarian split squats to you second session.

1 Like
6

The squats won’t be using BBB. Front squat BBB supersetted with back squats would be suicide. I’ll just be doing it for the AMRAP sets to get extra work in.

7

I tested it out on squats a couple times and, while it was super intense, I felt it was doable. I suppose the only way to know long term is continually testing it.

Noted. I’ll add that in.