- October 28, 2018
- Workouts in the gym
- Nikita Novikov
How often should you train one muscle group? Unfortunately, not all novice athletes ask this question. Many beginners do not think about such things as a well-designed training program, proper nutrition, recovery, etc. Day after day they pump up their muscles, hoping that sooner or later their work will pay off and they will get the body of their dreams. But in reality this does not happen...
If you are reading these lines now, then it is quite possible that you are also one of these people. In this case, we can congratulate you, since the first step - realizing your mistake - has been taken! There are two more steps left to take: find out how often you can train one muscle group, and put the acquired knowledge into practice. And guess what? We are ready to help you with this! Read our feature article and you will get answers to your questions!
Main Factors
How often can you train one muscle group? Let’s say right away that everything here depends on recovery – our body’s ability to replenish spent energy resources and “rebuild” damaged muscle fibers.
Recovery abilities depend on many factors, but the most important of them are the following:
- degree of severity of the training session (selected weight, intensity, duration, etc.);
- the general level of physical fitness of the athlete (training experience, degree of perception of physical load).
Minimum recovery time
Quite often you can hear that a person needs 24 hours to recover. Let us say right away that this statement is not unfounded. Within a day, the human body is able to form new structures (enzymes, muscle fibers, mitochondria) and restore energy reserves for the next training session. The following are best suited for this interval:
- beginners who have been training for no more than 2-3 months;
- elderly people whose age has exceeded 50;
- average gym goers who exercise for themselves, and not for a professional career in the field of fitness and bodybuilding.
Training each muscle group 2 times a week
Example:
- Mon: top
- Tue: bottom
- Wed: rest
- Thu: top
- Fri: down
- Sat: rest
- Sun: rest
Now each muscle group receives two workouts per week and 2-3 days of rest for recovery.
It is important to understand that regardless of the training frequency you choose, you run the risk of under- or over-training.
However, we can safely say that the typical problem with one workout per week is the lack of adequate training stress, enough for a whole week of rest.
And the main problem with three workouts a week is creating a load that does not allow you to recover for the next session.
Essentially, with two workouts per muscle group per week, you are in an ideal situation and can avoid both problems.
Of course, you may still find yourself under- or over-exercising and making the same mistakes, but at the same time, you have the opportunity to get the best of both worlds.
Large and small muscle groups
The answer to the question of how often you should train a muscle group lies in understanding muscle anatomy. The fact is that the larger the muscle, the more time it takes to recover. The smaller it is, the less time it takes to recover. Large muscle groups include the chest, back and legs, and small muscle groups include biceps, triceps, deltoids and calves. For large muscle groups, one heavy workout per week will be enough. Small ones can be trained a little more. But this nuance should be taken into account: when performing basic exercises on large muscle groups, small muscle groups are also indirectly loaded. For example, when bench pressing, in addition to the chest, the triceps also actively work, and when performing pull-ups, in addition to the widest ones, the biceps receive a good load.
Anatomy of the back muscles
I have previously written a detailed article about the back muscles. I advise you to read it for a better understanding of this issue. Here I will try to briefly describe this issue.
The largest muscles of the back are:
Lat
We will focus on their development. It is the lats that give the body a “V” shaped silhouette (narrow waist and wide shoulders). They are attached to the spinal column on both sides and the humerus.
Their main function: bringing the raised or extended arm in front of you to the body.
We are also interested in:
Trapezoid
This muscle occupies most of the upper back. These are the same bumps that come from the neck.
Main function: Raises the shoulder blades upward. And helps the diamond-shaped ones bring them to each other.
Back extensors
These muscles are located in the lower back. More commonly known to everyone as the lower back.
Functions: keeps the spine in a straight position. And participates in its extension.
Large and small diamond-shaped
These are small muscles that attach to the shoulder blade and spine.
Functions: bringing the shoulder blades towards each other. Their good development gives the back an even posture.
You can learn more about the back muscles from the article “Back Anatomy“
There are some small muscles related to the shoulder girdle. But at the same time performing similar functions. This:
- Teres major and minor muscles. They are located on top under the lats. And they are responsible for bringing the arm to the body. And they are very active in pulling movements.
