Freuency of workouts

[jakethasnake]

I work out at least 3 times a week. I do chest and triceps one day, then back and biceps another, then legs. I play basketball or do cardio on a treadmill/elliptical on all three days.


People often advise that one should only have to work a muscle group once a week, provided that they hit it hard enough so that the muscle fibers are temporarily damaged.


Ok, here is my question. I work out very hard using heavy weights, with very good form. The thing is, I must have some X-men-like Wolverine healing factor, because say, after 2 days of working my chest, I feel no pain whatsoever. Is it ok to give my chest muscles another go, within a week?


That is just one example, but often, my biceps and triceps seem to recover quite quickly. I'm not even talking about gimpy little poundages that do nothing -- I do barbell presses on incline with 65 pounds, and flat presses with 70/75s. I do upright triceps extensions (behind my head) with 60/65s.


So -- I would like to know if it's a bad idea to work out a particular body part more than once a week. Thanks, fellas.

 

[jakethasnake]

Um... as usual... Diesel? Where are ya, buddy? I would appreciate it if you could give me some guidelines.

I am quite impatient, and I HATE waiting for my body to stitch itself back together. Oftentimes, even if its feels like I'm in traction I'm raring to hit the weights again. Is training a body part (very intensively) more than once a week a bad thing?

 

[darkhorse]

You don't need to be an exercise expert to give an answer on this one.

Nobody can give you an absolute answer. Maybe you're a genetic mutant that would benefit from multiple workouts in a week. Maybe you just have a higher pain/ache threshold than most people and should stick to the typical guidelines of once a week per bodypart. Maybe you think you're working out hard, but really should be working out harder. Maybe your diet sucks.

If you really think you're giving it your all and you have a good diet, try the multiple times per week and keep close watch on what happens. If you get good results, keep doing more of it. If you don't then back off.

 

[jakethasnake]

Hmm, not the most satisfactory answer, but thanks anyway. I know that everyon responds different, good point. But hopefully I can get more pin-point accurate responses.

 

[Soshyopathe]

Depends how developed you are. The less muscle you have the more often you can work it. If you haven't been lifting for 5 years or so, you can go ahead and work a body part more than once per week. 1x per week is really only effective for the big men. You can do a whole body day of bread and butter lifts that won't specifically wear out any body part, and then have seperate days for different body parts to get them really good.

 

[Alpha male Female Catcher]

Originally posted by jakethasnake
People often advise that one should only have to work a muscle group once a week, provided that they hit it hard enough so that the muscle fibres are temporarily damaged.

True and I thoroughly agree with them. I have been training like this myself for years.

Ok, here is my question. I work out very hard using heavy weights, with very good form. The thing is, I must have some X-men-like Wolverine healing factor, because say, after 2 days of working my chest, I feel no pain whatsoever. Is it ok to give my chest muscles another go, within a week?

Yes it is OK for you to hit them more than once a week, in fact I recommend you do this.

I do barbell presses on incline with 65 pounds, and flat presses with 70/75s. I do upright triceps extensions (behind my head) with 60/65s.

This is why I recommend you work your chest more than once a week - because you can. You are talking about a 75 pound barbell right? Not two 75lb dumbbells?

Back in the days when I was benching 75lb (16 years ago) I was benching every second day and getting good gains from it. Now days I usually work out (flat bench) with around 308lb barbells (375lb is my personal best). I find I need a good week of rest to let my chest recover. I go down hill if I go heavy on chest more than once a week.

The point of my post is this (not to say that I lift more than you - well maybe it is, he he - sorry) but to say that the once a week work out is for the guys who have already made substantial muscle gains not for the guys in their early stages of body-building.

I read this theory in an exercise encyclopaedia several years ago and it seems to have worked for me (I went to one day a week per part work outs after reading it and saw good gains).

The theory goes like this - Basically your body's ability to repair/grow new muscle tissue does not increase as you go along in your body building career. You and me can grow/repair the same amount of muscle tissue per day. Actually you may well be better off than me in this regard. Your probably younger (I'm 35) and you probably have very high levels of testosterone and growth hormone in your system.

When I work out benching 308lb I damage somewhat more muscle tissue than you do when you bench 75lb but I have no more ability to repair this damage than you do yours so necessarily I take a lot longer to recover than you do (as we both have (roughly) the same recovery ability but I do more damage). The result is that I'm ready to retrain after a week. Your ready after a day or two.

Guess what that means. It means you are going to grow a lot faster than me. After repairing my muscles I don’t have much left over to grow more tissue – you have heaps. In fact I am probably close to my genetic limit (i.e. the limit being the amount of tissue I can repair/grow per day). (I could of course exceed my genetic limit by using anabolic steroids and growth hormone as that would allow me to recover a lot quicker and work out more regularly than once per week myself too – but I’m not into this).
You however are hopefully far from your genetic limit and will be able to grow a lot more (without roids) until you too max out at 200, 300, 400 pound or what ever.

You will still grow on one day a week per part work outs but you could do so much better on two. You have the recovery ability to do two chest days now so go for it and enjoy it while it lasts. Eventually you’ll hit a stage though when your benching 150,200,250lb, (I don’t know its an individual thing), where you’ll do better if you actually only train your chest once a day.

