How long do you give your body before working the same muscles again?

[MrEgo]

As of right now, I'm waiting approximately 72 hours before I exercise the same muscle groups again. I generally do upper body on day 1, lower body on day 2, then a day off. Does anyone go every other day, or is that just counterproductive?

FWIW - my diet is pretty disciplined. I keep on up water, lean meats, and vegetables.

 

[surfsatwerk]

What are your goals. There is no reason to wait so long unless your body can't recover any faster.

For example I take 3 days between heavy deadlift and heavy squat days. But I will do volume work for two or three days in a row before I rest.

 

[Zivic]

almost always 7 days... I'll drop to 5 days if I change my split, but that isn't all that often.

Sometimes I'll go up to 10 days between dead lifts and/or squats depending on how I feel.

If you are really going heavy' I don't see how you could recover in 3 days. Besides, the time spent on workouts to get everything in with a 3 day split must be like 2-2.5 hrs a day. I don't see how one could continually workout with 72 hrs between the same workout. Either you will severly overtrain or you simply aren't really going heavy. I can see incorporating it, now and again, but not on a consistant basis.

So in short, I think your current split is counterproductive

 

[Appledrop]

i think doing each body part twice a week is about optimal, except legs maybe once a week

 

[purbeast0]

i'm on a body building routine that does each muscle group once a week.

 

[MrEgo]

4 responses and 4 completely different answers. I think we covered the entire spectrum of possible answers!

My goals are to gain strength. Gains in size are nice, but I'm not in a hurry to bulk up quickly. I figure the size will come with the strength, even though it may take awhile. I am noticing considerable gains in strength from doing what I am doing, I just wanted to know if I could do more without being counterproductive.

I mix it up quite often between heavy and medium-heavy. I rarely go light, but sometimes I will.

 

[Whisper]

i'm on a body building routine that does each muscle group once a week.

I do the same type of routine and split (one group/day, five days/week, 1-1.5 hours/day). The exception would be legs--I do squats at the end of my shoulder workout (usually 3-4 sets of moderate to heavy weight) two days before my actual leg day, on which I start off with squats again (5-6 sets of heavy weight).

I was initially worried that I'd end up over-training my legs, but I'd reached a plateau on squats and figured I'd give this a try to shake things up. Surprisingly, even if my legs are still a bit tight/sore by the time leg day comes around, I consistently lift more when I do it twice a week versus once.

That being said, I could see how someone would be able to given themselves a 72-hour break and then hit the same muscle groups multiple times in a week. I'm typically only ever sore when I do a bodybuilding split (given that soreness tends to be more an indicator of volume of training versus anything else I believe, and bodybuilding splits seem to include the greatest volume of exercises per muscle group). Thus, if I did something like an upper/lower or push/pull split, I'd be doing fewer exercises targeting the same specific muscle groups, and would focus more on multi-group exercises. That would allow me to hit the same routine twice (or three times) in a week without feeling over-trained.

 

[Zivic]

4 responses and 4 completely different answers. I think we covered the entire spectrum of possible answers!

My goals are to gain strength. Gains in size are nice, but I'm not in a hurry to bulk up quickly. I figure the size will come with the strength, even though it may take awhile. I am noticing considerable gains in strength from doing what I am doing, I just wanted to know if I could do more without being counterproductive.

I mix it up quite often between heavy and medium-heavy. I rarely go light, but sometimes I will.

If you want size and strength, 1 major body part a day, 1 time a week. Go heavy. very simple. If you are lifting heavy, you are not getting fully recovered in 72 hrs... you just aren't giving yourself enough time

 

[brikis98]

It depends on what you are training for, the exercises you are doing, your level of experience, and so on. As a very ballpark figure, beginners can easily train their entire body 3 times per week, intermediates 2-3 times per week, and advanced trainees 1-2 times. However, it varies quite a bit. For example, some olympic lifters train the same movements (clean, jerk, snatch, squat) 4-6 times per week. Some bodybuilders repeat muscle groups no more often than once every 7-10 days.

