I’m Active Duty Military, recently returned from a deployment where I was able to work out for at least an hour or two every day. I had a great program going, first following 531 to build baseline strength, and then switching to the Best Damn Workout.
I had a lot of accessory work with 531, making a high volume, high frequency program that worked really well for me to cut down fast. I dropped from 210-191. I then switched it up to a Low Volume, High Frequency program with the Best Damn Workout. 4 exercises, 6 days a week was great when I first got home. I gained strength and mass, to the point that I’m back up to 205, and my bench, deadlift, and squat have increased by more than 100lbs total. That being said, my body fat % is higher than I want it to be (17%).
My problem is that I’ve started a new position at work that is very demanding of my time. I find that I can no longer get to the gym as routinely as I want to. I need to find a program that gets me back to high volume so I can have a more efficient cut down to 10-12%, while switching to a lower frequency, as I know I can’t commit to more than 3-4 days a week in the gym.
Does anyone have any suggestions for programs I could follow? I’ve done some searches, but haven’t been able to find anything yet. Thanks for the help!
This. If you’ve found nothing to your liking write your own basic split, take inspiration from or modify an existing program like MarkKO suggested or write/have someone write a full blown program that best suit your needs.
For example full body 3 days a week is simple enough and its only a matter of exercise selection how much total weekly volume you want to do. The extra day you can meal prep because abs are built in the kitchen and all that jazz
Is a good deal less than you had available before but if you think of volume as a per weekly thing 3-4 days is more than enough time to get in enough volume. 4 exercises 6 days per week will have a similar training effect to 8 exercises 3 days a week.
Hell you could train high volume on one day a week tho the workout would take forever, you’d feel like shit during/after and you’d probably detrain a bit before the next one.
Decide on how much volume you want/need and split it over the available days, evenly or periodized e.g. heavy light medium, or however else you wish.