Training muscle group twice a week

[Rand]

Have been training on and off for about 3 years. Mainly did it to get a bit of bulk for the rugby season but after finding this site have gotten more serious with regard to muscle groups, splits etc. I've found I've made significant gains from following programme. Currently I'm 87 kg (191 pounds).

Mon- Shoulders, back, triceps
Tues- Chest, biceps
Wed- Rest
Thurs- Shoulders, back, triceps
Fri- Chest, biceps
Weekend- rest

I seem to recover pretty quickly from a workout so that's why I do everything twice. However I think that I might keep to one chest day a week. Any suggestions?

[sword chucks]

With that split you would be training tris and bis 4x each week. I say use back/bis/forearms and chest/shoulders/tris instead of what you have for upper body, but you can still repeat the workouts 2x each week. Make sure you train legs, so it owuld look like:

Day 1 and 4: legs
Day 2 and 5: chest/shoulders/tris
Day 3 and 6: back/bis/forearms
Day 7: rest
then repeat

I think if you only did half of the work that you would do in once-per-week workout, in each workout, it would be kind of like dfht or hst.

[Rand]

Whoops. I forgot to add that I do legs on alternate days. I don't feel I need to devote a whole day to them.

[sword chucks]

Originally posted by Rand
Whoops. I forgot to add that I do legs on alternate days. I don't feel I need to devote a whole day to them.

Blasphemy! if you really work legs hard there's no way you could do them followed by or after another workout. Also, that would probably add too much stuff to one workout, if you really did enough for them.

Just a suggestion/tip. If oyu want, you could keep legs like that, it would just be really hard.

[Rand]

Hmm. Not sure about that. I find that by doing back and shoulders one day then I have no problem with chest and biceps the next. I also don't have the time to train 6 days a week. 4 days is more than enough so long as I train properly. I lift heavy so I think 6 days would probably kill me.

[Rand]

Sorry a bit of a misunderstanding I think (my english should be better). I divide legs over 2 of the 4 days. This includes squats, extensions etc.

[Rand]

Disrupted workouts this week due to Easter public holidays. Anyway still managed the 4 sessions this week.

Mon- back,shoulders,triceps,legs

4xSide Laterals
4xShoulder press
4xcalf press
4xdumbdell lifts
4xlat pulldowns
4xfront raises
4xtricep pushdowns
4xleg extensions
5x 25 crunches

Tuesday - chest, biceps

4xseated benchpress
6xchest press, 3 different heights
4xbicep curls
4xmachine cable curls
4xabove head side pulldowns
5x 25 crunches
Thursday - Repeat of monday
Saturday - Repeat of Tuesday

These are really good workouts but are quite punishing and I have to be careful to warm up properly. I'm thinking of cutting chest down to once a week but I have to do shoulders and biceps twice. I feel that 3 days rest is more than ample and I'm getting some great results. Hoping to hit 200 pounds sometime this year. Am currently 191, which isn't bad considering I'm only 5 foot 8.

[Rand]

Monday: Chest,Biceps,triceps,legs,abs

4xBenchpress
4xBicep curls
4xleg extensions
4xchest press
4xleg press
4xtricep pulldowns
4xbicep cable curls with rope
4xabove head side pulldowns
5x25 crunches

Tuesday: Shoulders,back
Was in a huge rush so only had 30 min to train. Went really well actually and am thinking of doing this high intensity training once a week.

4xseated rows
4xside laterals
4xshoulder press
4xdumbell lifts
3xlat pulldowns
3xfront raises
3x25 crunches

[Rand]

Was away on business on Wednesday and Thursday so had to get started again on Friday.

I have moved triceps to this day because it was taking too much out of me on the other:
4xBenchpress
4xBicep curls
4xleg extensions
4xchest press
4xleg press
4xdips
4xtricep pulldowns
4xbicep cable curls with rope
4xabove head side pulldowns
5x25 crunches

Saturday had to be spent with the girlfriend so I had to wait until Sunday to continue.

4xSide Laterals
4xShoulder press
4xcalf press
4xdumbdell lifts
4xlat pulldowns
4xfront raises
4xtricep pushdowns
4xleg extensions
5x 25 crunches

This workout was a tough one and I felt it afterwards. Too much drinking on the weekend and not enough sleep. Decided to take a day off.

Tuesday: Feeling better after a day's break and ready to get back into it.

Usual rutine:

4xBenchpress
4xBicep curls
4xleg extensions
6xchest press
4xleg press
4xdips
4xtricep pulldowns
4xbicep cable curls with rope
4xabove head side pulldowns
5x25 crunches

Excellent workout. Highly recommend the bicep curls with the rope.

[Rand]

Back to it on Monday:

4xSeated rows
4xSide Laterals
4xShoulder press
4xcalf press
4xdumbdell side rows
4xlat pulldowns
4xfront raises
4xtricep pushdowns
4xleg extensions
5x 30 crunches

Very sore after this one probably because I didn't do a proper warm up. Took a day off.

Wednesday:

4xBenchpress
4xBicep curls
4xleg extensions
6xchest press
4xleg press
4xdips
4xtricep pulldowns
4xbicep cable curls with rope
4xabove head side pulldowns
5x30 crunches

Friday:

4xSeated rows
4xSide Laterals
4xShoulder press
4xcalf press
4xdumbdell side rows
4xlat pulldowns
4xfront raises
4xtricep pushdowns
4xleg extensions
5x 30 crunches

Saturday:

4xBenchpress
4xBicep curls
4xleg extensions
6xchest press
4xleg press
4xdips
4xtricep pulldowns
4xbicep cable curls with rope
4xabove head side pulldowns
5x30 crunches

Felt much better after these workouts and feel that it's the right balance.

[Rand]

Monday:

4xSeated rows
4xSide Laterals
4xShoulder press
4xcalf press
4xdumbdell side rows
4xlat pulldowns
4xfront raises
4xtricep pushdowns
4xleg extensions
5x 30 crunches

Tuesday:

4xBenchpress
4xBicep curls
4xleg extensions
6xchest press
4xleg press
4xdips
4xtricep pulldowns
4xbicep cable curls with rope
4xabove head side pulldowns
5x30 crunches

[sword chucks]

Hey man, sorry I havent responded in a while, how are the workouts going?

It looks like you are doing a lot of sets per workout. You did 40+ sets on the latest monday workout... IMO thats too much.

Why dont you try a split like this?:

Monday and Thursday- torso (back, chest,shoulders(delts, traps,neck))

Tuesday and Friday- limbs (legs, arms, abs)

The rest of the days could be off days. I guess you could do the same workout each day of the week, or do a different one on monday and thursday.

Also what are your stats, and progress so far?

Later

[Rand]

Interesting suggestions. I'll try that this week and see how I go. I have to agree that some of these sets are pretty intense but that's the way I like to train and I recover very quickly. The results have been pretty damn good but I am starting to feel the pinch after doing this for 6 months.

My current stats are: Height: 5'8, weight: 191 (up from about 170 last year).
Not sure about body fat but I think it's OK. What's the best way to measure this?
Measured my biceps for the first time the other day and they were 17.5 inches which I was pretty pleased with.