The Best Workout Split for Busy Men

It's a natural instinct to feel like more is better. And when it came to working out, I used to think this was true. My typical workout plan was 5 days a week, 1 hour per day, with 20 sets of 6-7 different exercises every visit. For me, it eventually became daunting to go to the gym. I never looked forward to it, it consumed so much of my time, and I constantly felt tired and run down.

In business, I'm an entrepreneur and investor juggling several ventures. At home, I'm a father to three beautiful kids and a husband to my beautiful wife. Staying fit and healthy has always been a goal and also a passion of mine. But it wasn't until I started decreasing workout time and increasing weight and intensity that I really saw the results that I wanted.

Here is my program in detail:

Intensity is the Catalyst

The single factor that determines how much volume you need to train with is intensity.

More intensity = fewer sets and reps.
Less intensity = more sets and reps.

Warmup

A 5-minute warm-up should be done before each lift session, including 2 light sets of the first lift, with 1-3 reps each, and some light active stretching.

Rest Time

Each set and lift should have a 5-minute rest in between. The goal is to lift with intensity and put as much effort into each lift as possible, and this time allows your heart rate to return to normal and gives your body time to recover.

Failure

You’ll lift every set until you can no longer lift/push another rep out with good form, referred to as “technical failure”.

Reverse Pyramid

The first set is the heaviest, with the least reps.

The second set should be roughly 10% lighter, adding additional reps.

The final set is an additional 10% lighter, increasing the rep range once again.

This method allows you to hit the heaviest weight when you are the freshest: right at the beginning of the workout, then backing off the weight but increasing reps with each set.

Progressive Overload

Once you surpass your target rep range on a given set, increase the weight by 5 pounds on that lift in the following identical session.

Lift Day 1

Bench Press

Set 1: 6-8 reps
Set 2: 7-9 reps
Set 3: 8-10 reps

Military Press

Set 1: 6-8 reps
Set 2: 8-10 reps

-=REST DAY=-

Lift Day 2

Squat

Set 1: 6-8 reps
Set 2: 7-9 reps
Set 3: 8-10 reps

Lunges

Set 1: 8-10 reps

Calf Raises

Set 1: Body weight to failure

-=REST DAY=-

Lift Day 3:

Chin Ups (palms facing in)

* If you can't do at least 6 chin-ups with your body weight, start with a lat pulldown machine or resistance bands.

** If you can do 10 or more body-weight chin-ups, get a dip belt to add weights.

Set 1: 6-8 reps
Set 2: 7-9 reps
Set 3: 8-10 reps

Pendlay Rows

Set 1: 6-8 reps
Set 2: 8-10 reps

-=REST DAY=-

Lift Day 4

Deadlifts

Set 1: 6-8 reps
Set 2: 7-9 reps
Set 3: 8-10 reps

-=REST DAY=-

Review

The total workout split is an 8-day cycle, lifting and resting every other day, then starting over.

On the next cycle, you’ll aim to add weight and/or reps to each set while always focusing on perfecting form for optimal results. The increases are small (5 pounds added, 1-2 additional reps). Once you exceed the top suggested rep of each set, you’ll add weight to that movement on the next lift session. However, this should only be done when the form is accurate. You may hit 8 reps on the bench press but knew your form was off, so instead of adding weight the next week, make sure you hit 8 with proper form on the same weight before moving up.

Eventually, if and when you hit a plateau, there are a few ways to evaluate this. Your nutrition and recovery may not be optimized which stalls progress. You may have jumped too quickly in weight. You may have changed your form for better or worse.

Summary

This is my RINDFIT method. It’s a minimalist approach to weight training. It allows you to start lifting heavy in short, intense periods while increasing results and decreasing your time in the gym. It also provides ample rest time to let your body recover, repair, and grow by ensuring you’re never training while sore.

Every time you start a new set, you're attempting to beat your previous reps or weight, making every new workout exciting and challenging even though the lifts stay the same. Every set is performed to absolutely failure.

This has provided me with far better outcomes than any other program.

#rindfit #workoutsplit #mensfitness #weightlifting

[hornsteinhof]

I love this approach! Been doing one set per workout training frequently for full body in the past and had good results with it. Now I've been trying a variation of your routine and making progress for strength as well. I can recommend trying not how much volume you can possibly squeeze in, but how little is necessary to make gains and still recover from it well and still love doing your workouts regularly

[rishabhchawla]

I will give it a try and comment later again

[adamwatson]

I like the idea of keeping workouts short and focused to conserve time. I do a similar thing at the moment, training for about half an hour 3-4 times a week as a new father working a teaching job. There's a few things I do very differently though.
Firstly, I try and separate out muscle groups slightly. Rather than doing 2 pulling exercises on the same day, I'd do something like squats followed by pull-ups. There's no way that I'd need an entire week for most muscle groups to recover, and this way EVERY set can be pushed optimally because there is no interference from other sets. E.g. my arms and back won't be so fatigued from the pull-ups that I can't lift as heavy on my bent over rows.
Secondly, I'd make use of supersets. You can easily nearly double your volume with virtually no extra time commitments and minimal downsides by utilising supersets with separate muscle groups.
So for me, a full workout could look like:
3x sets squats superset with Lateral raises
3x sets bench press superset with Bicep curl
The whole thing is done in half an hour, I've pushed 4 muscle groups to failure and will get to do so again a second time that week, so training frequency is good. The only downside is it is EXHAUSTING training this way because you don't really get much rest between sets and every set is hard.
Also, using dumbells, cable machines and smith machines all help to save time setting up