Two day a week routine

[Hoss91]

Hi all,

I currently go to the gym 4-5 days a week. However, I will be starting a job in 1.5 weeks, and given the nature of the job, I will be required to work long hours Mon-Fri. Since this pretty much leaves weekends, I was wondering if there is a routine that I can still make progress on. Or is it more maintenance/futile at this point? I can potentially do Fridays, given I don't work the next day. I am unsure, however, how the workout quality will be on that day. As for the weekend days, amount time is of no issue.

Any advice is appreciated.

[NinjaBody]

Impossible to give advice without knowing your goals.

[Luca2]

I might try and do a full body on Friday and one on Sunday, focusing on the main compound lifts, or perhaps push Fri, legs Sat, pull Sun.
Also have a look on t-nation, they have a bunch of articles on low-frequency training.

Anyway, where are your lifts at?

[Hoss91]

Thanks for the advice. My lifts are pretty terrible. I have just recently reintroduced squats after constant knee pain and lower back pain (I have been diagnosed with a genetic soft joint disorder, and I herniated a disc doing deadlifts three years ago, but screw that s#it). But my max was 190lbs last summer. Most recent deadlift was 240lbs x 6 for two sets, bench press was 175lbs x 6 for three sets. OHP is crap hahah, most recent is 105lbsx5.5. But right now I am getting bigger and stronger, slowly but surely. I really like body weight exercises such as one arm pushups and pullups, chins, weighted variations etc, and deadlifts. Absolutely love deadlifts. Really only squats I don't like, mostly because they always give me problems despite trainers, forum members, and competitive powerlifter friends say my form is decent.

My goals aren't to become a competitive powerlifter, and if i had to pick totals, it would be 400lbs squat, 500lbs deadlift, 315 bench press, and OHP as strong as possible (not sure what a good goal for this is). I understand these numbers to be very attainable to a non competitive powerlifter. But as I said, I really like bodyweight exercises a lot, so perhaps this will be a time where I redefine my goals.

[NinjaBody]

You could always do BW through the week, and finish off with a decent weights session on Sat.

Deads on weekend + whatever you like.

Your numbers seem like big risk for little reward due to past pain and injuries, as you don't want to compete in the strength game. They do have diminishing returns on improving your life.

If you had some cash you could also get some weights to use at home.

[Hoss91]

You could always do BW through the week, and finish off with a decent weights session on Sat.

Deads on weekend + whatever you like.

Your numbers seem like big risk for little reward due to past pain and injuries, as you don't want to compete in the strength game. They do have diminishing returns on improving your life.

If you had some cash you could also get some weights to use at home.

How do they have diminishing returns on improving your life? Wouldn't only doing deadlifts and little quad work cause overdeveloped hamstrings and glutes eventually?