The Food Medic - E3 Ask Dr Hazel: Best way to structure strength sessions

Episode Date: July 18, 2022

Welcome back to Ask Dr Hazel, our mini episodes that drop each week answering questions submitted by you. This week we answer “How would you structure strength sessions if you only had time for two sessions a week? Would you focus on both days as whole body or one day upper and one day lower?” If you would like to submit a question to the podcast - on any topic related to health, fitness, nutrition, or mindset - please send your voice recorded question to [e-mail]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of Ask Dr. Hazel. In these five minute episodes, I answer questions submitted by you. So let's hear from this week's listener. Hi Hazel, I was wondering how you would go about structuring a strength session if you only had time for two sessions a week. For example, would you focus on both days as a whole body or would you focus on one day as the upper body or would you focus on one day as the upper body, the other day as a lower body? I'm really struggling to fit in two strength sessions a week amongst triathlon training. Thank you. Okay, this is a great question. First of all, it's awesome that you're doing two strength

sessions per week. That's exactly what we should all be aiming for. So when you say you only have time for two, I'm telling you that that's great, we should all be aiming for. So when you say you only have time for two, I'm telling you that that's great, first and foremost. I guess what I'd like to know is what other exercise or activity you're doing, if any, and how you're spacing them apart. But basically, here's my thinking. You can do either really. If you're able to have a day between the sessions then the most optimal I would say is doing full body sessions so two full body weightlifting sessions if you have to do them back to back then you can do an isolated upper and an isolated lower body session but that does mean that the frequency will only be once for each muscle group.

I hope that makes sense. An alternative is that you could do a full body push focus and a full body pull focus. So on the push day, you can focus on squats and pressing or pushing movements. And on the pull day, you could do glutes, hamstrings and back with deadlift variations, rows, etc. So that's a few things to think about but the most important thing is that you're showing up and you're getting the work done so how you do it matters less. Just make sure you're hitting the major muscle groups each week. Thank

you so much for your question and I'll see you again next time.