What if workouts were set up in a weekly to-do bucket instead of set up as daily workouts? Then work is done in a 'as-time-allows' scenario throughout the week. The goal is maximum flexibility. This way if not all the work is done or a day gets missed you just make it up as you can instead of disturbing a whole schedule.

For the sake of illustration I'll keep it simple:
Lets say a basic one lift a day style was to be used with 5x5 rep scheme.
Monday - Press 5x5
Tuesday - Squat 5x5
Wednesday - Pullups 5x5
Thursday - Cleans 5x5
Friday - Dips 5x5
Saturday - Kroc Rows 1 x Max Reps each arm followed by farmers walk
Sunday - Off

Instead of keeping it rigid to each exercise on each day you plan to complete all that work whenever you can in the week.
Week 1: Complete Press 5x5, Squat 5x5... etc. So in reality maybe Monday you only get 2x5 done on press. Then tuesday you finish the 3x5 press work with the squats. Wednesday gets missed entirely then Thursday pullups get done with cleans. Friday motivation is high so Dips and rows are done and you get 2 days off on the weekend. The flexibility also extends to the day, so work is completed throughout the day. For example on the Thursday the pullups and cleans can be done throughout the day GTG style. You could also move things around. So on tuesday you feel like you would rather do cleans instead of squats. Just do it. Who cares.

I got this idea from this last summer when I did an easy strength setup and did the work throughout the course of an evening or day instead of having a dedicated workout time. This is just extending that idea to a full week.

At the end of the week, the same work is done. Does having a specific workout time really matter? Does completing all the sets of an exercise on a given day in a compressed exercise period really matter? I don't think the Press cares if it was done all 5 sets in one day in a 30 minute time period or if it's done spread over several days. Maybe it does?

There's some loss of benefits, like the cardiovascular benefits of having a set workout time. There's also the lack of warmup needed to attack heavy weights. Muscle gain would be negligible.

But if strength is the only goal what does it matter?


With a young 2 week old and a 3.5 year old this is what naturally happened last week. I hadn't planned to start working out yet then found myself with some motivation. I had a plan for what I wanted to do once I was ready to start up again and just got it done as motivation, energy, and time allowed.

If I had stuck to a rigid daily workout structure I doubt half of it would have gotten finished and the whole thing would have been stressful.

I will keep exploring this idea. Curious on your thoughts.

Let me know what you guys think and if any of you have tried this kind of thing before.