It is worth mentioning that (a) overtraining is primarily a central nervous system phonemenon and not a muscular one, (b) with proper adaptation time, muscles can handle a lot more than most people think and (c) you don't need to be fully healed to benefit from training again.

 

[wirednuts]

i work construction so i get paid to "train" my body 5-6 days a week 8+ hours each day.

 

[Zivic]

i work construction so i get paid to "train" my body 5-6 days a week 8+ hours each day.

not even close to comparable

 

[TallBill]

Monday - 5x5 Squats, trap bar deadlift singles
Tuesday - Max bench, max press, triceps, shoulders
Wednesday - 3x3 Squats, Pullups, Back, Biceps
Thursday - Rest
Friday - Max Squat, 5x5 bench, 5x5 press, traps
Saturday - Rest
Sunday - 3x3 Bench, 3x3 Press, Biceps, Triceps

Basically its the Texas Method but I stagger the upper body and squat portion and its been working great so far.

 

[KoolDrew]

The way I see it, the more frequently you can hit a muscle without overtraining, the better you're going to grow. However, goals experience, exercise selection, and overall volume and intensity all play a factor. As brikis said, a beginner can get by (and often make better progress) with training 3x a week. As they get stronger, intensity and/or volume needs to be adjusted. This is why Bill Starrs 5x5 and variations of it either have you do light squats or front squats one day out of the week. Or look at HST where volume is very low on any individual day, but the body is still hit 3x a week. I feel there are drawbacks though which is why I don't use it in my own training - as you start to get pretty strong the first movement will always effect exercises that follow. Especially when it comes to heavy squatting and deadlifting. Also, there's actually been a lot of research on optimal volume per muscle group. Their conclusions appear to show anywhere from 30-60 reps, with diminished returns as volume got higher. Trying to get 30-60 reps per muscle group in a full body workout may end up being a long workout.

I don't think training a muscle group once a week is optimal either. It definitely works for some, but people have to realize just because it works for some doesn't mean it works for the majority. You'll always find some method that will work on somebody. This method of training is popular among pro bodybuilders (read: drug users) and people have to realize drugs and genetics do change things. Many people on drugs and/or have great genetics often grow in spite of their training, not because of it. You also can't look at how top level competitors train now, often what they do now isn't the same they did to actually get there.

When people end up training a muscle group once a week they also tend to do way too much volume, which is no wonder they need so long to recover. The thing is, as research has shown, too much volume just hampers recovery while not helping growth anymore. You need enough volume to stimulate growth, but not more. Remember the saying... stimulate, don't annihilate. Most people don't do this. There chest day usually ends up being something like Bench, Incline Bench, decline, flyes, cable crossover, etc. If people ended up dropping it down to about 2 movements and concentrated on getting those stronger and get volume under control, they tend to grow better. The one thing this type of training is good at is making you sore, but this should not be the goal of your training.

Also many of the responses to to training such as an increase in protein synthesis, IGF-1 levels, mRNA levels, etc. all return back to normal in about 36 hours and recovery can still take place even if the muscle group is loaded again. So the idea again should be to hit the muscle as frequently as possible while getting enough total volume, applying progressive overload, and using an appropriate intensity to allow enough of a tension and fatigue stimulus while still allowing plenty of recovery time to actually recover.

For most people, I feel optimal frequency lies in the middle, which would be something like every 5th day or 2x a week. Usually this means some sort of upper/lower split, but there are other ways to acheive this frequency as well. Just look at Layne Nortons Power/Hypertrophy split. Volume is quite high and I wouldn't suggest other people try it right off the bat, but the frequency is right in line with what I suggest. Look at Westside templates which are pretty much an upper/lower split, or DC training which you end up hitting everything every 5th day.

So... that's a long way of saying I think what the OP is doing is optimal and as long as his volume isn't excessive (or not enough) and he's getting stronger, don't mess with it.

