# Training each body part twice a week



## Rekless (May 5, 2009)

I am reading more and more about people training each bodypart twice a week and finding it more effective?

How many people on here do this?

The seems to me people tend to go by the following;

Beginner: 3 x full body workout

Intermmediate: each body part 2 x per week

Advanced: each bodypart once per week


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## ink (Nov 29, 2010)

yeah I do this, chest shoulders,back and tri, legs and bi. and try and train 6 days a week if you can't then start where you left off.


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## NickC (Apr 6, 2010)

I think it comes down to that age old adage of try it and see. Everyone is different and what works for one person may not work for you.

For someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger training each bodypart for hours 3 times a week would result in massive muscle growth, for a lot of people it would constitute gross overtraining.

I would start at one bodypart per week, and maybe to shake it up when you get a bit more advanced try twice a week.

But I certainly wouldn't say that as you get more advanced you should train less, if anything you can train a bit more as most advanced bb'ers are on steroids which increase recuperature powers greatly.

But then again I have never trained more than once a week, and I have made great progress both off and on steroids.

I would say for most people, once a week is the safest bet to start on and go from there.

HTH


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## Sparkygator (Oct 11, 2010)

Personally, I try to train legs and chest twice a week, but tbh only if I have recovered enough from the previous session. These muscle groups because they are currently weak areas that I feel need the most effort. I find it disheartening to try and train the same muscle group a second time if not fully recovered. For example, I mullered my legs in an excellent session a couple of weeks ago and there was no way I was going to get a second session in that week (lucky I could walk the next day lol). I also have the luxury of being "in-between contracts" at the moment which enables me to put in 6 x 2 hours a week in the gym, which I could never do if working.


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## martin brown (Dec 31, 2008)

The problem is training more than once per week per part/movement requires more knowledge and thought rather than hammering something until you cant move it anymore.

Twice weekly can be very effective done right.

Everything can work when you know what you're doing


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## Dagman72 (Apr 2, 2009)

Sparkygator said:


> Personally, I try to train legs and chest twice a week, but tbh only if I have recovered enough from the previous session. These muscle groups because they are currently weak areas that I feel need the most effort. I find it disheartening to try and train the same muscle group a second time if not fully recovered. For example, I mullered my legs in an excellent session a couple of weeks ago and there was no way I was going to get a second session in that week (lucky I could walk the next day lol). I also have the luxury of being "in-between contracts" at the moment which enables me to put in 6 x 2 hours a week in the gym, which I could never do if working.


2 hours in the gym - what the hell you doing?


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## Jimmy1 (Aug 14, 2003)

martin brown said:


> The problem is training more than once per week per part/movement requires more knowledge and thought rather than hammering something until you cant move it anymore.
> 
> Twice weekly can be very effective done right.
> 
> Everything can work when you know what you're doing


this!!

its all good if you dont reach failure, hammer the food/sleep...and dont train your ego

your tri deca mashup super/dropset workout wont allow one to train more than every 6-10 days imo

good post


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## 3752 (Jan 7, 2005)

Sparkygator said:


> Personally, I try to train legs and chest twice a week, but tbh only if I have recovered enough from the previous session. These muscle groups because they are currently weak areas that I feel need the most effort. I find it disheartening to try and train the same muscle group a second time if not fully recovered. For example, I mullered my legs in an excellent session a couple of weeks ago and there was no way I was going to get a second session in that week (lucky I could walk the next day lol). I also have the luxury of being "in-between contracts" at the moment which enables me to put in 6 x 2 hours a week in the gym, which I could never do if working.


Using this method have your legs and chest responded and grown?

Recently I have switched over to 3 days a week push/pull, legs I have not grown better it allows me to hit it hard in the gym then rest to grow.....some might do a body part twice a week but how many actually noticeably grow?


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## ste08 (Jan 4, 2009)

Gotta agree with Pscarb here, im also training 3 days a week, one or two bodyparts each session and really hitting it hard and having more rest time.

I think if your able to train a bodypart twice per week, u must'nt of hit it hard enough the first time, i.e. i trained my back & traps on monday, come thursday i still had DOMS in my back, i wont be training back again now til wednsday. Im responding well to this, im less fatigued and have more motivation in the gym.


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## Nidge (Jan 22, 2007)

Rekless said:


> I am reading more and more about people training each bodypart twice a week and finding it more effective?
> 
> How many people on here do this?
> 
> ...


Before I got injured I did each bodypart twice a week and never had any problems, in fact I felt better for it and still had the pump on a weekend.

I'm getting back after Christmas so when the DOMS have worn off I'll b back to twice a week each bodypart.


