Between Slack pings and toddler tantrums, attention is your scarcest resource. I don’t have time for ego lifts or wasted reps anymore now that I’m a dad. But I still want to be strong enough to carry my toddler and groceries at the same time, while avoiding the dreaded dad-bod. This exact routine helped me gain almost 6 lbs of muscle in 90 days.

Program Overview at a Glance

Option A — Week-Aligned

If you want something simple that aligns with a typical work week, choose this option.

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Upper (V) Lower Rest Upper (H) Lower Rest Rest / Family Day

Option B — Asynchronous Loop

If you want to maximize muscle growth or have more flexibility in your schedule, choose this option. Just keep in mind that if you don’t track your sessions, you may lose track of which day you’re on.

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7+
Upper (V) Lower Rest Upper (H) Lower Rest Repeat — insert extra Rest if joints hurt

Exercise Selection

Depending on the day, you do just two compound lifts. I picked these particular exercises because they are some of the best for hypertrophy and easy to find in any commercial gym.

Day Exercise 1 Exercise 2 Notes
Upper (V) Machine incline chest press Cable lat pull‑down Vertical plane focus
Upper (H) Machine chest press Machine mid‑row Horizontal plane focus
Lower Angled leg press Prone leg curl Swap order each session

As an example, if today is Upper (V), you will do:

  1. Machine incline chest press — 3-5 working sets
  2. Cable lat pull-down — 3-5 working sets

That’s it. Go home and enjoy the rest of your day.

Warm-up Protocol (Per Exercise)

Do sets at a lighter weight to warm up the exact muscles you’ll be using. No need to jog on the treadmill or do jumping jacks.

  1. 12 reps @ ~30% work weight (RPE 4)
  2. 8 reps @ ~50% work weight (RPE 5-6)
  3. 4 reps @ ~10RM load (RPE 6-7)

Finding Your Working Weight

Skip this section if you already know your working weight.

If you’re just getting started and don’t know what weight to use, my suggestion is:

  1. Start with the lightest weight and do 10 reps.
  2. Take a 30 second rest, then go up one weight increment and do another 10 reps.
  3. Keep repeating until you fail to hit 10 reps.

Find your starting working weight brings out two types of people:

  • The cautious: They start with a very light weight and never find their limit. Muscle growth only happens when you push yourself to near failure.
  • The eager: They start with a weight that is too heavy and never get the appropriate volume. You need time-under-tension to stimulate hypertrophy, which means you need to do enough reps to grow.

With the protocol above:

  • Because you keep going up in weight, the cautious camp will (hopefully) gain confidence each time they can hit another 10 reps.
  • Because you accumulate fatigue, the eager camp will hit failure before they get to what they thought they could do.
  • For both cases, you will find a weight that is challenging but not too heavy.

Working Sets

  • Start with 3 working sets per exercise. Keep this number until you run two consecutive sessions with no residual soreness or joint tenderness by the next session, at which point you can add a 4th and 5th set.
  • Rep target: choose a load that lets you reach 7 clean reps before the first honest failure rep. If you can do more than 12 reps, increase the load (either next time or in the next set).
  • Cluster-sets (aka “myoreps”): When you hit failure, rack the weight, rest 10 seconds, perform a mini-set until failure again (hopefully at least 3 more reps), rest again, and finish one more mini-set to failure. The entire cluster counts as one working set.
  • Stop the set if your form degrades or your mini-set is only 1 rep; log reps in each mini-set and the weight you used (e.g., 8,3,2@135).
  • Rest 1-2 min between working sets. It should be just enough time to catch your breath and not be breathing heavy. We do not want cardio to be the limiting factor, but we also don’t want to spend all day in the gym.

Auto-Regulated Progression

I don’t have the mental energy to make complicated decisions or follow spreadsheets, so everything is a simple if-then rule. These are the rules you can follow to auto-regulate your progression based on how your body responds to training (instead of arbitrary numbers on a spreadsheet):

If Then Why
You get more than 12 reps during your 1st and 2nd working sets for multiple sessions in a row Increase weight next time (smallest jump possible). You’re stronger than you think and need to push harder.
You are not sore at all (like not even a little bit) for a particular exercise Add a 4th set and 5th set. You’re recovery is good and can handle more volume.
You get soreness again after increasing sets Maintain the total sets and weight as long as you can still hit your target reps with good form. You’re probably at your limit but recovery is still fine for now.
You start failing reps (more than 2 reps shy of the reps during the last session with the same weight) Drop back down to 3 or 4 sets. You need a bit more recovery to push harder and less volume helps you recover more.
You stall on reps multiple sessions in a row Add an extra rest day at the end of the microcycle. Your recovery is not enough for your body to adapt to the reps and weight.

Add an extra rest day any time your joints ache or you just feel mentally exhausted.

Next Reads

This post is Part 2 of a five-part series that will finish as a single “living” guide for hybrid fitness training. Here’s what else to read next: