Training each Muscle Twice a week!

[Mikey86]

I have been doing this for a while...It seems to be working fone for me.

A lot of people have been saying Large muscle groups, such as Chest, legs and back should only be worked on once a week.

I never work out while I am sore, but people have been saying even tho you dont feel sore, doesn't mean you aren't still recovering. Is this true?

I just can't fathom the thought of just working back and chest only 4 times a month..I feel horrible if I only work chest once a week.

Anyone have any views of their own?

[Rhino63]

I have been doing this for a while...It seems to be working fone for me.

A lot of people have been saying Large muscle groups, such as Chest, legs and back should only be worked on once a week.

I never work out while I am sore, but people have been saying even tho you dont feel sore, doesn't mean you aren't still recovering. Is this true?

I just can't fathom the thought of just working back and chest only 4 times a month..I feel horrible if I only work chest once a week.

Anyone have any views of their own?

I work chest and back once a week and minor muscles twice a week and I think it works great... on the other hand I used to work them twice a week and that worked well too... I think it depends on what your goals are and how hard you are hitting them... when I did it twice a week i'd have a "light" and heavy day...

As far as recovery goes 48 hours is a general rule.. you work chest monday don't do it again until at least wednesday and you shoudl be fine... it really comes down to personal preference... as long as you work hard you'll be all set

[Mikey86]

yeah....My routine is

Monday: Chest/Tri Abs, Cardio

Tuesday: Back/Bis

Wenesday: Legs/Shoulders, Abs, Light cardio

Thursday: Chest/Tri

Friday: Back/ Bi, Abs, Cardio


Should I switch to once a week...lol...Maybe? Who knows?

[250orbust]

All of the above. Twice a week for a time. Then heavy/light. Then moderate weight with high reps. Then max weight with low reps. Strict form. Semi-strict with some cheats, depending on lift. Since my goal is mainly to build muscle, I try to go heavy every other change up. Currently I am too doing all body parts twice a week. I am only doing 9 sets per group instead of 12 to 15. But I'm pyramiding to heavy with a high rep/medium weight superset on the last exercise.

Example:
Barbell Bench
Set 1 160 x 12
Set 2 190 x 10
Set 3 225 x 6
Immediately do a super set of 20 incline push ups.

Incline Dumbell
Set 1 65's x 12
Set 2 75's x 10
Set 3 90's x 6
Immediately do a super set of 15 Hammer Strength Decline Presses with two plates (90 lbs.) on each side.

On the super sets, I go until I break good form. So for instance when I feel my shoulders rise on the declines to help cheat, that's it. I focus on making my pecs push the weight and not raise my butt off the seat or raise my shoulders to aid the press.

I like doing a small change up every month. That way I can say for January I'm doing this..., and for February I'm doing this... Keeps workouts fun and keeps me learning.

[LegendKiller22]

you can chest up to 4 times a week if u really wanted... It all depends on the volume... If your just doing light workouts, then 3 times a week is fine... if your doing heavy chest days, then you have to limit it to 1 - 2

[Samoyoho123]

everything works for aleast 6 weeks man you will start to over train depending if your training intensely

[mrhighintensity]

I have been doing this for a while...It seems to be working fone for me.

A lot of people have been saying Large muscle groups, such as Chest, legs and back should only be worked on once a week.

I never work out while I am sore, but people have been saying even tho you dont feel sore, doesn't mean you aren't still recovering. Is this true?

I just can't fathom the thought of just working back and chest only 4 times a month..I feel horrible if I only work chest once a week.

Anyone have any views of their own?

The amount of volume eachone tolerates can vary of course. You might get away by training your chest 2x per week - or need 5-7 days in between. The only way to find out how frequent you should train is to keep a proper workout log, indicating each workout, sets and reps - if ur getting stronger each workout for the most time then your on the right track..wether you train 1x per week, 2x per week or 3 x per week - do u keep a workout log?

MR

[shhlacker]

just my 2 cents but I read beginners get best results with working the same muscle 3x a week, intermediate 2x a week, and veterans 1x a week. Just what I read else where. Makes sense tho since as you get more into it you are moving more weight and need more time to recover. But as said above best way is to keep a log and watch your gains. I was doing 3x a week for a couple of years but I changed to 2x in October after taking some time off and I am getting good results.

[RnR]

training a bp more than once a week is fine. although i typically do only once or twice a week, i have no problems training a bp 3 or even 4 times a week. you will have to make adjustments with exercises and intensity. you simply cannot go all out on squats and deads 4 times a week each (i can't do each more than once a week).

mickey, stick with your program if it's working. if it starts to burn you out switch it up.

