For those of you who workout..

I find myself only being able to visit the gym twice per week due to work/soreness/ etc.

I have 2 days off per week and I work 2pm-11pm. The job is very physically demanding and I lift/carry/drag/pull heavy stuff all day long, so going before/after is really tough.

My question is, will I see any sort of muscle building results going only 2 days per week? Pretty much everyone I know who goes to the gym goes 3-4 times per week or more if possible.

I'm not looking to lose weight or anything but I'd like more muscle.

Thanks

Good morning Ben . So many things to factor in.

Genetic's, food/calories, rest,etc.Are your days off consecutive? Can you sleep at least 7 to 8 hours without interruption?
I'd start off by keeping track of calories and the % of protein/carbs/fat .Weigh yourself at the start of each week. If you've lost weigh,add several hundred calories per day to your diet. If you've gained,well,thats what you want. Adding a bit of fat is not really a big deal,just try to keep it to a minimum by calorie regulation.

As for lifting, I'd suggest an abbreviated power lifting routine; dead lifts , squats and bench press .

Check out Strong Lifts 5x5 or Jim Wendler
This is a very simple,abbreviated response,but it should help start the conversation.

Good luck

My days off are usually not consecutive, sometimes they are, but most of the time there is 2-3 days between.

When I do have 2 days in a row (mainly because I'm sore) I really try to go before work another day, but like I said it's hard.

I do have that much time to sleep, however I probably only get 7-8 hours about half the time. I'm not sure why, sometimes I just wake up early.

Pah said:

Good morning Ben . So many things to factor in.

Genetic's, food/calories, rest,etc.Are your days off consecutive? Can you sleep at least 7 to 8 hours without interruption?
I'd start off by keeping track of calories and the % of protein/carbs/fat .Weigh yourself at the start of each week. If you've lost weigh,add several hundred calories per day to your diet. If you've gained,well,thats what you want. Adding a bit of fat is not really a big deal,just try to keep it to a minimum by calorie regulation.

As for lifting, I'd suggest an abbreviated power lifting routine; dead lifts , squats and bench press .

Check out Strong Lifts 5x5 or Jim Wendler
This is a very simple,abbreviated response,but it should help start the conversation.

Good luck

Click to expand...

This is exactly what I was going to write after I read your post OP.

Look into Jim Wendlers 5/3/1. I made decent gains (powerlifting) only two days per week.
The book is available on Amazon and has a 2 day/week workout routine in it.

Aside from that it is going to depend on food and sleep. It's really 10% working out, 90% diet and rest.

In my experience.

Walks/cycle/swim....is it right??

Pah said:

Good morning Ben . So many things to factor in.

Genetic's, food/calories, rest,etc.Are your days off consecutive? Can you sleep at least 7 to 8 hours without interruption?
I'd start off by keeping track of calories and the % of protein/carbs/fat .Weigh yourself at the start of each week. If you've lost weigh,add several hundred calories per day to your diet. If you've gained,well,thats what you want. Adding a bit of fat is not really a big deal,just try to keep it to a minimum by calorie regulation.

As for lifting, I'd suggest an abbreviated power lifting routine; dead lifts , squats and bench press .

Check out Strong Lifts 5x5 or Jim Wendler
This is a very simple,abbreviated response,but it should help start the conversation.

Good luck

Click to expand...

SL 5x5 requires 3 days a week of lifting and it's usually a work/rest/work/rest/work/rest routine. He also wants to build muscle, which 5x5 doesn't really do, that's more for strength building although when I first started working out I did do SL 5x5 so I could have a good base strength before I got into building my body up. This routine won't workout at all for him. Plus, if he works that hard at his work, 5x5 would tire him the fuck out, once he gets into his latter lifts and trying to squat 265 for five sets and then go to work the next day.

OP if you are going to workout only 2 days a week but have a demanding job like that, up your protein, take about a gram per pound you weigh. Find yourself a good workout that involves Upper and Lower body, but if you can only workout 2 days a week I would go for a full body workout both days. Just my 2 cents.

Do check out Jim Wendler's 5/3/1/ program. Wendler has lots of experience. He played D1 college football. He was an SEC Strength Coach. He trained at Westside with Louie Simmons. He squatted 1000 pounds. Then he worked with Dave Tate at EliteFitnessSystems for years. Now he's got his own gym, and he's trained 100's of people. 1000's have had success with his program. Professional strength coaches, who train athletes for a living are like "fuck it, I'll just have my athletes do 5/3/1."

The guy who invented Stronglifts was trained by nobody. He has trained nobody. He said himself, that he lifted weights for years, but has achieved nothing when it comes to training.

More specific to you;
When you do your 2 workouts, and work your physical job, what is the most sore? What limits you the most?

