Hail to the Dinosaurs!
I’ve rec’d a ton of feedback from Dinos around the world about the idea of once per week workouts.
Now please note – I am NOT suggesting that everyone should start training once per week. I myself train 3x per week, and I’m going to stick to it. However, the whole idea of training once per week is interesting because it helps us to see that you don’t need anywhere near as much training as most people think.
And please consider this, as well. There’s no magic about a seven-day week. That just happens to be how our calendar is set up.
Perhaps training once per week isn’t right for you. But what about training once every 3 days – or once every four days – or once every five days – or once every six days?
Or train three times over a period of ten days – or twelve days.
The point is, finding your optimum training schedule is important – and for many lifters, it’s necessary to get outside of the seven-day week to find their personal “best” schedule.
With those points in mind, consider the following message from Erick Mariano. Erick has been a Dino-fanatic since the little monster was published in 1996, and read my articles in Hardgainer magazine before that. If you’re a long-time Dino, you may recall seeing his name from time to time in old issues of the original (1997 thru 2002) Dino Files newsletter.
“Hey Brooks,
Great to hear from you. I just turned 40. Seems like yesterday I was in my mid twenties reading "Dinosaur Training" and then in an instant I'm an "older trainee". I'm thrilled you decided to start up the Dino Files newsletter again. It's fantastic.
Anyway, all this talk of infrequent training got me thinking of some of the authors I've come across who have done very infrequent training at one time or another. So I went back over my collection of "HardGainer" and found quite a few.
None other than Dr. Ken Leistner himself spoke of his time training once per week in HG #30. On page 8 he speaks of doing the following:
Press- 1 x 5
Squat- 1 x 15
Stiff-legged deadlift- 1 x 15
Chin or Pulldown- 1-2 x 6-8
Now Dr. Ken was not recommending training once per week and clearly says he usually trains twice per week, except his son's football season required travel that didn't allow his second workout. Yet, he didn't mention anything about not being able to make progress either.
Christian Temple in HG #37 speaks of his training just one day per week on page 36 doing the following:
Deadlift from knees- 5 singles
Leverage Push Press- 5 singles
One Arm Dumbbell Bench Press- 1 x 5-6 each arm
Michael Mooney in HG 39 on page 47 goes even further describing his experiences with training once every 2 weeks doing:
Squat
Incline Bench Press
Pulldown (Under grip)
All for one all out set of 6-12 reps.
In HG 39 we find Steve Kammeraad on page 46 speaking of training just once every 7 days while dividing his 2 workouts into lower and upper body, such that each body part only gets worked once every 2 weeks.
Dick Connor talks of his trainee, Ron Wall, 54 years old at the time, training once per week, dividing up his movements into two workouts so each lift gets hit once every 2 weeks. His training program was:
Workout A:
Tru-Squat
Hammer High Pull
Horizontal Tru Press
Workout B:
Hammer Deadlift
Vertical Tru Press
Hammer Leg Press
Vertical Tru Pull
All of the above done for one all-out set each.
Author Julian Saul in HG 88, on page 44, also divides his movements into 2 workouts, training each once per week and thus each exercise once every 2 weeks:
Workout A
Trap Bar Deadlift
Standing Trap Bar Press
Close Grip Bench
Workout B
Stiff Legged Deadlift
Bench Press
Abs
Finally, Richard Geller in HG # 89, on page 32 speaks of his once per week workout consisting of:
Trap Bar Deadlift
Dip
Chin
Also sometimes Calf raises, L-Fly, crunches, side bends and rows are done.
I am in no way trying to be some kind of advocate for once per week training. There is no "best" training frequency, or exercises or set/rep scheme. I just wanted to point out that training once per week can and does work for a whole bunch of people and there is nothing wrong with experimenting to see if you might be one of them.
Erick Mariano”
Erick – Thanks for your feedback and your very detailed comments about once per week workouts.
I hope this helps to get everybody thinking about the issue – and about the even more fundamental question of “How much training is enough?”
As I’ve said many times, most people overtrain – most people train too often – and most people do too many different exercises. That’s why I’ve been covering this issue in so much detail over the past week.
In closing, I’ll note that any of the workouts that you listed could be done once every four or five days, with excellent results.
As always, thanks for reading, and if you train today, make it a good one!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. For more about abbreviated workouts and non-traditional (but very effective) training programs, subscribe to The Dinosaur Files newsletter. You can grab a subscription at The Dinosaur training website -- www.brookskubik.com.
