Four day split - Time constraint template?

Training Discussion
1

Hello lifters,

Do to some recent work schedule changes, my time at the gym is going to be reduced for the foreseeable future. I’ve been consistently training for four years now and am generally familiar with BBM programming, discussions, etc. I typically lift three days per week, and it usually takes around 1.5hrs. I ran a four day strength template a couple years ago and hit some solid bench and OP PRs, but was also training about 1.5hrs per day.

My time is going to be restricted to 1hr/session now. I’m not interested in the three day per week time constraint template. I’ve run it before. I’m thinking more of a shift from three days per week to four days per week with a heavy/light split. Practical Programming has some recommendations that I could work with, but they are not actually programs (per se), and my experience of programming for myself has been terrible.

I guess what I’m looking for is recommendations on how to take some of the four day BBM templates and modify it to two lifts per session (I own most of the templates). I’d rather each day be a warm up followed by two quality (i.e., not rushed) lifts, rather than having three slots and rushing through each.

Thoughts? And thanks.

2

It sounds like you’re interested in STR templates so step 1 is picking the template that has the appropriate amount of volume for your current level of training.

From there I think if the answer is STR 1, I’d decide if bench or squat is more of a priority and then I’d drop the 3rd exercise from either day 3 or day 5.

Then I’d do something like day

1 → day 1 ex1, day 1 ex2
2 → rest
3 → day 2 ex1, day 1 ex 3
4 → day 2 ex 2, day 2 ex3
5 → rest
6 → day 3 ex1, day3 ex2
7 → rest

Above would drop the 3rd day ex3 squats.

If the answer to the amount of weekly progress you need is powelifting II/III, then I think you really have no choice but to go to 5/6 days or shorten your rest periods. Personal preference–I would shorten my rest periods rather than not get enough weekly volume to make progress if I was in your situation, even if I was taking weight off the bar on later sets.