I am an engineering student studying at a good school in Silicon Valley. Over the summer, I started working out and I continued for almost two months until my school started. Now that school started, I find it really hard to make time during the weekday to go to the GYM and workout, due to homework and lectures. However, I do find time on Fridays and weekends, but I am not sure how to compensate for the whole week in only three days.
Here's my plan:
Do two workout consecutively in a day, and take "pre-workout" after finishing first workout, so that way I can have energy to do the second workout. Is this a good approach?
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1Workout Friday and Sunday and try to fit in one more during the week, maybe early in the morning or late at night. Rest is important and necessary.– erictrigoOct 2, 2015 at 8:52
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Why would you want to work out twice a day? If you're doing a 3/4/5-day split maybe try a full body plan instead. It's a no-nonsense approach for people with little time. 3 days would be optimal for those, but 2 (Friday and Sunday, as suggested by Eric) will do.– user8119Oct 2, 2015 at 9:02
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1What are your goals? Why do you want to train? Sports specific? General strength? Weight loss?– jamesOct 7, 2015 at 2:11
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@james My goals are to increase my general body strength. But I do also play sports when time permits.– AndyOct 7, 2015 at 5:50
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3 Answers
Since you are only able to train on weekends, you want to make the most of your time. Train on Friday and Sunday, full body. There are a lot of full body routines out there to choose from. But be sure to focus on the compound exercises that deliver the most bang for your buck. (Squats deadlifts, presses, rows, etc.) designing a specific schedule of exercises and progression would be specific to your goals. I'm assuming you're mainly interested in general strength and conditioning.
Now, because of the timing of your training sessions, you'd be best off keeping intensity high and volume low on the Friday session. Don't take any sets to failure, and no grinding reps. Save that for the Sunday session when you'll have plenty of time to recover before you train again the next Friday. On Sunday, do higher volume and moderate intensity work. Here, you can take some sets to failure, or near failure, and the odd grinder will be tolerable.
Consider doing deadlifts only on the Sunday session.
If you really want to do something on Saturday, consider just doing some LISS cardio. You could also do some HIIT cardio at the end of your Friday and Sunday sessions. On the other hand, some brisk walking or biking during the week would be more beneficial, if that would fit for you. (E.g., walking or biking to campus.)
Be certain to attend carefully to your recovery between the Friday and Sunday sessions. Get lots of sleep and food. Actually, that applies every day but, I get it, you're in school. Best of luck.
You should be able to do Starting strength twice a week. Or a similar linear progression Full body workout twice a week. Won't need more than 45 minutes. I wouldn't recommend doing 3 days in a row or working out twice in a day.
3 days a week would be ideal, but it would be detrimental to your progress if you do 3 consecutive days, in my opinion.
source: 550lbs deadlift
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Don't work out twice a day. If you only have three days to work out, work out those three days. Unless you are doing intense hours long workouts you should be able to manage three days in a row of working out. What workouts do you plan on doing?
