twice a week vs once a week

[guga99]

I've been reading a lot of opinions about training a muscle group twice a week vs doing it once a week, but I still can't wrap my mind around it.
I agree that the answer might not involve choosing one vs the other necessarily, but I am trying to figure out what would work the best for me now.
For the past two months I've been doing the following:

Monday & Thursday: Chest 11 sets
Shoulders 10 sets
Triceps 8 sets

Tuesday & Friday: Back 12 sets
Biceps 8 sets
Legs 11 sets

Would it benefit me to change to a 5x week body split working each muscle group once a week?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!!

[Eat Sleep Train]

It takes about 3-5 days for your muscles to fully recover. If you workout you body part once a week you allow for full recovery. Therefore you can stimulate your muscles better. I heard to workout once a wk. and train whichever part you want most improvement twice. I actually just switched over from twice a wk to once. If you do it once a wk. there is less of a chance of overt raining and/or burnout. I don't know the benefits of training twice a wk. I noticed that I leaned out perhaps because I was burning more calories everyday.

[olinerules87]

Originally Posted by Eat Sleep Train

It takes about 3-5 days for your muscles to fully recover. If you workout you body part once a week you allow for full recovery. Therefore you can stimulate your muscles better. I heard to workout once a wk. and train whichever part you want most improvement twice. I actually just switched over from twice a wk to once. If you do it once a wk. there is less of a chance of overt raining and/or burnout. I don't know the benefits of training twice a wk. I noticed that I leaned out perhaps because I was burning more calories everyday.

1. It doesn't always take 3-5 days for a muscle to recover. That depends on genetics, diet, intensity, volume, etc......

2. Training once a week often leads to undertraing. Yes, there is such a thing. It does not take a muscle an entire week to recover so training it so infrequently can often lead to not training enough

3. Overtraining is not easy to do. People are way too quick to say that a program will lead to overtraining when they don't know jack squat about overtraining and just how difficult it is to overtrain. I've done low volume/intensity programs where I worked a muscle 10 times in one week and didn't overtrain.

Now to the OP, i prefer higher frequency training of 2 or more times per week.

[BabyBodybuilder]

Originally Posted by olinerules87

1. It doesn't always take 3-5 days for a muscle to recover. That depends on genetics, diet, intensity, volume, etc......

2. Training once a week often leads to undertraing. Yes, there is such a thing. It does not take a muscle an entire week to recover so training it so infrequently can often lead to not training enough

3. Overtraining is not easy to do. People are way too quick to say that a program will lead to overtraining when they don't know jack squat about overtraining and just how difficult it is to overtrain. I've done low volume/intensity programs where I worked a muscle 10 times in one week and didn't overtrain.

Now to the OP, i prefer higher frequency training of 2 or more times per week.

Ah.. Actually using personal experiences to educate others, instead of using bro-science?! [/sarcasm]

I hate you, sir.

P.S. This is MADNESS?!?!?!! *waits for 300 plugin*

[olinerules87]

Originally Posted by BabyBodybuilder

Ah.. Actually using personal experiences to educate others, instead of using bro-science?!

I hate you, sir.

P.S. This is MADNESS?!?!?!! *waits for 300 plugin*

If you are saying I am using my personal experiences to make rules for everyone I'm not. Notice I said "it doesn't always" and "it often leads to". I'm not saying working a muscle once a week always leads to undertraining but for many people it does

[BabyBodybuilder]

Originally Posted by olinerules87

If you are saying I am using my personal experiences to make rules for everyone I'm not. Notice I said "it doesn't always" and "it often leads to". I'm not saying working a muscle once a week always leads to undertraining but for many people it does

I guess I should have put sarcasm tags..

Edit: fixed

[N@tural1]

olinerules87 Im with you bro, sure 1x per week training works for some but 2x per week works great for others, I personaly like a cross between the two and work each bodypart once every 4-5 days.

Many lifters cannot inflict enough "damage" to a muscle to warrant a full 7 days before hittin it again. So less volume a little more often may well be the answer

[ASWEDE]

There's no correct one way fits all answer here. Once week works for some people, twice works for others. You have to get in the gym and find what works for you. Volume and intensity play a large role here. A lot depends on how advanced you are too. Plus changing things up once in awhile is a good thing. Personally, I like frequency, but usually in the spring/summer I switch to one muscle a day routine.

[olinerules87]

Originally Posted by britlifter

olinerules87 Im with you bro, sure 1x per week training works for some but 2x per week works great for others, I personaly like a cross between the two and work each bodypart once every 4-5 days.

Many lifters cannot inflict enough "damage" to a muscle to warrant a full 7 days before hittin it again. So less volume a little more often may well be the answer

x2, you must do a lot of damage to actually need 7 days. I have never felt I needed to take more than 3 days off and ANY program I have ever tried.

Originally Posted by ASWEDE

There's no correct one way fits all answer here. Once week works for some people, twice works for others. You have to get in the gym and find what works for you. Volume and intensity play a large role here. A lot depends on how advanced you are too. Plus changing things up once in awhile is a good thing. Personally, I like frequency, but usually in the spring/summer I switch to one muscle a day routine.

x2

[lilpinki]

i train each muscle once a week with the exception of lagging muscle groups which i train twice a week....

[ASWEDE]

Originally Posted by lilpinki

i train each muscle once a week with the exception of lagging muscle groups which i train twice a week....

You raised a good point. Not all muscles are created equal. My calves respond to frequency, period.

[olinerules87]

bottom line. Try lots of different techniques and see what works best for you and stick with it.

If once a week is best for you, by all means stick with it.

If 5 times a week is best the do it.

[ThickAsABrick]

*waits for new stream of threads asking if people are "undertraining"*

[adpayne]

Originally Posted by guga99

Would it benefit me to change to a 5x week body split working each muscle group once a week?

Were you still making gains with your current program? Were you increasing the resistance on a regular basis? Were you fluctuating the volume, etc?

There are more factors than just frequency which affect the success of a program. My bread and butter is twice a week, but I also cycle in 5 day splits for variety. The main factor is some kind of progression and consistancy. That is more important than anything else - in my view.

Art

[olinerules87]

Originally Posted by ThickAsABrick

*waits for new stream of threads asking if people are "undertraining"*

hahaha

I can see some kid staying in the gym 5 hours for his chest workout so that he doesn't undertrain.

[ThickAsABrick]

Originally Posted by olinerules87

I can see staying in the gym 5 hours for a workout if lil pinki is there at the same time

changed to reflect the truth

[ASWEDE]

Originally Posted by ThickAsABrick

*waits for new stream of threads asking if people are "undertraining"*

lol. You're probably just "underreaching" not "undertraining". No worries.

[chuckiechuck]

3x/week full body

[jgreystoke]

Online rules this thread.

[olinerules87]

Originally Posted by jgreystoke

Online rules this thread.

thanks