Training on Imperfect Schedules

by

Andy Baker

One of the issues I deal with regularly, both here at the gym as well as with my online clients, are
schedules that don’t necessarily allow for the perfect training routine.

It’s funny how our bosses, our businesses, our customers, and our families seemingly never “get
on board” with our training schedules! The nerve!

The reality is that a solid barbell based strength training program takes a lot of TIME to
administer properly.

For most novice and early intermediate trainees, the preferred schedule is the standard Mon-
Weds-Fri routine, working the fully body at each session with 3 major barbell exercises and
perhaps 1-2 assistance exercises with bodyweight, dumbbells, or machines.

When I start with a new novice client the workouts in this format are generally pretty short and
sweet. At their level of strength, they can move pretty fast through all the warm up and work
sets because they haven’t yet developed the ability to severely tax their body yet with their work
sets. Rest time can be kept down to 2-3 minutes and there aren’t a whole lot of warm up sets yet
in the workout.

To get through an entire full body workout of Squats, Presses, and Deadlifts may only take 40-45
minutes during the first couple of weeks if we aren’t messing around.

As the client grows in strength however, there is the need for both additional rest time between
work sets (now 5-8 minutes usually) and there is an increased number of warm up sets.

The time drain isn’t limited to just the workout either. It’s the recovery time afterward. I don’t
know about you, but when I get done with a heavy squat and deadlift session, my brain is no
good in the immediate aftermath. Tack on a Prowler workout to the end of the lifting session
and I’m toasted for at least an hour or so post workout. Nothing productive is likely to happen.

Most people are looking at a minimum of 90 minutes to get through a heavy full body barbell
based training session after their first few months of training. When you include drive time to
and from the gym, showering/eating, and a built in buffer time for your brain to come back on-
line, there is a serious challenge in getting in the preferred fully body workout 3 days per week.

I’d say for the majority of 30+ working adults it’s a constant challenge to get everything in
consistently.

What I have generally found is that most clients can set aside the time for the longer workouts
twice per week, but 3 times per week is a challenge when trying to balance the training time
with their work and family lives. A lot of my online clients in particular tend to train once on
the weekends (Saturday or Sunday) and then once during the week (often Wednesday), and find
they can do so without having to rush through their workouts.

The reality is that twice per week training works very well.

At the gym, most of my clients train on either Mon/Thurs or Tues/Fri. These are the two
preferred schedules as it balances out the workload evenly over the course of the week.
Especially for my clients over 40 (and that number continues to grow) a twice weekly training
schedule might actually be preferable to 3 days per week.

A typical training week looks like this for a strength focused trainee:

Day 1: Squat / Bench Press / Upper Back (Chin, Lat Pull, Row, etc) / Specialty Exercise (1 or
2)*

Day 2: Squat / Press / Deadlift / Specialty Exercise (1 or 2)*

(*Specialty exercises are individualized assistance exercises that we select for each clients’ weak
point or perceived weak point. Often these exercises are for the triceps, biceps, the abs, extra
lat/upper back work, or some sort of DB Press for added upper body mass).

For clients that have been training a long time we switch up exercises more often, but we can
stay within this solid basic template. It is almost universally applicable for novices and
intermediates. Sets and Reps are completely dependent on each individual trainee, so I’m not
going to go through all those details here.

As a client progresses out of the novice and early intermediate strength focus, their attention
often turns to physique – especially upper body development in the case of many male clients.
Now that they are strong, they want to use that strength to build a better looking body. Here is
how I have structured a twice weekly schedule for someone who wants to focus a little more on
upper body development and physique and less on just pure strength:

Monday: Squats + Chest / Delt / Tricep

Thursday: Deadlifts + Back / Biceps

An example week might look like this:

Monday:

 Squats 1 x 3-8, 2-3 x 10-15

 Bench Press 1 x 3-8, 2-3 x 8-12
 Seated DB Press 3-4 x 8-12
 Dips 3-4 x 10-15
Thursday:

 Pull Ups – 5 sets to failure

 Deadlifts 1 x 3-8, 2-3 x 8-12
 Barbell Rows 3-4 x 8-12
 Barbell Curls 3-4 x 10-12

I also have a “general” fitness template that I utilize for clients who have kind of graduated from
pure strength training into something that challenges not just their strength, but their
cardiovascular and muscular endurance. This is just an old-school “supersetting routine” but
don’t be fooled, it is a bear to get through. This type of training tends to be very popular among
my female clients, but many men enjoy this as well. It is quite literally a change of pace.

