Limited on days you can (or want to) spend working out? Need a good lifting program to compliment your running or Hyrox training?
Meet our latest program: 2-Day Full Body Physique!
This is a robust 2 day bodybuilding and strength training program that will help you look/feel your best and maximize your physique in just 60-75 minutes a day.
Ready to get started? Click here to join
General Program Info
Note: as a Paragon member, you’ll get access to ALL our workout programs. So you can hop to a different program at any time!
2-Day Physique:
- 2 days x 60-75 minute workouts
- bodybuilding and strength training
- workout sessions = full body
- new cycles begin every 6 weeks
- programming has progressive overload
- equipment needed: machines, cable machines, barbell, squat rack, DB’s, and a bench
*Note: unlike 3/4/5 Day Physique, this program will not participate in the strength or metabolic cycles, though it will include some of that respective work from time-to-time in the programming throughout the cycle. The primary focus in training will still be mostly hypertrophy
Who is 2-Day Physique For?
- Someone who has big time commitments with their job
- Someone with a large family responsibility, parenting etc…
- Someone pursuing other fitness endeavors (running, Hyrox, etc)
- Someone slightly older with reduced recovery capacity
- Someone who doesn’t care about targeting every fiber of each muscle, but wants to still be strong and full of vigor
- Someone who simply wants to focus on health and longevity
2-Day Physique Sample Workout
In our training app, we have detailed workout instructions, movement modification/substitution ideas, and there will always be demo videos so you know exactly how to perform each lift.
There will always be movement swaps listed in the app so you can lift using machines, barbells, or dumbbells.
2-Day Physique Workout Sample:
A. Conventional Deadlift
1-2 warm-up sets, then:
First work set x 10-12 reps (lighter)
Second work set x 6-10 reps (heavier)
Rest 2 minutes
B. Incline DB Bench
1-2 warm-up sets, then:
3 work sets x reps 12-9-6
Rest 2 minutes
C. Wide Grip Cable Pulldowns
1-2 warm-up sets, then:
2 work sets x 6-10 reps
Rest 2 minutes
D. Lying Leg Curls
1-2 warm-up sets, then:
2 work sets x 8-12 reps
Rest 2 minutes
E. Machine Leg Extensions
1-2 warm-up sets, then:
2 work sets x 8-12 reps
Rest 2 minutes
F. Cable Upright Rows
5 total sets:
First set x 15-20 reps
Rest only 15-20 seconds between sets
Expect reps to drop set to set due to short rest
Maintain same RIR on each set
G. Superset Movements:
1 warm-up set, then:
2 work sets x 8-12 reps each
Incline DB Curls Incline
DB Tricep Extensions
Rest 1-2 minutes
H. Superset Movements x 2 Sets:
1 warm-up set each, then:
Decline Weighted Sit-ups x 8-15 reps
Weighted Plank Hold x 30-60 sec
Rest 2 minutes
More About This Program
For the first time, Paragon will add a 2-day Physique to the menu of workout program options.
Paragon has been providing the 3, 4 and 5 day programs for many years with great success, optimizing body composition aesthetics and improving strength through a periodized sequence of training cycles. The 2D program will be a bit different in this regard.
There are numerous use-case scenarios for why a 2-day program may be more effective for someone.
As part of addressing this, I want to share a personal parable.
When I first began training (all the way back in 1997!), my initial influences came from an online forum called “Hardgainer.”
The philosophy of this forum was based on the idea that most trainees are just regular normal people that have busy lives consisting of multiple responsibilities; and as a result, do not possess the recovery capacity to train like a dedicated “athlete” pursuing high-level strength or physique goals.
They stated that most people just want to look better, feel better, get stronger, be healthier, and enhance their lives through fitness.
Furthermore, the approach demonized the “drug culture” of bodybuilding and argued that the higher-volume and higher-frequency training routines in the magazines were insidious to the culture of physical fitness, as well as so extreme as to be impractical for the average person.
The forum often referenced the “pre-steroid” era of training, which occurred before the early 1960’s. In that era of training, almost all trainees (even competitive bodybuilders and strongmen) trained a full body program, with one session every 3 days – approximately twice a week.
Fast forward to the current day, and we are inundated with social media obnoxiously amplifying the toxic messaging of high-volume training, filled with reference to new “studies” that show the more you do, the more you gain. It makes you feel like you are never doing enough.
In many ways, the messaging around Hardgainer is exactly what we *should* be adhering to: train hard, then go live life and recover, so that you can come back and do it again a few days later.
That is exactly how I trained for the first three years of my training journey. I got phenomenal results and enjoyed every bit of training. I did not fall for the allure of the excessive training trap. Best of all, it allowed so much time for me to live the other aspects of my life.
During that period, that meant basketball practice, hanging out with friends, studying for the SAT’s, or simply being with my family and reading books – NOT obsessing over every variable in my training.
As an adult, we can extrapolate each of those elements into the construction of our current lives – whether that’s parenting, working, making dinners for the family, adding in cardiovascular exercise, or whatever else may occupy your time.
Many people will still feel like 2 days isn’t enough, but I will push back slightly. I strongly believe that the 2-day structure fosters an environment where the trainee is extremely motivated for each session.
Yes, the workouts are hard, as any full body training is, but the lower frequency ensures complete recovery both physiologically and psychologically, and thus increases motivation.
I can personally attest to the lack of desire to train when I have back-to-back sessions across a week, but almost never experience that same apprehension when training with the 2x/week structure.
There is also the argument around systemic fatigue, which is the fatigue one feels in the body, above and beyond whether an individual muscle group is fatigued.
Some studies show that simply training back-to-back days (even when targeting different areas of the body) will have a slightly detrimental impact on the ability to get as much out of the second of the two back-to-back workouts (due to the system as a whole carrying fatigue from the prior session).
While we may not get as much direct training volume across the week for each individual muscle group with the 2D structure, the quality of the training is often higher.
The design of this type of program consists of majority compound movements. This means that most of the exercises will train multiple groups at once.
Yes, we will still use some isolation exercises, but most of the movements will have crossover between many areas of the body.
By programming in this manner, we can accomplish a lot of “stimulus” to the musculature and the system as a whole, without having to do 20 different exercises in a workout.
Ultimately, this new 2-day program will fill a void for many of you.
I am confident that you will get great results while also providing the ability to thrive in other areas of life.
In writing this, I find myself romanticizing the era in which this is how I trained, because it was so effective and represented a period of time where training was not the primary obsession in my life – as it was in many of the years that followed.
I encourage you to give this program a true shot for a training cycle and see how it may optimize your journey with balancing training and everything else that life has to offer!
-Paragon Founder & Programming Expert, Bryan
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