I have links to EXRX in there and
they keep getting pwned - which means I do, sadly.
Okay, three days.
Well, I'll offer you my current setup:
Basically, it's a three-day for the lifting, with a forth day for hill repeats (cardio only). I sometimes toss a yoga class between days 1 and 2, but that's lower back and hip-stretching 'cause I'm an old lady. I don't really think of it as a workout; it's more of a massage.
Within the three workouts, you can still see the structure of quad and ham dominant work balanced off with pushing and pulling in orthogonal planes. Now keep in mind I'm cutting, so my volume is low and I'm not bothering with direct bicep and tricep work, but you can easily see where to add these in:
Monday
Workout 1:
quad dominant with vertical pushing (front squats, lighter front squats, Oly bar shoulder press, arnies);
HIIT + ss cardio (
treadmill sprints, hamstring focus)
Tuesday
Yoga or rest/casual walking
Wednesday:
Off
Thursday:
Workout 2
cleans/clean and press with vertical pulling (cleans/clean and press, weighted chins, hammerstrength "spiderman" lat work or unweighted chins, weighted ab work);
HIIT + ss cardio to total 20 minutes (recumbent bicycle sprints aka "
8 seconds of doom", quad focus)
Friday:
Workout 3
horizontal pushing with deads/ham dominant work (bb bench, dumbbell incline bench with bands, RDLs, split squats);
HIIT + ss cardio to total 20 minutes (
complexes, full body metabolic work)
Saturday or Sunday:
Hill repeats for 20-40 minutes (described in my cardio article)
Notes:
Some of the work I do in straight sets, some as antagonist pairs. This varies organically, depending on the availability of equipment, and also whether or not I'm particularly pressed for time.
Diet:
I'm dieting a little differently this cut - I'm fiddling with VERY high calories on the 3 training days, basically PSMF levels on the off days. The differential is about 2500/1200, which works out to about 1700-1800 calories on average. While this represents about a 15% deficit for me, the training days are always over maintenance - kinda sweet while cutting! So far, it translates to me not feeling like I'm overtraining from the lifting/interval work I do three days a week - I have a ton of food on lifting days and plenty of time to recover on the down days.
Kinda nice always training really well-fed during a cut. So far, seems quite comfortable - and effective. As an added perk, I seem to be able to manage without tracking: PSMF-level rations completely kill my appetite, and if I don't eat stupid, I naturally seen to settle at around 2500 calories if I eat to satiety (but not beyond) on my "usual" food choices.
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Now, to tailor this to suit you, you can increase the volume a bit - so something like this:
Workout 1:
quad dominant with vertical pushing (front squats, lighter front squats, Oly bar shoulder press, arnies);
- 5x5 heavy ass to floor free squats
- 3x8 front squats (also free and below parallel)
- 5x5 military press
- 3x8 Oly bar corner press (like a t-bar, but you face the corner and push UP with one arm)
- 3x12 Arnies
- If you like...
- Toss in 3x10 standing alternating bicep curls
Workout 2
cleans/clean and press with vertical pulling (cleans/clean and press, weighted chins, hammerstrength "spiderman" lat work or unweighted chins, weighted ab work);
- power cleans
- 5x5 push presses or split jerks
- 5x5 weighted chins - NO WIDER THAN SHOULDER WIDTH! Wider does NOT build width - it just trashes your rotator cuffs!
- 3x8 one arm lat pulls, or hammerstrength pulldowns done with alternating arms, like you're crawling up a wall (AKA "Spidermans")
- 3x8-12 weighted bosu-ball crunches (sit on edge of bosu near floor, lie back, anchor feet if needed, place dumbbell on its end on your chest, sit to less than halfway up, plant your face on the ceiling and hold, lower all the way down, fully rest, repeat...
If you like...
- toss in 3x10 standing calf raises, hold for three seconds at the bottom of EACH REP.
- Toss in 3x10 close grip bench press or weighted dips for triceps (biceps will be fried from the chins)
Workout 3
horizontal pushing with deads/ham dominant work (bb bench, dumbbell incline bench with bands, RDLs, split squats);
- 5x5 deadlifts or Romanian deads or rack pulls
- 3x8 T-bars or one arm heavy rows or pendlay rows...
- 3x8 barbell split squats (like lunges, but all one leg, then all the other leg. Optionally you could do walking lunges here)
- 5x5 heavy bb bench or incline bb bench
- 3x8 dips if you didn't do them on the last workout.
- 3x8 flat or incline dumbbell bench
- 3x15 seated calves, pause at the bottom of each rep for 3 seconds.
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My rationale for this is to keep the heavy compounds in low rep ranges, then to do the higher rep stuff for accessory/concentration/unilateral work.
You can read more about this from
Thibaudeau.
Helpful at all?