Inevitably at some point in everyone’s lives they have too much going on where their gym routine takes a back seat. It could be a new job, a new project, a new relationship or a new kid.
Whatever your responsibility may be, you don’t have to completely give up on your gym routine. You obviously aren’t going to be able to put in 2-3 hours a day like you would like to, but you can still get in enough time to make it worth your while.
When it comes to this limited time you now have when it comes to your workout routine, you want to make the most of your time. Maximizing your results from these exercises means you will be focusing on combination exercises and limiting isolation exercises.
Getting to the gym say two or three times a week if possible is still enough time to maintain your physique so that when you do come back full time you can start right where you left off. The main goal of this routine is to maintain your strength and limit atrophy or muscle loss as much as we can.
Planning Your Workouts Around Your Schedule Requires a Change in Routine
Unfortunately when it comes to life some things like our jobs and family take precedence over our workout routine. This means that we are very limited when it comes to when we workout, and are usually limited to the weekend.
If your only free time is on the weekend, or at another time where your workouts are going to be back to back you should take that in to consideration when developing your routine.
For example you aren’t going to want to do a day of squats on Saturday and then be doing lunges and dead lifts on Sunday. You won’t get as much out of your legs Sunday than you would Saturday so it’s better to break up your routine in to one day where you do legs and core, the other day upper body.
If you have more flexibility in your schedule, it is recommended that you split your workouts further apart if possible. This allows for more recovery time in between sessions and thus you will get more out of them if they aren’t back to back.
On the First Day Work Your Legs and Lower Body
The first exercise you are going to want to do are squats or front squats if you prefer. Front squats are easier to do, and puts you in a less compromising position than a traditional squat.
To do a front squat, hold the straight bar across your arms, at the elbow. Perform the squat as you normally would, bending down slightly passed the seated position. Do this for a total of 6 sets for 8 reps resting in between for short periods of time when necessary.
Next you want to do Romanian deadlifts, do 5 sets for 10 reps. Romanian dead lifts are like normal dead lifts, except that you are bending at your waist instead of your knees.
Third you want to do straight forward lunges. Do this for 4 sets and a total of 12 reps each.
Fourth Bulgarian split squats. These are performed with one foot on a bench and kneeing down similarly to a lunge. Do this exercise for 3 sets for a total of 14 reps each.
To top off this workout, use the hack squat sled to give your quads a little more work. Do this exercise till exhaustion.
Second Day Stick to Upper Body Combination Exercises
We are going to start off this routine with arguably the best upper body exercise, the military press. Do this for 5 sets of 5 repetitions.
The second exercise we are going to do is the pushup. Do pushups for 5 sets of 5 repetitions.
Third is a flat bench press with dumbbells. Do this exercise for 5 sets, 10-12 repetitions in each set. Using dumbbells over a straight bar works the stabilizing muscles as well.
Fourth are skull crushers, which work the triceps. Do this exercise for 4 sets, 12-14 repetitions in each.
To top off the upper body exercise, do a super set of pull ups. Ideally you want to do sets of eight here, and do as many as you possibly can.
Remember when doing these routines to take as little rest between sets as possible.
