What direction do I go?

Training
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Hey everyone, I’m Travis, 33 years old, 5’9", and currently sitting around 186 lbs with 15-16% body fat. To give you some context, I had a solid fitness background over 10 years ago, but took a long break. In October 2023, I decided to get serious again and was around 240 lbs with 30%+ body fat. Since then, I’ve lost about 55 lbs and dropped around 15% body fat.

Now, here’s where it gets tricky. I’m trying to pursue some pretty drastic and potentially unrealistic goals—powerlifting strength, a bodybuilding physique, and athleticism, all while improving my flexibility. I know it might sound impossible to do it all, and honestly, I’m starting to wonder if it’s even feasible to balance everything I want to achieve.

The problem is my schedule:

I’m up at 6:30 AM to get my kid ready and take him to school.
Work from 8 AM to 5 PM (with 30-45 minutes for incline walking on my lunch).
Home by 5:30 PM to cook dinner and spend time with my family until they go to bed around 8-9 PM.
Gym from 9 PM to around 10:30 PM.
Then, I get my relaxation time with video games until 11:30 PM - midnight before going to bed.

The catch is that I’m only getting 6-7 hours of sleep a night, and it’s hard to fit all these different fitness goals into my already packed life. I currently run a split of Chest, Back, Arms, and Legs, with accessory work for forearms, core, lateral delts, and calves spread out throughout these 4 days.

I don’t run this split on specific days each week but rather just keep a running 4-day rotation. Sometimes I go for 30 straight days doing this split, but other times life gets in the way, and I have to take days off. It seems to work for me since I love lifting and going to the gym, so I basically lift when I feel like it and keep this split rotating. I change up my workouts every 4-6 weeks, including reps, sets, exercises, and using intensifier sets to keep it fresh.

When it comes to my diet, I make sure to get my protein intake every day, aiming for 180-200 grams minimum. I don’t track calories currently, but I’m very strict with tracking them when I’m cutting—using a scale to weigh everything out. Once I transition to maintenance or bulking, I stop tracking calories and just focus on hitting my protein target.

So, here’s the challenge: I’m trying to build powerlifting strength, a bodybuilding physique, and work on athleticism while improving my flexibility. But with my busy schedule and the sleep I’m getting, I’m starting to wonder if it’s too much. How do you balance these different goals and still make progress without burning out? Is it possible to juggle powerlifting, bodybuilding, and athletic training all at once without compromising on recovery or progress?

I’d love any advice or feedback from those of you who have successfully balanced multiple fitness goals. Thanks in advance for the help!

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Is your gym open in the morning before 0630?

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Yes It is a 24/7 gym however My wife leaves for work at 530 so I have to be home then with our 5 year old. I am self employed so I do the morning routine with him for school as I set my own schedule.

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Are you working out of the home as someone that is self employed?

Personally, I’d cut out the video games and use that as time to prioritize sleep, if morning training wasn’t an option. Or, get to bed at 2000 with the rest of the family, get up at 0400 and train as much as I could if getting 8 hours of sleep was a priority.

I personally don’t get 8 hours of sleep a night, with 5-6 being about average for me on weekdays. It works for me. It may not work for others.

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The 6-7 hours of sleep seems to work fine with me. I guess the main problem is I want to do more and I can’t as it would seem to cut into my sleep I guess. I am a night owl so I struggle to go to bed any earlier than 10 anyways but with going to the gym at night I don’t unwind until pushing midnight anyways so I play the video games as a way to relax and talk with some friends since I can’t sleep anyways.

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I believe you will find that every human has this problem.

That said, 90 minutes of training 4x a week is a LOT of training. I don’t feel like you’re in a place where MORE training is going to solve the issue: you simply need more time WITH that training. The results will come: we just have to wait.

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What results are you getting now?

Are the powerlifts included in your body part split?

Are you getting stronger on them, training like you do now?

You mentioned accessory work and specific body parts you’re targeting. Is it working, are those parts growing?

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I am getting decent results. I have noticed a little plateau in strength gains in the last few months but part of that I wondered was the beginner gains fading. Yes the power lifts are included so say Chest day would be flat bench or incline bench at a 4-5 set for lower reps and then I would do some accessory work at the end like cable flies, machine press, etc. at 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps. Legs would be squats and then belt squat, leg extensions, leg press, etc. Yes I have been getting stronger…I think the biggest thing is I am in my own head and want to go so many different directions I am afraid I am going to hinder myself.

