How often can one muscle group be trained?

Author: Timko Ilya - master of the whole project and fitness trainer.
2012-03-09

This question concerns not only beginners in strength training but also more experienced athletes. After all, everyone wants to achieve results as quickly as possible. Some less knowledgeable individuals think that the more often you train, the better. More perceptive people realize it's not that simple. Too frequent training of any muscle group can negate all your efforts. Conversely, training too infrequently can slow down muscle growth that could occur much faster. So where is the golden mean? Let’s try to figure it out.

What is training adaptation? Training adaptation is nothing more than the body's adaptation to external stressors. In other words, when a stressor (unfamiliar load) is placed on the body, it responds by improving its motor qualities (be it strength, endurance, agility, etc.). Now, adapting to a particular stressor requires time for any organism. Once the body has adapted to that load, it becomes familiar, and to achieve further growth, an even greater stress is needed.

So, what am I getting at? It’s the time required for adaptation to a new stressor that determines how often one can train a particular muscle and train in general. This time frame varies for everyone. However, there are certain patterns...

After many experiments, physiologists have concluded that the first negative changes in muscles occur no earlier than 7 days after stopping training. Let me reiterate. THE FIRST negative changes occur NO EARLIER than 7 days. By negative changes, I mean the detraining of muscles (decrease in volume, strength, endurance, etc.). In other words, the very initial decline in these physical qualities can be observed after 7 days, 8 days, and so on.

Mike Mentzer (a famous bodybuilder, writer, and philosopher) went even further in his book “Supertraining.” He suggests training one muscle group once every 10-12 days, provided that the workouts are “intense.” He is close to the truth. The heavier the training, the more time the muscles need to recover.

This implies that, if you follow a scientific approach to training, one muscle group should be trained no more than once a week. Essentially, this is true. I want to note that I am not considering the use of anabolic steroids, where recovery occurs much faster.

Is it possible to train the same muscle group more than once a week? In principle, training it twice a week is possible. However, one session should be heavy, and the other should be light. Otherwise, the body will not have time to recover. Additionally, you cannot train all muscle groups simultaneously twice a week. You can choose one or two lagging groups, but no more. Training twice a week is the limit; exceeding this can lead to a halt in results at best. This is the scientific perspective and my personal opinion, based on coaching experience.

If you train twice a week and feel pretty worn out from work, then train each muscle group only once a week. You can also train once every 10 days (as Mentzer advises). I have conducted such experiments repeatedly and observed positive results. It’s straightforward. If you train twice a week, create three workouts and cycle through them. This way, you will effectively train each workout approximately once every 10 days.

Conclusions

I advise beginners to start with training each muscle group once a week. After that, gauge how you feel.

Undoubtedly, each muscle group should be trained at least once every two weeks and no more than twice a week. This depends on how quickly you can recover, which in turn depends on numerous factors: the severity of the training, age, gender, workload, overall fatigue throughout the day, the number of workouts per week, pharmacological support, and so on. For example, women generally recover faster than men, and adaptation capabilities decrease with age. Good luck!

P.S. This article is primarily dedicated to those looking to increase muscle volume. In cases of weight loss, simultaneous muscle gain is impossible. Therefore, muscles can be trained much more frequently.