EDIT - I know this is already too long, but another thing to keep in mind is deload periods. Whether you do it every 4th week, or every 6-8 or if you just drop volume or intensity is up to you, but some sort of deload should be a normal part of your routine. I feel this is one of the most important factors most people don't take into consideration and it'll allow you to drive intensity/frequency/volume up for a bit while not running yourself in the ground because you're doing it for months on end.

 

[Whisper]

If you want size and strength, 1 major body part a day, 1 time a week. Go heavy. very simple. If you are lifting heavy, you are not getting fully recovered in 72 hrs... you just aren't giving yourself enough time

Honestly, even though I adhere to a "typical" body-building split myself (i.e., one group/day, five days/week), even I would say it's neither the most efficient nor the most effective way to gain strength for most people. The reason it works for many bodybuilders is usually a) they're on steroids/hormones, b) freakish genetics, and/or c) the split allows for higher numbers of reps (8-10) in a set and more sets per muscle group, which often results in muscle growth without as much comparable strength gain. After all, most pro body-builders really are less concerned overall with strength than they are size, symmetry, vascularity, and general aesthetics.

I've done a variety of different types of routines (push/pull, upper/lower, body-building) over the course of my training, and again, while the once/week split seems to work best for me with regards to strength gains, I usually don't recommend it to other people (especially beginners) unless they're explicitly training for a bodybuilding competition.

 

[douglasb]

i'm on a body building routine that does each muscle group once a week.

This. My weekly routine looks like:

Day 1: Chest/Back
Day 2: Delts/Traps/Abs
Day 3: Off
Day 4: Triceps/Biceps
Day 5: Cardio/Abs
Day 6: Legs
Day 7: Off

 

[Zivic]

Honestly, even though I adhere to a "typical" body-building split myself (i.e., one group/day, five days/week), even I would say it's neither the most efficient nor the most effective way to gain strength for most people. The reason it works for many bodybuilders is usually a) they're on steroids/hormones, b) freakish genetics, and/or c) the split allows for higher numbers of reps (8-10) in a set and more sets per muscle group, which often results in muscle growth without as much comparable strength gain. After all, most pro body-builders really are less concerned overall with strength than they are size, symmetry, vascularity, and general aesthetics.

I've done a variety of different types of routines (push/pull, upper/lower, body-building) over the course of my training, and again, while the once/week split seems to work best for me with regards to strength gains, I usually don't recommend it to other people (especially beginners) unless they're explicitly training for a bodybuilding competition.

Strength usually has a pretty good correlation to size. You need to lift heavy to gain size and strength. To lift heavy, you need to be fully recovered to get the most out of your workouts. Can you make gains going through shorter recovery periods, sure, but why would you want to limit your gains in relation to your gym time? With the principles I am using now, I cut 1/2 my gym time out completely and have gotten better results.

^ this is not to say I know everything or my training split/priniciples are the best (but I think they are ) ... it is more to say, that the volume of training and time in the gym does not need to be high. Quality of time in the gym is more important than the quantity.

And whisper has it correct that what works for big time bodybuilders doesn't work for the rest of gym goers for a variety of reasons. "helpers" for a big reason why, but more so... they are already past their major muscle building phase. They have spent yrs building muscle doing heavy lifts. A lot of what you see and read about in mags and such are them refining their physics. they built their house so to speak and now are just doing the detail work. We look at this, without the foundation in place, and try to use the workouts they use to refine their bodies and try to pack on muscle with those principles.... all the while they have their entire day devoted to their body. Tons of sleep, no "day job" to be concerned with, perfect diet, great genetics, and again, substantial helpers to aid recovery and growth

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Squat and deadlift one day a week. Back and chest one day a week. That's all the weight training I do usually. Lots of hard running and basketball rounds out my routine. And when I play b-ball it's not standing around. I push myself to the brink running down loose balls, jumping for rebounds, running the whole court trying to wear out the defender so I can get loose for a shot or drive to the hoop. I train like a maniac which is the key to my success.

