Hi all,
I’m trying to set up a simple 3 day workout with as little exercises as possible, yet yeild the most benefit as possible at the same time. Ideally I’d like to stick to 2 exercises per day, push/pull type. For example, I was thinking day 1 could be:
Deadlifts
Bench Press
Day 2 would look something like:
Front Squat
Overhead Press
Day 3:
Rows
Incline Press
Is this sufficent? Would I get adequet trap work, etc? Or would you guys set it up differenty?
Any suggestions are appreciated!
Or:
Day 1:
Deadlift
Bench Press
Day 2:
Rows
Squats
Day 3:
Dips
Clean and Press
[quote]thewolf010 wrote:
I’m trying to set up a simple 3 day workout with as little exercises as possible, yet yeild the most benefit as possible at the same time.[/quote]
What is your current specific goal? That’s going to be a factor in what your program should look like.
Any reason for this? Only two exercises a day three days a week would indicate that you have very little time to train. Are you dealing with limited time each session?
Again, depends on your goal.
Five bucks says you don’t really need to worry about getting enough trap work. There are probably bigger fish to fry.
Without knowing exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, I’d suggest you look into these:
2-3 days a week, 3-4 exercises per day. Wendler’s Effective Training for Busy Men:
3 days a week, 3 exercises a day. Ben Bruno’s Power of 3 plan:
2-3 days a week, 4 exercises per session. Staley’s EDT:
I suppose that is better than doing nothing. What has your training been like over the last few months? What are you trying to achieve?
Thanks for the replies. I have a home gym, workout with my finance, so I’m trying to keep it simple without having to be constantly changing weights, doing a bunch of exercises, etc. It seems to work better when she can do one, and I can do the other, hence the push/pull per day, 2 exercises per day thing. And no I don’t have a bunch of time, I like the workouts to be intense, not necessarily a ton of sets/reps. My goal now is to lose weight, same for my fiance. But our diets will accomplish most of the work there. Just trying to put together a simple routine to hit all muscle groups 3 times a week, with 2 opposing lifts per day. We do cardio on Tues/Thurs. I’ll take a look at those programs. Here was another idea I had:
Day 1:
Deadlift
Bench Press
Day 2:
Rows
Clean and Press
Day 3:
Dips
Squats
Thoughts?
Day 1:
Squat or deadlift
Bench Press
Day 2:
Squat or front squat
Chin ups
Day 3:
Squat or squat
Clean and press
Little overkill on the squats no? We are planning to go pretty hard on these two lifts so I don’t know if we’d recover in time to squat 3x a week. I like a little variety.
[quote]thewolf010 wrote:
Little overkill on the squats no? We are planning to go pretty hard on these two lifts so I don’t know if we’d recover in time to squat 3x a week. I like a little variety.[/quote]
I wouldn’t squat 3 times a week.
If I could only train 3 times a week, I would either use a 2 way split like upper/lower, OR I would use an A and B total body routine, so that you hit each workout 3 times over 2 weeks. Week 1 would be A-B-A and Week 2 would be B-A-B
The 2 way split might also have an A and B variation.
So an example would be
1A) Squat then Deadlift
2A) Bench press and clean high pull
1B) Squat then Front squat
2B) Standing press and Chin-up
Again training 3 times a week would look like this
Week 1) 1A 2A 1B
Week 2) 2B 1A 2A
Week 3) 1B 2B 1A
Week 4) 2A 1B 2B
The “total” body A and B (not upper lower split) that worked for me on a 3 day program was
Squat and overhead press
Bench and Rows
1-2-1
2-1-2
I actually prefer a 3 way split but only if you can train at least 4 times a week, usually 5 and sometimes 6.
If you want to go “pretty hard”, I’d cycle through four different workouts training three times a week (so you will do three cycles over four weeks):
A-
overhead press
chin ups
B-
deadlift
full hanging leg raises
C-
bench
rows
D-
squat
glute ham raises
Due to a combination of logistics, injury and contracting a rare infection I’ve had to curtail it somewhat on the training regime.
Take this for what it is. I’ve been using Greg Nuckols’s linear periodization protocol eg 3 x 8 > 5 x 5 > 5 x 3
Day 1
Back Squat
Overhead Press
Weighted Chins
Ab Wheel
Day 2
Front Squat
Weighted Dips
Hang Snatch
Band Tricep Pushdowns
Day 3
Back Squat
Overhead Press
Bent Over Row
Things have been moving along nicely on this program, all things considered.