Training Frequency for Mass Gains
In recent years, bodybuilding/hypertrophy training has divided itself into a number of different ‘camps’ with quite a bit of argument and debate going on over what the optimal training frequency for muscle growth is.
In this article, I want to look at the three most common training frequencies (in terms of how often a given muscle group is hit each week, I’m not talking about overall training frequency) and some of their pros and cons. First I’m going to look at the two opposite extremes of training each muscle group before giving my own preferred training frequency.
I want to make it clear that I’m looking only at training frequency as it applies to explicit mass gains and hypertrophy type goals. I’m not talking about athletes or strength per se (although the recommendations end up being fairly similar) but focusing only on muscle growth as an explicit end goal of training.
Three Times Per Week for Each Muscle Group
It’s often claimed that historically, bodybuilders trained every bodypart three times per week and there is certainly some indication that that is the case (especially in the pre-steroid era). Training systems that look a lot like the heavy/light/medium systems first advocated by Bill Starr and re-popularized in recent years by coaches such as Mark Rippetoe and Glenn Pendlay (as discussed in my article The 5X5 Program) seem to crop up fairly commonly when you look at the workouts of old time lifters.
It’s worth noting that many lifters of that era trained primarily for strength with size gains being more of a ‘side-effect’ of the training, rather than being such an explicit goal. Still, there is a point to be made that training for strength gains (plus sufficient food) tends to result in size gains. Whether or not they are a ‘side-effect’ or however you want to look at it doesn’t change the overall success of that approach: grow stronger and eat and you will grow.
More modern training systems such as Bryan Haycock’s Hypertrophy Specific Training are also based around that type of higher training frequency. I’m sure there are others.
Typical arguments for a higher frequency of training revolve around gene expression and keeping the genes involved in hypertrophy running more constantly by training at a higher frequency and, again, there is certainly some truth to that idea; arguments about the type course of increased protein synthesis often crop up as well. Typically full body workouts ranging from as few as three exercises per workout to as many as perhaps 8-10 depending on the specific implementation are performed with this type of training.
An additional potential benefit to a higher frequency of training, and this is especially true for beginning training, is that performing movements more frequently tends to improve motor learning. And since a majority of the adaptations that occur initially to training are neural in nature, the faster you can get through them adaptation, the sooner you can get into real growth.
However, outside of that one situation, I find that there are some major drawbacks to the idea of training full body three times per week for optimal growth. One of these is that once trainees start handling heavy loads, full body workouts can become incredibly difficult to complete: the loading used in exercises done early in the workout tend to severely limit what can be done later in the workout and something invariably suffers.
This is especially true if heavy leg training is done at the front of the workout: this often leaves about zero energy for the rest of the workout. And performing leg training last often means that it suffers. Back squatting heavily with a tired shoudler girdle after upper body training is problematic at best and dangerous at worst.
Additionally, there is at least some indication that there is an optimal training volume per muscle group (a topic I’ll cover in a later article) and achieving that volume in the context of a full body workout tends to become nearly impossible without the workout being several hours long.
So under most circumstances, I don’t find that hitting each muscle group three times per week is optimal for most trainees. It can be accomplished with proper cycling of intensity for the different bodyparts but since, in my experience, bodybuilders like to train hard pretty much all of the time, suggestions to do that often fall on deaf ears.
Blast Every Muscle Group Once Per Week
At the other extreme of training is the idea, that seems to have primarily developed as steroids started to enter the picture, that a muscle group should be blasted into oblivion once per week and then allowed to rest before training again. Many critics of higher frequency training will point to successful elite (read: drug using) bodybuilders who train that way. Or who at least claim to train that way.
Typically in this approach, one or perhaps two muscle groups would be chosen for a single workout with a fairly large volume of training (often 15-20 sets of 3-4 different exercises) performed for each. Hitting all of the angles, blitzing and bombing were all ideas that came out of this type of approach and generally the body is split across 4 or more workouts which each muscle group getting blasted once every 7 days.
Now, there is no denying that this approach seems to work at the elite level of bodybuilding. However, there are often a lot of other factors involved that people tend to ignore. The main one, of course, is drugs especially steroids (it’s no coincidence that this approach to training developed primarily as steroid use was starting to increase among bodybuilders).
People don’t like to hear it but anabolic steroids will generate muscle growth without training at all and, to a great degree, many elite bodybuilders seem to succeed in spite of their training rather than because of it. In that context, I know of several coaches who work with drug using bodybuilders and invariably growth is better with a higher frequency of training, even in the context of steroid use.
