I’m curious to see anyone’s experience with training every other day. I’m 34, soon to be 35, and although this is by far the strongest I’ve been in my life, I have reached a point where it’s taking me longer to recover from a training session. My nutrition, supplements, rest, and recovery protocols are solid. I follow the five basic principles of 531.Whether or not stretching a four day program over the course of eight days would benefit my overall recovery is unknown. Any experience or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I think you can easily turn any 4 day program into a 3 day repeating workouts every 9 days. I did this with Pervertor as and it worked well. You just have to be patient. I also tried to hit single leg work or sled on upper body days to keep workouts “full body”. It worked well for me at 32.
I also do much better with three days a week of weight training. That said, I would try to get another 2-3 conditioning/mobility (yoga) sessions in each to week to further help with recovery and overall results.
I’ve always tried and will continue to remain open minded about training. Although a three day program isn’t “Every other day” I can’t ignore how effective and recommend three day programs have been for others. I’m willing to give it a try.
Only 27 here but have some issues that compromise recovery and set lifetime PR’s with Coffinworm 3 days a week. I did well with twice a week even. It can be done and done well.
A 4-day program is 4/7 days. If you decide to go with EOD, it’s 4/8. Not much of a difference, but it is a difference of about 25 lifting days/year. I wouldn’t worry about it too much though, especially if it allows for optimal recovery.
I have been doing EOD for a while now; it fits my busy schedule and lackluster sleep/recovery. It also allows a little more free time for family. I have actually made better progress with this schedule than with a 4 or 5 day/week training regimen.
I use the “real” every-other-day; in other words 4 days out of 8. At age 51 I have few major recovery issues. And shifting a lift day forward or back is no big deal when life gets in the way.
This is why I’m starting to like 4-day programs stretched out rather than 3-day programs. Usually the 3-day programs tend to hinge on at least 1 day between sessions, whereas 4-day programs usually don’t.
Many years of “ 10 day weeks”. Every other day for 4 days of programmed lifting. Then 2 days off. Then repeat. I would also program what worked best for me. Day 1 squat, Day 3 BP, Day 5 DL, Day 7 press.
Day 8&9 recovering. If your going to be lifting for years, don’t sweat the numbers of days in a Year lifting. The stronger you get , and the more you lift , the more recovery is needed. A difficult goal is lifting the lowest weights to get the most training effect possible.
Good luck