You can do short, easy, specific mini workouts, at home, to address your weakest areas. After 3-6 weeks of attacking whatever is holding you back, you should be ready for a third gym session. At first, it will be shorter and easier than your 2 "real" sessions. It will be specifically for whatever is weakest. After 3-6 weeks of that, you will be ready for 3 days in the gym.

If we can get you on track, as you get stronger, your job should get easier. You'll be more hoss, so the job will take less out of you. This will allow you to do more "mini workouts" which will make you better, which will make you stronger, which will make everything easier, which will allow you to train more,and on and on and on...

The first step is to make sure your gym sessions are productive. Then, we figure out what to work on to make you recover better, so you can be more ready for your next workout.

So, tell us what you do during your 2 workouts. Tell us what hurts the most. Tell us what you do at work that fucks you up the most. Then, we'll tell you how to improve your gym sessions, and what "extra" stuff to do other days.

Also, you better tell us what you're eating. If you're sore and tired, you need to eat differently, to give your body what it needs to feel good and energetic.

Energy is key.

Energy is key!

The more strength and energy you have, the easier your day becomes.

A 45 minute walk, a few times a week, on days after you lift, will give you more energy and help your recovery.

Or simply put, be a beast..!!

Beast is a relative term.

If you're not very strong, and not in very good shape, Beast for you is going to be like a house cat.

Someone who has been training successfully for 12 years is going to have a pretty awesome level of strength and conditioning built up. Beast for them, will be like a Saber Tooth Tiger.

Your strength and conditioning is like a bucket. You train by filing it up 70-80%. Over time, your bucket grows. You still only do 70-80%, but its more, because your bucket is bigger.

So you just have to take your medicine, and start out at 70% of jack shit. It sucks, and it feels like you're working to easy to make gains. You just have to stay the course, and keep putting in the work that you can recover from. Then doing it again.

If you bite off too much, and try to train like a sabertooth, when you're only a house cat, you will have problems.

Its really a lot like gardening.

Granted... I am currently following the training protocols for male gymnasts. You will see results from going to the gym twice a week and using the effort from your work.

The thing you need to keep in mind is the fact that additional puffy hypertrophy is the result of your body repairing muscle tissue quickly and does not mean you are physically stronger. Physical strength and dense mass develops slower because your tendons are responsible for your physical strength. As your tendons continue to develop your body can utilize more muscle fibers Tendons take at least 15 weeks to become stronger.

For a lot of free information on exercise... go to the website Exercise Prescription

Ben123456733 said:

I find myself only being able to visit the gym twice per week due to work/soreness/ etc.

I have 2 days off per week and I work 2pm-11pm. The job is very physically demanding and I lift/carry/drag/pull heavy stuff all day long, so going before/after is really tough.

My question is, will I see any sort of muscle building results going only 2 days per week? Pretty much everyone I know who goes to the gym goes 3-4 times per week or more if possible.

I'm not looking to lose weight or anything but I'd like more muscle.

Thanks

Click to expand...

As others have said: There are many factors to consider. You need to eat clean, eat enough, and eat at the right times.

If you're only weight training twice a week you will not see very good results unless those sessions are 2+ hours long.

You need to be exercising throughout the week regardless of your gym time. Human bodies are meant to be very active.

Do you REALLY want to be fit? It's about how bad u want it. If your goal is to build muscle then work on pushups, pullups, etc. No need to go to the gym for that stuff

I agree with JanesRain, eating right and eating clean is extremely important and if you want true strength instead of show muscles. Then calisthenics is where it is at.

You can get some good gains off 2 days a week you just have to use your time to its max potential. I would plan workout routines to follow for them 2 days cause sometime when I used to walk in the gym with no routine I'd just catch myself staring at the equipment lol. With a good routine eating healthy and rest you can get some gains but always remember it takes time and others notice before you do. I went from around 184 lbs to 240 lbs of muscle but took almost 4 years!

Tondo17 said:

You can get some good gains off 2 days a week you just have to use your time to its max potential. I would plan workout routines to follow for them 2 days cause sometime when I used to walk in the gym with no routine I'd just catch myself staring at the equipment lol. With a good routine eating healthy and rest you can get some gains but always remember it takes time and others notice before you do. I went from around 184 lbs to 240 lbs of muscle but took almost 4 years!

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No offense, but by the looks of you I doubt you gained 50 pounds of muscle. Maybe 20-30% of it was.

Well those were late progress pics I'll dig one up from when I started out I was all bones

This is me at like 180 when I started working out about 6 years ago

It all comes down to how bad you want it.

Medication can also interfere with gains. I doubt you're on any but i am and they seem to have slowed my metabolism down a lot and when i drink wine etc now get fat easily,and have started going to the gym 3-5 days a week of mostly cardio. before i was lean fit and athletic. Im trying now to use that as gaining muscle but would prefer to get back to the weight i was a year and a half ago.