How many times a week should one work out each muscle group for muscle gain?

[GolferMan]

I've heard some people say each muscle group should be worked out at least twice a week, others say it is once a week. Well, which is it? This is really the main thing that is keeping me from developing a routine, i don't know how often i should work out each muscle group. thanks for your input.

[gymaddict01]

most people say once a week. but muscle can easily be recovored in about 36 hours. so...twice a week.

[Goofxta]

If you eat and sleep a lot, maybe twice a week. But most often its best to use a week, sometimes more.

[GolferMan]

my weightlifting coach makes us do bench press every class which is every other day

[Goofxta]

my weightlifting coach makes us do bench press every class which is every other day

Then you're not lifting heavy enough if you can do bench press every day.

[sonex]

Then you're not lifting heavy enough if you can do bench press every day.

every OTHER day . god read

[eeSH_davey]

I work out six days a week, one muscle a day. I hit it hard every day so that's more than beneficial for me. To each his own.

[milo]

2x a week. Just dont overdo it in terms of volume.

[driftu]

nice abz...wish i had them when i was 14!

[gymaddict01]

Then you're not lifting heavy enough if you can do bench press every day.

most football programs work off of the bigger-faster-stronger program. at my school they alternate between flat and incline bench everyday. and every other day is back and (alternated) squats or lunges...

[Aceallways]

I work everything three times a week.

[Bruzey]

Right now I work everything once a week but I'm thinking of switching it up when I go on my bulking phase. I'm going to develop a routine where I work the major muscles once a week and the smaller muscle groups twice a week, abs three times a week.

[Heatmiser]

Chest out the HST website. According to research as well as ancedotal evidence, as long as you dont overtax your CNS and recovery abilities, you can train a muscle every day as long as the number of sets are kept low.

Some of the biggest arms I've seen were on guys who trained arms everyday.

I used to train with HIT and worked each muscle every 5 or 6 days. I made very little progress over the years. Now I train with higher frequency and volume similar to HST and have made much better gains.

http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_index.html

[Aceallways]

thought I would clarify mine, it is a 2-day split, not everything one day and nothing the next lol

and as the last poster said it isn't necessarily a bad thing, I only do one set of various excercises with isometrics

[popcorndrink]

I do fullbody every second day and I'm still gaining.

[kethnaab]

typical bodybuilding "dogma" states that you should "blitz a bodypart until it's destroyed" then wait around for a week or more letting it "recover"

most people who train with reasonable volume and don't buy into that "train to failure and beyond" stuff find that they are able to make pretty darn good gains training a lot more than just 1x per week.

[Amoral]

typical bodybuilding "dogma" states that you should "blitz a bodypart until it's destroyed" then wait around for a week or more letting it "recover"

most people who train with reasonable volume and don't buy into that "train to failure and beyond" stuff find that they are able to make pretty darn good gains training a lot more than just 1x per week.

I agree with this because a lot of people in their teens do not know what "blitzing a bodypart" is. I see a lot of guys who barely break a sweat and could easily get 3-4 reps in on their lifts. The fact is that it takes a while to get that intensity down. Also when you are starting out your nutrition knowledge isnt the greatest either so recovery is tougher.

So to summarize If your intensity is high enough shoot for once a week, on the other hand if you dont like going extreme hit the smaller muscles 2wice a week but make sure you get enough food to recover.

[xmdsys]

I hear alot of you guys saying that once per week is enough, yet I keep reading lots of bulking a mass articles saying that once per week isn't enough. Personally if I only worked my arms once a week I would gain very slowly. I have a good enough diet, with the right supps, and enough rest that after blasting my muscles in a full body workout within 48 hours I have usually recovered. Although there are times that I haven't recovered and rested for another day. If you isolate a muscle and work the crap out of it then of course you will need a week of rest because more than likely you will overwork it and it has to heal. But I do a full body routine with lots of compound lifts, then I isolate my bi's, tri's, and ab's with just one or two lifts. Sometimes I switch out other isolated lifts for ones that work other body parts if I need to let other rest but I still work that specific muscle 3 times per week and isolate it at least 2 times a week. I workout with high intensity and lift to failure so you can't say i'm not working hard enough either.

[kethnaab]

people are far too paranoid about overtraining, so they train a bodypart on Monday, then lit it sit dormant for a full week. AT MOST, they should be ready to hit their chest again by Thursday, unless they are in horrible shape or have very poor nutrition/recovery techniques.

so from Thursday through the next Monday, they do NOTHING and the bodypart just sits there.

You can make gains on 1x per week training, but *smart* 2x training will almost always work better. It just takes some significant changes to the training program.

[latspread]

bump