Best way to train on a busy lifestyle?

[caz1001]

I live a busy lifestyle and may not make it to the gym every day i intend to. My usual routine is working each muscle group once a week eg.. Monday=Legs, Tuesday= chest.
1. Can I work two muscle groups in one work out to increase the amount of times exercised? (eg back and chest) and what 2 would u pair together?
2.Will this encourage muscle overload without too much fatigue?
3. Will this encourage more growth?

[bopps822]

Day 1:biceps/back.
Day 2:chest/triceps
Day 3:legs/shoulders
Do cardio and abs 3times a week.Good Luck.GET BIGG

[wannaBmoy]

Look into a 3x a week fullbody routine that you can schedule in and make a priority. The hardest part for you will be sticking to and committing to a diet.

[Lencho]

How busy?

[wannaBmoy]

Originally Posted by Lencho

How busy?

He be getting BUSY yO. Ah the life chasin tail 24/7 ....

[Lencho]

Originally Posted by wannaBmoy

Ah the life chasin tail 24/7 ....

How about you try actually catching some for a change?

[Serpens Aeon]

Originally Posted by caz1001

I live a busy lifestyle and may not make it to the gym every day i intend to. My usual routine is working each muscle group once a week eg.. Monday=Legs, Tuesday= chest.
1. Can I work two muscle groups in one work out to increase the amount of times exercised? (eg back and chest) and what 2 would u pair together?
2.Will this encourage muscle overload without too much fatigue?
3. Will this encourage more growth?

1) Yes. Generally, I would pair exercises together firstly based on muscle pairing (like back, chest), then in regard to intensity. My idea of a good pairing plan would be like:

Bench Press: 3 x 5
Barbell Row: 3 x 5
Incline Dumbbell Press: 3 x 8-10
Chin-Up: 3 x 8-10

et cetera...

I would be cautious with trying to do the heavier work (if you do it) back to back. Like, I would never even consider squatting and then doing a deadlift of some type. Rest times between exercises in the pairings can and should vary. You're not going to want to go instantly from a set of bench presses into barbell rows if you want to use any sort of intensity. Rest would be prudent here, albeit, you can shorten it to something like 60-90 seconds since you're not working the same body parts.

2) That depends on too many variables about you that I don't know. Keep in mind, though, that you'll want to induce fatigue. You just need to have the sense to tone things down and back-off when it shows itself. If you can train with a certain intensity or volume indefinitely then you're not training hard enough, to my mind.

If you're worried, though, a general trend is to include a "deload" week every third or fourth training week wherein you maintain intensity but cut volume in half so as to give yourself a break, both for your mind and muscles. You'll come back stronger, and maybe even significantly bigger the next week.

3) Again, I can't answer this with any sort of specificity. There are too many variables. It may slow things down, maintain them, or speed them up. Give it a go, and find out how it works for you. I would more or less always favor the lifting program that is maintainable since significant progress is only seen with consistency.

[RipStone]

I found this article very interesting....

Limiting Factors
by Tony Gentilcore

As a personal trainer, I hear every excuse people can come up with as to why they aren't getting the results they want. I've just learned to accept the fact that it's one of the necessary evils and comes with the territory.

As with any other job, there are aspects that are less than appealing. That is, of course, unless your job is to personally oil up Jessica Alba before every one of her photo shoots. That obviously wouldn't suck.

few weekends ago I attended Dr. John Berardi's "G-Flux" seminar. During the two day event, there was an overriding theme of discovering "limiting factors" that really stuck with me. That is, what factors really limit you or prevent you from being able to reach your goals? What tends to be the real culprit?

The objective of this article is to dig deeper. People like to make excuses. And below I want to discuss what you may or may not be doing to fix five common issues that I encounter on a regular basis. We're going to find the limiting factor and stop making lame excuses.


Limiting Factor #1: "I Never Have Time to Train."

People always claim they never have time to train. While most will attribute this to work or family obligations (or if they're really lucky, their significant other has the libido of a porn star), I like to attribute it to... television. More often than not, that's the limiting factor.

I find it rather comical that people never have the time to train, but are able to tell me who won American Idol or what happened in the season finale of Lost.

It's amazing how certain people can never find the time to get to the gym, but have all the time in the world to watch their favorite television shows. Proof? A few stats from Dr. Berardi's seminar:

? The National Human Activity Survey (n=8000): Subjects watched on average 19.8 hours of television per week.

? American Time Use Survey (n=58,000): Subjects watched on average 21 hours of television per week.

That's a sample size of 66,000 people, which makes for a fairly accurate representation of what people are actually doing with their extra time (read: sitting on their ass). This doesn't even take into account all the hours we spend online watching other people make asshats out of themselves on YouTube. Although this is pretty funny:

Smith Machine Squat

Anyone who tells me that they don't have time to train at least five hours per week is flat out lying. There are a total of 168 hours in a week. Asking someone to perform at least five hours of exercise per week (in and/or outside of the gym) isn't much to ask. Trust me, you can make the time.

source: http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1619845

[GoOrange]

Originally Posted by wannaBmoy

Look into a 3x a week fullbody routine that you can schedule in and make a priority.

Right on.

For a lot of people, "busy lifestyle" means can't make it to the gym enough days a week. In these cases, excessive body part splits really don't cut it. You really want a full body workout (or nothing more than an upper/lower split).

If you're time really is that limited, stick to TBWs and big, compound movements.