- Rear delta. Takes part in moving the arm back.
That is, we now understand that in order to develop the back muscles, we need to perform exercises that involve pulling movements. Knowing this, we just need to determine the main factors based on which we will build our training program.
Strength, endurance and muscle growth
Before you understand how often you need to train a muscle group, you first need to decide on your goal. There are three goals in total:
- Increased muscle mass. A three-day split is well suited for this purpose, which we will talk about a little later. How often to train one muscle group for mass? 3-4 exercises of 2-3 approaches each will be enough. On average, such a workout should not last longer than 40-45 minutes.
- Force. If for muscle hypertrophy you need to do a large number of exercises and a relatively small number of sets, then to improve strength indicators, on the contrary, you need to do fewer exercises, but more approaches. This strategy will help improve the adaptation of nerve cells, which in turn will lead to an increase in strength.
- Endurance. Circuit training is good for developing endurance. With these types of workouts, the emphasis is on high repetitions.
Lesson program
Standard exercise: bend your knees, lower your body 90 degrees, and pick up dumbbells. Bend your elbows up and down. We repeat the movements. Also use other exercises:
1. Standard pull-ups. Hang on the bar with an overhand grip. Your palms should be wider than your shoulders. Reach the bar until you reach it with your chin. Then lower yourself, straightening your elbows. Do not wrap your thumbs around the bar, otherwise the load will be distributed incorrectly.
2. One-arm dumbbell row while standing. An excellent exercise that is best done last.
3. Deadlift. In this case, we pump our back while standing. This exercise will work your buttocks, back, and hips. This option is suitable for girls and beginners. Before performing, do a warm-up and warm up your body. In this case, you need to take a standing position and bend your lower back. Your feet should be positioned shoulder-width apart, with your knees slightly bent. Keep your hands with dumbbells lowered in front of you. Raise your hands and lower them. This can be done simultaneously or alternating.
Such exercises for strengthening your back can be used at home if it is not possible to go to the gym. But before training at home, it is advisable to visit a trainer who will explain and show how to correctly perform the exercises to eliminate the risk of injury.
Standard training scheme
You already roughly understand how many times you need to train your muscles per week. Now we would like to give an example of a training system that is most popular among ordinary visitors to fitness centers. We are talking about a three-day split. The essence of this system is to work out two muscle groups - large and small - in one training session. A classic three-day split looks like this:
- Monday. Chest and biceps day.
- Tuesday. Rest.
- Wednesday. Back and triceps day.
- Thursday. Rest.
- Friday. Shoulders and legs day.
- Saturday. Rest.
- Sunday. Rest.
Using this program as an example, you can see what we meant when we talked about how often to train one muscle group. The large and small muscle groups are trained once a week, but the small ones, in addition, receive a good indirect load while training the large muscle groups.
Note: Many athletes are not very comfortable training their shoulders and legs on the same day. Legs make up about 50% of the total muscle mass of the human body, so training them on the same day as another muscle group can be inconvenient. In such situations, a separate training day is allocated for the legs.
The best exercises for pumping up your back
Deadlift
If your current back training program does not include deadlifts, adding them is highly recommended. This multi-joint basic exercise is very useful, as it involves almost all the muscles of the upper and lower back.
The deadlift makes your back look more massive, as it greatly stimulates the trapezius muscles, but it will also benefit your lats, as they help you time each rep. Plus, you can progress with this exercise by simply adding more weight over time. For these reasons, deadlifting is a must-have in your training plan.
And also, for those who are worried, this exercise is completely safe if you follow the correct technique. Numerous studies3 have shown that deadlifts are not only good for your back, they even help prevent spinal injuries by increasing core strength. But it must be performed with the correct technique in order to avoid rounding (bending) of the lower back. Therefore, before you begin, you should first learn how to do a deadlift correctly.
But if you can't do this exercise, or simply prefer to do it in another workout, then you can replace it with partial rows to the knees.
Why? Because this is the only exercise that allows you to use very heavy weights to fully stimulate all muscle fibers, especially the trapezius. And since the range of motion in this exercise is much smaller than in the deadlift, it will become a convenient option for those who find it difficult to deadlift due to injuries.