Another factor is that even if top level bodybuilders only hit every bodypart once per week after they have been training for 10 or more years, that’s usually not how they built the majority of their muscle mass (if their reports of what they did earlier in their career are accurate).
Basically, looking at the elite level of any sport and how they train after 15 years of training is usually a losing proposition, what they might be doing at the peak of their career and what they did to get there are often very different things indeed.
But of perhaps more relevance, outside of a small percentage of folks, I simply haven’t seen the majority of natural trainees grow optimally training in this fashion. Basically, it just doesn’t work for the majority in my experience (and in the experience of a lot of coaches I know). Sure, we can always look at the ‘big guys’ in the gym who are doing fine hitting everything once per week but the fact is that the majority of folks training that way aren’t usually growing well at all.
As well, for naturals, the lower frequency of training tends to lead people to do far too much volume at any given workout. As I mentioned above, there appears to be an optimal volume of training for each bodypart with both too little and too much volume being a problem. Naturals who do endless sets in a given workout (which is not only allowed but usually mandated by low frequency training) not only aren’t stimulating better growth, they end up cutting into their recovery with excessive volume.
Few bodyparts in my experience need more than two exercises (back is possibly an exception) in the first place and being able to do a zillion overlapping and redundant exercises is usually pointless for most trainees anyhow.
For the most part, I can’t think of any situation where I’d recommend only hitting a bodypart once per week for growth unless the goal was to simply maintain a given muscle group. And that’s usually in the context of a specialization cycle (a topic for another day) when other bodyparts are being trained more frequently.
One that I might mention (in a sarcastic way) would be for people who are addicted to being sore or exhausted from training. At least one of the reasons that I think people stick with low frequency training in the absence of good results is that they always get to walk out of the gym feeling like they have completely exhausted a given muscle group. As well, low frequency training tends to get people sore more consistently than a higher training frequency.
People who are more concerned with acute exhaustion or crippling soreness rather than actual progress may want to just keep on doing what they are doing….like I said, just a bit sarcastic.
Hit Each Muscle Group Between Every 5th Day and Twice Per Week
Which brings us to my preferred training frequency. Which, given my tendency to middle of the road types of recommendations for most things probably won’t surprise anybody at all. For most applications, for the average trainee, I think hitting each muscle group somewhere between twice per week or a minimum of every 5th day yields about optimal results. Which is best for a given individual depends on individual recovery and how often they can be in the gym.
Again, here I’m talking about an optimal training frequency for the majority of natural trainees. Again, as I noted above, I know of several coaches who work with steroid using bodybuilders who report better results with this type of training frequency.
Generally speaking, you might see this frequency of training implemented as some type of upper/lower split routine (which is the basis of my generic bulking routine) although there are many other workable options to achieve this training frequency per bodypart.
And it’s worth noting that a lot of successful training systems (whether strength or hypertrophy oriented) use this type of training frequency. Most powerlifting programs use a generic template with two upper body and two lower body workouts per week; although the exercises may differ on each day, there is generally sufficient overlap that each muscle group is being hit about twice per week.
Doggcrapp training, for example, uses a split of chest/shoulders/triceps/back for one workout and legs/arms for the other. The workouts are alternated on a three days per week program which means that each muscle group is being hit every 5 days.
To give you an idea of how this might be implemented weekly, I’ve shown how the two different training frequencies could be achieved in several different ways depending on the circumstances. Although, I’ve used an upper/lower body template in the example below, any type of approach that divided up the body into two different workouts would work just as well. I’ve also shown a higher weekly training frequency for people with that kind of flexibility and/or who want to be in the gym more often.
I’m also assuming that most people will train on the same days each week which I find is the most common pattern for people with a job, families, etc. Of course, people who can train different days each week can use other variations of the below approaches since they can vary the days of the week that they are in the gym.
