Q: I am stressed at work, and it affects my training—I just can’t seem to recover from workouts well, and I am always coming down with something. I was training five days a week and cut it down to four, which helped. If I go to three days, how should I arrange my workouts?
A: The simplest way is to alternate an upper-body workout with a lower-body workout and perform them on nonconsecutive days; you will train each area three times in two weeks, as in this sequence: Monday, upper body; Wednesday, lower body; Friday, upper body; Monday, lower body; Wednesday, upper body; Friday, lower body.
When your job stress eases up, increase your workout days to four per week and perform each workout twice a week, as follows: Monday, upper body; Tuesday, lower body; Wednesday, off; Thursday, upper body; Friday, lower body.
Editor’s note: Charles Poliquin is recognized as one of the world’s most suc-cessful strength coaches, having coached Olympic med-alists in 12 different sports, including the U.S. women’s track-and-field team for the 2000 Olympics. He’s spent years researching European journals (he’s fluent in English, French and German) and speaking with other coaches and scientists in his quest to optimize training methods. For more on his books, seminars and methods, visit www.CharlesPoliquin.com. IM
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