LP Time constraint

[mmcgregor]

Hi,

I've been working on my LP for 4-5 months. My issue is that my time in the gym is on my lunch break so I have less than 1 hour. When I started I was able to go Monday, Wednesday, Friday and get all 3 lifts in each time, but for the last month or so the squats are getting heavier and I'm resting longer between sets. I find I am only getting 2 lifts in per workout now. How should I adjust my programming? I can go 4-5 times a week but it would be back to back days.

I've been doing:
Monday - Squat 5x3, Benchpress 5x3
Tuesday - Deadlift 5x1, chinups
Wednesday - Squat 5x3, Press 5x3
Thrusday - Rest
Friday - Squat 5x3, Power clean 3x5

Does that look ok? Is it an issue that I'm doing Squat-deadlift-squat 3 days in a row? Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks,

[Dalton Clark]

This is certainly a not ideal situation, but if those time constraints are your time constraints, there isn't much you can do. One thing that you can do is start to do your press/bench warm ups in between your heavier squat sets. Maybe that will buy you some time. You can also abbreviate your upper body warm ups depending on what weight you are lifting. Honestly though, I don't see anything wrong with this. I think that it is a reasonable adaptation to allow for time in the gym. I would have to reference the 4 day Texas Method split in PPST when I get home, but I believe the length of time it takes for the Texas Method 3 day is addressed by making it a 4 day program. So basically you are taking a page out of Rip's book.

[A Schenck]

One thing that you can do is start to do your press/bench warm ups in between your heavier squat sets. Maybe that will buy you some time.

I second this idea.

Try your plan as long as your lifts are going up. Once that stops working you'll have to decide if incorporating a more complicated intermediate schedule is worth it or if you can find a way to adjust your schedule.

Is there a reason you can't do a Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday schedule? This would allow your squat/deadlift to be in the same day for a longer workout on the weekend day without the need to split into 4 days (easy to fit chins in wherever you have time)

[mmcgregor]

I have a baby and a toddler and don't live in the city. Driving into town to work out for longer than an hour would turn into taking 3 hours away from my family on the weekend which wouldn't go over well with my wife and frankly isn't something I want to do.

Would moving squats and deadlifts on the same day work better, so I'm not doing Squat-deadlift-squat back to back to back? something like this:

Monday - Squat 5x3, Deadlift 5x1
Tuesday - Benchpress 5x3, chinups
Wednesday - Squat 5x3, Power clean 3x5
Thrusday - Rest
Friday - Squat 5x3, Press 5x3

[ChasingCurls69]

I would do something like:

Monday: Squat 3x5, Press 3x5
Tuesday: Bench Press 3x5, Deadlift variant 3x5/Power Clean 5x3
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Squat 3x5, Press 3x5
Friday: Bench Press 3x5, Deadlift 1x5

It's easier to pull/bench after squatting/pressing than the other way around, and you get one less squat day but get more upper body frequency so it's a decent trade off.

[Jeremy Tully]

As others have said, this is not ideal. But, if you only have an hour and cannot get three lifts in, that's how it is. I don't think squat-deadlift-squat on consecutive days will be sustainable for you. I'd suggest you just move straight to a split routine of sorts:

Monday: Squat 3x5, Deadlift 1x5
Tuesday: Press 3x5, Bench 3x5
Wednesday: Squat 3x5, Deadlift 1x5
Thursday: Bench 3x5, Press 3x5
Friday: Squat 3x5, Deadlift 1x5
Saturday: Chins

With the above you still get to squat and pull 3x/wk and do each pressing movement 2x/wk. If/when you are ready to rotate in cleans, put them on Wednesday, so you're only deadlifting Monday and Friday.

When your press and bench get hard enough, you may have to do the 2nd pressing movement of the day at 90% of your previous weight. This is why you start with the press one day and the bench on the other. So in the above example, Tuesday you press 3x5 for a new PR and bench 3x5 at 90% of your last bench workout. On Thursday you bench 3x5 for a new PR and press 3x5 at 90% of your last press workout. If you are committed and have the time on Saturday you could get another press / bench workout in then and then you're pressing 3x/wk again.

[OZ-USF-UFGator]

Why not dump a squat session and squat twice per week?

[Les Hahn]

Something like this could work:

M- Squat 3x5, Bench 3x5
T- off
W- DL 3x5, Press 3x5 *Yes, do 3 sets of 5 for deadlift since you are only doing it 1x per week.
Th- off
F- Squat 3x5, Bench 3x5
Sat- Power Cleans 5x3, Chins
Sun- Off

This leaves a day space between all your big lifts, and the Saturday session is optional. I've used the M, W, F setup with a few older lifters and it works pretty well. I don't think throwing in that Saturday work would blow anything up. :-)