Oh yeah, blank days would either be taken off or could be used for metabolic work (e.g. the type of thing I described in the article Cardio and Mass Gains).
| Day | Twice Per Week | Twice Per Week (No Weekend) | Higher Frequency* | Every 5th Day |
| Monday | Lower Body | Lower Body | Lower Body | |
| Tuesday | Upper Body | Chest/Back | ||
| Wednesday | Upper Body | Legs/Abs | Upper Body | |
| Thursday | Lower Body | Delts/Arms | ||
| Friday | Lower Body | Upper Body | Lower Body | |
| Saturday | Upper Body | Upper Body | ||
| Sunday | Lower Body | |||
| Monday | Lower Body | Lower Body | Upper Body | |
| Tuesday | Upper body | Chest/Back | ||
| Wednesday | Upper Body | Legs/Abs | Lower Body | |
| Thursday | Lower Body | Delts/Arms | ||
| Friday | Lower Body | Upper Body | Upper Body | |
| Saturday | Upper Body | Upper Body | ||
| Sunday | Lower Body |
* On the higher training frequency option, it’s important to keep the volumes of the split workouts (on Tue/Wed/Thu) down. Trainees who are prone to overdo it (you know who you are) probably shouldn’t use that option.
As you can see, all three of the first options hit each muscle group twice per week in varying combinations depending on the specifics. The first one gives better recovery during the week (since there’s a day off between several of the workouts) but not everybody can train weekends. That’s option two which is for folks who can recover from four weekly training sessions per week but can’t get to the gym on weekends.
Option three might be for someone who works late during the week and wants to keep the weekly workouts a bit shorter by splitting things up, but who has time to train for longer on the weekends. The last option shows how a once every 5th day frequency would be achieved, while also avoiding weekends. This tends to be good for folks with poorer recovery and/or who simply need or want more recovery between workouts.
Again, the workouts don’t have to be upper/lower, that just tends to be my default choice for a variety of reasons I’m not going to go into here. Any reasonable split can be used effectively in the above types of templates.
As you might imagine, I find that this type of training frequency tends to strike a balance between the other two extremes of frequency which is why I prefer it.
Since the body is split up a bit more compare to three full body workouts per week, individual workouts tend not to be quite so daunting with exercises early in the session not impacting as badly on later exercises.
And, as noted above, compared to the typical ‘hit everything once and then let it rest a week’, while soreness and acute exhaustion is lower, growth is almost invariably better. At the same time, the frequency is low enough that trainees can go pretty hard in the gym while still being able to recover by the time the next workout rolls around so that they can do it again, allowing them to make progressive strength gains. Which isn’t to say that I suggest going all out all the time but intensity cycling is another topic for another day.
Summing Up
So that’s a quick look at optimal training frequencies for muscle growth. For the most part, I find that the cons of full body training three times per week tends to offset any potential benefits in terms of gene expression or what have you.
And while it’s still common to emulate the training pattern of elite (read: drug using) bodybuilders and bomb and blast everything once per week, my experience (and that of many others) is simply that the majority of natural trainees (and even many drug users) simply don’t get optimal growth that way. This is one of those cases where the athletes seem to be succeeding in spite of the training rather than due to it.
Which brings us to my preferred training frequency for the majority of folks seeking optimal size gains: somewhere between once every 5th day and twice per week. I find that this yields about optimal results for most people (and recent research supports that recommendation anyhow), offsetting the cons of both the higher and lower training frequencies.
Lyle,
I work out Mon, Wed and Sat for weights with Sunday for cardio.
- I should use the “every 5th day” schedule, right?
- I can’t find your “generic bulking routine” in the site, can you point me to it?
Thanks,
JD
Santiago, Chile
Lyle,
I googled and found your routine. Supersets can be used in any of the lower/upper routines?
Thanks,
JD
Regarding your closing paragraphs: I can vouch for myself and others I have worked with that hitting everything every 4th to 5th day seems to be optimal.
I’ve taken guys who have been blasting themselves into the ground, training 6 days a week and spinning their wheels, then put them on a 3 day routine with less volume + higher frequency and you might as well call me Houdini.
Really nice article Lyle
Great article, Lyle. As always, thanks for the insight!
I’ve recently transitioned from a ‘blasting’ workout split to a 3x per week full body circuit… Lots of compound lifts with a few isolation exercises. I’ve experienced noticeable growth over the past 2 weeks, much of which I attribute to ‘newbie’ growth having recently drastically altered my training method.
Would you agree with the above statement, and what are your opinions on the expected rate of tapering off growth based on my changed direction.
PS – I am in a 200-300 caloric deficit eating plan… for what it’s worth.
Lyle,
I recently discovered your site through Martin Berkhan of LeanGains since I am a big supporter of intermittent fasting. I am a nutritional sciences major at the University of Delaware and hope to do research in the coming years, so the scientific approach to every article on this site is what really appealed to me.
