Training Only on Weekends

Hey Jim, I need your help.
I’m currently in the army (I live in Israel we serve 3 years) and am in basic training.
I do not have access to the army gym untill I’m done with basic training. Which is for another 4-5 months. The army itself doesn’t fatigue me or anything so this is not a problem. I come home nearly every weekend for 2 days - Friday and Saturday.

How would you recommend programming my training to try and maintain as much strength as possible? I was thinking maybe doing Squats and DL 5/3/1 on Friday and maybe a little bit of assistance work, and then BP and OHP 5/3/1 on Saturday with a bit of assistance work, going for Joker Sets in every lift if I’m not having a horrible day.

If it matters at all my competition PRs are SQ 474, BP 242 (had a bad day, I benched 254 at the gym a week everlier) and DL 488 - also bad day, I probably have a 500 in me, and 165 OHP (did it in the warmup room after the Deadlift)

I would do one upper body movement and one lower body movement per day. Obviously you would be a bit fatigued on the second day, so pick your worst movements for day one when you are fresh. Hit a couple of jokers if you feel good, FSL for extra work on the main lifts, and then whatever assistance work you feel you need.

You should be able to kill it on both days and recover all week. Don’t forget to do mobility work during the week.

Good luck!

[quote]JoeyWaters wrote:
I would do one upper body movement and one lower body movement per day. Obviously you would be a bit fatigued on the second day, so pick your worst movements for day one when you are fresh. Hit a couple of jokers if you feel good, FSL for extra work on the main lifts, and then whatever assistance work you feel you need.

You should be able to kill it on both days and recover all week. Don’t forget to do mobility work during the week.

Good luck![/quote]
Wouldn’t it be noneffective to DL on Friday and then Squat on Saturday? would I be able to maintain strength this way on the day 2 lifts? And also I think maybe this way I should skip assistance on Friday to be fresher on Saturday, don’t you think

Also, I have no time for mobility, we have 2 30 minute breaks each day and I use them to go to the toilet mostly…

[quote]yanivgoft wrote:
Wouldn’t it be noneffective to DL on Friday and then Squat on Saturday? would I be able to maintain strength this way on the day 2 lifts? And also I think maybe this way I should skip assistance on Friday to be fresher on Saturday, don’t you think

Also, I have no time for mobility, we have 2 30 minute breaks each day and I use them to go to the toilet mostly… [/quote]

I know for me it would be pretty brutal to do that. I’d say do the upper/lower boring but big split. So do both bench/press one day, and squat/deadlift the next. My 2 cents.

If I were you I would do bench Friday squat Saturday… Whatever assistance you feel is needed… Then following week do OH press Friday deadlift Saturday … An just alternate … An progress the same… Nice thing is you should always be fresh and ready to kill it come Friday! Just my opinion good luck

[quote]MightyMouse17 wrote:

[quote]yanivgoft wrote:
Wouldn’t it be noneffective to DL on Friday and then Squat on Saturday? would I be able to maintain strength this way on the day 2 lifts? And also I think maybe this way I should skip assistance on Friday to be fresher on Saturday, don’t you think

Also, I have no time for mobility, we have 2 30 minute breaks each day and I use them to go to the toilet mostly… [/quote]

I know for me it would be pretty brutal to do that. I’d say do the upper/lower boring but big split. So do both bench/press one day, and squat/deadlift the next. My 2 cents. [/quote]
Today I did Squat 5/3/1+jokers, press 5/3/1+jokers and bench 5/3/1 cause I won’t work out tomorrow…
I guess I can do the bench and press BBB but SQ and DL BBB on the same day? I won’t survive that…
Also I plan on starting to work on my pushups (I am tested for them…) should it affect my training? Maybe bench a little less?

I really want to know what Jim thinks I should do… I think I’ll just wait for his reply, everybody is telling me I should do completely different things…

[quote]yanivgoft wrote:
I really want to know what Jim thinks I should do… I think I’ll just wait for his reply[/quote]
Effective Training for Busy Men by Jim Wendler:

Page Two, “Weekend Only Training”.

I’m pretty sure that’s a copout. See above link, Page Two, “Daily Habits”.

[quote]Rupert531 wrote:
If I were you I would do bench Friday squat Saturday… Whatever assistance you feel is needed… Then following week do OH press Friday deadlift Saturday … An just alternate … An progress the same… Nice thing is you should always be fresh and ready to kill it come Friday! Just my opinion good luck [/quote]

This would be my suggestion, you do the 5/3/1 smash your PR, some jokers sets to, and then another opposing exercise afterwards, IE squat then bench using smaller percentages of your TM.

