The best training article I’ve ever read… IV
The ideal training frequency…
So what is the optimal training frequency per body part/lift/muscle, really? It’s this decade’s version of the debate that raged in the seventies and eighties over “one working set per body part versus three working sets per body part”. Back then there were serious disputes over which approach was actually the right one: does a muscle or body part need high volume or low volume to grow?
There were showdowns like Arthur Jones vs. the Weiders, Mentzer vs. Arnold, and so on. Those debates never reached a single resolution, because in their own way the supporters of both approaches were right. On the other hand, neither extreme held a monopoly on the final truth either.
The fact is that both extremes have their own advantages and drawbacks, but in different periods both approaches can be applied quite successfully.
Why there is no single answer
Exactly the same applies to training frequency. Just like the volume debate, the arguments over optimal training frequency are raging right now and will carry on. You can safely guarantee that no winner will emerge from this discussion, for a simple reason: the arguments put forward by all the different sides will have both advantages and drawbacks.
There simply is no such “thing” as an ideal training frequency per muscle/lift/body part. Optimal training frequency is actually a training parameter that changes over time. It depends on the other variables that let you regulate training load, on your lifestyle, and on your capacity and opportunity to recover. There are, of course, some “rough” guidelines worth taking into account when determining optimal training frequency:
What influences optimal training frequency
*The more intensely (in every sense of the word) you train a muscle/body part/lift in a workout, the longer you need to recover. If you train in a high-volume style, taking every set to failure, doing long sets and using various intensity techniques, then your training frequency per muscle or body part naturally has to be lower than if you train without going to failure, leave reps in reserve in your sets, and keep the total training volume per workout low or moderate.
*The more microtrauma you cause in a workout, the more time passes before the same muscle/body part could/should be trained again. Microtrauma results from the mechanical muscle work performed, especially in the eccentric mode of muscle work.
*The greatest intramuscular microtrauma is caused by sets of 8 – 12 repetitions (a set lasting 30 – 60 seconds). If a set is performed with emphasized negatives (a slow lowering phase), the microtears are even larger.
This also explains why Olympic weightlifters can train their competition lifts as often as 6x a week. They very rarely perform more than 5 – 6 repetitions per set, and in their lifts the eccentric phase is often eliminated altogether, since at the end of the lift the bar is dropped (thrown) down relatively freely. Very little mechanical work (at one time) and the absence of eccentric work are exactly what make it possible for Olympic weightlifters to train their lifts so frequently.
*Training frequency also depends largely on how much nervous system fatigue a workout creates. If you don’t completely exhaust your nervous system in a workout, you can train more often. It should be added here that fatiguing the nervous system up to a certain point is also necessary, but with a good reserve.
*The more often we can stimulate our muscles without exceeding their capacity to recover, the faster we progress. For muscles to grow, they first have to be stimulated. At the same time, this shouldn’t be taken to mean that we can do a few easy sets every day (or even several times a day) and make progress. If such frequent workouts pose no challenge to the muscles, the training doesn’t create the stimulus that drives progress.
When determining the optimal frequency, it is absolutely essential to make sure we don’t exceed the recovery capacity of our muscles and nervous system. On the one hand, it’s true that the more frequently we train, the faster we progress. On the other, if that frequency becomes so high that our body no longer has time to recover, no progress occurs. The key question is what the optimal balance between stimulating the muscles and recovering is.
Recommended training frequency
What training frequency do I (the author of the article) recommend? Again, this is an extremely individual question. Training frequency depends on your goals, your training style, and to a large extent on how you spend all the rest of your time when you’re not in the gym. But assuming all the main principles of training and recovery are taken into account, I would recommend an optimal training frequency of twice per muscle group in every 5 – 7 day period. Translator’s note: in other words, without overcomplicating things, this means the optimal way to train a muscle/lift/body part is 2 x a week.
If you recover well and live a low-stress life, it’s best to do 2 workouts per muscle group in every 5 – 7 day period. If your recovery is poorer, consider training each muscle/lift/body part 2 times within 8 – 10 days.
Of course, these recommendations aren’t set in stone, and you don’t have to train every muscle at exactly the frequency we suggest here. Keep in mind that many exercises load several different muscles at once. For example, the triceps already get a solid training load from chest-day presses.
Examples of training splits
Example for people who recover well, training each muscle group twice a week:
Day 1: Chest and back
Day 2: Lower body
Day 3: Shoulders and arms
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Chest and back
Day 6: Lower body
Day 7: Shoulders and arms
Day 8: Rest
Or, a split with 2 workouts per muscle group per week for those who prefer a lower-body/upper-body approach:
Day 1: Lower body
Day 2: Upper body
Day 3: Core (abs and lower back)
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Lower body
Day 6: Upper body
Day 7: Core (abs and lower back)
Day 8: Rest
A split training each muscle/body part twice over a nine-day period:
Day 1: Chest and back
Day 2: Lower body
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Shoulders and arms
Day 5: Rest
Day 6: Chest and back
Day 7: Lower body
Day 8: Rest
Day 9: Shoulders and arms
Day 10: Rest
***
Day 1: Lower body
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Upper body
Day 4: Core (abs and lower back)
Day 5: Rest
Day 6: Lower body
Day 7: Rest
Day 8: Upper body
Day 9: Core (abs and lower back)
Day 10: Rest
***
Day 1: Full body
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Lower body
Day 4: Upper body
Day 5: Rest
Day 6: Full body
Day 7: Rest
Day 8: Lower body
Day 9: Upper body
Day 10: Rest
If your recovery isn’t the best and your daily life doesn’t support your training, you can consider the following splits:
Day 1: Chest and back
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Lower body
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Shoulders and arms
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Chest and back
Day 8: Rest
Day 9: Lower body
Day 10: Rest
Day 11: Shoulders and arms
Day 12: Rest
***
Day 1: Lower body
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Upper body
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Core (abs and lower back)
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Lower body
Day 8: Rest
Day 9: Upper body
Day 10: Rest
Day 11: Core (abs and lower back)
Day 12: Rest
***
Day 1: Full body
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Lower body
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Upper body
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Full body
Day 8: Rest
Day 9: Lower body
Day 10: Rest
Day 11: Upper body
Day 12: Rest
***
Day 1: Pressing muscles (chest, shoulders, triceps)
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Lower body
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Pulling muscles (back, traps, biceps)
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Pressing muscles (chest, shoulders, triceps)
Day 8: Rest
Day 9: Lower body
Day 10: Rest
Day 11: Pulling muscles (back, traps, biceps)
Day 12: Rest
Obviously, nothing is ever set in stone: you need to experiment and find the solution that works best for you. It’s also possible that your recovery will get worse or better over the course of your training career, in which case you’ll need to rearrange things again as you go.
Janar Rückenberg (translation)
Source:Turg.Fitness.ee
Come and train! ArtGym