Here is an example week:

Day 1: Quads / Upper body Pull / Abs

 Squats + Chins or Assisted Chins – 5 sets each

 Weighted Step Up + Barbell Rows – 4 sets each
 Decline Sit Ups + Barbell Curls – 3 sets each

Day 2: Post Chain / Upper body Push / Abs

 Deadlifts + Standing Overhead Press – 5 sets each

 KB Swings + Push Ups – 4 sets each
 Hanging or Lying Leg Raises + Lying Tricep Extensions – 3 sets each.

Templates like this are great for general fitness trainees as they are almost infinitely
customizable, allow for tons of variety, but still include the tried and true basics on a weekly
basis.

For many of us 3 or 4 heavy barbell based strength workouts might be ideal, but the constraints
of our careers and family lives simply prevent us from putting in that many serious gym days
each week.

For this type of client we generally set aside two days per week that are evenly spread out by 2-3
days of rest. Mon/Thurs, Tues/Fri, or Weds/Sat are set ups that work well. During these
sessions clients will train the full-body with 3-4 compound exercises and maybe 1 or 2 assistance
lifts to work on a perceived weak point. These types of workouts, if done right will usually
average about 90 minutes in length. If you push the pace and focus you might be able to squeeze
the session into an hour. If you like to take your time, talk to your gym buddies, or gaze at
yourself in the mirror for extended periods of time, it might push 2 hours.

Other clients that I work with, are really stretched for time each and every day of the week.
Long office hours with a brutal commute on each end plus kids activities on the weekends mean
that this client might do better with a shorter, more focused workout performed more frequently.
 In other words, this client has a really difficult time carving out 1-2 hours at any point during his
or her work week.

No problem. I have solutions for that too.

In my early 20s, I was very focused on bodybuilding type training and one of the more effective
routines I ever used was the old “one body part per day” routine. That type of routine is can be
very effective for someone with really limited gym availability. In fact, you can narrow it down
even further to just one lift per day if you are really pressed for time. Below is an example of
how one might organize their training into a 5 or 6 day per week plan:

Monday: Chest

Tuesday: Back (upper back focus)

Wednesday: Quads

Thursday: Shoulders

Friday: Arms

Saturday: Hamstrings/Lower Back

If thinking in terms of “body part” bothers you, then you can essentially accomplish the same
thing by breaking it down into lifts. To keep things really really simple, do one primary lift for
strength, and one secondary lift for hypertrophy. An example routine is below:

Monday: Bench Press or Incline Bench Press 5 x 5; Dips 3 x 10-12

Tuesday: Weighted Pull Ups 5 x 5: One Arm DB Rows 3 x 10-12 or Barbell Rows 4 x 8; Lat
Pulldowns 3 x 10-12

Wednesday: Squats 5 x 5; Leg Press 3 x 15-20

Thursday: Press 5 x 5; DB Press 3 x 10-12

Friday: Barbell Curl 4 x 8-12; Lying Extension 4 x 10-15 (you don’t really need a strength lift
for direct arm work)

Saturday: Deadlifts 2 x 5; Glute Ham Raise or Back Extension 3 x 15

A simple routine such as the one above could realistically be accomplished through 20-45 minute
workouts. The longer workouts for the heavier days such as Bench Presses, Squats, and
Deadlifts and the shorter workouts for things like Shoulders, Arms, and Upper back work.
To simplify even further, drop the secondary assistance lifts and just perform a series of higher
rep back off sets of the main lift. In a format like this, you’d basically perform 3-5 heavy sets in
the 3-6 rep range and then follow that up with 2-4 additional sets in the 8-20 rep range for
hypertrophy. If you aren’t interested in the higher rep hypertrophy work just do the strength
work and go home. That’ll work too.

One final variation is for those who want to both Squat and Deadlift with a little more frequency
during the week. Since Deadlifts can be adequately trained with just a single heavy set, it
doesn’t place that much more of a time demand on your workout to place them directly after
squats when not much of a warm up is needed to work your way up to the main set.

An easy to follow set up would look like this:

Monday: Squat & Deadlift

Tuesday: Bench

Wednesday: Squat

Thursday: Press

Friday: Squat & Deadlift

Saturday: Accessory Upper body (upper back, biceps, triceps, etc)

Any of these routines can work well for clients who want to put an emphasis on cardio work as
well. If you can get your strength work done in 20-40 minutes that leaves another 20-40 minutes
to hit some cardio work and you are in and out of the gym in an hour having accomplished your
strength and conditioning goals for the day.