I am really enjoying this 3 day a week training schedule right now for the holidays. Recovery is great and with the added calories it is nice throwing up some heavier weights while I start to puff up from gaining a little bit of weight. I won't go too crazy with it but I am up a couple of pounds from the change in my diet, allowing that larger meal after training and prior to bed. I am roughly 225 to 228 at any given time during the week, right now.
Laying out the plan for prep for 2017.
Diet will start the first part of January and I am going to try to train a little bit later than usual to avoid the ridiculous crowd that will be there for a month or so after the holidays. I train right now from roughly 7:30 to 9:30pm. I will probably push that forward about an hour and start at 8:30 at least for January.
I will be doing cardio here at the house upon waking because we live at 9k ft vs. the gym being at roughly 5200 ft. The difference in elevation will make the cardio at home more productive at the higher altitude. I have done cardio this way for the last 7-8 years due to living at a higher altitude than where we train.
The training split is going to look like this:
I am going to start at 4 days so Mon/Tue/Thurs/Fri and as I get deeper into the prep, if I am dragging ass and low on energy I will then switch to 5 days.
I will only training each muscle group directly one time per week. However, I will have indirect work in there and I am setting up my training split to utilize some "crossover" so that I get direct and indirect work each week. That will allow me to still hit most muscle groups twice a week though only one time hard and the other time lighter as indirect work. EG: chest will get hit with dips or a variation of, when I do triceps later in the week. Back will get hit a second time indirectly by doing undergrip chins for biceps, etc..
Mon: Chest/side delts/front delts/abs
Tues: Back/rear delts/traps/abs
Thur - abs/calves/legs
Fri - arms/calves/abs
The calf and ab will will be only one exercise per day as I am shooting more for frequency than anything else. My calves and abs are both strong so development is not a concern. Plus, when I do cardio I cut my calf training back, anyway.
I will be doing my stretching protocol on Mondays after my workout and Thursdays prior to training legs. If I get tight or find my lower back is irritated, at all, I will add one more stretch day for the week but it is unlikely that this will happen.
One thing that I have always done (at least for the last 10 years, anyway) is I will not train on the weekends. I might do cardio on Saturdays if it is absolutely needed but I almost refuse to train on the weekends because that is family time. I have done this for a long time so I see no reason that there will be any issues when I stay with this idea for this prep, as well.
Hope you all have a great weekend!