With that said, I had recently read your article entitled “Muscle Gain Mistakes” and there you mentioned training a muscle once every 5 days for optimal results and I thought this was interesting since usually people online advocate the once a week style of training. Today I went on your site to reread that article and post a question asking you to explain that frequency more, and I saw this article on your main page! Talk about coincidence.
I do still have a quick question, however. What kind of volume do you think is best for doing two upper body and two lower body workouts a week? And for upper body, how would you split up the exercises in order to achieve this? It seems that working chest, shoulders, triceps, back, and biceps all on one day and then only hitting legs on a lower body day wouldn’t be the same volume or intensity for the days. Either that or legs would be hit really hard in comparison to upper body. What do you think?
Lyle,
Great article….I am curious to know how many reps/sets and all that good jazz would accompany this type of workout. I am finishing up HST (I loved it!) and I am about to start UD2.0., but I am looking for some new training schedule after my cut. Thanks!
Training frequency depends much on intensity and less on volume.
You can’t train body three times per week with 95-100% intensity.
In HST intensity varies from 50-60% to 90-100% at the end of each micro cycle.
In general I see lot of feelings in this article but not real science behind it, sorry
Juan: Yes, for a three day per week program, I’d use the alternating every 5th day approach. I often use alternating supersets in workouts if the gym will allow it.
Jarrod: I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking but, as JC points out, people who move from the blast it once/week thing to higher training frequencies usually start growing better. Nobody can say when you’ll stop seeing progress with it, just keep training and see what happens.
Tim: I’ll address volumes and exercise sequencing in a later article, too much to cover here.
Anatoly: Of course it depends on the intensity and volume of training. But in that there are both minimum volumes and intensities for optimal growth (and these change depending on training status), well…read the article again since I at least touched on both issues. I’ll provide more detail in a future article.
If you want some science though, I’d point you towards the Rhea meta-analyses or the giant Wernbom review on training and protein synthesis. Both of which support what I wrote in the article.
When it is said that protein synthesis can be completed in approx. 48 hours does this include sarcoplasmic factors or does it have it’s own specific time period for recovery?
really appreciate your answer, Lyle.
Thanks.
Guys!
For every detail on Lyle’s generic Bulking routine I found:
http://jcdfitness.com/2009/01/lyle-mcdonalds-bulking-routine/
Which even has a PDF file with FAQs answered by Lyle posts!
Regards,
JD
Hey Lyle,
What do you think of a 2 on 2 off upper/lower split so you train everything evenly at every 4th day.
So Monday: upper, Tuesday: lower, Wed/Thurs: off, Fri: upper, Sat: lower, Sun/Mon: off.
It requires more freedom in scheduling, but just curious if you thought this type of consistency was somehow advantageous as opposed to the every 3rd/4th day inconsistent recovery…
Thanks.
Hi Lyle,
Another really nice article here. I like your approach and explanations. I do have one question however.
I completely agree with the frequency of hitting bodyparts. But you see some guys only hitting one bodypart per week (Im talking beginners and others who havent done a full body x3 style workout before) yet they get great results. I know these people are probably few and far between but what is your explanation for these kinds of people? Genetics perhaps?
Thanks
Matt
Exceptions to a generality don’t disprove a generality and folks tend to focus on the ‘big guys’ in the gym. Who usually have some benefits that mere mortals lack, usually hormonal. The problem is that if you watch the majority in the gym training the same way, they get no gains.
You can’t ignore the 98% not getting results and focus on the 2% who do (numbers made up for illustration).
And I’m more interested in what will work for the grand majority than for the small minority. And in my experience, that of other coaches who’s opinonss I trust, and the research on the topic, the frequency discussed in this article (somewehre between twice/week to once every 5 days) works better than the lower frequency training.
You often also find that even folks with various advantages (hormonal, drugs, genetics) grow even better with the higher frequency. I know Dante Trudell of Doggcrapp has found that to be the case and I know some drug using pros used Bryan’s HST and grew far better compared to their old style of hit a bodypart once/week training.
Thanks for the (fast) response. I thought this would be the case. Its great hearing form someone of your experience on this subject.
What about a three days on a day off routine ?
The most I have ever grown was when I was doing a every other day routine. Essentially working out 4 times every 8 days. Too bad life gets in the way and scheduling usually gets messed up
For beginners and intermediate I saw best results with whole-body training three non-consecutive days per week(MON-WED-FRI). I think what is theorised by the people from HST is true, in particular for naturals.