Just to add that’s just what I would do, might not work for you and I am of course not Jim, but giving it a try might not be the worst idea in the world as you will only know if it works once you try it.

[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:

[quote]yanivgoft wrote:
I really want to know what Jim thinks I should do… I think I’ll just wait for his reply[/quote]
Effective Training for Busy Men by Jim Wendler:

Page Two, “Weekend Only Training”.

I’m pretty sure that’s a copout. See above link, Page Two, “Daily Habits”.[/quote]

Keep things simple, do what the article says and make substitutions for the exercises as needed (e.g. no SS Yoke bar? Use hack squats or leg press instead). And for the mobility stuff, I’m sure you could find time to do something abbreviated. Bret Contreras wrote a great article on ‘5 Things you Should do Every Day’, it takes less than 10 minutes to do and would likely be sufficient - and it should be considered the absolute bare minimum.

[quote]yanivgoft wrote:

[quote]JoeyWaters wrote:
I would do one upper body movement and one lower body movement per day. Obviously you would be a bit fatigued on the second day, so pick your worst movements for day one when you are fresh. Hit a couple of jokers if you feel good, FSL for extra work on the main lifts, and then whatever assistance work you feel you need.

You should be able to kill it on both days and recover all week. Don’t forget to do mobility work during the week.

Good luck![/quote]
Wouldn’t it be noneffective to DL on Friday and then Squat on Saturday? would I be able to maintain strength this way on the day 2 lifts? And also I think maybe this way I should skip assistance on Friday to be fresher on Saturday, don’t you think

Also, I have no time for mobility, we have 2 30 minute breaks each day and I use them to go to the toilet mostly… [/quote]

It’s naive to think that you can increase all 4 lifts at once. Even when training 3 or 4 days a week it’s best to push 1 or 2 lifts hard and let the others coast a bit.

I prefer to perform all 4 lifts in a week, regardless of the time I have to do it in, thus my suggestion. Day 2 might be difficult at first, but your body would adapt. If John Broz and his lifters can squat heavy 7 days a week, then pulling one day and squatting the next shouldn’t hurt you.

Finally, 5/3/1 is about training optimally, not necessarily maximally. So, if your program is set up so that you honestly can’t handle all 4 lifts over two days, then reassess your program.

Let us know what you decide and how it goes. I hope you find a template you like.

Maybe you could structure 5/3/1 similar to these workouts from an article here on T-Nation called “Weekend Training for the Busy Guy” (found with the search function; go figure).

[quote]JoeyWaters wrote:
I would do one upper body movement and one lower body movement per day. Obviously you would be a bit fatigued on the second day, so pick your worst movements for day one when you are fresh. Hit a couple of jokers if you feel good, FSL for extra work on the main lifts, and then whatever assistance work you feel you need.

You should be able to kill it on both days and recover all week. Don’t forget to do mobility work during the week.

Good luck![/quote]

What he said.
Day 1 = DL & OHP
Day 2 = Squat and Bench

Prioritize whichever lifts you want first on day 1. You don’t have to pair those exercises if you don’t want. But if you wanted to prioritize DL and OHP you could use the above split. You could switch things up every couple cycles by changing your day 1 and day 2 lifts. Go for three cycles and swap Day 2 and Day 1.

I would do something like this template which is in one of Jim’s books, 6 Week Challenge. I wouldn’t increase the 5x10% and just keep it to 50% or maybe start 40% since training 2 days in a row.

Week 1
Squat 5/3/1
Deadlift 5x10
Goodmornings 3-5x10
Abs

Bench 5/3/1
Press 5x10
Lats 5x10
other assistence if you want ie curls, triceps, facepulls

Kind of a BBB template but over 6 weeks but you wouldn’t need a deload week training only twice a week.

[quote]youngoldguy wrote:
Maybe you could structure 5/3/1 similar to these workouts from an article here on T-Nation called “Weekend Training for the Busy Guy” (found with the search function; go figure).

This article is talking about a 3 day weekend. My weekend is 2 days long…

[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:

[quote]yanivgoft wrote:
I really want to know what Jim thinks I should do… I think I’ll just wait for his reply[/quote]
Effective Training for Busy Men by Jim Wendler:

Page Two, “Weekend Only Training”.