There's nothing complicated about this exercise—just adjust the bar so that it's just above your knees, and then pull the bar up, just like a regular deadlift. The only difference here is the reduced range of motion.
Pull-ups
This exercise not only engages the entire back, such as the lats, lower trapezius and rhomboids, but also increases the role of important shoulder and scapular stabilizers such as the teres and infraspinatus muscles.
What rocks
And since this is a closed chain exercise (arms stay in the same place), the back muscles will be more tense than in open chain exercises such as lat pulldowns. This fact has been proven by several scientific studies4.
What is the best grip for doing pull-ups?
Scientific research5 shows that overhand and underhand pull-ups activate the latissimus dorsi muscles equally.
But the same studies also showed:
- The lower trapezius and infraspinatus muscles are more activated in the overhand grip pull-up.
- The pecs and biceps are more activated in the reverse grip pull-up.
Therefore, since our goal is to build a wide back, it seems that pull-ups with an overhand grip would be a better option.
However, for some people it is quite the opposite - the back is better activated during pull-ups with a reverse grip. So try both types and find out which one is best for you - or you can also include them in your workout together.
If you don’t know how yet, here is a complete guide on how to learn how to do pull-ups on a horizontal bar from scratch.
In my case, for example, pull-ups with a straight, wide (slightly wider than shoulder-width) thumbless grip work best to activate all the muscle fibers in my back.
This exercise can also be progressed. Once you can perform 10-12 pull-ups clean (with good form), you can gradually add more weight to the exercise. You can progress gradually by using a weight belt or simply holding a dumbbell between your legs.
But if you don’t know how to do pull-ups, then it’s better to start with lighter and negative pull-ups in order to build up the strength for real pull-ups.
Bent-over barbell row to chest with support
Now we move on to rowing a barbell or dumbbells in an inclined position towards the chest. One study6 found that this type of row activates the lats as well as the lat row, but unlike it, it also activates other parts of the back better, such as the trapezius and rhomboids.
Therefore, it is recommended to include any type of deadlift in your training plan in order to better pump up the above muscle groups.
The incline row is especially recommended as it minimizes lower back activation in the exercise. This is required7 because exercises that involve less of the lower back will better activate the upper back. And since the muscles that straighten the spine (the muscles of the lower back) have already worked enough in the deadlift, then let them rest.
Upper pulley to chest
Of course, it can be said that this exercise is not as effective as the pull-up, but despite this, it is still an excellent additional exercise. The lat pulldown uses the same muscles as the pull-up, it just uses less work on the shoulder stabilizers.
The best variation of this exercise, perhaps, would be to perform it with a straight medium or wide grip, with a slight tilt of the body back.
Why is this so? Let's take a look at the other options.
The best option for developing width:
Research8 has shown that the chest row activates the lats better than other variations of the same exercise, such as the overhead row. In addition, chest pulls are safer for the shoulder joints than head pulls.
Slight lean back:
A gentle 135-degree back bend has been shown9 to activate the lats 11% more without swinging. Therefore, when performing this exercise, it is best to lean back a little and try not to sway.
Hand position in grip:
One study10 found that in lat pulldowns, as opposed to pull-ups, the forward grip activated the lats much better than the reverse grip. This is why it is recommended to use a straight grip.
Grip width variation:
One study11 examined and compared the degree of activation of different areas of the back at different grip widths: narrow, medium and wide. The result was that all three grips activated the lats equally. But the medium grip activated the biceps the most, and people using this grip were able to lift more weight than the others.
From here, you can decide that the medium grip wins over the others, since it activates the lats in the same way as they do, but also activates the biceps more, which makes it possible to lift heavier weights. However, the same study also found that the rotator cuff was activated better during a wide grip. The same can be said about the teres major muscle. Therefore, we conclude that for optimal back development, you need to use a combination of medium and wide grip.
Scapular pull-ups
It is recommended to complete your back workout with this exercise. These pull-ups are called scapular pull-ups and specifically develop the lower trapezius muscles. This improves scapular stability and allows the shoulders to remain healthy.
In this exercise, we simply hang from the bar, lower our shoulders down and away from our ears, and then lift our body up without allowing our arms to bend at the elbows. In the upper position we take a short pause.