As more advanced athlete still focused on hypertrophy you want perhaps a little more of a split for volume. The given examples are good, but I feel a 3-way split give even more benefit and the routines are less exhausting. I split Legs by themselves(Day1) Back, Biceps, Calfes(Day2) Shoulders, Triceps, abdominals(Day3) and train on Mon,Wed, Fri,Sat(Tue, Thu, Sun off). So within a 3-week cycle evrey bodypart(or group of muscles)
is trained on a different weekday.
I think your split sucks.
Elaborate on that please-if you will.
Not much of an arguement there-for me this split works quite well-it is my cycle of more volume-during winter I train either every other day a compact whole body workout which covers the very basic cleans, squats, front squats, deadlifts, rows…and some core work or a MON-WED-FRI as mentioned above splitting up upper and lower body, so everything is worked every 5th day. But the beforementioned split allows for more sets and exercises for one specific bodypart without endless hours in the gym-I am into this for some 22 years-a 6`1 lean 232 lbs. 565lbs. deadlift and a NATURAL so things that you find suck have already produced some results. Best regards.
Phil, given Martin Berkhan’s formula for maximum muscular potential (height in cm – 100 = max weight just about any natural body builder can expect in kg), you’re either 30% body fat (not quite lean) or lying about numbers/being natural. And given Martin himself fits to this rule and has a 600 lb deadlift at 6% body fat, I’d say something is exaggerated in your claim.
Just to make things easier for you, my reference:
http://www.leangains.com/2010/12/maximum-muscular-potential.html
Jess. Thanks for your comment. Well, I am not a bodybuilder-and certainly not as lean as a competitive bodybuilder- using a wrist-neck-hip-waist ratio calculator I am in the upper 10`s and I took a look at your reference site-well, it is rather estimation than scientifically proven what is possible to achieve naturally-considering genetics. I have seen some impressive muscular development in people who never trained at all, including family members- the given numbers are real, but again I don`t consider myself a bodybuilder per se.
What are your thoughts about inserting one week of training one muscle group per week between 3 weeks of training a group twice a week? Or doing the same with training a group three times per week?
By doing so, I believe we could “surprise” our muscles and not allow them do adapt to training the same way for too long…
Would you put deadlifts on the upper days or lower days?
Very interesting read. I used to train each muscle once per week, but I’m going to bump that up to twice per week. How does this split look to you folk?
Monday: Back, Biceps, Lats
Tuesday: Chest, Triceps, Abs
Wednesday: Legs, Shoulders, Traps
Thursday: Back, Biceps, Lats
Friday: Chest, Triceps, Abs
Saurday: Legs, Shoulders, Traps
Sunday: Off
So there’s a whole 72 hours between training the same muscles, which should be sufficient rest, right?
what the debate is about is which training frequency would induce more muscle development at the same weight gained? For example two guys gaining 20 pounds, one of them having gained more fat than the other.
First of all, thank you for all the great articles.
As for my own experience, I find three full-body workouts (hard-light-medium) or a four-day split routine (upper-lower) per week (mostly compound movements at 5-8 reps) to be the limit of what my body can stand in the long run. I prefer the three full-body workout option, because it takes less time overall, but even then I have to take care to make the middle day lighter in order to recover in time for the third weekly workout.
I have been lifting for over 20 years now. I have built up alot of size and strength. Was just curious to what you think of training a bodypart per workout. Like chest, shoulders, arms, back, legs…etc…
I train each muscle pretty close to 2x per week, with a very limited number of sets in each workout. I like doing rest pause sets as in DC training. So my set amount per workout per bodypart is 3 sets. sometimes only 2.
I’m in the gym 6x per week. just curious, i know you think the 2x per week per bodypart is optimum, but what about total days in the gym per week or does it matter. I realize, the more your in the gym, the more you have to adjust the volume.
I train one day per week. I squat and deadlift once every two weeks. The stronger you get the more recovery you need. I’ve been training for over 24 years. When I started out I went 3x per week making great gains squatting and deadlifting in the same week. Things started to stall so I cut back to two days per week squat one week deadlift the next. Things started to stall now I train 1x per week deadlifting and squatting once per month. Heavy squats and deadlifts will take it out of you. I lift on Tuesday evenings. You will make great gains if your body isn’t stressed out.