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2005/05/18, 11:23 PM
For gaining mass should you workout each muscle group once or twice a week? I have been doing intense workouts for each muscle group twice a week and I am always tired. I eat, drink and sleep enough but I'm always tired half way in the week. So is it more productive to workout each muscle group once a week and exercise 5 days a week, or twice a week and exercise 6 days a week? All help is appreciated :).
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2005/05/19, 07:21 AM
i would say in your situ that each muscle group once a week would be fine.. if you are tired by halfway through the week, then your workouts are going to suffer. you dont want to lose motivation or potentially risk overtraining. this method will also give you more rest for your muscles, so you can train them that much harder. personally, i train each muscle group once a week, and its totally fine, so i say go for it.
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2005/05/19, 09:09 AM
I suggest once a week per muscle group and cut training days to 3-4....
I think it's easier to stick with less amount of days as well as give yourself a time to recover from the training...
5-6 days is way too much imo for anyone training naturally and heavy...
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2005/05/19, 09:52 AM
You what DVELSWK, with the time i have been bodybuilding, and recently, i have come to one conclusion: nothing they say will work. DONT GET ME WRONG. i am not saying they dont know what they say. of course they know, i know them and i can tell that. With this i sm trying to say that what you should do is see what works for you the best. let me tell you that more or less a year ago, i was in the uncertity of doing once a week or twice a week. as i saw that with once a week i wasnt making any gains i said to myslef: WTH? i am not growing, so i have nothing to lose. so i jumped into my new routine: once a week.
let me tell you that since i did that, this past year has been the most effective year of my 4 years bodybuilding.
But you know what, lately, as my arms are getting bigger, i am noticing (dont know if i spelled it right) that my shoulders are not growing. they look small compare to my huge triceps. it looks like a tiny head hidden behind my triceps.
So i am here asking my question again one year later:
what should i do? the answer is: CHANGE. thats the bodybuilding secret: dont saty with the same. so i am about to change my routine and go shoulders twice a week.
So as you see, it is up to to you. If youy have been training twice a week, go once a week and see what happends. if you havent trained at all, go 2 mnonths once a week and 2 months twice a week and see whats happends.
hope it helps.
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2005/05/19, 09:53 AM
***for get the "know" at the beginning :laugh:
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2005/05/19, 10:56 AM
Kakaroto makes some great points. Anyway, I believe through much trial and error that for the majority of natural athletes, twice per week is ideal for maximum hypertrophy. Leave the once per week for the "big boys" if you know what I mean.
In the end though, you may find that once per week works for you. Again, as kakaroto says, find this medium for you and use it.
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If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything....
bb1fit@freetrainers.com
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2005/05/19, 12:58 PM
I thought the main benefit of steroids was the ability to recover faster, hence the ability to train 2-3 times a week per bodypart?....I thought natural lifters have to rest longer to recover between workouts?
I have no clue how people can train their legs to the max more than once a week...my DOMS lasts for 5 days...I can barely walk for the first 3...
But I completely agree that the best routines are those that you come up with on your own that will work for you...
People on this website can hypothetically suggest exercises, sets, reps, frequency, etc for you to help you find your own way...this either works for us, or for people we know, train, or just plain suggest something that we think might work for you...Obviously the suggetions are most often geared toward beginners who need a lot of guidance in setting up their exercise plan and learning the basics....as people become more confident in their training they should change their routines accordingly...
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2005/05/19, 03:12 PM
well, some people can develop a faster recovery in a specific muscle group, leading to the need to work them more frequently.
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2005/05/19, 03:26 PM
I find that legs are a 6-7 week proposition if you really hit them, smaller muscle groups different. I liked 5-6 days for chest, 5 days for biceps and triceps. I gained 1 inch on my arms by more frequent work and that is at 53 yrs. old. If you wait too long to train a muscle, you are spending days simply "maintaining" it when it actually can be worked again. If you do not give the body a reason to adapt, why should it expend that much energy on something as foreign to it as muscle growth?
It has been shown in studies that an endurance trainer for instance takes a minimum of 3 days training per week for adaptations to take place. I suspect we will find the same findings for the natual athlete.
