Whether it’s bulking, maintaining or cutting, I’ve been following the same training program for about a year now, tweaking the exercises once in a while to add some variety.
Currently, I’m on a Legs, Push, Pull, Off routine, which looks similar to this:
Day 1: Legs
Day 2: Chest, shoulder & triceps
Day 3: Back & biceps
Day 4: Off
Day 5: Legs
Day 6: Chest, shoulder & triceps
Day 7: Back & biceps
Day 8: Off
Some brief notes on the workouts:
This is just the basic principle of the program. After every 2nd leg day, I’ll switch between strength (higher weights, lower reps) and volume (lower weights, higher reps). To further add variety, I have 2 different Legs workout (one based around squat, the other around deadlift), 3 different push workouts and 3 different pull workouts, all based around different compound exercises but that’s a more detailed discussion for another time.
But why?
The main advantage of this program, and primarily the main reason why I’m still using it, is that I am able to train each bodypart twice a week. Now, we all know that post-resistance training, our muscle cells experience Muscle Protein Synthesis (the breakdown, repair and growth of muscle cells), which is also known as the ‘sore’. Additionally, there was a study conducted that showed that MPS returned to baseline approximately 36 hours post-resistance training. What does this mean?
This indicates that the chest that you just tore apart on Monday’s workout is probably not doing anything for your cup size by Friday (P.S. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is not an accurate indication of muscle protein synthesis; you could be sore for a week, but that doesn’t mean your chest is experiencing the big bang effect). So why not hit chest again on Friday to restart the MPS?
One additional point to keep in mind is, this is assuming anabolic steroids are not involved, as anabolic steroids increases the MPS which basically means, you could train each bodypart once a week and still reap the full benefit of the MPS.
How to implement 2x-a-week training frequency?
A slow transition is the key to prevent excessive DOMS. Start off by reducing the volume of your workouts and increasing the intensity of each exercise. E.g. on Legs day 1, you could reduce the number of exercises you perform and increase the intensity of each exercise (as you would be less fatigued) then on Legs day 2 you could perform the exercises you removed from Legs day 1 with much higher intensity. Perhaps the most noticeable difference is now, you can do squats and deadlifts at full intensity as you’re no longer fatigued by one or the other. Once you feel like you can recover in time for 2x-a-week training adequately, you can start adding volume back to your workouts. Try it out and hit me on Facebook if you have any questions!
What? You don't train 6 times a week? That's fine! 2x-a-week training frequency also works for people who go to the gym 3 or 4 days a week. You could do a Upper/Lower body split (4 days a week). You can even alternate between Upper and Lower body training for those going to the gym 3 days a week.
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