Some programatic experimentation

[DannyP]

A few months ago, based on some suggestions from Andy, I went down to two exercises per session, since I was feeling constantly worn out. Constant aches and pains, too, which had me cut out DL for a while.

Now, sticking to the two lifts per session, I've started seeing some great results doing:

Monday: Heavy back squat, medium-to-light OHP
Wednesday: Whatever-I-can-handle front squat, medium-to-heavy DL
Friday: Medium back squat, heavy OHP

Switching to front squats and eliminating pushing on Wednesday and pairing heavy squats with lighter presses (and vice versa) has helped me in two key ways:

1. Far fewer aches and pains associated with squatting since my back gets more recovery.

2. Serious progress on OHP; previous 1RM was 140, 2RM was 135 (on a good day) but today hit new 5RM at 130.

I see this taking me into the foreseeable future and think it's working very well of someone about to enter his mid-30s and be a second time dad (i.e. little leftover energy).

[Brian Goldstein]

I’m interested to see how far you go. Bout same age, same pressing strength and also a new Dad here. Every time I dip below 8-9 “slots” a week I end up regressing after only a few weeks, but I’ve also not set up like this before.

[DannyP]

I’m interested to see how far you go. Bout same age, same pressing strength and also a new Dad here. Every time I dip below 8-9 “slots” a week I end up regressing after only a few weeks, but I’ve also not set up like this before.

So far I'm just building back up after I did some de-loading, but my pressing hit a new 5RM yesterday and I feel less "creaking" when back squatting on Wednesday and Friday since the front squat puts the strain elsewhere.

It's basically the equivalent of doing two full-body sessions per week (even though I have 1x front squat, 1x DL) in terms of volume, which I think many people throughout the history of lifting have done quite well with.

[DannyP]

As of this week, still working nicely (even though no recent DL progress). Back to a heavy top set of squats at 325, hit a new 5RM for OHP last Friday at 130 and adding 5lbs per week to front squat (though that's only gotten me to 200 so far).

Part of the reason I think this has been working, is that it does as good a job as possible of evenly distributing the H, the L and the M across the whole week. Monday is H (BS) and L (OHP), Wednesday is L (FS) and M (DL) and Friday is M (BS) and H (OHP).

For those without the capacity to do three lifts each workout, this has been a great way to balance increases with recovery.