 

[MrEgo]

I tend to feel "out of shape" when I wait a full week to work the same muscles again. I can feel a definite reduction in the amount of stamina that I have when I'm doing more than 4 reps.

3 days seems to be a sweet spot for me. I usually do a 5 sets of 4-6 reps of what I'm doing, and sometimes I'll go heavier where I'm doing 1, 2, or 3 reps. I push myself until near-failure... just enough so that I can sit the weight back on the bar without having a spotter.

I also tend to do just 1 or maybe 2 different exercises for a particular muscle group. For example, I'll do 5 sets of flat bench and 3-5 sets of incline bench one right after another.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I'm not the bodybuilding type guy. Having huge muscles is pretty much useless outside the gym. I do believe weight training is important. Doing 5 different types of curls, and 17 variations of chest flies is a waste of time IMO. Any physical activities outside the gym suffer when you're a 240lb muscle bound freak. I do squat, deadlift, bench, pull ups basically that's it for weight training. I'd rather be a complete athlete. I can outrun you cause you'll be clumsy and slow, you can't play b ball cause you have no flexibility and when you shoot the ball it looks like a shot put contest, you can't swim because you have no cardio and your useless muscle weighs you down, etc..

 

[MrEgo]

I'm not the bodybuilding type guy. Having huge muscles is pretty much useless outside the gym. I do believe weight training is important. Doing 5 different types of curls, and 17 variations of chest flies is a waste of time IMO. Any physical activities outside the gym suffer when you're a 240lb muscle bound freak. I do squat, deadlift, bench, pull ups basically that's it for weight training. I'd rather be a complete athlete. I can outrun you cause you'll be clumsy and slow, you can't play b ball cause you have no flexibility and when you shoot the ball it looks like a shot put contest, you can't swim because you have no cardio and your useless muscle weighs you down, etc..

I'm with you. I want to be in good shape and look good, but I don't want to be so heavy and bulky that it compromises my speed and athletic ability. I mostly do the barbell exercises (squat, DL, bench, overhead press, cleans, curls).

It's a pretty kickass day here in Michigan as far as the weather goes. I think I'll head out tonight and run some 400m dashes on the local high school track. I got down to 58 seconds last fall. It's slower than my high school time, but I'm still damn proud to be able to run that fast without really training for it at age 28.

 

[wirednuts]

not even close to comparable

well going to a gym would be a joke for me. it would be like paying to do work that doesnt accomplish anything.

 

[KoolDrew]

I tend to feel "out of shape" when I wait a full week to work the same muscles again. I can feel a definite reduction in the amount of stamina that I have when I'm doing more than 4 reps.

3 days seems to be a sweet spot for me. I usually do a 5 sets of 4-6 reps of what I'm doing, and sometimes I'll go heavier where I'm doing 1, 2, or 3 reps. I push myself until near-failure... just enough so that I can sit the weight back on the bar without having a spotter.

I also tend to do just 1 or maybe 2 different exercises for a particular muscle group. For example, I'll do 5 sets of flat bench and 3-5 sets of incline bench one right after another.

Honestly, what you're doing right now is fine. In fact, often (not always) my training ends up being similar. Upper/lower split and 2 exercises per muscle group (accounting for overlap). The first exercise is usually something like 5x5 or a similar set/rep structure, while the second is more more of a fatigue stimulus, anywhere from 2-3 sets of 8-12.

 

[gzervali2006]

it depends upon how hard you are lifting and what kind of weights, exercise routine, etc... pretty vague question

 

[Eric62]

I train the powerlifts once every 9 to 10 days.
Muscle groups generally get hit directly or indirectly twice every 9 to 10 days...

 

[Koing]

mon, C&J, squats
Wed, C&J, squats
Sat, Snatch, squats, jerk technicals

I don't care about rest. I just need to hammer training and work on my technique, hammer the squats and boast up the olifts.

Koing