[Shedding]

There is so much misinformation.. even after reading a ton of books on the subject, many of the books will differ on what will make you big, what will give you mass, what will give you strenght etc. Some say you only get sore when your body is trying to relieve your muscle of the lactid acid.. after trying to sort out the junk from facts (I normally compare notes to every magazine, blog and book I read.. if pretty much everyone keeps saying about the same thing - That is what I persue as being a fact). Here is what I've found:

1) Regardless of the weights you lift - You will gain size and strenght depending on how badly you damage the muscle filament. What that means is that it doesn't really matter how much you lift.. you will gain muscle (it also somewhat depends on genetics, time and effort). Obviously if you don't lift enough, muscle fibers don't rip and your body does not repair it. The main reason you get big is because the muscle being torn is usually repaired with a reinforced version. It is the same reason you get scars at places you've been cut.. the body thinks it might happen again so it tries to reinforce the region. You feel sore when your the muscle filaments have raptured and your body is healing. Lots of water, glycogen (pastas) and protein will repair the muscle (can be found in the nutrion section or send me a msg and I will try to be as good as my knowledge will take me).

2) Size depends on calories you eat. Most of the food you eat becomes assimilated by your body. Most animals we eat pretty much create a lot of protein which we then break into the amino acid strands that we eventually form our own proteins from. These proteins are created through peptide bonds. Which is read from your genetic code. Therefore, the quality of healing, muscle building and size are very much in your own genes. If your body has the propensity of adding extra scarring, you probably have the same propensity to get big. However, everyone (skinny or fat) has about the same level of healing available. Some people just have to work harder than others because their muscle does not reinforce as much as the next person.


I hope this helps a small bit.. so it really boils down to this:

Eat, workout hard, sleep well - Rinse and repeat. You do this enough (and you are patient about it) you will get big. The amount you workout depends really on your body. If your muscles feel well enough (no pain, no soreness, and you feel like you can lift a 5 gallon jug.. you are well enough to stress the muscle one more time). Just listen to your body.

One last thing - This message could've been more thorough and detailed.. I just didn't want to write a big dissertation. If there is anything you might have found erroneous please feel free to let me know I am here for the info as well.

[Ochman44]

I'm with pretty much everyone else here. I think working a muscle depends on the volume and intensity and your own body's individual ability to recover. I am personally working out my body parts 2x each week giving 72 hours in between and doing a heavy strength based day and a more mid range hypertrophy range day for each body part. I would say overtraining probably is most evident when you are failing at weights you normally can get x amount of reps for fairly easily or you feel really sore or fatigued more than normal granted you are getting enough calories and rest each day. I would just feel it out and if you are making progress keep doing 2 x a week and if you start to stall probably cut it back to once every 6-7 days to give it more recovery time between workouts.

[Richie_Awesome]

Twice a week is fine and may be more beneficial to you than once a week, you need to experiment and find out.

As for recovery, that's bs. It takes months for a muscle to be fully recovered from weight training. One week will not do it.

[themoses56]

I train all my muscle groups twice a week 2x6 - 2x10 - 2x20 for each muscle group works fine for me - also do one set of 20 reps deadlifts at the beggining of my workout for my legs

[nysoriano53]

yeah....My routine is

Monday: Chest/Tri Abs, Cardio

Tuesday: Back/Bis

Wenesday: Legs/Shoulders, Abs, Light cardio

Thursday: Chest/Tri

Friday: Back/ Bi, Abs, Cardio


Should I switch to once a week...lol...Maybe? Who knows?

when you do chest on thursday... your going to use your shoulders again and tris again... since they have been worked the day before, idk how well your going to be able to work your chest.

[Cheesin]

I started training everything twice a week; 15 total sets a day, roughly 5 sets per bodypart. fastest strength gains I've seen yet. I can finally incline bench 225 for reps.

Personally, I wouldn't do shoulders on leg day. Do front and side delts on chest/tri day and rear delts on back/bi day.

[zephed56]

training a bp more than once a week is fine. although i typically do only once or twice a week, i have no problems training a bp 3 or even 4 times a week. you will have to make adjustments with exercises and intensity. you simply cannot go all out on squats and deads 4 times a week each (i can't do each more than once a week).

mickey, stick with your program if it's working. if it starts to burn you out take a deload week, then continue your program

FYP

I think in most cases where one plateaus or is rundown, this is a better option than using a new routine or tweaking too many things in their current routine. Deload by using lower volume or frequency allowing some fatigue to dissipate, and run your program again and see if it works.

[Shesofine_old]

shiet once a week is fine

[bigtallox]

A lot of people have been saying Large muscle groups, such as Chest, legs and back should only be worked on once a week.

I never work out while I am sore, but people have been saying even tho you dont feel sore, doesn't mean you aren't still recovering. Is this true?

Soreness means nothing. If I never trained when I sore, I wouldn't be squatting over 600 pounds and benching over 400.

I just can't fathom the thought of just working back and chest only 4 times a month..I feel horrible if I only work chest once a week.

Feelings don't matter when it comes to training. The iron's what matters and it doesn't lie like feelings do.

My training isn't focused around body parts, but instead movements. I bench twice a week because it's not too taxing to do so. I squat and deadlift once a week because more than that is too taxing for me. For me, it doesn't matter what anybody else says I should be doing because based on my progress I know what's right for me. Everybody needs to figure out what's right for them, and the way to do that is keep a log, simple as that.

[TaoistWarrior]

There's nothing wrong with working a body part twice per week. In fact for 95 percent of lifters, it's better than once per week. The whole body part split idea is a bastardized version of the routines used by pros on massive amounts of AAS. Those principles don't apply to most of us. For natty lifters interested in aesthetics, twice a week is better, maybe 2.5 times per week.

Can you get bigger on once per week? Sure. But it's not optimal. You are missing out on additional growth stimuli by foregoing those other workouts (the Supercompensation Curve and such.) But you WILL have to reduce your volume and intensity per workout. You can't go balls-out 2 or 3 times per week the way you do once per week.

[jbjw20]

I don't see anything wrong with working out a body part twice a week ....I've worked out my chest twice a day before and gained good strength....im pretty sure arnold did the same thing for a while!

[sircharles032]

I hit each part twice a week also.

I do a Chest/Tri day that I'll throw 3-5 direct shoulder sets into (usually pretty light, at the end of the day)

I do a Back/Bi day that I'll throw in 3-5 leg sets in (like leg press)

I do a shoulder day where at the end I throw in 3-5 sets of Chest and Tris

I do a leg day where at the end I throw in 3-5 sets of Back and Bi.



Works very well for me in terms of both size and strength. The supplemental lifts (my chest sets on shoulder day for example) are usually geared to 8+ reps. I stay pumped all week and I just really enjoy working out this way. I usually lift on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday which gives a minimum of 2-3 days off before I touch the same bodypart for the 2nd time that week and I very rarely have any soreness overlap unless I throw in a brand new exercise that beats me up.

[matjusm]

I have been doing this for a while...It seems to be working fone for me.

A lot of people have been saying Large muscle groups, such as Chest, legs and back should only be worked on once a week.

I never work out while I am sore, but people have been saying even tho you dont feel sore, doesn't mean you aren't still recovering. Is this true?

I just can't fathom the thought of just working back and chest only 4 times a month..I feel horrible if I only work chest once a week.

Anyone have any views of their own?

I don't get it why so many people have only two options for working out in their mind: Either once a week or twice a week. Some say once a week can be a bit too little while as twice a week can inhibit recovery. Well there is a third option- training your muscles every 4-6 days, thereby averaging 1.5 workouts for the same muscle group per week.
That is what I do.

[drudixon]

I have been doing this for a while...It seems to be working fone for me.

A lot of people have been saying Large muscle groups, such as Chest, legs and back should only be worked on once a week.

I never work out while I am sore, but people have been saying even tho you dont feel sore, doesn't mean you aren't still recovering. Is this true?

I just can't fathom the thought of just working back and chest only 4 times a month..I feel horrible if I only work chest once a week.

Anyone have any views of their own?

I'm by no means any kind of expert, but I have been lifting for 10 months now. I quit caffeine, quit smoking and have gone from 148 to 182. I'm also 34 years old, so I was due for a metabolism slow down anyway. I started with doing a push/pull twice a week and legs once a week and everything grew great. Then I switched to doing once per week, and my bench went down and I appeared to be getting smaller even though my weight was holding steady. I have just switched back to twice a week so we'll see if I can get back to where I was 6 months ago.

[phillip9]

everything works for aleast 6 weeks man you will start to over train depending if your training intensely

thats not true man for a beginner bodybuilder (and when i say beginner that can last 3 years before u advance)as your muscles grow and get stronger they take less time to recuperate so the rule of thumb should be for your first 2-3 years of body building work everything twice a week and when you are ready to advance you hit them 3 times a week

[ry035]

I have been doing 1x a week and i am wanting to switch to 2x.. Can u guys give me a split that i can hit my muscle groups 2x?That would be great

[pumplikecuming]

I think 2x a week is fine assuming you alter intensity. But when it comes to the soreness thing you mentioned, I definitely would not go 100% on a workout if I was still sore (and possibly just wait another day or two). Soreness = microtears in the muscle. Doing some lighter metabolic work (like very light loads or sets of 12-15 not to failure) will help you recover and stimulate some protein synthesis.

