only have two days/week in the weight room, how should I combine?

Alphasaurusrex

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Hello everybody,

I have lurked the forums for about a year now, constantly learning and what not; and have never found the need to post- until now. I am going to start my first full time semester in college and I am only going to have time to hit the weight room twice a week, due to the fact that I'm taking six classes PLUS a lab.

I have weight training ''on-again-off-again'' for about two years, about a year ago I learned about compound lifts and how to increase strength and for the last six months I have put a conscious effort toward stepping it up since I am getting a better idea of wtf to do.

My main goal at the moment is to break 1,000 lbs on the combination of squat, deadlift and bench, while still being under 175 Lbs-I know, I know, its a wimpy goal, but I am a wimpy guy so it works out. I am currently more or less 100 lbs under that benchmark.

Also- I want to dunk, thus I have focused most of the effort of my lower body days toward exercises that are supposed to help with vertical leap, such as supersetting squats with box jumps and doing squat jumps. I also try to do all the exercises standing- forcing my core to do more work (evidently I can't bench/squat standing.)

My program has involved a combination of WSFSB, since I am a skinny bastard myself, and 5/3/1. I do my compound lifts based 5/3/1, acc for 5x10 and heavy sets with 3x6 based on a max effort/dynamic effort four day split.

I used to have four days available in the weight room, so I would do: Max effort Lower-M, Dynamic effort Upper-T, OFF-W, Dynamic effort lower-R, Max effort Upper-F.

Anyway- onto the question:

Since I am only going to be able to be in the gym for two days a week until December, how would I most efficiently group together my workouts?

I thought up of some templates:
1- all dynamic work on one day/all max effort work on another day.
-or-
2- all lower body work on on day/all upper body work on another day.
-or-
3- dynamic upper with max effort lower one day/dynamic lower with max upper on another day.

I know there are some very knowledgeable guys on these forums and hopefully they can point me in the right direction.

Cheers =)
 
I would do just 5/3/1 and squat and bench on one day, and deadlift and overhead press the other. Or vice versa. Maybe one or two assistance lifts after.
 
- 2 day split from the FAQ
- Starting Strength or Stronglifts 5x5 done 2 days/week instead of 3 days/week
- 5/3/1 done 2 days/week. You can either combine press/deads and bench/squat like rckvl suggested or just do press and deads one week then bench and squats the next (obviously this will make each wave/cycle take twice as long)

For more options see this thread:
http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f13/faq-update-beginner-intermediate-routines-1210858/

snarky comment: you've been lurking for a while and never thought to read the FAQ or use the search?
 
Also...

....
I also try to do all the exercises standing- forcing my core to do more work (evidently I can't bench/squat standing.)
...

images
 
I would do just 5/3/1 and squat and bench on one day, and deadlift and overhead press the other. Or vice versa. Maybe one or two assistance lifts after.

This. Wendler includes a 2 day split in his book specifically for people with limited training time. Buy it now, thank me later.:icon_chee
 
I did read the FAQs, and I appreciate the input, maybe I wasn't clear with what I wanted to say, because I'm still not sure on what I should do:

I want to do dynamic work and max effort work for upper pushing and pulling muscles as well as my posterior chain/core. The FAQ doesn't really say anything about incorporating dynamic work into a two day split, I understand this is the STRENGTH and conditioning forum, not the strength power and conditioning forum.

One thing I did notice about the FAQ is that most of those routines are based around maximal strength output and not rate of force development. Since I am interested in increasing power as well as strength, I want to do dynamic work as well as ''traditional'' weight training.

@drBdan: I appreciate you catching me on that, I'm looking back at it now and I am trying to figure out wtf I wanted to say, lol.
 
I do my own routine, 2 days a week.

One day I squat + bench, other day I deadlift + bench. I usually do overhead press or jerks in place of bench 1-2 times a month. Been lifting like this for over a year and made pretty decent gains. ~60 pound squat, ~25 pound bench and ~40 pound deadlift in the last 12 months.

I mostly work in the 1-3 rep range and work in the 3-10 rep range from time to time.
 
I did read the FAQs, and I appreciate the input, maybe I wasn't clear with what I wanted to say, because I'm still not sure on what I should do:

I want to do dynamic work and max effort work for upper pushing and pulling muscles as well as my posterior chain/core. The FAQ doesn't really say anything about incorporating dynamic work into a two day split, I understand this is the STRENGTH and conditioning forum, not the strength power and conditioning forum.

One thing I did notice about the FAQ is that most of those routines are based around maximal strength output and not rate of force development. Since I am interested in increasing power as well as strength, I want to do dynamic work as well as ''traditional'' weight training.

@drBdan: I appreciate you catching me on that, I'm looking back at it now and I am trying to figure out wtf I wanted to say, lol.

At your level right now you don't need to be worrying about dynamic work, in my opinion.
 
Day1:

- Vertical jumps 5x3

- OHP 531

- DL 531

- Pullups 3 sets to failure


DAy 2:

- Broad jumps

- Bench 531

- Squat 531

- Pullups 3 sets to failure




If you have the energy you can mix in some dips and ab work. Dont' push it too hard on the last set of the 531 for every exercise when doing a split like this.
 
Agreed on DE part, most people will agree that at this point of your training it
 
Thanks for the reply guys,

Why shouldn't I worry about dynamic work though?

I know I am not strong at all, but before I starting doing 531 combined with dynamic work, I focused only on my strength- and whenever I would want to play sports like basketball or soccer (which I love but rarely get to play) I felt uncoordinated and slow as hell.

Since I started doing some dynamic work and I feel a lot more agile, I don't know if it could be a mental thing though.
 
Thanks for the reply guys,

Why shouldn't I worry about dynamic work though?

I know I am not strong at all, but before I starting doing 531 combined with dynamic work, I focused only on my strength- and whenever I would want to play sports like basketball or soccer (which I love but rarely get to play) I felt uncoordinated and slow as hell.

Since I started doing some dynamic work and I feel a lot more agile, I don't know if it could be a mental thing though.

Communicating strength quickly, or powerfully, is a function of strength. I don't remember what your numbers are. But, if you are weak, you need to firstly establish your base level of strength, before you start assigning it qualities.

Think of it like a house. Right now, your house is small and has one room. You need to build a nice big house, with five rooms, a couple bathrooms, a pool outside, etc etc. But, when you only have one room, you can't necessarily make it be five different things.
 
I don't have any videos of it, but...

@165 lbs BW my numbers- as of one month or less ago are:
PRs:
Back squat- 310, last friday actually.
Deadlift- 345, <1 month ago.
Flat bench- 205 <1 month ago.
SOHP- 175 <1 month ago.
Powerclean- 175 <1 month ago. (first time ever power cleaning.)

I know I am weak, but I am also very light for being 6', currently I am @171lbs BW (as of this morning) I'm working on reaching 185 lbs of BW though.

But seriously, I suck at gaining weight.

Cheers =)
 
Whoaaaa, wtf?

Ok- thats weird,

I remember trying to make an account a long, long time ago- but I never got the confirmation email, so I tried again.

I don't even know what to say- lol.
 
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