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My life is not that different from yours, and my main problem has been the ability to prioritize training (which you obviously don’t have a problem with). Also, my sleep is only about 6 hours, which could be a problem, but actually works. Diet is just a consistent effort of eating regularly 5-6 times a day, fairly clean, but not any extremes as calories are important.

I realize we have slightly common goals. My way of dealing with the paradox is:

  • One powerbuilding/powerlifting day/week (A: Squats/Bench, B: Deads/Bench).
  • One HIT or Flywheel one set whole body session a week.
  • One freeform accessory session a week (sprints, resistance bands, chest expander etc.).

It shouldn’t work - But it does! One stimuli backs up the others and vice versa. I log the powerlifting and HIT sessions, and apply different specialization and rep techniques with a regular emphasize on the negatives. The major thing that isn’t fixed is on which weekday I do a particular session. It’s much easier than it may seem, and gets rid of a lot of stress, that a fixed program would bring. The freeform approach also bring back the fun in training, and if a friend asks if I join a training class of an entirely different stimulus - I just do it!

At the end of the day, all that matters is to train consistently with progression in mind. Variation is a bonus.

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To be honest, you sound like a good candidate for crossfit. Is that something that appeals to you?

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Do you keep a log here? I’m interested in seeing how you structure the separate days. I understand the layout but it’s the specifics I’d like to see.

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Thanks for the reminder! It seems I’ve spread my efforts in various threads over the years. I will definitely contemplate a training log for the year 2025!

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That’s the Power Building style. Anything you want to do can fit into a Power Building routine.

So keep doing what you’re doing, just focus on 1 “special goal” at a time.

Like you’ll always be doing the big lifts, plus assistance work, so your goals of “Strength” and “Bodybuilding” are covered.

When it’s “Flexibility” time, stretch more for a month or 2. Use techniques like post-set stretching. So bench like normal, then when you do flies follow each set with 30-60 seconds of pec stretch. Or do squats, then when you leg press follow each set with the couch stretch for 30-60 seconds. Or do lifts that Are stretches, like Bulgarian Split Squats, 1 Arm Incline DB Press, or deficit stiff leg deadlifts. Or just cut 10-15 minutes off your cardio time to do some stretching.

After you get tired of that junk, keep the Barbell and Assistance work in, so Strength and Bodybuilding are still covered, and switch to “Athleticism” time for 4-6 weeks. Use “energy systems” techniques, like EMOMs or Clusters on the big lifts to get powerful. Then structure assistance lifts in circuits or push/pull super-sets to build conditioning. Use more bodyweight lifts to get more athletic by moving your body through space. Maintain the flexibility you developed in the last block by doing dips, lunges and ring pullups or other big ROM variations.

When it’s hardcore bodybuilding time, switch in hardcore stuff like Rest/Pause or drop sets for 4-6 weeks. To maintain the conditioning you build in the last block, gradually reduce rest times to make the workouts denser week by week.

By this time, you’ll have trained steady for 3-4 months. Ideally you’ve improved flexibility, developed your cardio, build some muscle and fortified your ligaments and tendons. You’ve built a “Better Body.” Now, if you focus on strength you have a bigger, better body to get strong. Like more capacity to get strong.

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My 2 cents is your goals are too vague. Everything I quoted from above is just an idea, not a tangible thing you can measure.

“Powerlifting strength” - Take your lifts now, and set reasonable goals for how much you can add to them in some kind of timeframe. Consider signing up for a meet so you have no choice but to get serious.

“Bodybuilding physique” - After that meet or test day, spend some time doing more hypertrophy based programming. Measure your biceps and quads and all that shit, take weekly pictures so you can see if it’s working or not.

“Athleticism” - Not sure what this means to you, but consider signing up and training for some kind of race or strongman contest or tough mudder or something. Anything where you aren’t just standing still lifting weights.

“Flexibility” - Again, not sure what this means to you, but as long as you dedicate X minutes a week you should be able to reach the promised land. Just pick certain stretches you want to work towards and have at it.

