MAXIMUM MASS, MINIMUM TRAINING

 

Minimum Training Time?  No Problem.  Follow this 2-Days-Per-Week Program for Maximal Mass and Strength

A young Ken Leistner.  This program—with its basic, brief, but hard tenets—would have probably made the late Dr. Ken proud.

     My sons came to visit me this past weekend.  When they do this, they sometimes train with me in my garage gym, and sometimes they go to the commercial gym they train at instead.  So this past weekend, we somehow got on the subject of "what people know" at a commercial gym.  Keep in mind that I haven't trained at a commercial gym in a long time.  I think the last time that I had a gym membership of any sort was in 2009, when I was going through a divorce, and had to move all of my weights—a quite extensive garage gym—to a storage facility.  Until I could find a new garage for my weights, I trained at a commercial gym for about six months.  But that wasn't your "average" gym, since it was a haven for powerlifters, arm wrestlers, and competitive bodybuilders complete with chalk, smelling salts, a couple of Monolifts, and a small cadre of screaming behemoths that trained almost daily—definitely not your "typical" gym experience.

     Anyway, I figured that "what people know" would have improved a lot for the average gym-goer since the last time I trained at an "average" gym, which, truth be told, was in the last century.  That's right, I haven't set foot in the typical American gym since at least 1999, probably '98.  And I can tell you with quite a bit of confidence that, at that time, most people who went to the gym knew very little about effective training.  I had assumed, with the advent of things like the internet, YouTube vloggers, social media "fitness" influencers, and other things of a similar bent—you know, all the things that have arisen in our world since the last time I actually set foot in your average gym—that gym-goers must be more knowledgeable than they were in the previous century.

     Apparently, I'm wrong.  Based on the witness of my two sons—who have been taught "proper" training since at least the age of 10 or 11, and are now in their mid 20s—your typical gym-goer in 2023 knows about as much as the gym-goer of 1998.  In other words, not very damn much.

     I guess this shouldn't have surprised me.  As long as the mentality is to "let the means justify the ends"—which is the American mentality, sad to say—you are going to get plenty of folks who allow the workout itself to dictate results.  In other words, if you think a "good workout" is indicated by such things as how tired you are after a workout, how "hard" you trained during the workout, or how sore you are the day after a workout, then you are never ever going to achieve great results.  Still, however, I thought my sons would at least witness "good form" or other such indicators that the trainee at least did some research into what dictates a good workout before entering the gym to actually train.  And I thought this would be the case due to the shear amount of information out there that is available at the touch of one's fingers.

     "Maybe there's too much information out there," my son, Matthew, suggested when I pointed this out.

     The more I thought about it, the more I thought my son might be correct.  There's probably way too much information out there about an endless array of various muscle-building things, and not enough good, solid, basic muscle-building advice.  And since I don't think you can have too much good advice, here is one of the most basic programs you will find, but it will produce results no matter whether you are just starting out or whether you have been training for half-a-century.

Maximum Muscle, Minimum Time

     One reason that some people don't get good results is probably because they can't make it to the gym very often, and so, when they do go, they try and cram as much as they possibly can into a workout session.  They train long or hard, or a combination of both since they can't train frequently.

     I'm obviously a fan of frequent training, but there are still good workout programs even for those of you who can only make it to the gym two or, at the most, three times per week.  The following is similar to workout programs I have written before in IronMan magazine, MuscleMag, and, of course, here on this blog.  This program has you training just twice-per-week.  Even if you find that there are some weeks where you can go to the gym more often, I'd advise against it.  At least, at first.  After I lay out the parameters of the program, we'll get around to what to do if you are able to start training more often.

Day One

Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps. 2 sets of 8 reps.

Start the program with the almighty squat, the king of exercises, the mother of all quality muscle-building—and whatever other superlatives you would like to heap upon this exercise, because they are all true.  I once wrote an essay (on this blog) about how you can "squat and do what you will," the implication being that it all begins and ends with the squat.  As long as you are squatting, everything else seems to fall into place, and if you are not squatting, then it often doesn't matter what else you decide to do, none of it will work without the—yep—mother of all exercises.

Work up over 5 progressively heavier sets until you hit your max for 5 reps.  You may not even manage 5 reps on your last set; that's fine.  Stick with that weight until you do get all 5 reps.   If you manage 5 reps on your 5th set, then add weight at the next session.

After you perform your 5 progressively heavier sets of 5 reps, drop down in poundage, and perform 2 sets of 8 reps.  These should be hard but not all-out.  Leave a rep or two "in the tank," so to speak.

Power Cleans: 7 to 8 sets of 3 reps.

For the second exercise of the day, work up over 4 or 5 sets until you hit a near max of 3 reps.  Stick with this weight for another few sets until you have completed 7 or 8 sets of 3 reps.

Cleans—and any "quick lifts," really—shouldn't be done for high reps.  And in my book, anything over 3 reps is too high for the Olympic lifts and their derivatives.  But since this keeps the workload down, I think it's good to do a few extra sets compared to the "slower" lifts.

Flat Bench Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps. 2 sets of 8 reps.

Follow the same method as used in the squats: work up over 5 progressively heavier sets of 5 reps.  Once you have reached your limit set, drop down in weight and perform 2 hard—but not quite to failure—sets of 8 reps.

