Hey all…requesting a little routine critique here.
For the last year I’ve been doing a full body routine 1 day per week, plus a day or two of cardio. I’ve been making small gains in strength and muscle size, but nothing dramatic. I workout at home with free weights, doing basic lifts: Bench, curls, shoulder press, one arm row and crunches. My leg work has been limited to some recovery exercises for a bad knee, body weight step ups and calf raises. I’m age 33, 158-160 lbs, 5’11" tall.
Now I’m interested in making more substantial gains in strength/mass. My big problem is that I am an airline pilot and my work schedule is less than ideal for exercising. Basically I am away from home for 2 to 4 days at a time, and then I’m off for 2 to 3. My schedule also changes monthly, so any set routine is impossible to adhere to. I usually do my full body workout on my first day off, rest my 2nd, and cardio on the 3rd. Occasionally I’ll get to add a cardio day during one of the 4 days I’m at work. Running bothers my knee so I limit my cardio workouts to 30 min of stationary bike or walking on an inclined treadmill.
I think the once a week workouts are hampering my progress so I’m thinking of changing my routine to 2 separate full body workouts done 2 to 3 times per week. Something like this:
Assuming I’m home days 1, 2, 3
Day 1: Full body A
Day 2: off
Day 3: Full body B
Day 4: away
Day 5: away
Day 6: away
Day 7: away
Then the following week I’ll swap the A and B workouts. Depending on my monthly work schedule I may be able to add a workout on Day 6 as well. This way I’ll be able to train each muscle group at least twice per week. If I work one muscle group hard on the A workout (like squats) then I could go easier on that muscle group in the B workout (dumbbell lunges or something like that).
Whudda ya think? Can I make this work or should I scratch it and try something else? Any ideas would be great. Thanks
I love full body workouts and am currently doing them 3x a week with great results. Since you only have one day off between workouts, try heavy exercises on day 1 and speed exercises on your second workout day. Maybe something like…
Can’t you work out while you are away? Don’t the hotels you stay at have workout facilities? Can’t you attend a gym at your destination by purchasing day passes? You could work out in your hotel room by doing pushups, pistols,abs, strectchbands, etc. Don’t make excuses, make time. Also check out Christian Thibaudeau’s article in issue 281 called “Part-Time Beast”.
Yes, I can workout while I’m away but not on any kind of regular basis. Thats why I’m thinking of the full body routines instead of something like a M/W/F split.
I’m somewhat limited by my home equipment (free weights/incline bench)as to what exercises I can perform. How’s this look for exercise selection:
Full body A
Squat
Hamstring Cur
Calf Raise
One arm row
Bench press
Lat raise
Crunch
Full body B
Lunge
Deadlift
One leg calf raise
Pull ups
Flys
Shoulder press
Exercise ball sit ups
The A workout will focus on quad/calf/chest and the B will focus on hamstring/back/shoulders. Is this going to be too much?
Yes, what are your goals, that is the most important question.
I went on every 4 days full body workout over a year ago, and gained 30 lbs of muscle in about 12 months.
But i focused on the most effective compound exercises:
Squats
Dips
Incline Presses
Chins/Pullups
Rows
Some ab work
You can do bodyweight versions of all these exersizes in your hotel room:
Squats (do one-leg squats, holding on a chair for support)
Dips (do chair dips)
Incline Presses (do pushups with your feet up on the bed)
Chins/Pullups (put a towel on the top of the door and do pullups)
Rows (you can tie a towel or rope around the doorknob and row your body)
Some ab work
Obviously i had a diet that went along with it. I didn’t do things like hamstring curls and flys because they are isolation exercises.
The reason you aren’t gaining big on your current routine is probably not just the frequency of workouts. Its that you aren’t squatting/deadlifting big (and probably diet).
But if your goal is just for more moderate gains, then i think the workout you proposed is fine.
P.S.
Be careful when following squats with deadlifts with only a 1-day recovery. Both exercises have the potential to heavily tax the spinal erectors, depending on the structure of your body.
check out the ‘functional training’ article when you search the archives on here, i think its the first one that comes up… it gives examples for strength gain program where you can workout almost 4-6 times per week, if you keep volume way down and only do 2-4 exercises each day… you can make alot of strength gains…
i do something like this, generally its:
each day (push, pull, legs),then maybe onthe next day just do power cleans and thats it, …
so you could bench/squat/push press in one day, its a good article check it out… ive been doing something like this and its really worked for me…
that way you could workout the 3 days you are off, and rest the four you are working…
really worked for me, low volume/heavy weights/full body type of stuff each day seems to work for me…
guidlines breif: 2-4 exercises per day, no more than 25 reps per exercise, rest=3-5 minutes between sets…