Six days instead of three?

[Dean J]

For some reason, it's a lot easier for me to keep a workout habit if it's every day. It's also quick for me; I work out in my garage.

For Starting Strength, any reason to not do Monday/Wednesday/Friday for Squats and Presses, and Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday for Deadlifts and maybe chin-ups?

Not sure if that screws up the rest days, or what the tradeoff would actually be.

[Adam Franklin]

Welcome to the boards! This is a common issue for most people new to Starting Strength; "I only get to work out 3 days a week!!!! I can't!!!!"

As a novice, you can't think in term of body part splits, you have to thing in terms of the stress-recovery-adaptation cycle.

For example, you will not be able to recover from the stress of your Monday squat workout in order to progress on your Wendesday squat workout because you deadlifted on Tuesday. Not only is this suboptimal, it is counterproductive. 3 or 4 lifts a day, 3 days a week. Give it a shot, do your fives!

[Cole Gorton]

For some reason, it's a lot easier for me to keep a workout habit if it's every day. It's also quick for me; I work out in my garage.

For Starting Strength, any reason to not do Monday/Wednesday/Friday for Squats and Presses, and Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday for Deadlifts and maybe chin-ups?

Not sure if that screws up the rest days, or what the tradeoff would actually be.

i like to go on walks the days i dont lift bc then im still active and "working out". walks dont interfere with my recovery but still give me the feeling that im doing something physical. i used to be a 5 day/wk body part split and had a mental adjustment going to 3x week for this program but once i did i made more progress in 6 months than i did in the previous 15 years of body part splits.

[perman]

If you insist on using 6 days, if you want to keep up the frequency by which muscles are getting hit, I think splitting it up into upper - lower*3 with a rest day would work probably if you can recover from that. You would squat every lower day obviously, but how you would set up the rest is not obvious. There is a real danger in piling up too much every day, so I would err on the side of minimalism with 2 exercises on most days, and max 3 on some. You could do something like this:
Monday: Bench/Press, chin-ups
Tuesday: Squat, Deadlift/power cleans
Wednesday: Press/Bench, seated rows or something else which doesn't stress the back.
Thursday: Squat, power cleans/deadlift.
Fridays: Bench/Press, chin-ups
Saturday: Squat, deadlift/power cleans.

This program will probably have some recovery issues, having full rest days has a lot of advantages, normal SS would be better, but this program will allow some bodybuilder fluff as the last exercise on the days.

[Ben Patterson]

Try to think about the rest days as a nessecary part of the program, because they are. Stress is systemic and you need time between bouts of stress in order to recover. The novice progression gets hard, in some cases very hard, and the need for rest will become clearer as you progress.

[tfranc]

SS is the perfect opportunity to test one's ability to follow simple direction and practice discipline. "Oh! But what if I..." No. "But it would be so cool if..." No. "How about instead I .." No. No. No. and No. And also, No. Do the program as written. If you want the results, the legendary results of increasing your squat by 250-300lbs, for example, you do the program as written, and you practice proper discipline and focus on that task. You will be stronger in more ways than one on the other side. And, as an intermediate lifter, you can add a bunch of other shit. But, when you're a novice, best thing to do is suck it up, tell your head to be quiet for a couple hours 3x per week and just do the program. It's a huge investment.

[hamburgerfan]

I think it will probably work if you set it up like this:

M: squat, short break, deadlift
T: bench press, chinups
W: squat, power clean
T: press, chinups
F: squat, short break, deadlift
S: bench press, chinups

M: squat, power clean
T: press, chinups
W: squat, short break, deadlift
T: bench press, chinups
F: squat, power clean
S: press, chinups

[ChrisRozon]

The way to cure 6 workouts/week is easy... Have kids! Getting to the gym just 3 times will suddenly require hours of planning, and possibly color coded spreadsheets.

[SirIrb]

Im in a different boat. I dont love lifting so much that I just must get in there that much. I have a garage gym so there is no social factor where I have to meet up with the bros.

Honestly, I think if you start with 3 day a week LP as shown in the program and say that the other 3 days a week are "other stuff" thats not in the program, but you have to do the program like it is written MWF, you will soon give up the other 3 days. I know it is simple but it is absolutely brutal. To stay on an LP for an extended period of time is something that will wear at you.

So do this: Do the program as it is written MWF and on TTS do other stuff. Very soon you will figure out that TTS doesnt matter because you cant move off the couch.

[tfranc]

So do this: Do the program as it is written MWF and on TTS do other stuff. Very soon you will figure out that TTS doesnt matter because you cant move off the couch.

And you won't be able to move off the couch because you aren't recovering properly on your off days, and are instead choosing to waste time doing things that feel good or make you feel good. Eventually, you'll cease being able to make 5 lb jumps on your lifts and stall out, due to lack of recovery.