Thats why the volume is so low on full body routines, because you recover faster when the volume is low and thus can workout more frequently.

[hvbballplaya23]

Monday
DB Bench 4 sets of 10, 8, 6, 4
Incline DB Bench 4 sets of 8, 8, 6, 4
DB Decline 4 sets of 10, 8, 6, 4
Incline Chest Press 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 8
Incline Flys 3 sets of 10
Skullcrusher 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 8
Reverse Tricep Pushdown 3 sets of 10, 8, 8
Triangle Pushups 3 sets of 10, 10, 8

Tuesday
Close Grip Lat Pulldown 5 sets of 12, 10,8, 6, 4
Leverage Machine High Row 4 set of 10, 8, 8, 6
One Arm DB Rows 4 sets of 10, 8, 6, 6
Hyperextensions 3 sets of 10
BB Curl 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 6
Cable Rope Curls 3 sets of 10, 8, 8
Reverse Curl 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 6

Wednesday/Saturday – Legs/Shoulders
Squats 5 sets of 5
Leg Press 4 sets of 10, 8, 6, 6
Hamstring Curls 4 sets of 15, 12, 8, 8
Ab/Ad 3 sets of 15
BB Shoulder Press 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 6
Upright Row 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 4
Lateral Raise 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 8
Reverse Cable Flys 3 sets of 10, 10, 8
Shrugs 4 sets of 15, 12, 10, 10

Thursday
Machine Incline Bench 3 sets of 15, 12, 10
Bench 4 sets of 12, 12, 10, 10
Decline 4 sets of 15, 12, 12, 10
Low Cable Crossover 3 sets of 12
BB Curl 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 8
Reverse Curl 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 8

Friday
Lat Pulldown 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 6,
Cable Rows 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 8
Hyperextensions 3 sets of 10
Tricep Pushdown 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 8
Reverse Tricep Pushdown 3 sets of 10, 8, 8

One day is more strength and one day us more hypertrophy

[Hungwell]

Monday
DB Bench 4 sets of 10, 8, 6, 4
Incline DB Bench 4 sets of 8, 8, 6, 4
DB Decline 4 sets of 10, 8, 6, 4
Incline Chest Press 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 8
Incline Flys 3 sets of 10
Skullcrusher 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 8
Reverse Tricep Pushdown 3 sets of 10, 8, 8
Triangle Pushups 3 sets of 10, 10, 8

Tuesday
Close Grip Lat Pulldown 5 sets of 12, 10,8, 6, 4
Leverage Machine High Row 4 set of 10, 8, 8, 6
One Arm DB Rows 4 sets of 10, 8, 6, 6
Hyperextensions 3 sets of 10
BB Curl 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 6
Cable Rope Curls 3 sets of 10, 8, 8
Reverse Curl 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 6

Wednesday/Saturday – Legs/Shoulders
Squats 5 sets of 5
Leg Press 4 sets of 10, 8, 6, 6
Hamstring Curls 4 sets of 15, 12, 8, 8
Ab/Ad 3 sets of 15
BB Shoulder Press 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 6
Upright Row 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 4
Lateral Raise 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 8
Reverse Cable Flys 3 sets of 10, 10, 8
Shrugs 4 sets of 15, 12, 10, 10

Thursday
Machine Incline Bench 3 sets of 15, 12, 10
Bench 4 sets of 12, 12, 10, 10
Decline 4 sets of 15, 12, 12, 10
Low Cable Crossover 3 sets of 12
BB Curl 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 8
Reverse Curl 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 8

Friday
Lat Pulldown 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 6,
Cable Rows 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 8
Hyperextensions 3 sets of 10
Tricep Pushdown 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 8
Reverse Tricep Pushdown 3 sets of 10, 8, 8

One day is more strength and one day us more hypertrophy

now wonder your only 150lbs

[DoSLiAbLo]

when you do chest on thursday... your going to use your shoulders again and tris again... since they have been worked the day before, idk how well your going to be able to work your chest.

Yep.

Twice a week is GREAT if structured right.

An upper body/lower body split is probably the most optimal way to go or even doing chest/shoulders/triceps on one day and Legs/Back/Biceps the next

Or you could be like me and do upper on mwf, and lower on t,th,st. Mind you my volume is low and workout's take less than 45 minutes.

[FUARRKKKK]

What about this;

MON: Back+shoulder+calves
TUE:Quads+Bicep+Trieps
WED: Chest+Cardio+Hamstring
Thurs:Back+shoulder+calves
Fri:Quads+Bicep+Trieps

i only do chest once a week becasue i would rather get a bigger back and shoulder...but its up to


Hope you like it!!!