Need help with a routine for an active worker

[harvey416]

Hi all I'm wondering if someone can point me in the right direction regarding a routine to follow to aid in hypertrophy based training but for someone that has a really active career.

I'm pretty much restricted to 2 days, Monday and Thursday, I'm self employed window, door and conservatory installer, working pretty much 6 days a week maybe 7, I have a fiancé and 6 month old baby girl and a house I'm still working on. So I'm basically after the most simple of routine idea which will just be enough so I can progress at a steady pace.

At the moment my plan is made up of 5 super sets

Front squats 5 reps
Reverse lunges for reps with weighted vest

Bent over row 5 reps
Db row 12 reps

Shoulder press 5 reps
Push ups for reps

Barbell curls 6 reps
Hammer curls for reps

Dips for reps
Kickbacks for reps

Some days I'm more tired than others so I may just do the first exercise of each set. I'm toying with the idea of trying maybe a push and pull type of routine, had thoughts of pyramid reps like 12,8,4,8,12 so I dip into a heavy set but I'm not overly taxing and pushing too far that it becomes counter productive and I feel drained.

If someone can help straighten out my ideas and point me towards which may be best suited to my lifestyle as I'm just confusing myself and getting irritated, TIA

 

[Whisky]

Hey bro, congrats on the baby and engagement - you’ve certainly got it all going on at the moment.

IMO your definitely on the right track with 2 full body workouts. Think that’s essential if only training 2 days a week.

I’m going to assume your natty and not on anabolics......in that case (and just trying to be honest with ya) I think hyperthrophy will be hard to come by. Progress would be very slow if at all (you’d need a lot more volume per muscle group than your timescales allow for growth without anabolics - even then 2 days a week would be slower progress than you’d probably like). Added to that I’ve got 2 kids and with your job and a 6 month old you might be struggling to get enough sleep to really grow?

IMO you might want to consider focusing on strength for now. You have loads of recovery time so you could hammer your cns with Big compounds twice a week and probably get decent strength gains. Then when your schedule allows for more sessions in the future you can focus on hypertheopy with higher weights thus getting better results.

If you went that path I’d consider a 3/2/1 or 5/4/3/2/1 rep wave program on squat and deadlift (I’d definitely be deadlifting heavy once a week in your shoes btw).

I wouldn’t bother with curls or high rep isolating exercises. I’d prettt much just hit:

Squat or front squat
Deadlift
Pull ups/chins
Bench
Push press
Dips
Power clean (if you know the technique)
Strict oh press
RDL/Hip thrust/pull through
Single leg stuff
Roll outs

Pretty much in order of importance for me (accept that will vary for individuals based on current strengths and weaknesses)

Of course your nutrition will play a huge part in this (more important than training) your job probably rips through the calories so whether you can get enough in to gain weight might be a question? Do you track?

Hope this helps mate - good luck with it all!!

 

[harvey416]

Cheers for the great reply bro, regarding diet I'm currently playing around with my foods as I was diagnosed with IBS last year and rather than take tablets and probably further damage my digestive system I want to work out foods that cause me problems, whey and weight gainers are no go's, dairy and whole grains certainly cause bloating and discomfort, some veggies cause problems I'm pretty much on fruit white rice and sweet potato, apart from that everything I'm good for.

Supplement wise I use the basics like multi vitsn(orange triad), green powder as a top up for veggies missing out my diet but the one I use also has probiotics and digestive enzymes hoping it will add some benefit to my IBS issue. Protein powders I don't use because of the problems they cause me. I do think I'm not eating enough for my lifestyle.

I train at home which I suppose is a bonus for my lifestyle as its on my door step and I don't have to wait around to use equipment.

My aim is to train Monday and Thursday sometimes I will tran on a Saturday if I can fit it in, my partner is good with me and we've agreed some days I can just train after work and she will take care of the dinner and house work but then on my off days I try to help her a lot more with cooking and cleaning. Plus some days she will like to train as well.

As for the natty or anabolic question, I strongly suspect my hormones are screwed up just on the assumption of my general well being, my low moods, my ability to hold little strength and mass plus being able to hold fat around my midsection (from what I believe could be estrogen and cortisol related). I don't know all the ins and outs but I read quite a lot and believe I have a good idea of the signs and symptoms.

So I was thinking of a Low-ish dose test e cycle just to see how I responded, my then my engagement wouldn't last long as my girlfriend had a bad relationship with someone not to bothered about bodybuilding but went to the gym took steroids and is an absolute c***, so she thinks I would follow suit, saying that I'm not entirely stupid and know there are ways and means to go about things and have recently started a low dose of Olympus labs transdermal dhea and the arimicare pro product with arimistane to see how the effects me, so far I have noticed an improvement in myself I seem in a better mood and my anxiety seems almost gone.



I bet you wish you never replied to me now haha

 

[BennyMagoo79]

I work 60+ hrs a week as a commercial plumber, and found strength based training to be more effective for hypertrophy over the long term. I try to train at least 4 times per week in the early am, focusing on bench squat and deadlift. I. 38, take MK and ran a cycle of SarmS last yr

 

[tyga tyga]

I’d focus more-so on strength training for now.

