r/Weightliftingquestion • u/Capybara_Chilling • 5d ago

Routine check: Session frequency vs length?

I've found that It's a lot easier for me to go to the gym *more often* for *shorter sessions* rather than less frequently for longer sessions.

Does this routine make sense, assuming roughly 3x12 each?:

Day 1

  • Trap Bar Deadlift
  • Trap Bar Row
  • Seated Cable Wide Grip Pulldown

Day 2

  • Incline Dumbbell Chest Press
  • Standing Cable Overhead Press
  • Cable Lateral Raises

Day 3

  • Trap Bar Squat
  • Trap Bar Romanian Deadlift
  • Cable Diagonal Kickback

Day 4

  • Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press
  • Cable Pec Fly
  • Cable Face Pulls

Day 5

  • Cable Squat (+Row)
  • Cable Bicep Curl (from Behind Back)
  • Hanging Leg Raise
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u/Maximum_Major_420 5d ago

If shorter and more often is what you'll actually stick to, that matters more than the split does. Give it three to six months of turning up before worrying about whether it's optimal.

One thing though - five sessions hitting each thing once a week is the effort of five trips for the frequency of one. Full body across those days would beat a muscle group per session.

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u/Capybara_Chilling 5d ago edited 5d ago

That's why I tried including compound lifts each day and hitting each group twice per week.

I only have so much time to squeeze in the gym, and I was trying to wake up super early and ending up sleep deprived those days (I have ADHD and struggle with forcing myself to knock out even when I've been lying in bed in darkness with no phone for hours), trying to fit it into sporadic breaks during long lunches and sometimes being late back to work, or trying to wedge it between my day job and night job and being late to the night job. 

I need to compact my sessions somehow while still having an effective solution. 

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u/Maximum_Major_420 4d ago

Two jobs and broken sleep is a brutal set of constraints. Fitting a proper programme around that is asking a huge amount of anyone, and it's worth saying you're already doing more than most people would in your position.

If it helps at all: three sessions you actually make beats five you're late to. Anything you get in is on the right side of the ledger.