The snatch-grip deadlift probably works more muscle through a bigger range of motion than any other single exercise. (In other words, I’m not comparing the snatch-grip deadlift to a combination exercise like the clean and press.) So we’ll start with that as our primary exercise. Our secondary exercise will be the front squat.

I also like to do single-leg exercises, so we’ll create a second total-body workout in which we use dumbbell Bulgarian split squats to target our quads, with step-ups as a hip-dominant counterpart.

For upper-body exercises, we’ll stick to the ones that use the most muscle and avoid single-joint exercises. The big four here will be chin-ups, dips (or dumbbell bench presses), dumbbell rows, and barbell push presses. We’ll do two of them in each of our total-body workouts.

Program A

1) Snatch-grip deadlift
2) Dumbbell Bulgarian split squat
3a) Dip
3b) Dumbbell row

Program B

1) Front squat
2) Step-up
3a) Barbell push press
3b) Close-grip chin-up

Here’s how we’ll alternate programs A and B:

Week one:

Mon: Program A
Wed: Program B
Fri: Program A

Week two:

Mon: Program B
Wed: Program A
Fri: Program B

Sets and reps for A and B work like this:

Mon: 4 sets of 4 reps of each exercise. Rest 90 to 120 seconds between sets.
Wed: 3 sets of 8 reps of each exercise. Rest 75 to 90 seconds between sets.
Fri: 2 to 3 sets of 12 reps of each exercise. Rest 60 to 75 seconds between sets.

Select a load that’s appropriate for each exercise, given the rep range. You want to stop one or two reps short of failure on each set. Try this system as written for up to six weeks. You’ll do each program nine times, but only three times at each rep range.


Final Thoughts

Is this the perfect program? Absolutely not — the perfect program doesn’t exist. It’s just one way to hack out the unessential, trivial, and redundant exercises from your program, replacing them with the most effective exercises, and employing them in the most time-efficient way I know.