It often happens that an athlete is limited in time and cannot visit the gym more than twice a week. Many people end up deciding that such rare training is of no benefit and losing a serious attitude to the training process. How to train in such a situation - not to quit working on your body at all? Intuitive training will definitely not work in this case.
However, you can grow even by training twice a week, for this you need three things: consistency, regularity and consistency. The only way to put this into practice is with a two-day weight split. Observing this training system, you will consistently progress even with two visits to the gym per week.
Read this article to the end and you will learn how to properly build this training program and what results in the development of your own body you will achieve with its help.
What is a two-day split?
The split training principle means we train different muscle groups on different days, not the whole body every workout. Therefore, we have only two days to work out all the muscles. It is most rational to conditionally break our body into top and bottom.
Training principle
In one day, we completely work out all the muscles of the upper - chest, back, arms, shoulders and abs, doing 2-3 exercises for large muscle groups and one for small ones. This amount of work will be quite enough to keep them in good shape and provide prerequisites for growth. After two to three days of complete rest after the upper body workout, we do a full volume workout on the legs, trying to properly load the quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteal and calf muscles at a time.
This gives you more than enough time to fully recover between workouts. After all, the larger the muscle, the more time it needs to recover. Therefore, it is advisable to make the workouts heavy, giving all the best in each approach of each exercise. This way you will consistently get bigger and stronger when using the 2-day split. If you train carelessly, you won't achieve much result - two workouts a week will not be enough due to the small amount of work.
Of course, there will be no growth even with insufficient nutrition. You need a surplus of calories in the amount of 10-20% of the daily value for a specific athlete.
Another option for a two-day split:
Recommendations for using the program
The program is suitable for those athletes who:
- No time or opportunity to frequent the gym.
- But at the same time, there are enough resources (nutrition, sleep) for recovery.
When training on the principle of a two-day split, we work out several large muscle groups at once in one session. Therefore, it is worth using mainly only heavy basic exercises, after which you need to recover for a long time (we have a week for this), and a minimum of isolation. Sometimes it can be wise to add a cardio load at the end of your workout. How to correctly combine all this for people with different body types, read in the following sections.
Two-Day Ectomorph Workout
The most important thing for ectomorphs is not to fall into a state of catabolism. Their workouts should be short and intense enough.
The optimal training duration is 1 hour. Maximum - one and a half. Also, do not forget to add the correct nutrition for the ectomorph, which will greatly enhance the training effect.
| Upper body workout | ||
| Exercises | The number of approaches and reps | A photo |
| Wide grip pull-ups | 4x10-15 |  |
| Bent-over barbell row | 4x8-12 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Bench press | 4x12,10,8,6 |  |
| Incline dumbbell press | 3x10 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Bench press standing | 3x10-12 |  |
| Twisting in the simulator | 3x12-15 |  |
| Hanging leg raises | 3x10-12 |  |
| Lower body workout | ||
| Seated Leg Extension | 3x15-20 (warm-up) |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Barbell Shoulder Squats | 4x12,10,8,6 |  © Vitaly Sova - stock.adobe.com |
| Press platform legs | 3x10-12 |  |
| Romanian cravings | 4x10 |  |
| Lunges in place with dumbbells | 3x10 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Standing Calf Raises | 4x15 |  |
It may seem that there is little exercise - there are not enough, for example, separate movements for the biceps, triceps, middle and rear deltas. However, by adding all these exercises, we will greatly overload the program. You will have to spend at least 2 hours on training, and the effectiveness will be lower. For ectomorphs with such a split, basic exercises for the back, chest and shoulders will be enough, where the above small muscle groups are involved.
During your workout, it is advisable to consume a cocktail of BCAAs and simple carbohydrates, it will maintain your performance at the proper level and prevent the production of the stress hormone cortisol. After training, you can drink another of the same cocktail or a portion of the gainer.
Cardio ectomorphs are strongly discouraged, unless required for health reasons.
Split mass for mesomorph
For mesomorphs, the training process is almost the same. They gain muscle mass quite easily, although “pure” mesomorphs are rare. They can do a little more training volume than ectomorphs, and the calorie surplus may not be so high, 10-15% will be enough.
| Upper body workout | ||
| Exercises | The number of approaches and reps | A photo |
| Bent-over barbell row | 4x10 | © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Narrow Reverse Grip Pull-ups | 4x10-15 |  |
| Bench press | 4x12,10,8,6 | |
| Press in Smith on an incline bench | 3x10-12 |  © Odua Images - stock.adobe.com |
| Dumbbell Seated Press | 4x12 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Wide grip barbell pull | 4x12 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Twisting on the bench | 4x12-15 |  |
| Reverse crunches on the bench | 4x10-15 |  |
| Lower body workout | ||
| Seated Leg Extension | 3x15-20 (warm-up) | © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Barbell Shoulder Squats | 4x12,10,8,6 | © Vitaly Sova - stock.adobe.com |
| Press platform legs | 4x12 | |
| Romanian cravings | 4x10-12 | |
| Barbell lunges | 4x10 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Standing Calf Raise | 5x15 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
The genetics of mesomorphs are well adapted to muscle hypertrophy, so most of them will consistently have an increase in mass and strength, even from two workouts a week. Pay special attention to the nutrition of the mesomorph, because even with competent training, but the wrongly chosen diet, a person with such a physique runs the risk, along with muscle mass, to easily acquire excess fat.
You can add cardio workouts depending on the tendency to overweight. In general, they are not required.
Endomorph training program
Even athletes with an endomorphic physique who do not have the opportunity to visit the gym often have a good chance of improving their physique with just two sessions per week. For this, a two-day weight split for a natural endomorph, given below, is excellent:
| Upper body workout | ||
| Exercises | The number of approaches and reps | A photo |
| Wide grip pull-ups | 4x10-15 | |
| Bent-over barbell row | 4x8-12 | © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Standing Biceps Curl | 3x12-15 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Bench press | 4x12,10,8,6 | |
| Incline dumbbell press | 3x10-12 | © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Bench press standing | 4x10-12 | |
| French bench press | 3x12-15 |  |
| Crunches on the floor with extra weight | 3x10-12 |  © fizkes - stock.adobe.com |
| Hanging leg raises | 3x10-12 | |
| Lower body workout | ||
| Seated Leg Extension | 3x15-20 (warm-up) | © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Barbell Shoulder Squats | 4x12-15 | © Vitaly Sova - stock.adobe.com |
| Narrow stance hack squat | 4x12-15 |  © mountaira - stock.adobe.com |
| Romanian cravings | 4x10-12 | |
| Smith lunges | 3x10 |  © Alen Ajan - stock.adobe.com |
| Lying leg curls in the simulator | 3x15-20 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Standing Calf Raise | 5x15 | © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
Some isolation exercises have already been added here. There is no need to work in them to failure, the main task is to "finish off" a certain muscle, which has already received a load in the basic exercise before. In heavy movements, rest until recovery, in isolation - rest for about a minute, so that breathing is only restored. The entire workout can take up to two hours.
On days off from strength training, it is recommended to do 30-40 minutes of light cardio to maintain a high metabolic rate and burn excess calories. If you don't have time, do cardio after strength, there is no glycogen in the muscles, so only fat will be burned.
Endomorphs need to be very careful about calorie surplus if they do not want to gain too much. Try not to overuse simple carbohydrates, eat more protein, and do not go over 10% above your daily calorie intake.
