I’m curious for people that have trained only two times a week what was your results like? Did you get stronger? Did you gain muscle? Did you enjoy it?
Currently shifted my 3 days to 2 days due to time constraints. It’s only my first week so can’t really say yet. I’ll let you know after a month (if I remember)
I’m currently on my second week of the 531 Rest Pause Challenge. I enjoy it a lot and feel fresh for each workout, just hoping its enough volume to stimulate growth.
Hey man, new to the site (first post, actually) and have been lifting for 6 years, 5/3/1-ing for 4 years, going 2 days a week for a little over a year. Went to 2 days a week because I kept getting run down on 3- and 4-day programs, 5/3/1 or otherwise. Now I enjoy the recovery and the extra time I get back in my life by only lifting twice a week.
Body comp wise (InBody measured, so take it with a grain of salt or 50) went from 192 @ 19.7% BF to currently 202 @ 17.3% BF in the 1.3 years I’ve been lifting twice a week. I’ll have to go through my papers at home for lift progress but I feel stronger and healthier than I’ve ever been.
Lift progress has been slow and steady. Went 8 cycles before re-setting TM’s and starting the Limited Time template from Forever. I’ll have to edit this with rep records but TM’s went from (SBDP) 350-250-405-135 to 420-285-475-170. Current TM’s are lower, but I still feel that I’m progressing well.
4 days a week is potentially better if every aspect of training/life/genetics are perfect, but I think it’s harder to fuck up training 2 days a week and that’s the draw for me.
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Damn, thanks for sharing. It’s much appreciated.
I’ve been doing it for two weeks now and before this I ran 4 day a week routines for years, I guess when you switch to two days a week you kind of feel “lazy” in the sense your so used to going 4 days a week, and when you tell people you only train two days a week they look at you like your crazy.
Yeah, most people that act like you’re crazy should be doing 2x a week themselves anyway. Haha you’ll progress slower but feel better. My goal is to be good at lifting and awesome at life, which 2x a week seems to fit well.
I’ve been training twice a week for a few years now using 531 mostly. My fav template is the 2x2x2 set up which includes 2 days of conditioning as wells as two days of mobility training. A lot of progress can be made through training twice a week.
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I would feel progress wouldn’t be slower but maybe faster? With the 531 rest pause challenge you’re basically doing two main lifts a day twice a week. Your basically doing the same amount of work on the main lifts as you would on a 4 day.
Ah yeah that’s true. I’m doing Limited Time now but for a long time I did the 2x a week routine from Beyond where you only do 1 lift a day + assistance. Still working to change my mindset from a 6 week cycle to a 3 week cycle.
How has your body composition done on this type of split?
Haven’t really tracked it but I’m sure with the right diet you can get desirable results. If fat loss is a goal, maybe do some hard conditioning on those days. I personally just takes some long walks keeps my joints fresh for lifting.
I’ve dropped down to 2 days/wk for the last three or four years from May - October. This allows me to focus on summer activities I enjoy without feeling burnt out. I’ve been able to make progress most years or at the very least maintain strength until I go back to 3 days/wk. I’ve run a few different templates but found that option #1 from the original 5/3/1 book has worked best for me.
As a 42 year old with 2 young boys I find the extra recovery time is critical. I agree with garagerocker13, it’s hard to fuck up 2 days/wk and if your life is not in perpetual balance 4 days/wk can take its toll and stall progress.
As for body comp…absolutely zero negative effect!
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Most of my best training results have come from training 3 on 1 off…I know prior to training 2 on 1off I worried that slightly less frequency would be detrimental to my results…turns out I was wrong…3 on 1 off is the bomb (for me at least).
What template are you following?
Monday - Lower / Thursday - Upper as in Beyond
or
Monday- Squat/Bench / Thursday -Dead lift/Press
Jeff, not sure if you’re asking one of us specifically or just in general, but I’ve done both. Currently doing Monday B/S and Thursday P/D. Both work, the Beyond template lends itself to more emphasis on accessory/supplemental if you’re into that sort of thing (I struggled with programming ADD a bit with this and ended up putting too much focus on the accessory movements). The Forever template keeps a stronger emphasis on the main four lifts and my progress seems better with it. YMMV though.
Agreed, the main difference is the frequency of the main lifts. I personally train using the one lift per day template. For me it allows me to recover better than the other one and keeps training fresh by spreading out the lifts over 6 weeks vs 3. If you want a faster progression rate though I’d go to the 2 lift per day template. At the end of the day both styles work just depends on the person.
Thanks.
Being in my 60s recovery is becoming more of an issues even with proper diet and sleep. Just like to know how others routines look to get ideas.
We use a Krypteia-style program, 2 times/week, with the football program. Unless someone gets injured, everyone gets stronger.
it is amazing what happens when your stones are put to the test.
Hi Jim,
can you share the krypteia-style template for training 2 times/week please. I´m looking for something like that. I have the forever book and I did the phase 1 4 times/week and then the regular 3 times/week but now I don´t have that much time and looking for a solid 2 times/week template. Because I loved Kryteia I´m interested how do you structure the template and how do you set up the lifts, sets, reps etc.
Thank you very much!