3 day a week training question

[EjnarKolinkar]

Do you prefer a moderate, light, heavy approach or do you train steady and use exercise variation workout to workout?

What benefits do you feel are there to your preferred approach?

[pondman]

I have a man shed out back, so I do most of my lifting at home. I wake up 3 days per week at 5:00 am and dead lift first and follow it with the bench press. I'll squat the same evening. So I do the big three- 3 times per week. And I'll rotate cable rowing, lat pulls or pull ups, shoulders, tris, and bis for at least 1 day per week. I try to be progressive week by week.

[ElrondHubbard]

I work out as heavy as I'm capable of during those three days. Officially it's moderate-light-heavy, but since deadlifts is on the "light" day, I still manage to wear myself out. Sometimes I'll back off the reps and then gradually increase them over the course of a few weeks, but that's not a daily variation.

I have a Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday schedule. I work 4 10hr shifts, so I'm off on Fridays

I try to maximize the accessories during my Thursday and Saturday routines, since I don't have to get to bed quite as early then.

As for benefits, I can't claim to know that it's better than another routine. It seems emotionally satisfying to me.

[cmoore]

It really depends on my goals but "frequency" is probably the best word to describe my training. Volume per day is set such that I can recover in time for the next training bout.

I train a 3day split with no off days so that every muscle gets trained twice a week (and 3x every 3rd week).
If I'm not in a caloric defiicit, I train in an undulating periodization (heavy day, moderate day, repeat).

[Plateauplower]

I think rep ranges work well for establishing a weekly periodization. I like heavy, light, medium which in terms of rep ranges 5s, 10s, 8s respectively for the movement. Further, exercise selection matters in terms of rep ranges. I find it more benificial to hit compounds on heavy and medium day, and would put more of my isolation or body weight stuff (I.e. Pull-ups/dips) on light day, but also do deadlifts heavy on light day. I am actually thinking about going back to a Full-body 3X per schedule starting next week. It's a fun change of pace from my current 2 day split chest, shoulders tris / back, legs, biceps. I've always enjoyed full body work and the reduction in volume per session is nice even though the frequency has me getting a very similar amount of work done for each muscle group.

[Garage Rat]

I would ask what your goal is first.
Is it strength training or bodybuilding/hypertrophy?

If it's strength training you can do a big lift with assistance work on each day.

Bodybuilding most likely two body parts each session.
You can do a heavier exercise say 6-8 reps then another lift 8-12 reps for a specific body part.
Say if it's shoulders you can do heavier overhead presses then when done hit lighter DB lateral raises.

[EjnarKolinkar]

@ garage rat

Hypertrophy. I like to train parts more frequently 2-3x week but my recovery is less than my work ethic sometimes. I'm still trying to find a balance.

@plateau

Good way to look at it. Keeps it simple.

@cmoore

Also looks like a good simple approach.

@elrond

Deadlifts can take a toll even on light day can't they? And I reckon you can take some confidence that moderate-light-heavy has been around forever and a day.

[bodyhard]

I have been doing a Heavy, Medium, Light routine I made up in the latet 80's early 90's and I still do it till this day. 2 weeks heavy, reps 2-5, 2 weeks medium, reps 6-8, 2 weeks light, reps 10 - 15 REPEAT. Sometimes I deviate from it when I am trying something new, but for the most part I always go back to this schedule it has helped me stay consistent over the years.