4 days on 4 days off

[Corey Trevor]

I work 4 days on 4 days off out of town with no access to a gym on the days I work. What would be the best use of the 4 days off I have in a row. I feel like lifting only 2 of those days wouldn't be enough. Let me know what you guys think

[Brian Goldstein]

You may want to help us by letting us know how old you are, how y’all you are, how much you weigh, whether you’re a novice or post novice, and what you’ve been doing for training and the nature of the work.

Additionally, is this a one time scheduling issue or going to be a reoccurring thing?

[Brian Goldstein]

How tall, not how y’all.

[Bryan Dobson]

It can certainly be done regardless of training history.
It is not perfect, but 4 days off is not going to detrain you.

[Bryan Dobson]

I would lift 3 or 4 of those days you have off. If you are still a novice you may have to do a upper lower split to get two exposures ( this makes it two sessions per 8 day week, it’s not that out of the ordinary.)

[Corey Trevor]

I'm still a novice. 5'7" 150lbs up from 120lbs when I started. This is a permanent work schedule. I started with Wendler's 5/3/1 for six months and liked the idea of focussing on one main movement per day with a supplementary lift and some accessory work. It basically works out to Upper/lower/upper/lower/off/off/off/off

[Brian Goldstein]

A non trivial part of this whole thing is what you want and what you will actually do. I’m not a huge fan of 5/3/1, but if you’re going to do that and be consistent, that will be better than not training or not wanting to train.

I’d split it like this:
1- Heavy Bench (1x5, 4x5), Light Press (3x5, about 5-10% off of heavy day from previous 4 days)
2 - Heavy Squat, paused or 1” deficit DL
3- Heavy Press, close Grip Bench
4- Light Squat, Heavy DL (just one top set).

But that’s only a suggestion.