How many times should you work each bodypart per week?

[jaymorrr]

For awhile I thought the general consensus was that once a week was enough but I see some people on here that seem to disagree. What are all of your thoughts on this subject (how often do you work each bodypart and why)

[Stanco]

TBH, i think all people should be training their muscles 2-3 times a week.

It might not be productive for an experienced weight trainer, but for the majority, i think it's necerssary.

I've always been taught that it takes 48 hours for your muscles to recover.

[jaymorrr]

So where do you think the once a week craze came from?

[Stanco]

So where do you think the once a week craze came from?

Body building magazines. Alot of pros do that type of routine for better conditioning. But for someone who is still relatively new to bodybuilding and wants to put on muscle, then an 3 day a week full body program is best or the trainng workout from rippetoe.

These pros already have the size, they are more concerned with muscle definition, seperation and shape.

[LSU1]

So where do you think the once a week craze came from?

because for advanced bodybuilders splits are great

they allow you to focus on lagging bodyparts and giving alot of emphasis to each bodypart and attack them with many different exercises and lots of volume

for advanced bodybuilders the combination of needing more volume to grow than a newb and needing more tiem to recover due to higher weights being used makes a split ideal

so its basically the specialization (try growing great arms without enough direct arm work, great delts without direct delt work, etc....) and the recovery/volume factor

they are popular for a reason

[Dr Clay]

because for advanced bodybuilders splits are great

they allow you to focus on lagging bodyparts and giving alot of emphasis to each bodypart and attack them with many different exercises and lots of volume

for advanced bodybuilders the combination of needing more volume to grow than a newb and needing more tiem to recover due to higher weights being used makes a split ideal

so its basically the specialization (try growing great arms without enough direct arm work, great delts without direct delt work, etc....) and the recovery/volume factor

they are popular for a reason

I agree with LSU1 - though I would like to add a War Eagle to that!

I feel that for initially putting on size, training each body part multiple times per week (2-3) is probably ideal. But once one reaches a certain point, I believe you must train with higher volume (and therefore less frequency) in order to progress to the next level.

So I would venture to say that most people should each body part 2 or 3 times per week. Not too many people are advanced enough to need to train each just once per week.

[James_Byrne]

jaymorr, what are your specific goals? If we know whether you are training for size, strength, general health or sport we might be able to give you a better answer.

[jaymorrr]

jaymorr, what are your specific goals? If we know whether you are training for size, strength, general health or sport we might be able to give you a better answer.

Put on as much mass as possible as quick as possible. So do you think all of these e books like muscle now by francesco castano and another one by Anthony Ellis that advocate training a body part no more then once at most twice per week are full of crap?

[LSU1]

i found that for a fairly new trainee an upper/lower heavy/light split with four workouts a week was outstanding

thats what i would recommend to a new to intermediate bodybuilder

[Defiant1]

So where do you think the once a week craze came from?

Because it f*cking works, that's why.


Bodybuilding magazines did not "make up" once a week training. In fact the first I heard of it was from a bodybuilding magazine.....that was reporting what a lot of people were doing.

Once per week training evolved from 2x per week which evolved from 3x per week. If it didn't work, people wouldn't be doing it. And "drugs" would be a way to train MORE, not less. To say otherwise is idiotic.

Do a lot of people start it to soon? IMO, yes.

Does it work very well for advanced guys especially drug free? Yep.

[DoMiNuS]

I do a five day cycle for my workouts. I hit each body part once every 5 days and I do not take any days off. So its mostly 1 time a week for each muscle but two muscle get hit 2 times a week occasinally because of the 5 day cycle.

I like this routine better then the gaurenteed 2 time a week routine because I hit my parts extra hard because Im only doing it once ever 5 days.

[olinerules87]

I agree with LSU1 - though I would like to add a War Eagle to that!

I feel that for initially putting on size, training each body part multiple times per week (2-3) is probably ideal. But once one reaches a certain point, I believe you must train with higher volume (and therefore less frequency) in order to progress to the next level.

So I would venture to say that most people should each body part 2 or 3 times per week. Not too many people are advanced enough to need to train each just once per week.

for those who haven't seen it, Dr Clay just wrote an article for t-nation.com

check it out at http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1692967

[jaymorrr]

So noone thinks a body part once per week for a beginner is the way to go? I've read some peoples progress on here who claim to have made huge gains on the once per week routine when starting out, what gives? Is Bill Phillips Body For Life full of garbage since he recommends only once per week?

[keeving]

My trainer has me train every body part twice a week in the off-season. But that's for athletes. It's what works best for you. Try a few things out. I think 3 times becomes to much, and I have seen great and quick results from lifting each body part twice.

[DoMiNuS]

I think once a week is perfectly fine. If you are going to hit the muscle groups only once per week just make sure you hit them extremely hard because you are allow 7 days for recovery, make sure you muscle actually need the 7 days to recover. If you hit them weak and they only need 3 days, then you would be waisting your time.

[dj_tiesto]

i guess it depends solely on your level of experience, then recovery abilites and finally the biofeedback of your body. I always thought of fullbody / upper-lower / push-pull as overall mass-building routines and BP splits as physique-refining routines.

[DoMiNuS]

I've never done the push/pull type of excercises.

Day 1 - Chest/Abs
Day 2 - Back
Day 3 - Arms
Day 4 - Shoulders/Legs
Day 5 - Start over again.

So I'm only hitting each muscle every 5th day.

[SLiCkNiCk]

what about full body 4x a week? 2 days in a row, two days off...so on

Is that too much?

[N@tural1]

My take?