Over time, you will get stronger and can then progress by doing more reps, doing the exercise more slowly, or using a belt to make the exercise harder.
How often should you train your abs?
Since the abs are not a large muscle group, many people believe that they can be trained almost every day. In fact, two workouts a week is enough to pump up your abdominal muscles.
Quite often you can hear that the abs need to be pumped up with 50, 70 and almost 100 repetitions in one approach. Nobody forbids you to do this, but you need to understand that this is already working on endurance, but not on working out muscles. As practice shows, high-quality 20-25 repetitions per approach will be quite enough for this muscle group.
Is it possible to train twice a day?
Even with a great desire to exercise twice a day and confidence that you can handle it, there is often no complete understanding of how safe it is for your health. The pros seem to outweigh the cons. Double classes (if you add to them the movements that are needed to get to the gym) seriously reduce the “sedentary” hours, which harm your health on all fronts, creating risks including early death. And, of course, increasing the load cannot but affect the results of the training - it will be much easier to get into the desired shape with such an intensity of training.
To understand whether it’s worth adding twice-a-day workouts to your fitness schedule, it’s worth finding out what number of workouts is generally considered optimal for fitness club visitors.
“One workout a week is better than nothing, but globally it is “nothing”, because such a regime does not give a sustainable result,” says Dmitry Smirnov, gym supervisor at the World Class Kuntsevo club and vice-champion of Moscow in bodybuilding . - Even during pregnancy, guests of fitness clubs should exercise regularly - for example, three times a week, or even four. Otherwise, “one-time” training will exhaust the nervous system. Together with hormones, it first experiences a rise and leaves the resting state, and then within a week it returns to its original state, rebuilding the body to work with a slower metabolism. Once this happens, they are again “invigorated” by training, which becomes stressful, and not an option for the norm.
If you exercise every two days, the body will have a prepared response to the training program - adaptation to the load. Adaptation will manifest itself in reducing the fat component, strengthening muscle mass, and so on. Thus, twice a week is a better option compared to once a week. Here we can already talk about expecting some results, but achieving goals will take quite a long time.
In my opinion, the optimal number of visits for the average fitness guest is three. In three workouts you can work out every muscle group. The body will be able to switch to a higher metabolic rate. The client will see results much sooner than with twice-daily training. Three workouts a week discipline and at the same time do not have time to get bored, and also do not lead a person to a state of overtraining. I am a training athlete myself, I compete as a bodybuilder, and in the off-season, outside of periods of preparation for competitions, I train three times a week.
Four to five workouts per week is a schedule that does not suit 90% of our guests. If we are talking about an athlete at the amateur level, then this is a possible option. In preparation for competitions, I train 6 times a week, 2 times a day, but this period lasts about a month before the start. This is enough."
Training twice a day: yes or no?
“Yes, a person can exercise twice a day, but it should be training of different directions,” says Dmitry Smirnov. — It’s great if a person has that much time and motivation; then in the morning he can do 30 minutes of cardio, and in the evening he can do strength work for an hour. Most often they are combined within one workout, but for better recovery (of the same nervous system), it is better to separate these types of loads. In this sense, training twice a day within one day is a good solution.
In terms of consequences, perhaps the worst thing you can get as a result is overtraining. It will manifest itself in overwork, weakening of the nervous system, loss of concentration, which, when performing exercises, can lead to traumatic situations. Thoughts will appear that you don’t want to go to the gym. If a person finds himself in this state, he often stops exercising and leaves training for a long time (up to several months).
In general, there are no contraindications to training twice a day. You just need to correlate this training regimen with your lifestyle: if a person has a busy schedule and sleeps less than 8 hours a day, then introducing another activity can lead to overtraining.
How to avoid overtraining when training twice a day?
- Nutrition
“It is necessary for a person to eat properly and have a diet that corresponds to the load for good recovery. If you can’t eat well, you can resort to nutritional supplements (adaptogens, complex amino acids, vitamins, etc.) - but only if you get normal, sufficient sleep.”
- Sleeping mode
“You should definitely sleep well, at least 8 hours, preferably 9, if you can add another hour during the day.”
