Busy Schedule Programming

As we talked about last week, not having enough time is one of the most common reasons someone doesn’t exercise, or isn’t consistent with their exercise. So this week I wanted to go over some different ways to program for a busy schedule. 

There are two primary ways to program for a busy schedule, you can either do a little exercise every day or most days or more exercise just a couple days a week. Last week I talked through training 6-10 minutes almost every day of the week, now we are focusing on lifting just a couple days per week. When the volume of training drops, we must always raise the intensity that we train with. Intensity will help us drive adaptation in the absence of volume. Often training will include things that I call intensity amplifiers like doing drop sets where you do an exercise to relative failure, set the weight down, pick up a lighter one and keep going until failure again. 

In the category of doing a couple longer sessions in a week, we turn to the expertise of Marty Gallgher. He is a multiple world champion powerlifter and coach to many world champions and special operations units. He pioneered how to make tremendous strength, and muscle mass gains by only training 1, 2 or 3 times per week. In his one day a week programming he would hit what he called the core 4 lifts; back squat, deadlift, bench press and overhead press. This would hit almost all of the muscle groups in the body. These lifts are all done very heavy, under very strict programming guidelines. This allows load progression week to week and consistent growth for the athlete. Lifts are always done with extreme control and through a full range of motion (or as much as available for the individual's anatomy). An example would be as follows: 

Week 1

Back Squat 85% x 5

Dumbbell Bench Press 85% x 5

Sumo Deadlift 85%x 5

Overhead Press 65% x 10

Week 2

Back Squat 87.5% x 3

Dumbbell Bench Press 87.5% x 3

Sumo Deadlift 87.5% x 3

Overhead Press 70 % x 8

Week 3

Back Squat 90% x 1

Dumbbell Bench Press 90% x 1

Sumo Deadlift 90% x 1

Overhead Press 75 % x 6

Week 4

Back Squat 87.5% x 5

Dumbbell Bench Press 87.5% x 5

Sumo Deadlift 87.5% x 5

Overhead Press 70% x 10

These are what are known as top sets. This means that this is the last set of each exercise, there should be 3-4 warm up sets working up towards this last set. Percentages are based on 1 rep maximums. To find your 1 rep max you can either test it directly or use a weight and repetition counter to estimate it. If you are not proficient in the lift and have a spotter, I highly discourage doing a true 1 repetition maximum. This pattern of progression will typically run for 8-12 weeks, the athlete will then take a week of lower weights, usually around 75%, and then re-test their max lifts and then the program repeats. 

This program can be run 2 days a week and includes more accessory work. You would do a squat and bench press day with some lighter back and shoulder accessory work. And a deadlift and overhead press day with some leg and arm accessory work. A three day split would look like day 1 squats and leg assistance work; day 2, bench press and arms work; day 3 deadlift and overhead pressing. 

However you wish to split up your training, getting some training in each week is vital for your health and longevity. Find what works best for you and your life and stick with it.