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You are referring to the typical periodization when different goals are to be achieved. That said, I’m a firm believer that strength precedes gains, meaning that a powerlifting strength phase, followed by a hypertrophic bodybuilding phase is a way to go. Schoenfeld has a similar idea in his max muscle plan program.

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It’s always cool to plan things perfectly.

And if Strength first, followed by hypertrophy is best and seems the most motivating, then that’s the way to do it.

But if the specific order just makes you fret and be anxious and stress more, it’s not worth worrying about. If you start with mass, then move to strength, you’ll be going back to mass again soon. 3 months in, you’re right at the same place either way.

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First off, congrats on the progress so far. I wanted to chime in because you and I sound fairly similar in terms of age, kids responsibilities, being self-employed, and goals.

What do you do for work if you are 8-5? Is it sedentary? And you mentioned “home by 5:30,” so I’m assuming you don’t have access to a home gym.

Fill in the exercise selection as you like, but this is the split I always come back to. I’ll rotate it when I’m bored, or something interests me, but there is no set time to pick a new program to create “muscle confusion.”

M: Upper Body Powerlifting
T: Lower Body Powerlifting
W: Off
Tr: Bodybuilding Chest and Back
F: Bodybuilding Legs
S: Bodybuilding Shoulders, Arms
Su: Off

I don’t know what kind of athletics you like to do, but you could stick them anywhere where it’s convenient and you feel recovered.

I’d also like to echo about switching to morning workouts. Chasing around a kid getting them to bed, going to the gym, then playing video games doesn’t seem conducive to sleep.

Here’s how I structure my day. It’s oversharing, but maybe you can glean something useful for you with your busy schedule.

5:30 - Wake up, read the news, make coffee, take empty-stomach supplements
6:30 - Wake up my six-year old, make breakfast for us, go over his day
7:00 - Have coffee ready, bring my wife a cup, open the curtains and turn on music
7:20 - Drop my kid off at the bus stop
7:30 - Wake up my 3 year old, change diapers, give his medication, make him and my wife breakfast
8:00 - Go over my to-do list and finish getting dressed
8:30 - Go over the day with my wife, get the kid ready for school, load my gym bag in the car
9:00 - Drop him off, run an errand - grocery store, hardware store, whatever
10:00 - My hole-in-the-wall gym (on gym days), if not, just start work. Having a few hours to let a meal settle and wake up your nervous system is my preference, but a lot of people like taking the 5:00 am route. At 10 most gyms are fairly empty, which I like
11:30 - Back home and working
2:30 - Kid number one comes back, go over his day/homework, switch from adult work to household tasks
4:30 - Pick up number two, and either go to Lifetime so they can do rock climbing or track while my wife works out - I usually do swimming and stretching, but you could slot in any athletic activity
6:30 - We’re home, making dinner, the kids either can play outside, watch tv, check off chores to earn some money, build forts, do crafts, shit like that
7:30 - Dinner
8:00 - Bedtime for the 3 year old
8:30 - Bedtime for the 6 year old
9:00 - Clean up as much of the house chaos as I can, pack the kids backpacks and get outfits for the next day, take out the trash
9:30 - Read or write while the wife watches tv, since she likes to disconnect while I don’t like being amped up by a huge fucking flashing screen, maybe do some bw stuff if I’m feeling antsy
10:30 - Write to-do list for the next day
11:00 - Hopefully in bed
11:30 - Shit, not happening
12:00 - Usually out cold

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You can easily improve flexibility when focusing on any one of the other three goals.

When I am pursuing a goal, I am all in on that goal. The others don’t have any weight in my concerns other than not allowing myself to drift out of being able to pursue a different goal later.

For example: My ultimate goal was being a successful competitive bodybuilder. The more information I got I determined that if I focused on powerlifting a couple years, I could build a better foundation to take my physique to the next level. I decided to not allow my body fat to increase above about 15%. During these two years my focus was on competitive powerlifting.

As far as athleticism goes, I am no expert. But I did quit playing rugby to put a greater effort into powerlifting.

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Just a 15th opinion to say I would also just lift in the morning. It will take a week or so to feel good, but I believe your sleep quality will improve.