I agree that training a bodypart 1x per week with multiple sets & exercises is definatly for the more advance lifter that already has a good strength base. An experianced lifter is far more efficient at "damaging" his muscle when training, uses more volume (usualy) and therfore needs greater time for recovery. This is not right across the board though, my favorite natural pro Layne Norton trains each bodypart 2x per even in his advanced stage.

Its true that while each bodypart 1x per week works very well for some, its also the reason why many lifters are at the same place they were 2 years ago.

For beginners-intermediates either 2x per week or once every 4-5 days is ideal focusing on gettin numbers up on the big compounds using low-moderate volume.

[N@tural1]

I've never done the push/pull type of excercises.

Day 1 - Chest/Abs
Day 2 - Back
Day 3 - Arms
Day 4 - Shoulders/Legs
Day 5 - Start over again.

So I'm only hitting each muscle every 5th day.

No rest days?

[kenmcv]

I agree with the majority on here and train each bodypart twice a week, but I occasionaly cycle the training so I train with huge volume and intensity but only train each bodypart once a week.

[N@tural1]

what about full body 4x a week? 2 days in a row, two days off...so on

Is that too much?

In theory if the volume was managed properly then it could work, tho I wouldnt recommend it. if you want to train 4x per week 2on 1off 2on 2off try either

upper/lower
OR
legs back biceps/chest shoulders triceps

on the 1st legs back biceps day combine

deadlifts
leg press
pullups, pulldowns or chins
a curl

on the 2nd legs back biceps day combine

squats
ham work
rows
a curl


chest shoulders triceps is pretty self explanitory, try a combination of bench, incline, dips, overhead pressing, lateral raises, tricep work etc...

[buffgrk]

my best gains came from x1 a week, if i was ever to try x2 i would have to turn down the volumeeee

[N@tural1]

my best gains came from x1 a week, if i was ever to try x2 i would have to turn down the volumeeee

""turn down the volumeeee"" being the operative words

[kethnaab]

1) Genetics
2) Nutrition
3) Pharmacology
4) Goals
5) Experience
6) Bodypart volume per workout
7) Target bodypart volume per week
8) Bodypart strengths and weaknesses
9) Entire body volume per workout
10) Entire body target volume per week
11) Specific exercises incorporated
12) Repetition range/intensity/perceived exertion per exercise per training session
13) Age

Here are 13 things listed randomly off the top of my head (while carb depleted from a hard workout - I'm sure I could come up with several more if I thought about it) that influence the answer to this question. Tweek one of these variables, and you may very well require a different answer to the question.

Full body can work for some people under the right circumstances
Push/pull can work for some people under the right circumstances
Upper/lower can work for some people under the right circumstances
Bodypart splits can work for some people under the right circumstances

How do we know which to do? Answer questions #1 through #13 above before you even consider asking this question.

and once you ask the question, consider the following

1) Everything works
2) Nothing works forever
3) Some things work better than others for different people under different circumstances at different times (refer back to #1-#13 for details of the "different circumstances")

[1badvette]

im still trying to put on size, im strong but not yet as big as i wanna be. i started doing 2x a week then i was told that im over training and need to hit 1x a week??

i started doing 2x a week heavy one day and then light high reps the 2 nd time.

chest/tri.................... heavy
back/bies...................light
shoulder/legs..............heavy

off

chest/tri.................. light
back/bies................heavy
shoulder/legs..........light

off

what do you guys thing....

[kethnaab]

please see the post directly above you and answer more questions. You're getting closer though! =)

[stanielz]

=/ i dont know how u would hit a body part 2-3 times a week, im not advanced or anything but i do a 5 day split 2 day rest work out, and if i were to for example try benching again with the same week i would not be able to lift anything near my normal weight becuz id be sore =/ can anyone enlighten me?

[Reality_Check]

Because it f*cking works, that's why.

Bodybuilding magazines did not "make up" once a week training. In fact the first I heard of it was from a bodybuilding magazine.....that was reporting what a lot of people were doing.

Once per week training evolved from 2x per week which evolved from 3x per week. If it didn't work, people wouldn't be doing it. And "drugs" would be a way to train MORE, not less. To say otherwise is idiotic.

Do a lot of people start it to soon? IMO, yes.

Does it work very well for advanced guys especially drug free? Yep.

Couldn't agree more

I believe there is a time and place for more than once per week per muscle group but the freq drops off to once per week as you get more advanced. As I periodically explain -- same questions keep popping up over and over again - the reason is because although your muscles get larger and stronger the rate at which protein synthesis goes on stays the same - dependant on hormone levels, (roid use), food intake etc but it is what it is - it doesn't increase (by itself) as your muscles get bigger and stronger.

So for example when you are benching 315lb you are damaging a lot more muscle tissue than when you were only pushing 95lb, yet your body's resouces to repair it stays ther same; thus the repairs (and overcompensation) take longer.

Quite apart from the theory, I know in my own case that I can't bench heavy more than once per week or my bench performance goes down noticably and I mean quite a bit (I've tried swapping to twice per week often enough to know it just does not work at all for me). (Back in the days when I pushed 65lb for a workout benching every 2nd day was no problem).

It wasn't because of something I read in a body building magazine that I do muscle groups once per week. Its due to what I have found works from a process of trial and error over the course of 21 years of training.

(Note again that there are some people who can indeed bench or whatever more than once per week but they are those people whose current muscle mass and strength levels are such that they are not yet pushing or coming close to their bodies recuperation limits - if thats you hurray you've probably got a lot more potential for growth then, never the less a point will come when once per week is a lot more optimal).

[noelgallagher]

I like once a week