• Keep up to date with Ausbb via Twitter and Facebook. Please add us!
  • Join the Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.

    The Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum is dedicated to no nonsense muscle and strength building. If you need advice that works, you have come to the right place. This forum focuses on building strength and muscle using the basics. You will also find that the Ausbb- Australian Bodybuilding Forum stresses encouragement and respect. Trolls and name calling are not allowed here. No matter what your personal goals are, you will be given effective advice that produces results.

    Please consider registering. It takes 30 seconds, and will allow you to get the most out of the forum.

Optimal Training Frequency.

S

Stiffy

Guest
A topic which has been on my mind a lot is the optimal frequency of training, whether to work a muscle once a week, twice a week or however many times a week. While the instinctive training principle; listening to your body’s performance and recovery is important, there is still a need to take into account other factors such as work, family etc. Anyway, I found this article online and summarized its contents here:
Begin article extract.

First, let's define terms:
High Frequency: Training a specific movement or exercise three or more times per week.
Low frequency: Training a specific movement or exercise once a week or less.

Pros and Cons of High and Low Frequency Training
Pros of High Frequency Training.
· Delivers faster/better results.
· Builds neuromuscular coordination
· More practice is usually better
· High frequency allows one to build significant work capacity in that exercise
· Allows for more practice with heavy weight
· The body gets used to lifting heavy frequently, at least on certain exercises
· It works
· High frequency training seems to work well with female trainees or smaller, lighter lifters
Lifts that seem to respond favorably to high frequency: Olympic lifts, Bench press, Overhead press, High-bar squats, Bodyweight exercises, Sport-specific movements, Abs/core work, Forearms, Calves.

Cons of High Frequency Training.
· Higher rate of injury
· If you have any compensations or preexisting injuries, high frequency training can be a rough ride
· High frequency programs are harder to program
· It's harder to peak and/or taper on high frequency routines
· Once the body is used to higher frequency, you can feel a little lost when you get off that program
· Strength levels seem to fluctuate more on high frequency programs
· With high frequency training, gym maxes are similar to competition maxes
· It can be hard to focus on muscular balance and work on weak points
· High frequency training has a greater rate of burnout


Pros of Low Frequency Training
· Easier to build muscular balance
· Low frequency training has less risk of injury
· Lower frequency programs are generally easier to peak and/or taper
· It's easier to predict the rate of adaptation
· Strength levels seem to be more consistent with low frequency training
· Low frequency workouts tend to take less time
· Low frequency training promotes recovery
· Lifters seem to experience less burnout and are more consistent with low frequency training
· Lower to medium frequency does a better job of building muscle, particularly when total body growth is the goal, which helps explain why this system is popular with bodybuilders.
Lifts that seem to respond favorably to low frequency: Low bar squat, Deadlift, Good mornings, Most lat exercises, Biceps exercises.

Cons of Low Frequency Training
· Limited practice time
· As mentioned, the limited practice may not build neuromuscular coordination effectively
· Low frequency training may not provide maximal short-term results
· Low frequency training may not allow the lifter enough time to work on weak points, either muscular or as part of a specific movement.
 
"it is absolutely unclear which criteria one should use for selecting proper intervals between consecutive workouts"

Zatsiorsky - Science and Practice of Strength Training
 
This whole instinctive approach can lead to "pussiness" meaning an excuse to wimp out and not force the body to adapt, but also instinctive training can lead to over enthusiastic trainers training too much.
So does the solution become to follow the tried and tested programs and to take a long term approach.
 
So does the solution become to follow the tried and tested programs and to take a long term approach.

This is exactly the correct solution, if one lift is badly lagging you can run a short term hi volume programme to bring it up, but again use something tried and tested don't just wing it. 99% of people out there need structure and consistency. I think it is lack of these two elements that fuck up most trainees.
 
Why are people afraid of trial and error?
Just give different shit a try until you find a sweet spot and don't be scared to go to extremes
 
Why are people afraid of trial and error?
Just give different shit a try until you find a sweet spot and don't be scared to go to extremes

I somewhat agree with this, for someone that has some experience under his belt.
Don't just stick with the same routine, rep range, exercises, frequency, volume or intensity.
What urges your body to change, is change.
I'm not talking about beginners here.
 
Last edited:
Just to clarify, by "try different shit" I mean give it at least 12 weeks
Longer if you're more experienced

The worst that can happen is that your training didn't work so well and you don't get stronger over 12 weeks. The plus side of this is that you know that it doesn't work for you and you would have had to spend that 12 weeks trying it out to see if it worked at a later date anyway. EG box squats didn't do anything for my squat at all but really helped my deadlift. That's 10 weeks I spent not getting stronger in the squat but also a 10 week head start when I need to program something for my deadlift at a later date
 
Last edited:
How many times a muscle is exercised is dictated by ones ability to recover from one workout to the next.
Remembering that recovery still comes from one source regardless of the different activities you do throughout the week.

I think sleep is the most important supplement to recovery
 
I also believe a change in exercise modality makes life interesting but doesn't stimulate growth.

The thing that stimulates growth is is overload.
Sleep allows growth
Food maintains growth
 
Goosey, would you not also say that switching around your regime sometimes will lead to faster overload?
 
Goosey, would you not also say that switching around your regime sometimes will lead to faster overload?

Faster overload?
I think a change in "regime" can make exercise more interesting.
Especially if progress stagnates.

But i believe stagnation doesn't come from the muscle becoming accustomed to a certain movement or rep scheme or Cadence and such.

Especially when you consider a man will squat for a period of forty years.
 
Why does progress stagnate?
I don't believe that you can develop "tolerance" to an exercise or set and rep structure either but I think the reason for stagnation is failure to either increase volume, intensity or frequency
 
Stagnation is purely psychological
Mental rather than physical.

Degrees of Which is different for everyone and their understanding of weight training in general.
 
Why does progress stagnate?
I don't believe that you can develop "tolerance" to an exercise or set and rep structure either but I think the reason for stagnation is failure to either increase volume, intensity or frequency

0ni
Nothing irritates me more than some goose jumping from one protocol to another, praising the one there on while bagging the one they've done saying its useless.
 
Thank you gooby
Wasn't really suggesting fuckarounditis btw. Just having a training regime with it sensibly built in. My training for example just builds on volume over time in 4 week blocks. Eventually the only way to add volume will be for me to add training sessions; and then finally increasing the intensity of loading. Another example would be alternating 3 week blocks of high volume and high intensity. This is what I meant by manipulating these, not doing various different programs every 4 weeks lol
 
The act of stimulating muscle growth to maximum potential needs not to be complex, just brutal, intense and quick.

This is not easy to do over a protracted period
 
No because after a certain time you will not be able to give your body enough stress to force it to adapt
 
Top