I began a 4 day split 8 days ago. 2 weight workouts in the 4 day period alternated by core strength/speed/agility work a la Coach Davies.
The weight workouts were pretty intense. Split was Quads/Back/Bis, and Hammies/Chest/Shoulders/Tris with only compound lifts (Ass-to-the-grass squats, deadlifts, pullups, dips, bench press, clean and press). Rep range was 5-6, and total sets were 22-26. On the 4th day prior to core training I did calves/traps. I finish up every workout with 20 minutes of stretching. Core/agility/speed work consisted of situps (for military prep), Oblique work, Planks, standing on swiss ball for 3 minutes, jump rope, short sprints, and something my buddy who coaches Football showed me - there’s a line with a cross 1-2 feet from the beggining on the right side followed by another 1-2 feet from that point on the left side, and so forth, and I had to jump from point to point as fast as I could all the way to the end, and then backwards. I have a couple more agility/speed movements I’m working on, particularly the ones in coach Davies’ book.
Granted, it sounds crazy and I thought to myself this must be just a whim of stupidity, to think that much work in such a short split would do anything for me. However, without changing my diet, which has been maintenance calories, Berardi guidelines, my weight jumped from 201 lbs to 205.5 lbs in these 8 days (It actually went up to 207 lbs, and back down to 205.5 lbs probably due to water loss). My BF read 1.2% lower from 8 days ago as well.
Maybe I was actually undertraining on a 7 day split and that’s why I hadnt put on 1 lb of mass in the last 3.5 months? Anyhow the 4.5 lb mass gain is pretty interesting, as is the reduction of BF% in such a short period of time. I feel great too.