How often should you train in the gym for muscle mass growth?

Translated by: Avramov Maxim - an enthusiast of a healthy lifestyle and author of the website ilovemysport.ru.
2019-12-19

How often should you train in the gym? How much rest do you need between workouts? How do you determine overtraining and undertraining?

One of the most popular questions among beginners is: "How many times a week should I train in the gym to achieve maximum results?" There's nothing shameful in this. Everyone, from amateurs to Mr. Olympia winners, has faced this dilemma. The solution can change your approach to training. The answer to this question is very simple: "It all depends on...". But on what exactly?

At this stage, most trainers in fitness clubs or training manuals provide the standard advice: "Train each body part twice a week." It’s easy to believe this is the best answer, as it fits most people well. It’s a safe piece of advice, but definitely not the best. Studying what is truly the best will allow you to discard bias and help you understand what is really best for your specific case.

There are several factors that influence how often you should train in the gym. Each factor plays its own role. But all of them interact and depend on each other. We will explore these factors and demonstrate how they help us make our choices. Remember that the more effort you put into your sets, the less often you need to train in the gym; otherwise, it will significantly slow down your recovery process.

1. Training Volume

Training volume primarily refers to how intensely you load each body part. This includes the number of repetitions and sets. The more sets a particular muscle group receives, the longer it should rest for full recovery. The fewer sets you do, the more often you can train and recover faster.

2. Training Intensity

This can’t be called a scientific definition, but still. Training intensity refers more to the intensity of your efforts rather than how close the weight of the equipment you’re using is to your one-rep max. Essentially, you need to determine how hard you are engaging your muscles during your gym workout. The better you push yourself per set, the longer you should rest.

3. Nutrition

How much you eat and, most importantly, what you eat determines your fitness club attendance schedule. If you don’t believe that nutrition plays an important role in training frequency, try eating only cookies for a week. Let’s see how long you can last.

Remember, proper nutrition is 80% of success. You should stick to a diet, for example, a high-protein or low-carbohydrate diet (keto diet). The higher the quality of the food and the more you consume, the faster you can recover and get back to training. Clean protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats, such as those found in avocado, are the foundation of a proper athlete's diet.

4. Recovery

When it comes to the recovery process, it varies for everyone: some recover very quickly, while others incredibly slowly. This difference can be exacerbated by external factors and stress. Due to stress, cortisol levels in the blood increase, and well-being worsens, memory declines, and losing weight becomes harder.

A construction worker engaging in physical labor requires more recovery time compared to office employees. Participation in intense sports also affects the body's recovery process. In other words, the lower your recovery speed and the longer you engage in active sports, the longer the break between workouts.

5. Exercise Selection

Barbell squats or leg extensions? Which of these two exercises engages the hips and the entire body more? Certainly, squats. This exercise not only involves more muscle groups but also puts more strain on them. As a result, the number of micro-tears in muscle fibers increases, which, in turn, affects the recovery time of the body. The greater the strain an exercise places on a muscle group, the less often it should be trained.

6. Size of the Muscle Group

The larger the body part you are training, such as the back, thighs, or chest, the more time it will require for recovery. The issue lies not in the micro-tears of the muscle fibers themselves, but in their quantity.

Since any workout also affects the nervous system, it also needs recovery. The larger the muscle group, the longer this process takes. In other words, the smaller the trained body part, the fewer injuries it sustains and the faster the recovery process occurs.

7. Types of Workouts

The types of workouts also influence the speed of the body's recovery. Partial repetitions, negative repetitions, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) all put significant stress on the muscles. When selecting these types of workouts, reduce the frequency of your visits to the gym to allow for adequate recovery.

8. Sports Nutrition

Work and study can interfere with our ability to eat properly. Even if you maintain a healthy lifestyle, it can be challenging to stick to a diet. Quick snacks, vending machines filled with sweets, and soda can disrupt our routines. Sports nutrition compensates for diet adherence issues and moments of weakness. Sports supplements aid in quicker recovery. Protein shakes, amino acids, especially BCAAs, and creatine are all beneficial aids in the quest for a great physique.

Practical Tips on Training Frequency

We have compiled a list of factors that will help you determine "How often should I train in the gym."

You should train more frequently if you have:

• - a body that recovers quickly,
• - good nutrition and sports supplements,
• - a low training volume,
• - low training intensity,
• - easy exercises,
• - training on a small muscle group,
• - low-intensity workouts.

You should train less frequently if you have:

• - a slow recovery process,
• - poor nutrition and lack of sports supplements,
• - a high training volume,
• - high-intensity workouts,
• - complex exercises,
• - training on large muscle groups,
• - high-intensity training.

How Does Everything Fit Together?

These were the primary factors that determine the optimal training frequency. Although the interaction of all these factors may seem complex at first glance, you'll easily understand them once you start considering them. To illustrate this, let’s give a couple of examples, and you’ll understand how often you should train in the gym for maximum results. General rules that beginners hear, such as training twice a week, are based on spherical horses in a vacuum rather than on regular people.

You work a physically demanding job and have limited access to quality food

Due to the specific conditions of your work, your overall training volume decreases, and the frequency does not exceed three sessions per week. It is recommended to choose a basic training program for each session on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Use the most challenging exercises: barbell squats, bench press, and deadlifts for each muscle group. Do 3 sets of 8-10 reps for each exercise. You don’t need to train to failure; the heavy physical labor already places significant demand on your muscles.

Despite being a relatively simple training program, it is very effective. You will have enough time for recovery because the training volume will be low and the intensity moderate. Yet, you are still working each part of your body three times a week.

You are on vacation at home, have unlimited access to food and rest, and have no household obligations or work piles

To achieve maximum results during vacation, significantly increase the volume, frequency, and intensity of your workouts. What’s the catch? Since you are mostly eating and sleeping, your body should recover quickly after workouts. You will see gains in strength and muscle mass.

In such conditions, some people visit the gym up to six days a week, performing a full-body workout each time. Training can be intense, doing 3-4 sets for each muscle group. High training frequency will yield excellent results, and good nutrition combined with no work allows for quick recovery.

Should such a training program be recommended to someone who performs physical labor, sleeps little, and cannot afford quality nutrition? Of course not!

You have a busy work schedule, work in an office, eat only during breaks, and often postpone workouts due to overtime

Office work does not involve physical labor, which positively affects recovery after workouts. However, your eating habits are poor, and you often skip lunch due to tight schedules. You frequently stay late at the office, pushing workouts to the next day.

To achieve maximum results, we recommend opting for a training plan of "one body part per day." Focus on one body part at a time while maintaining high volume and intensity. The next day, work on another body part. This results in a relatively low training frequency, training one body part roughly every seven to eight days. Consequently, you "fatigue" one muscle group due to the high volume and intensity of workouts. But you have enough time for recovery.

It’s also worth noting that although you focus solely on one body part at a time, other muscles are involved in the process. For example, when you perform a bench press, not only the chest muscles are engaged, but also the triceps.

This training plan allows you to easily adjust your workout schedule without sacrificing results, even with less-than-ideal nutrition.

Let’s Summarize

So, how often should you train in the gym? The optimal training frequency cannot be definitively described as "work each muscle group twice a week." That would be too simple.

There are several factors to consider: nutrition, presence or absence of work (study), sleep, sports nutrition, etc. All of these are parts of one puzzle. By putting it together, you can determine exactly what you need to achieve maximum results.

Translation of the article from iSatori