Im starting a new job where I work 12 hours a day for 8 days, then I have 6 days off
I usually wont have the time or energy to get a substantial workout in on my days on.
What sort of program would you recommend for this arrangement? Have been using the best damn…for natural lifters but feel that it may not be ideal for this.
Well, regardless of the program you will be selecting it will be hard to make significant programm if you train 6 days in a row then don’t train for 8 days. The gains stimulated on the 6 days of training will likely be lost during the 8 days off, especially since the stress of work will likely be high.
I see two solutions:
Manage to put it 2 sessions on your 8 days of work. With the “Best damn…” the volume is low and training time short, so you can pull it off. YES performance will not be as good and you probably wont stimulate much growth, but you will at least not lose the gains stimulated over your 6 days of training.
Use a mega surcompensation approach. When I was training a lot of elite athletes they often had a 1 week vacation in the middle of their off-season. What we did was do a metric ton of volume the week prior to the vacation, by the end of that week they would actually show signs of overtraining. That way during the “off week”, instead of losing their gains, they would recover and rebuild what they stimulated but couldn’t rebuild during the intense week.
Although I never tried it, it could work in your situation.
During the 6 days off I would do a high volume of work. You can even do 2 workouts a day.
Poliquin wrote about super accumulation here: The Super-Accumulation Program
That could give you an idea of what training to do
Thanks Christian, much appreciated