- Training program
“It is important that the coach distributes the load correctly. After all, it may be that a person sleeps well and eats right, but too much stress during these two workouts eventually makes itself felt. The coach, observing his ward, will not allow a critical condition to occur.”
Thus, if a person can meet the recovery conditions, then he can train twice a day. There is one more nuance - a smooth transition to the new regime. “It’s not a good idea to start training twice a day right away. If a person trained three times a week and decided that on these three days he will train twice, it is worth adding one additional workout each subsequent week. As a result, you can switch to the new schedule in three weeks. Everything must be done smoothly, given that overtraining can occur especially quickly in residents of large cities who are exposed to stress.”
Rule #1
Don't be afraid to experiment. We have already written earlier that a three-day split is the most optimal training regimen for ordinary people who exercise without the use of anabolic steroids. But you need to understand that this scheme is not ideal and that it may not suit everyone. If, after several months of split training, you notice that your results have not improved much, then you should change your approach to the training process. For example, if you train your biceps once a week, but see that they are not growing, then add another workout for this muscle to the program. If a three-day split doesn't give you any results at all, then it makes sense to switch to a different training regimen (for example, full body training or training each muscle group 2 times a week). Never forget that every body is unique in its own way and that there is no universal training system that suits absolutely everyone. What to do in this case? Use the trial and error method, as we wrote earlier. This is the only way you can achieve the desired results!
How often should you train one muscle group per week? We hope that we were able to answer this question. We wish you success in your training!
What conclusions did the study come to?
People who spread their training volume over 3 days per week gained more muscle than those who spread their weekly volume over 1-2 days per week.
On average, training a muscle group 3 times a week allows you to increase muscle growth by 3.1% compared to one- and two-day training (6.8 versus 3.7%).
After 8 weeks of training in this mode, a beginner in strength training will be able to gain about 5 g of muscle more.
Over time, this figure will increase, but the difference is not that great.
Here's what the study results look like when dividing subjects into several groups:
This can be approached in two ways:
- You can build more muscle in the same amount of time by simply hitting each muscle group more often. Why not take advantage of this? Forward!
- Training each muscle group more frequently will only make a tiny difference in muscle growth, so why bother?
A closer look at the findings reveals a couple of pitfalls that make the study's findings even more ambiguous.
- Five of the studies were conducted on people who had not lifted weights for at least a year. Two of them involved middle-aged people (30-49), and the other two involved older women (50+). Although strength training generally has the same effects on people, these results only hold true for those who fall into one of these categories.
- Studies have used a wide range of training frequencies, making it difficult to determine what is “best.” Some compared one- and two-day training, others - two- and three-day, and still others - one- and three-day.
With such a small difference in progress, it cannot be said that frequent training will guarantee muscle growth.
But here's some food for thought:
All groups of subjects performed the same training volume.
On the one hand, this proves that the difference in muscle growth is not due to one group doing more volume than the other.
On the other hand, the main reason why people advocate frequent training is because it allows you to squeeze more training volume into one week.
It is known that performing more sets per week usually leads to greater muscle gains. So if frequent training allows you to increase your training volume, then we can safely say that this should help build more muscle.
For example, you currently do 6 sets of bench presses once a week. By the fourth, fifth, and sixth sets, you're probably pretty exhausted. You may even have to change the weight to a lighter one.
What if you split these 6 sets into two workouts per week?
Then you will do 3 sets in one workout, and most likely you will be able to press more weight in each approach.
You could go further and add 1 set to each workout, thus increasing your total weekly training volume to 8 sets.
In other words, what helps you build more muscle is not just training more often, but training more often, which allows you to do more training volume, which leads to more progress.
Either way, this is just a theory that research has not paid attention to.
It's also worth considering that all of these studies, including this meta-analysis, initially did not see any benefit from frequent exercise. But when all the results were combined, a statistically proven difference in muscle growth became evident.
This is a frequent topic for scientific research.
Small studies don't show any benefit, but when you look at larger data, you can identify a clear winner that proves there are "hidden" benefits.
In conclusion, the scientists noted:
It can be assumed that major muscle groups should be trained at least twice a week for maximum muscle growth. Due to a lack of data, it is unknown whether training more than 3 times per week can improve the hypertrophic response of muscles.
