I was wondering what a good program would look like for training 2 days a week? I am 47 and would love to lose my belly and put on some muscle but I am very busy. Any advice?
IMO two days a week is tough to make any real progress but it’s better than nothing.
I would look at an upper/lower split for the training days and get as much cardio in as you can 5 days/week along with a good diet to lose the fat.
What does your training and diet currently look like?
What are your stats and what are your goals?
Can you post a pic of your physique?
I have been doing compound lifts kind of like Starting Strength but not 3 days a week. My diet is not great: some fast foods and sweets but I am trying to increase my protein every day. I just want to be in better condition and not be out of breath when I walk upstairs.
Dardens 30-10-30 program
1 Like
What is your height and weight?
Cleaning up the diet will go a long way.
Are you doing any kind of cardio? A brisk 20min walk or (2)10min walk daily will help with mobilizing fat, better digestion and increasing your cardiovascular endurance.
If you have the starting strength program down then you have the basics. You can either keep doing that or IMO find a good upper/lower split and do upper one day and lower the other day.
If you want help with diet/training start a log and tag me. There are plenty on here willing to help if your willing to put in the work.
This is how my log looks. Your welcome to use it as a template.
I am 5’9 and 265 pounds. I do walk some everyday, but I could do better. I appreciate you sharing an example of your diet and program. I love to eat but I am just eating the wrong foods. Looking at your layout it looks like you consume a good amound just good quality.
1 Like
Full body 2x/week might be worth considering given your time constraints and relative newness to lifting (I’m assuming that last part).
4 Likes
I lean toward a leg focused program.
Monday: heavy upper body then light lower body
Thursday: heavy lower body then light upper body
3 Likes
came in to say this.
you’ll get 72 hours of recovery per session.
do one hard set of a compound movement, a push, a pull, a leg, a hinge.
pick a couple accessories you like 2 or 3 sets 10-15 reps.
he lays it out as a 2 day split in this yt vid
5 Likes
should I do the Starting Strength method just for the 2 days? Or should I do a 5x5 to get in more volume?
1 Like
I’ve never done Starting Strength. But this page provides an example of 2x/week SS programming.
Great…Thank you !
1 Like
Watch the video he says do not do 5x5
1 Like
I ran 531 for a while as a 2 day split. Squat and Bench day 1, deadlift and overhead day 2. I alternated the supplemental work so was doing the squat supplemental on deadlift day and the deadlift supplemental work on squat day. This effectively made it a full body program in 2 days. Saw strength gains and some muscle gain.
3 Likes
The 531 Rest Pause challenge is a great 2 day a week program. It’s in “Beyond 5/3/1” and it used to be on this site but now it’s in the “T-Nation Plus” section
3 Likes
Is that where all the training plans went? I tried recommending a plan off this site to someone but couldn’t find it anymore in the search function.
Yes. That seems to be the case with a lot of the programs. Thankfully I saved a few programs to my phone a few years ago just in case anything ever happened to the site. It was definitely easy when I had the ability to send a direct link to a program on the site, but now even if I had Plus, I wouldn’t be able to share a link with people asking for help unless they also have it(I feel like most beginners won’t though).
1 Like
I unfortunately had the link address saved in my favorites and one day the links just stopped working. Oh well. Many great plans out there!
1 Like
No doubt about that! This site has had many great coaches and authors over the years
1 Like
The answer to your question is yes. Pick up a copy of Stuart McRobert’s “Beyond Brawn”. There are a lot of great routines and information in that book for a person who can only train 2 days a week.
1 Like