I would (personally);
Tuesday-
Squat
Bench
Deadlift variant or PC movement
Chins or row

Thursday
Squat variant
Bench variant
Deadlift

 

[Whisky]

Cheers for the great reply bro, regarding diet I'm currently playing around with my foods as I was diagnosed with IBS last year and rather than take tablets and probably further damage my digestive system I want to work out foods that cause me problems, whey and weight gainers are no go's, dairy and whole grains certainly cause bloating and discomfort, some veggies cause problems I'm pretty much on fruit white rice and sweet potato, apart from that everything I'm good for.

Supplement wise I use the basics like multi vitsn(orange triad), green powder as a top up for veggies missing out my diet but the one I use also has probiotics and digestive enzymes hoping it will add some benefit to my IBS issue. Protein powders I don't use because of the problems they cause me. I do think I'm not eating enough for my lifestyle.

I train at home which I suppose is a bonus for my lifestyle as its on my door step and I don't have to wait around to use equipment.

My aim is to train Monday and Thursday sometimes I will tran on a Saturday if I can fit it in, my partner is good with me and we've agreed some days I can just train after work and she will take care of the dinner and house work but then on my off days I try to help her a lot more with cooking and cleaning. Plus some days she will like to train as well.

As for the natty or anabolic question, I strongly suspect my hormones are screwed up just on the assumption of my general well being, my low moods, my ability to hold little strength and mass plus being able to hold fat around my midsection (from what I believe could be estrogen and cortisol related). I don't know all the ins and outs but I read quite a lot and believe I have a good idea of the signs and symptoms.

So I was thinking of a Low-ish dose test e cycle just to see how I responded, my then my engagement wouldn't last long as my girlfriend had a bad relationship with someone not to bothered about bodybuilding but went to the gym took steroids and is an absolute c***, so she thinks I would follow suit, saying that I'm not entirely stupid and know there are ways and means to go about things and have recently started a low dose of Olympus labs transdermal dhea and the arimicare pro product with arimistane to see how the effects me, so far I have noticed an improvement in myself I seem in a better mood and my anxiety seems almost gone.



I bet you wish you never replied to me now haha

Haha, no not at all bro, happy to try and help you out man.

I’d definitely suggest tracking your calorie intake to get a handle on exact calories in and macro split (I use MyFitnessPal and find it quick and easy but loads of others - there’s a recent thread about it somewhere).

Have you had any recent bloods tested? Probably suggest that before you jump on test etc (and honestly, if it’s a risk of ending your relationship personally I wouldn’t at all), I’m not the best person to advise on test, I’m running my first cycle of prohormes at the moment so I’d recommend you starting a thread in the anabolic section if you want more info on a test cycle - the guys on here are crazy knowledgeable.

Honestly though, all the above said imo it’s very possibly just lack of calories, understandably the dietary restrictions you have will make that challenge but to gain size (even on anabolic) you need to be in a calorie surplus, that means either eating more (I’m working on the assumption your at or below maintenance at the moment) or expending less energy (doesn’t sound like it’s an option)........

 

[Whisky]

I’d focus more-so on strength training for now.

I would (personally);
Tuesday-
Squat
Bench
Deadlift variant or PC movement
Chins or row

Thursday
Squat variant
Bench variant
Deadlift

Just out of interest any reason no oh press? Genuinely interested as have seen conflicting views in the past around the importance of oh work....

 

[harvey416]

Thanks for the replies, I'll nail my diet down better and get a control of my macros, I used to be really good but when we bought our house it was in need of major work so when I no longer had time to prep and working in the house after work I basically just grabbed food on the go which probably looking at it is where my IBS went out of control as well.

In regards to the strength training on the basic compounds twice a week, what rep scheme would you guys recommend? I've never really gone out side of 3 and 5x5.

I'm not going down the AAS route, I once tried the 11-kt transdermal and enjoyed it, I've thought about pro hormones even got myself some androtest but would get nasty headaches even with cycle support preloaded for two weeks so stopped after a few days

 

[GreenMachineX]

I had tons of success doing this twice a week workout:

Monday:
Squat 5x5
Bench 5x5
Row 5x5
Farmers Walks 4x failure

Thursday:
Deadlift 5 x 2
Overhead Press 4x5
Pull up 4x5
Lateral Raise 3x10
Overhead Tricep Extension 3x10

Everything grew in proportion even without training biceps directly. If I didn’t end up with a nasty shoulder impingement, I’d still be doing that. My suggestion would be sure to train your serratus anterior somehow to prevent it.

 

[harvey416]

Thanks for the reply, I've changed my routine to

Monday
Front squat 3x5
Overhead press 3x5
Bent over row 3x5
Romanian dead 3x5
Dips 3xF with weighted vest

Thursday
Preacher squat 3x5
Bench 3x5
Reverse grip row 3x5
SLDL 3x5
Dips 3xf with vest

If someone would like to give their thought on this plan, I will also train some Saturday's if I get time, would you suggest another strength workout or a lighter workout?