Between work, family and the day-to-day admin of simply being a functioning human, it’s easy to let an ambitious 5-day training split slowly unravel.
Full-time Army officer and Real Meal founder Will Simpson has a more realistic approach: identify just two workouts that will actually move the needle, then build everything else around them.
What Is the 2-Workout Rule?
‘I’d always try and build towards the two,’ Simpson tells Men’s Health. ‘There’ll be two sessions in the week that are really going to move the needle with the goal that I’ve set for myself. Everything else contributes and makes sure that I’m in as good a place for those two sessions as possible.’
With this mindset not every workout needs to be a PB-chasing, lung-busting epic. Easier runs, shorter bodyweight sessions and general movement all contribute – but ultimately, they’re supportive. It’s not the end of the world if they fall off the radar due to life commitments.
For Simpson, his two priority sessions normally fall on Tuesday and Saturday, although family life is given the final say.
‘Usually Tuesday, and then if I can get out Saturday morning,’ he explains. ‘But if we’ve got something on Saturday morning, then it’ll be Friday morning. So, at least two days [rest] in between the two.’
The aim isn’t to design the theoretically perfect training plan. It’s to create one you can actually reliably execute, week after week. Putting the emphasis on just two ‘needle-moving’ sessions each week takes the pressure off the other stuff around them.
How to Use the 2-Workout Rule
Simpson begins the process on Sunday evening, planning both his meals and training in the back of a notebook.
‘I diarise the whole week – what that looks like with food and then exercise as well,’ he says. ‘On Sunday night, when that’s out of the way, it’s almost done. If you’ve written it down, in my head it’s 80% done. You just need to go and execute it.’
That removes any ambiguity, he says. ‘I’m going to train this week’ becomes ‘I’m completing my important session on Tuesday morning’.
It also means Simpson doesn’t feel obliged to come out swinging on Monday. During one particularly stressful period, a senior colleague offered him some advice that stuck.
‘He said, “Just remember: Mondays, just survive them,”’ Simpson recalls. ‘You don’t need to complete everything by Monday at five or six o’clock. If you can set yourself up on Monday for the rest of the week to go well, then that’s a job well done.’
Simpson’s interpretation is even more succinct: ‘Monday’s fairly chill, and then Tuesday, send it.’
Two workouts may not sound like much. But two sessions that are planned, protected and completed will always beat five that exist only in the plan you optimistically wrote on your Notes app.
If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.
Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.
