NEED TO SIMPLIFY MY TRAINING!!!!?????

[mdgkmg]

i'm trying to find a better way of training so i can still workout even with my 60 hrs a week job. i'll be working that till september at least. i considered training each bodypart twice as hard but only once a week. then i also considered just knocking about 4 sets off of each larger bodypart such as chest and back. and only about 2 off of things such as biceps. i'm not sure what exactly i wanna do here its kinda hard deciding. i'm not looking for someone to make up my mind for me just tell me what ya think. is a few sets off of each bodypart for even that many months with an extremly high activity level gonna hurt anything? would it hurt to just train twice as hard but only once a week? and if neither of these are gonna hurt what would you suggest.

[natural al]

I actually did this for about 3 years plus went to school fulltime ...well, I worked anywhere from 50-56 hours a week so I worked a little less than you do.  I either did-I'm going off of memory here-2 or 3 full body workouts or a condensed version of max-ot.  I'd do legs one day, chest, tri's on the second day and back and bi's on the third.  I followed the overload principles as close as I could.  When I felt I was burning out I did some research and picked a new program and tried it to see what would happen.  I learned alot about how my body would react during this period of time.  It wasn't my most productive time period cause realistically how could it be?  But I made the best out of it.

[thewickedtruth]

there's no reason a workout should take more than an hours worth of your time.

[mdgkmg]

I actually did this for about 3 years plus went to school fulltime ...well, I worked anywhere from 50-56 hours a week so I worked a little less than you do.  I either did-I'm going off of memory here-2 or 3 full body workouts or a condensed version of max-ot.  I'd do legs one day, chest, tri's on the second day and back and bi's on the third.  I followed the overload principles as close as I could.  When I felt I was burning out I did some research and picked a new program and tried it to see what would happen.  I learned alot about how my body would react during this period of time.  It wasn't my most productive time period cause realistically how could it be?  But I made the best out of it.

thx. so you're basically saying it ain't gonna be the most productive time(and realisitically without gear it can't be) but to just make it as productive as possible. sounds like a plan.

[natural al]

thx. so you're basically saying it ain't gonna be the most productive time(and realisitically without gear it can't be) but to just make it as productive as possible. sounds like a plan.

yup.  try new stuff out, read as much as you can, see how you like different things....I did tons of stuff during that time period then once my hours went down I still forced myself to stay on the same schedule so I could concentrate on school but I still tried a ton of different things out.  Maybe you mentioned it but how physical is your job?

[Bluto]

full body routine. 2-3 times a week. compund movements only. something like that

[mdgkmg]

yup.  try new stuff out, read as much as you can, see how you like different things....I did tons of stuff during that time period then once my hours went down I still forced myself to stay on the same schedule so I could concentrate on school but I still tried a ton of different things out.  Maybe you mentioned it but how physical is your job?

well i work on a ranch sometimes i pick rock and haul tons of sheet rock for construction. but for the most part it involves a lot of lifting these logs that are a good length and range from 50 pnds to 250 pnds. sometimes i load a truck with 50 of em sometimes we team lift em because of the bulk in em not the weight but the bulk. and then theres the occasional tree tops that are 15 pnds but we just chuck them 35 ft or so onto the slashpile. its a quite active job. last summer it was also a ton of hay bales(1000+ a day 60 pnds a peice) and when i'm working there a lot i can actually pack on a few pounds of muscles in a few months and burn quite a few pounds of fat while i'm at it(i get a bit chunky in the winter). but  yea its active. hope this is enough info if not too much.

[SUPERDAD911]

Considering your work I would say you should stick with the big 3 (squats, deads, and bench) -heavy- for 5 sets of 5 w/ two supporting movements (eg: straight leg deads / upright rows for deads) at a higher frequency such as 3 sets of 10. All of this after a good warm up to avoid injury, as well as a good cool down. It really shouldn't take you longer then an hour each time you train.

Then you should take your weakest or most unsymmetrical body area (eg: chest) and add that to your rutine twice for that week. Then make it a four day split (eg: m, tu, th, fri - bench, deads, bench, squat) 

And considering your job occupation I would be eating like a freaking machine to, assuming you are wanting to put on muscle.

Good luck. 

[!@#$%]

Considering your work I would say you should stick with the big 3 (squats, deads, and bench) -heavy- for 5 sets of 5 w/ two supporting movements (eg: straight leg deads / upright rows for deads) at a higher frequency such as 3 sets of 10. All of this after a good warm up to avoid injury, as well as a good cool down. It really shouldn't take you longer then an hour each time you train.

Then you should take your weakest or most unsymmetrical body area (eg: chest) and add that to your rutine twice for that week. Then make it a four day split (eg: m, tu, th, fri - bench, deads, bench, squat) 

And considering your job occupation I would be eating like a freaking machine to, assuming you are wanting to put on muscle.

Good luck. 

What would be good supporting movements for bench and squats?

[Hedgehog]

Do a full body routine twice a week.

Something like this:

Workout 1:
Squats
Reverse grip chins
Dips
Shoulder presses
Abs

Workout 2:
Deadlifts
Incline benchpress
Front squats
DB curls
Close grip benchpress
Abs

3 sets of each

-Hedge

[jpm101]

Not trying to make up your mind, just a few suggestions:

Of course, everything should revolve around how much rest and sleep you can get every week. And the amount of food you eat. You may be getting use to the on the job labor but working out places even more requirements on your recovery abilities. That is the core of making progressive gains and it's affect on the CNS. If you a easy and natural gainer, not to worry so much about that (Sergio worked a labor job, double shifts, in a packing house, workout at least 4 days a week, and still made gains). If your a average guy trying to make gains, than recovery should be the main concern.

I might suggest two workouts a week. One devoted to the upper body and the other to the lower. Something like benches, dips, chins, rows, arms one training day. And squats, BB Hacks, hams & calves the next workout day. Try to stay mostly with the Big Boy exercises; squats, benches, rows, etc. Or another option would be monday and fridays..lower body. Wednsday...upper body. The next monday would be reversed. Monday and friday...upper body and wednsday..low body. Change each monday. Good Luck.

[mdgkmg]

alright thx for all the info. and yea i know i do eat like a machine talk about shoot much as 7-8 sometimes a little more pounds of food a meal plus a shake once every 3 hours. and during the middle of the summer i eat like that and still stay around 7%bf. its pretty good i've got a good metabolism and when i have time to train right i grow like a weed. i've packed on a lot of muscle in a short time NATURALLY. i live a pretty good life you could say training workin gettin payed lovin  and just livin. i'm pretty active and ain't logged in here much but hey life goes. i shout out a thx to all my getbig bro's.