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If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything....
bb1fit@freetrainers.com
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2005/05/19, 10:33 PM
So would it work to exercise legs, back and chest once a week, and arms twice a week?
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2005/05/19, 10:35 PM
go ahead and see what happends,
although if you are going to try once a week, i will suggest to go all once a week.
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2005/05/20, 03:35 PM
When you lift weights, you cause damage to your muscles. This is often referred to as "microtrauma". Microtrauma involves the tearing and shearing of delicate protein structures within your muscle cells. This may sound bad but in reality it is necessary for the initiation of growth after your workout.
This microtrauma may be expected to require you to postpone your next workout until your muscles are back to normal. It is this logic that your average personal trainer will use when he/she tells you to wait, sometimes a full week, before training the same body part again. Recent research however is showing us that putting off your next workout until your muscles have "fully recovered" may not be necessary or even desirable!1,2,3 In a study performed at the University of Alabama4, two groups of subjects performed the same periodized resistance training routine either once per week or three times per week. The results showed that muscle mass increases were greater in the three workout per week group, compared to the one workout per week group. In addition, the strength increases in this group were on average 40% greater! So what does this mean to you? It means the fear of overtraining, which sometimes verges on paranoia, may be preventing you from getting the most gains you can in the gym.
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If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything....
bb1fit@freetrainers.com
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2005/05/20, 08:32 PM
I don't know how sustainable 3 times a week full body cycle training is....maybe with light weights....
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2005/05/20, 09:35 PM
Thank you all for the help you have given me. I talked to bb1fit over email a couple times and I have had all my questions answered :). Thanks again.
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2005/05/22, 05:32 PM
I agree, 3 times per week would maybe be quite extreme, except as a newbie. As a newbie though, it is quite acceptible and in fact desirable for conditioning.
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Quoting from menace3000:
I don't know how sustainable 3 times a week full body cycle training is....maybe with light weights....
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If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything....
bb1fit@freetrainers.com
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2005/05/22, 05:40 PM
Thought I may expound a bit on the training of muscles twice per week. Lets take chest for instance...typically, the advanced athlete will do 4-6 sets of flat benches, then maybe add a couple sets of dumbbell benches, maybe even some hammer strength flat, and then move on to upper chest and similarly annihlate it, and then add flies and declines. Now, Lets just take the minimum 6 sets of benches that many do. Would it be more beneficial to do 3 sets to failure, stop and then in say 3-4 days do the other 3 sets to failure? You are still doing 6 sets, but if you do them all in the one day, think about it. It actually should only take 3 heavy hard sets to failure to induce some damage to the muscle. Going beyond this basically works in the fatigue range, not really much for the muscle. The last 3 sets you are probably doing ascending weights, and getting 2-3 reps or so. Would it not be more beneficial to 3-4 days later hit the muscle again with 3 solid sets of heavy weight? Your recovery should be shorter due to less fatigue, and you should be ready to work again because of this. This in fact in my opinion cause the muscle to respond better, better recovery, more intense targeted work. The object in bodybuilding is to work the muscle, not annihlate it. Hope this makes sense.
I believe you can do the same with any muscle group, in fact if you are hesitant, maybe prioritizing a weak muscle group with this type of program will be just the ticket.
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If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything....
bb1fit@freetrainers.com
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2005/05/22, 10:27 PM
I'd say if your gonna do somthing 2 times a week.. do a larger muscle group. ie chest, shoulders back or legs.....cause if your chest gets bigger......then your tris will too to be in portion......same with shoulders same with back only with biceps. Your arm strength and size will be determined by these larger muscle groups.
guys with big guns.....have big shoulder backs and chest......and legs do they not?
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" The only true eye, is your minds eye"- plato
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2005/05/23, 12:03 PM
Why, the responses of increased protein synthesis, prostaglandins, IGF-1 levels and mRNA levels all return to normal in about 36 hrs.. So, you spend 2 days growing and half a week or so (returning to normal). This is not growth, the CNS is what is recovering from a super high volume workout, not the muscle. So think about it, true anabolism from loadings lasts at best 2 days. The rest of the time you are simply balancing nitrogen retention without adding to it. This is true for any muscle, not just the large ones. Why not make them all grow?
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If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything....
bb1fit@freetrainers.com
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