 

[jakethasnake]

Thanks for the tips Alpha Male Catcher, but I meant I bench with two 75 pound DUMBELLS, not 75 pounds on a barbell!!! LOL!!! It's my bad though; I should have been more clear about it. But I have a habit of saying it like that because I haven't benched on a barbell bench in a year.

I can probably do about 2 or maybe 3 full sets of 8-10 reps of 185 pounds on a flat barbell bench. I'm guessing my one-rep max would be somewhere around 205 (that is, two plates and two 35-pounders), or possibly a bit more if I'm feelin' it.


I can't believe you thought I benched 75 friggin' pounds!! LOL!! That's funny.

 

[Alpha male Female Catcher]

Originally posted by jakethasnake
I can't believe you thought I benched 75 friggin' pounds!! LOL!! That's funny.

Yes that did seem a bit wierd (cause that's what I started benching at). I thought maybe you just had really bad genetics or had only been training for a month or two or something.

In any case if you are able to do two or three heavy benchs a week and be fully recovered after a day or two then that implies you are still some way from your gentic limit which is good. It means given time and if you play your cards right you may yet get past the 300 and maybe even past the 400lb barrier (assuming you went the power lifting route - your choice of dumbells over barbells obviously means your concentrating on body building)

I take it you've been doing the once a week chest work out to date. In that case I would try the twice a week chest work out for a month or so. If your not losing strength (but rather improving) then you know that your more than once a week chest work out is OK and probably in fact optimal.

If on the other hand it turns out that you can't keep the pace up and find you start going backwards it's no big deal - you won't loose much in a month and you'll soon regain what you lost and you'll know what the optimum work out rate for you right now is.

 

[flava]

dont you work on your shoulders they are a VERY important muscle group if you wanna get that good intimidating look

 

[flava]

I can probably do about 2 or maybe 3 full sets of 8-10 reps of 185 pounds on a flat barbell bench. I'm guessing my one-rep max would be somewhere around 205 (that is, two plates and two 35-pounders), or possibly a bit more if I'm feelin' it.

im seeing some of you problem right now.but before i help u i need to know 1) how long are your work out sessions? 2)do you do the same exercises every time or do u change them up 3) do u increase you weightevery 1-2 weeks? answer those so i can get a better insight

 

[Templeton]

Of course you can train a bodypart more than once a week. If you feel recovered and are ready to go again why wait a sceduled 7 days? The more frequently you stimulate growth the faster you will progress. You have to use common sense as to whether you have recovered sufficiently. Your body is very adept at coping with the demands you place upon it. If you havent trained for weeks or months and you have (for example) a hard and heavy leg session you might not be able to walk properly for a week - but six weeks down the line you do another leg session at the same intensity and you will probably be recovered in 3 - 4 days.

The idea of a bodypart every seven days seems to be a convention many adhere to for that reason only. Sure, it can work great but so can other approaches. Look at all the old time bodybuilders - including those who were drug free - they made great progress training bodyparts more than once a week.

 

[livin large]

One routine that's worked well for me a while ago was a 4 day rotation with 1 day off.

Day 1 - Chest
Day 2 - Shoulder/Back
Day 3 - Arms
Day 4 - Legs
Day 5 - Rest Day

Then start over. That gives every muscle group a 4 day recovery time, instead of 6 if you're lifting each group 1x per week.

Another one that's worked well for me recently is this:

M - Chest
T - Arms
W - Leg
TH - Chest
F - Arms
S - Shoulder/Back
S - Rest Day

You may be too far along to benefit from this one - I'm using it to get back to where I was before my injury (it was a hand injury, so I couldn't do much arms or chest, that's why I have them in there 2x per week).

The point is, figure something out that works for you. Maybe that 5 day rotation would work for you, maybe it would work better if you threw an extra off day between days 2 and 3. Play with it and see what works.

 

[Soshyopathe]

Originally posted by livin large

M - Chest
T - Arms
W - Leg
TH - Chest
F - Arms
S - Shoulder/Back
S - Rest Day

Ooooh, chest and arms twice a week, back and legs only once. Can we say "Vanity Lifter?"

Jake, depending on what your schedule looks like, you should choose between a 7-day split which would correspond to your weekly schedule, or a 4 or 5 day split if you don't have lifting conflicts. A 4 or 5 day split would be more beneficial to your lifting. You can do something like:

1)Legs&Lower back
2)Push Day (Chest, Shoulders, Tris)
3)Pull Day (Back, Lats, Bis)
4)Rest

or

1)Legs&lower back
2)Chest&Shoulders
3)Lats&Upper back
4)Bis and tris
5)Rest

However, if you need to do a 7-day split, and you wish to work a body part more than once a week, it's really not wise to work a major muscle group HEAVY every 3 or 4 days. Maybe you should look over your routine and raise the intensity. Benching a couple 75s indicates significant mass in the chest, so you should be able to get more sore than you are getting. Remember to hit the chest from different angles (incline, decline) and include cable flies and pullovers in your routine. Most importantly, don't stop at 8-10. Stop when you physically can't get up the rep, and your spotter is struggling with it too.

But hell, if you sprout claws out of your fists in the middle of the night, you can disreguard all of this, Wolverine.