07-11-2015, 08:14 PM
(07-11-2015, 07:12 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Your post confused me. Are you saying to train muscle groups 3x a week? You are talking about different muscle groups, correct? For example NOT lift back 3x a week, just once...
You have to be insane if you are training the same muscle group 3x a week...
One of the few things you'll find most sources agree on is that beginners (typically defined as new or coming back to lifting for less than 6-12 months) get best results training muscle groups 3x a week....the usual recommended routine is a full body workout consisting of compound lifts 3x a week. Take a look at Strong Lifts - one of the most recommended routines for beginners and it has you squat 3x a week.
It all comes down to volume...whether you hit a muscle group 1x or 3x a week, the optimal sets/reps remain pretty much the same. Holding weekly volume relatively constant, the volume you do in a single workout depends on your weekly frequency.
There's nothing insane about it, all that matters is allowing proper recovery where the body is building muscle to adapt to the new loads. On average, you need 24-48 hours to recover. Because the beginner lacks the strength and stamina to do more damage in a single workout, they only need 2 days to recover, so 3x a week per muscle group.
But intermediate and advanced lifters need more volume in that workout to effectively damage the muscles, and in order not to overtrain that dictates twice a week. But we're talking 4-5 days max for recovery if you're not roided-up.
The 7-10 days off crap before hitting a muscle group again is for roided-up bodybuilders. Once a week or less for natural lifters is suboptimal, at best. There's some debate that, for natural lifters, you possibly lose some actual gains if you go longer than 5 days before coming back to a muscle group. Without question you lose potential gains because if you're not overtrained, your body is ready to go and you're just unnecessarily adding time to your progression.