Barbell Curls: 5 sets of 5 reps.

As with the squats and the bench presses, work up over 5 progressively heavier sets of 5 reps until you reach your maximum weight for a set of 5.  Unlike the other two exercises, don't do any additional work.   Even though you are going to only train 2-days-per-week, you will still need to recover from your training since you will be working your full-body at each session, so when in doubt, do less and NOT more.

Farmer's Walks: 2 sets for distance.

Pick a heavy pair of dumbbells, and carry them for an allotted distance (or time, but I prefer distance).  If you're unsure if you're going heavy enough, then you probably aren't.  Work these hard for 2 sets.

Ab work of your choice.

For your last exercise of the day, select an ab exercise of your choice.  If you're interested in being a power athlete (or a fighter) then I don't think you can go wrong with the ab wheel, but select harder rather than easier exercises.

Day Two

Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps (Moderate)

Start this session with the same exercise from Day One, but DON'T go all-out.  Work up over 5 progressively heavier sets to a weight that you used for your 3rd or 4th set from Day One.  This will help you to recover and prepare you for the remainder of the workout session.

Deadlifts: 7 sets of 5 reps.

Work up over 4 or 5 progressively heavier sets until you reach a near max of 5 reps.  Stick with this weight for another 2 or 3 sets.  If you manage to get all 7 sets for 5 reps, add weight at the next session.

Unlike with the squats and bench presses from Day One, your deadlifts should be trained, I believe, with lower reps in general.  You could do 5 sets of 5 reps followed by 2 sets of 8 reps, but I think better results for the deadlift are achieved with 5 reps or less.

Barbell Overhead Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps. 2 sets of 8 reps.

Follow the same methodology as the squats and the bench presses from Day One.

Chins: 5 to 7 sets of near-max reps.

For these, mix it up at each workout.  Some days you may want to use a wide-grip, and some days an underhand grip, or even a close "neutral" grip, depending on the sort of chin bars that you have access to.

Stick with the same weight for each set—this could be your bodyweight or it could be with additional weight if needed.  Whatever you choose, try and leave a rep or two in the tank, at least until your 6th or 7th set, at which point it's perfectly fine to go all out.

Weighed Dips: 5 sets of 5 reps. 2 sets of 8 reps

As with the squats and benches from Day One and the overhead presses on this this day, work up over 5 progressively heavier sets until you reach your max weight for 5 reps.  Once you are finished, decrease the weight—or just remove the weight belt entirely, depending on your strength—and perform 2 additional sets of 8 reps.

Sandbag (or other "loaded") Carries: 2 sets for distance.

When most lifters include loaded carries into their training arsenal, they typically do little other than farmer's walks, but, if you have access to other implements, variety is needed with loaded carrying and dragging movements just the same as with "regular" barbell or dumbbell exercises.

Sandbags are the easiest to find (or make), so I have included them here, but if you have access to weighted kegs or barrels, those will perfectly suffice, as well.

Ab work of your choice.

Same as Day One.

Factors to Consider

     This is an excellent training plan even if you do have the time to do more.  In fact, sometimes a minimalist (but not "easy") training program such as this one can be a great way of "recharging" for more voluminous weeks that may follow.

     Once you begin this program, always train on the same two days.  If you find it hard to make it to the gym during the week, then make one of the training days on the weekends.  When I was working full-time for 60+ hours-per-week, I trained with a very similar program, and I enjoyed training on Sundays and Wednesdays.  Sunday training seemed to help prepare me mentally for the coming week, and all I needed, commitment-wise, during the week was to make sure I trained on Wednesday, which seemed to work best since it was right in the middle of the week.  Saturday and Tuesday, Sunday and Thursday, or Saturday and Wednesday will work fine, as well.

     No matter what days that you train on, make sure that there are two days off after one of the workouts and three days off after the other.  If you can make it to the gym during the week—some busy lifters like to have their weekends off for a complete de-load—I think Mondays and Thursdays are the two "best" training days.

     At some point, if you are positive that you can make it to the gym more often, then switch over to  two-days-per-week on the first week followed by three-days-per-week on the second week.  If you do this, then your routine should look like the following:

Week One

Monday: Day One

Thursday: Day Two

Week Two

Monday: Day One

Wednesday: Day Two

Friday: Day One

Week Three

Monday: Day Two

Thursday: Day One

     And so on and so forth.  This constantly rotates which workout follows on which day, which will not just aid in recovery and recuperation, but it will also keep some much-needed variety built into the program.

     At some point, you may want to add or rotate exercises, but don't do this too quickly.  Stick with the same exercises for a few weeks before replacing them with something different.  If you do rotate in different exercises, just make sure that you are trading them for exercises that are equally as difficult, if not more so.  For squats, you can rotate in front squats or bottom-position squats.  For bench presses, rotate in incline presses or dumbbell presses.  For deadlifts, rotate in deficit deadlifts or sumo deadlifts.  All of these exercises are equally as tough, so always keep that in mind when selecting new exercises for each day—or when deciding it's time to follow a new workout.

     Don't be fooled by how brief, basic, or (seemingly) simple this program looks.  If you put in the effort, it's just about as good as anything else you can find.