So you ran yourself into the ground?

So you wear eager on following through with your high intensity high volume approach, but somehow life got in the way. Kids birthday, working overtime, stressful projects, a vacation trip or even just a cold. Sometimes life has a habit of throwing panned or unplanned stuff at us, that tend to derail our efforts in the quest for size, strength and cuts.

So maybe you tried really hard to workout 3-5 times a week, and everything was running smoothly for 2 or even 3 weeks, but for most of us, fully committed adults with kids one of the following things happens:

• You run out of steam and get sick/tired
• Your schedule implodes and training needs to take a setback

But don‘t be to hard on yourself, those high commitment fitness routines are not really meant for you. Think of small spurts and enjoy them as long as they keep working. You can always throttle back a little, without losing progress and even continuing to progress along the way, if you change things up a bit and keep the effort high.

I suggest you check out the writings of Stuart McRobert (Beyond Brawn) or Martin Berkhan form leangains.com or even Dan John’s blog. You can easily make progress no matter if on a diet or tying to bulk up, with just 2 to 3 short sessions in the week.

High intensity, low volume training on an abbreviated routine that is. So for the zines when life is extra demanding, cut training days and training time but up the intensity and the weight lifted to get the most out of it.

Exercise selection will be key, so I encourage you to look for one push and one pulling movement in the two major planes for upper and lower body and distribute those out evenly over two to three workout days.

How does that look like? I‘ll give you two examples, so for a 3 day split routine, like leangains it might look somewhat like:

Monday:

• Deadlift 3 sets 5 to 8 reps
• Standing Shoulder press 3 sets 8 to 12 reps

Wednesday

• Benchpress 3 sets 5 to 8 reps
• Rowing movement 3 sets 8 to 12 reps

Friday

• Squat 3 sets 8 to 12 reps
• Pullups (weighted) 3 sets 8 to 12 reps

For me at least, I like to keep reps in deadlifts and benchpresses low, and the other exercises a bit higher, since it tends to feel good, but you might be different. Try it for 2 to 3 weeks, see if you can get stronger and how you feel, then adjust for the next 3 week block. High repetition benching hurts my rotator cuff more, than moving bigger weights for example. But low reps squats fry my my lower back completely, while I have no issue doing heavy singles in the deadlift. What can I say, touching 40 so maybe it’s good thing that nothing needed surgery just yet.

If three days feel like a bit too Abiturient, even if you are only working out 30 minutes each session, you can always go with twice a week, think one of those days on the weekend, where you might have some time to yourself.

Could look like this:

Day one

• Deadlift
• Benchpress
• Rowing movement

Day two

• Squat
• Pull-up
• Overhead press

With 3 sets per exercise and 3 to 5 minutes rest, you should be out of the gym in under 45 minutes still.

And of course, if you have a little extra time, or extra energy you can always add two exercises for arms per week, but don‘t let it impact the major movements!

And with that, enjoy your lifting, give it a shot.

There are a lot of ways to skin a cat. Main focus should be, to be in it for a lifetime!