Has anyone tried putting 4 days worth of lifts into 2 days?
Lets say you do the typical 531 program.
Mon- Squat + accessories
Tue - Bench + accessories
Thu - DL + accessories
Fri - OHP + accessories
Long term, would it make it a difference to do:
Mon AM - Squat + accessories
Mon PM - Bench + accessories
Thu AM - DL + accessories
Thu PM - OHP + accessories
I’m guessing since the same amount of work is going into it, over the long haul it shouldn’t make a difference or would it?
I tried it for 2-3 cycles and it wore me down. It was fine when I felt fresh and had good days, but over time I had more bad PM workouts than good PM workouts.
I switched to a 6-week per cycle two-day-a-week plan and it has been much better for me.
That’s obviously just my experience with it.
At this exact moment, 2 of the top three questions asked on the Jim Wendler forum are exactly that.
Go take a look.
I think you would have better luck doing your heavy lifts in the same session and keeping your assistance work on a separate session. So like, squat and bench in the AM, do assistance for both on the PM. Easier to bring the intensity for heavy lifts at just one session vs trying to light that fire twice in one day.
Op any reason you want to try it?
I don’t know how I’d feel about doing the two major lifts at different points in the day, but as someone pointed out earlier go to the Jim Wendler sub-forum and you’ll find some great information.
I’ll throw in my own two cents, however.
If you’re going to train 2 big lifts in one day and lift 2x/week, you’ll need to be very picky with your accessory choices. This means, if you don’t think it will have direct carryover or is bringing up a serious lagging muscle group I wouldn’t advise doing it. Here’s an example of a 2x/week 531 template you could try.
Day 1
Squat - 531
Bench - 531
Good Morning (or SLDL or RDL)
Row (Barbell, T-Bar, or Dumbbell)
Bicep (Hammer, Barbell, or Incline DB)
Day 2
Deadlift - 531
OHP - 531
Front Squat (or High Bar or Paused Squat)
Chin-up (or Pull-up, Hammer grip, Lat Pulldown)
Tricep (Close-grip Bench, Dips, or Skullcrusher)
I’ll be working out with my fiancé now. We have different goals (Olympic lifting for me and general get into shape for her).
So I figured I would do my main strength training 2 days a week and then my Olympic lifting 2 days. I found Pendlay’s super total template and will be using that.
Hey man that’s a great setup. I will be doing something very similar but will be spread out 2 days. 2 days general strength training + conditioning and 2 days Olympic lifting
Sounds like a good plan. I want to add that it would actually be better to substitute the tricep exercise on day 2 with a flat dumbbell bench press so you can get some chest work in on both days, but close grip or dips would work just as well. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that on my first post. All that pressing should be adequate for tricep growth.