Body parts - once or twice a week?

[richie74]

I'm currently lifting 3 days a week.

Chest and Tri's (4 excercises per body part, 3 sets per excercise, 8-10 reps per set)

Back and Bi's (same as above)

Shouders and Neck (same as above)

Not doing legs right now due to doing cardio on off days.

I'm currently doing each body part 7 days apart. Is this too long? I feel like I should be 4-5 days apart but my training partner doesnt think its enough time to let our muscles heal. Thanks for the input.

[John Prophet]

4 exercises per bp, 3 sets each, once per week

I am not sure how it started but thats like the "standard" workout nowadays, lol...works good for some, sucks for a lot of people though

IMO, ESPECIALLY since youre not doing legs, id hit the other stuff more often, (leg workouts use a LOT of the bodies recovery ability)

M-chest/tri
Tu-back/bi
Wed-delts/neck
Thu-off
Fri-chest/back/arms

thats one way to do it....its a little non-standard but its probably workable. The delts are hit DIRECTLY 1x per week...but they are hit indirectly when you do chest/back anyway

another way is to do chest/delt/tri together....that makes it easier to arrange the week..for instance

M, Th-chest/delt/tri
Tu, Fr-back/traps/neck/bi

now, I know what you are thinking "yeahhh, but then we cant do as much per day cuz there are more bodyparts to do"

yeah, thats the point, lol. But seriously, what you can do is to focus a little more on one bodypart on Mon, then more on the other on Thur....for instance more chest on Mon, more delts or tri on Thur

forcus more where the weakness is

now that would be DOUBLING your frequency to 2x per week so youd have to cut the volume on each day down a little...OR cut the intensity back by not going to failure. In general you cant just DOUBLE one variable without cutting back slightly on the other two (it'll work for a while, but it'll probably grind to a halt)


another variation would be to hit things every 4-5 days like this

M-chest/delts/triceps

W-back/traps/neck/bis

Fr-chest/delt/triceps

M-back/traps/neck/bi

etc like that

check this article http://ironaddicts.com/forums/showthread.php?p=89393

[richie74]

Thanks!