If I could only workout 2 days a week...

I've gotten asked quite a bit lately,

"if you could only train two days a week how would you structure it? Upper lower? Full body? How many sets, reps, exercises?"

So I decided to break it down in this week's newsletter for the guys who work demanding jobs or just have a lot going on and can only get to the gym twice a week.

First thing is you can 100% build muscle and get jacked with just 2 days, so don't get discouraged thinking you can never reach your goal because you can't put in 6 days a week like all these guys you're seeing on social media.
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I personally have trained 2-3 days a week over the last few years and have seen the best gains of my life.

But let's get into the routine

For the sake of simplicity we're going to stick to an Upper Lower split. Could you do full body? Yes. but we're focusing on Upper Lower here, the more options I give you, the more confusing, overwhelmed and the more overthinking that tends to happen so let's just focus on UL.

I'm not going to get into the details on frequency because if you follow my YouTube channel you already know my take. I think once a week per muscle is enough as long as you're hitting the non-negotiables I teach. (training hard, progressing, nutrient dense whole foods, recovering etc.)

So keep that in mind as we go through this.

A simple way to structure a 2 day a week split is upper on Monday and lower on Thursday. That gives you enough time between sessions to fully recover.

Here's the structure:

Upper Day

• Incline bench

• Pec dec or dumbbell fly

• Wide grip lat pulldown or pull-ups

• T-bar row or barbell row

• Cable lateral raises

• Barbell curls

• Tricep pushdown

*If upper day feels like too much reduce sets or remove isolation work.

Lower Day

• Leg press or barbell squat

• Leg extensions

• Trap bar deadlift or Trap bar romanian deadlift

• Seated Leg curls or Nordic curls

• Cable crunches

You can also throw in wrist roller and neck curls at the end for one to two sets each.

Sets, reps, rest times

I usually promote one set to failure but that's really for intermediate and advanced lifters.

But for most people you're fine doing two to three sets per exercise and staying somewhere in the six to fifteen rep range. "bigger movements" think incline bench, do the lower end of the range, "smaller" movements think curls, lateral raises, do the higher end.

For rest times, 2 mintues-ish in between your compound movements and around a minute for your isolations. This will vary from person to person so use this as a guideline to build from.

How to progress

If I ended the newsletter here and said good luck, that’s really just a list of exercises. That’s what most coaches and influencers do. A real program has a progression model built in.

So here’s a simple progression strategy you can actually follow.

Progression is the key to growth so it's crucial you have this built into your routine.

Start at the lower end of your rep range. Let’s say you pick 6–10. When you begin this program, you should still have about two reps left in the tank. So if you pick 6–10, you hit 6 during your first workout, but you know you could’ve gotten 8 if you really pushed.

Don’t start at the edge where you’re barely getting 6 or failing. You’ll stall fast. This gives you room to learn the movement and build some capacity.

Each workout, your goal is simple. Match or beat what you did last time.

If you got 6 reps last week, go for 7. Maybe you get 7 on the first set and stay at 6 on the second. That’s fine. Next session, bring that second set up to 7.

You can treat each set individually and just focus on beating or matching the numbers. If you want them even, don’t increase the first set until the second one catches up. Once they match, move both up together.

Eventually you’ll hit 10 reps on both sets or three sets depending what you chose. Then increase the weight slightly by a few kg or lbs and drop back down to 6, and repeat the process.

This is simple progression. It’s been used for decades to build some of the best physiques in the world.

You don’t need crazy charts, graphs and percentages or complicated systems to get jacked. This is what I’ve followed for over 7 years and it works!

If I only had two days a week, this is the exact approach I’d use.

You can also rotate a “B” week if you want some variety. So week 2 instead of repeating, you swap in a few different movements, maybe a direct shoulder exercise, rear delt movement, different curl, or tricep variation. This is not required at all, but it keeps things from getting stale and redundant. Some people like just a few basic list of exercises, some like variety. Both work.

I'll be adding this routine in the app and spreadsheet, along with a week 2 option, inside my A2J program. There’s also a full section showing you how to swap and choose exercises based on your equipment level, so whether you’re in a home gym or a commercial gym, it can be adjusted to your setup.

You’ll also get full nutrition guidance, basically A to Z on what you need to get jacked so you can stop guessing and finally get jacked.

The best part though is the community. There's over 1,000 guys holding each other accountable daily, asking questions, and posting their wins and results. and if you ever get stuck or need specific adjustments you can reach out to me directly in the community you get access to.

If you want to learn more about the program and community, go here: Average To Jacked Workout Program​

Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter.

Keep making gains 💪👊

-Eric

​Average To Jacked Workout Program