Eastern Bloc powerlifting for a busy guy ...

You are anywhere between 25-45 years old.
You work 50-60 hours a week. Possibly you have 2 jobs.
You study or take extra classes after work.
You have kids.
You have shitload of responsibilities and errands you have to do each week.
You love lifting and you love to be strong and huge.


Hmmm, but you cannot make it to the gym 4 times a week ... What to do now? How can you have a productive powerlifting program and fit everything in one week with so little time for training?




There is a good news. You can get ridiculously strong and big on training only twice a week. Yep, only twice a week. However, you must follow some rules:

1/ Frequency is still your friend. Yes, you still can hit each powerlift twice a week.
2/ Prioritize. Missing a squat session is bad. Missing face pulls is not. It does not matter.
3/ No TV. No bullshitting in the gym. No excuses. Seriously. In and out, tough session.
4/ Your training will be 90% powerlifts and their variations. No fluffy shit. Fuck you, if you find time to do 3 sets of 12 reps of concentration curls, then you can find time to lift 3-4 times a week.
5/ Compound exercises are your friend. leg press+leg extensions? No, front squats. pressdowns for triceps+cable flys for pecs? No, close-grip bench press.




You can go the Sheiko type "sandwich" sessions where you hit the powelift twice during one session. No, it's not too much because you lift only twice a week.


Your template (around mid-cycle) could look like this:

Monday:
- squat: 6 sets of 3 with 80%
- bench press: 6 sets of 3 with 80%
- squat: 4 sets of 4 with 70%
- assistance

Thursday:
- bench press: 6 sets of 3 with 80%
- deadlift: 6 sets of 3 with 80%
- bench press: 5 sets of 5 with 65%
- assistance


You just had 2 squat sessions, 3 bench press sessions, 1 deadlift session.


Or, if you like little more variations of the powerlifts, you could do:

Monday:
- squat: 6 sets of 3 with 80%
- bench press: 6 sets of 3 with 80%
- Romanian deadlift: 6 sets of 5 with 60%
- assistance

Thursday:
- deadlift: 6 sets of 3 with 80%
- bench press: 5 sets of 5 with 65%
- front squat: 4 sets of 4 with 70%
- assistance


Now you hit during your week: squat twice, bench press twice, pull twice.


For your assitance do 1-4 exercises but adjust the volume. Do not do too much otwerwise it might take away from the powerlifts. Remember, the powelifts sets is 90% of your work. The assitance is just for local muscle hypertrophy and rehab. 4 heavy sets of front squats give you bigger quads than million sets of leg extensions. If you do one exercise, do bigger volume, like 6 sets of 8 of 5 sets of 10. If you do 2-4 exercises, do only 1-2 sets per exercise. Do exercises which add the powelifts, such as: DB flat press, overhead press, barbell rows, DB rows, KB swing, heavy ab work, hypers, low cable rows, dips, chins, hammer curls. No, you can't do concentration curls and kickbacks.

Assistance work might look like this:

heavy barbell rows: 6 sets of 8

Or like this:

medium-heavy low cable rows: 2 sets of 15
KB swing: 2 sets of 20
seated DB press: 2 set of 8
hanging leg raises: 2 sets of 20


Twice a week is enough if you focus on frequency, proper programming and compound lifts.

Go heavy.