I’m pretty sure that’s a copout. See above link, Page Two, “Daily Habits”.[/quote]
Thanks dude, I think that’s what I’ll do. I won’t deload and do 6 week cycles of 5/3/1 with the 2nd version of BBB, only I won’t do the 5X10 Bench Press because I’m doing a lot of pushups throughout the week, and I’ll substitute it with dumbbell BP for the BBB work. What are your thoughts about it? Am I right or should I still do Bench Press 5X10?
I think I’ll do something like this:
Week 1:
Friday:
Deadlift 5/3/1+Jokers,FSL
Squat 5X10
Good Mornings 5X10
Abs
Saturday:
Press 5/3/1+Jokers, FSL
Dumbbell bench 5X10
Chins 5X10
Dumbell Rows 5X10
Biceps

And then week 2:
Friday:
Squat 5/3/1+Jokers,FSL
Deadlift 5X10
Good Morning 5X10
Abs
Saturday:
Bench 5/3/1+jokers,FSL
Press 5X10
Chins 5X10
Dumbbell Rows 5X10
biceps

Also, should I raise my TM every cycle or should I just keep it the same and just try and maintain what I already have?

[quote]yanivgoft wrote:
Hey Jim, I need your help.
I’m currently in the army (I live in Israel we serve 3 years) and am in basic training.
I do not have access to the army gym untill I’m done with basic training. Which is for another 4-5 months. The army itself doesn’t fatigue me or anything so this is not a problem. I come home nearly every weekend for 2 days - Friday and Saturday.

How would you recommend programming my training to try and maintain as much strength as possible? I was thinking maybe doing Squats and DL 5/3/1 on Friday and maybe a little bit of assistance work, and then BP and OHP 5/3/1 on Saturday with a bit of assistance work, going for Joker Sets in every lift if I’m not having a horrible day.

If it matters at all my competition PRs are SQ 474, BP 242 (had a bad day, I benched 254 at the gym a week everlier) and DL 488 - also bad day, I probably have a 500 in me, and 165 OHP (did it in the warmup room after the Deadlift)[/quote]

You can try any of the following:

2 Day/Week - option 1
2 Day/Week - option 2

Variations of Option 2: 2x2x2 programming, 5’s PRO, BBB, Hellhammer 5’s

Variations of Option 1: Jokers, FSL, any of the basic set/rep combos

Variations of Option 2: nick the assistance and do Spinal Tap set/reps

I’m not sure which one is right for you - only you know that. But not sure why you want to maintain strength. Your words were “the army doesn’t fatigue me”. So not sure why you don’t want to get stronger but that’s your own thing.

Good luck and stay safe.

[quote]Jim Wendler wrote:

[quote]yanivgoft wrote:
Hey Jim, I need your help.
I’m currently in the army (I live in Israel we serve 3 years) and am in basic training.
I do not have access to the army gym untill I’m done with basic training. Which is for another 4-5 months. The army itself doesn’t fatigue me or anything so this is not a problem. I come home nearly every weekend for 2 days - Friday and Saturday.

How would you recommend programming my training to try and maintain as much strength as possible? I was thinking maybe doing Squats and DL 5/3/1 on Friday and maybe a little bit of assistance work, and then BP and OHP 5/3/1 on Saturday with a bit of assistance work, going for Joker Sets in every lift if I’m not having a horrible day.

If it matters at all my competition PRs are SQ 474, BP 242 (had a bad day, I benched 254 at the gym a week everlier) and DL 488 - also bad day, I probably have a 500 in me, and 165 OHP (did it in the warmup room after the Deadlift)[/quote]

You can try any of the following:

2 Day/Week - option 1
2 Day/Week - option 2

Variations of Option 2: 2x2x2 programming, 5’s PRO, BBB, Hellhammer 5’s

Variations of Option 1: Jokers, FSL, any of the basic set/rep combos

Variations of Option 2: nick the assistance and do Spinal Tap set/reps

I’m not sure which one is right for you - only you know that. But not sure why you want to maintain strength. Your words were “the army doesn’t fatigue me”. So not sure why you don’t want to get stronger but that’s your own thing.

Good luck and stay safe.[/quote]
Because I don’t think I can get stronger with these workouts. If I can even get stronger that would be fantastic, my goal is just to try and keep what I already have till I finish Basic Training.

I don’t think I quite understand what you wrote… Do I do one option? Do I do 1 option one week and the second the next week?