how often should I workout each muscle group?

[mrcupide2]

How often should I work out each muscle group? I hear a lot of people work out each muscle group twice a week etc, chest twice, biceps twice, and then I read that body builders only work em out once a week. What do you guys recommend for the best results.

[Rap_Rocky]

In my opinion, most research boasts significant benefits of exercising each muscle group at least 2x a week. Bodybuilders split their workouts, dedicating 1 or 2 muscle groups per day, (dealing mostly with isloating exercises such as bicep curls for arm day, shrugs for shoulder/back day, chest fly for chest day, etc.) because their goals are typically different from the majority of the gym population.

As for what's gives the best results, it depends on what your goals are. If it is to lose weight, get fit, have defined abs, etc.., then I'd say working muscle groups at least 2x a week would reap the greatest benefit due to the fact that these type of workouts are made up of mostly compound lifts (such as deadlifts, bench press, squats), forcing your body to burn more calories when compared to split workouts thats mostly composed of isolating muscle groups that do not burn as many calories. If your goal is to gain strength/muscle mass, then training your muscle groups once a week may be more beneficial. This is not to say that these are meant exclusively for a certain population (meaning "People who want to lose weight should not be splitting workouts").

For future reference, this post would've probably gained more attention and elicit more replies if you were to post it in the exercise section of the forums (not trying to sound like a jerk).

[Cdt_Richards]

Alot of what it comes down to with exercise frequency comes down to the intensity of which you are training certain muscles. If You are going to work a muscle to the point of exhaustion, not matter how many days you workout in a week, or how many muscles you work, then keep it to once a week. It takes at least 7-10 days for any particular muscle in the body to fully recover, or begin to gain, following an intense effort. However, if you were to say work the muscle with less intensity, then it can be worked more than once.
For example, I have progressed one client from working each muscle group 3 days a week, in full body workouts. Then, step 2 was a 4 day a week split, two upper body days, two lower body days. Here, each body part had 2-3 exercises. Finally, step 3, a 5 day a week split, each muscle worked more intensly, and only once a week. The goal of this client was "toning up." So, regardless of the goal, you must allow the muscle enough time to recover, depending upon the intensity in which it was worked, or risk overtraining

[r1010]

You should be doing compound movement exercises that work more than one muscle group at once, it is not optimal to only do isolation exercises.. so, if for example, you did squats, deadlifts, snatch and cleans, etc in one day, you are hitting most of the muscles in your body with just a few exercises.. I think the main thing is to listen to your body, as someone else said, it takes over a week for the muscle to fully recover, but I'm not sure it would be ideal for most people to wait this long in between workouts

[docbop]

That's one of that "it depends" type questions. There is HIT training that only hits a muscle once a week very hard and minimum three days rest. Most bodybuilders to one muscle group a day again with a varity of movements and all intense workout. Some bodybuilders will do two workouts a day, but different muscle group for each. Then there are people just working out who do whole body routines or circuits on each workout, but lower intensity and a day or more between visits to the gym. So it depends.

There are even a couple body builders who feel you can work a muscle group as much as you want and point to athletes in other sports doing daily practice and training as their example.

So a lot of things to factor in to get the answer for a situation.

[MikeCaulo]

Ultimately the need for increasing that training may not be necessary if you are just starting. However if you are more advanced and have been training for more than a year the volume and intensity of your training will ultimately have to go up. Make sure though you are matching your training with the proper nutrition and recovery habits. You can kill it for an hour or two in the gym but then you have 22 hours out of the day to not eat right, not sleep and not allow your body to get the most out of each workout.

[Ronin4help]

Much of it depends on how you feed your muscles on a daily basis and also your training intensity level. The primary concern is adequate rest. The muscle grows during rest...not during the workout. If you do not feed the muscle properly or provide it amble rest, it will not grow.