Training Frequency

[Rugby88]

I did a cut about 4 years ago - well it wasn't really a cut as such - I had just gotten out of a 3 1/2 year relationship and I wanted to get in the best possible condition to get my sexy time on - I was training each bodypart upto 4 times a week sometimes and then doing a cardio session pretty much everyday - so in total I was prob doing around 12-13 sessions a week (weights/cardio) - this got me in the best condition I have ever been in - for a natural lifter I don't think you can maintain it long term - this was over around 12-14 weeks....you can do it in phases but to keep the intensity up all the time there are points where you do need to drop the volume.

 

[0ni]

In my opinion
If you need to build muscle mass (most people need to pay attention here unless you're a top level athlete) you're better off on a split system with lots of bodybuilding assistance
A novice will be able to get away with full body 3x a week with plenty of body building assistance
After then a squat, bench, deadlift, press day works well 4x a week with squat=legs, bench=chest, deadlift=back/biceps and press=shoulders/triceps

When you are as muscular as you desire or at least have a decent base and people think you look jacked you will benefit from dropping the assistance work and bro split and gradually increasing the frequency and volume of the main lifts

 

[Darkoz]

When you get around to trying it 0ni let us know how you go

 

[Goosey]

When you get around to trying it 0ni let us know how you go

Shit, I love this joint sometimes

 

[steveP]

Maybe, maybe not. If your currently only training body parts once a week, you might be able to go to training them once every 6 days, then once every 5 days etc. Depends on how your body adapts, but you need to give it time for your body to adapt to the higher frequency.

But the more of those 48 hour increased protein synthesis periods you can get into, the more you will gain.

So really you're talking about training more?

I was trying to use examples where the level/volume of training remained the same, but the frequency would change.

It's like telling people to replace 40g of fat a day with 40g of carbs. Where in reality they're just eating less calories. By telling people to train more or in to increase activity level, it's not really a controlled comparison.

 

[jzpowahz]

Volume is the most important factor IMO. However, with equal volume (over say a week to keep it simple), the routine that stimulates MPS more frequently will be advantageous to growth.

So that could be the 5 day split doing 8-10 exercises per muscle group or something like a 3 day full body routine that does 3 exercises per muscle group.

Interesting study on volume equated frequency (mainly in regards to strength) here http://gregnuckols.com/2014/02/18/h...rch-on-highly-trained-norwegian-powerlifters/

I personally see so many people in the gym on a body part split that IMO are no where near advanced enough to warrant it e.g. doing legs day while squatting 60kg as a male.

On the topic of intensity, it is important to determine what you exactly mean by that. Some people say it is solely by a % of 1rm therefore a 90% or 1rm would be higher intensity than 80% but if you are doing singles at 90% it could be less intense than say 8 reps at 80%.