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## 8103 (May 5, 2008)

martin brown said:


> The problem is training more than once per week per part/movement requires more knowledge and thought rather than hammering something until you cant move it anymore.
> 
> Twice weekly can be very effective done right.
> 
> Everything can work when you know what you're doing


Spot on

Don't just go to the gym and hammer a bodypart twice or three times a week, make sure there is method in the madness

I have had great results from squatting 3 times a week, though they are not all out sessions, 1 is light, 1 medium

Likewise with bench, I have benched 3 times a week with good results - the weights I used were carefully chosen percentages of my 1RM

If done right, you can get great results, but it's more complicated than just saying you'll train them twice or three times a week


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## Mr.Hench (Oct 4, 2009)

i do 3 times a week push pull legs. i think its good as it allows me to hit the bodypart hard rest then come next week im lifting heavier weights which equals growth


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## Craig660 (Dec 8, 2005)

2 x a week has always worked better for me


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## Fatstuff (Mar 2, 2010)

i train push/pull 3 times a week. a b a, b a b.


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## zoco (Nov 23, 2010)

I could train a bodypart 2 x a week if I limit the exercises to 1 or 2 for a bodypart.Everything else would be an overkill.


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## Rekless (May 5, 2009)

Some great posts in here.

has anybody ever tried having a heavy, low volume day and then a light high volume day?

Some thing like this...

Upper (power)

Lower (power)

Off

Push (hypertrophy)

Pull (hypertrophy)

Legs (hypertrophy)

Off


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## zoco (Nov 23, 2010)

Rekless said:


> Some great posts in here.
> 
> has anybody ever tried having a heavy, low volume day and then a light high volume day?
> 
> ...


My personal opinion is that you will be better with

Upper (power)

Lower (power)

Off

Upper (conditioning-50% of your 5RM)

Lower (conditioning-50% of your 5RM)

Off

Off


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## ink (Nov 29, 2010)

As said before I do train each muscle group twice a week but try and do 4 weeks of all out to fail and then 1-2 weeks of light sets add more weight for less sets and more reps,just keep hitting the body from all angles.


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## martin brown (Dec 31, 2008)

zoco said:


> My personal opinion is that you will be better with
> 
> Upper (power)
> 
> ...


Perhaps not for sheer size gains though.

I've been thinking of finding a guinea pig for a routine based on upper/lower with variation in intensity, volume, and load. I think it'd work well on maybe a ten day rotation - soley for size gains I mean (I am my own guniea pig for pure strength gains lol)


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## peter_360 (May 11, 2009)

will you be posting this routine ? would be intresting to try


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## Dazzaemm2k7 (Aug 10, 2010)

Rekless said:


> I am reading more and more about people training each bodypart twice a week and finding it more effective?
> 
> How many people on here do this?
> 
> ...


well you need to remember mate that everyones bodys are different and everyone responds to different things

so the only way to find out if training muscle groups twice per week will work for YOU is to DO IT.

nobody can tell you that training your chest (for example) twice per week will make it grow better.

Whatever you are thinking of trying, give it a go and see how you get on

i recently started training my delts and arms twice per week and they have responded very well to this.

Another point will be remember that just because your chest (for example) grows well by training it twice per week, DOESNT MEAN that all of your other muscles will grow better training them twice per week, so what you might find (through trial and error - as that is the only way you will find out) is that your chest, legs and back respond well to training twice per week but your shoulders and arms respond better to only being training once per week. So your training split might end up being = monday chest and back, tuesday legs, thursday chest and back, friday legs, saturday delts and arms.

so just need to do some trial and error and find out what works for your body

and another thing dont worry so much about what other people are doing and think to yourself "oh sh*t i should maybe be doing what they are doing" because as i said everybodys bodys are different and respond to different things so every body should have a unique training split (based on their body and how it responds)

You are an individual with unique muscles (unique as in nobody else on this planet has your exact muscles) so only YOU can tell YOU how to train your muscles (after you do some trial and error)

and it will(or usually takes) years and years before you find out what works best for your body so you just need to do a hell of a lot of trial and error to find out.

hope this helps


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## DB (Oct 31, 2003)

Done right it can work but in my opinion you need to have a rest every 6-8 weeks and have a rep day and heavy dayfor each part..

Even then when it came to legs or chest they were always still sore


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## Bigfella5 (Jul 7, 2010)

Monday - Lower body, focusing on hammys, calfs and adductors

Tuesday - Upper body, 2 chest, 2 back, 1 shoulders, 1 biceps (narrow grip pullups)

Wednesday - core conditioning

Thursday - Lower body, focusing on quads and calfs

Friday - Upper Body, 3 Back, 1 chest, 1 Triceps (Dips)

all exercises are 3-4 sets of either 15, 12, 10 or 8 depending on the period of my training

the exercises for upper body days are different depending on the day but still compound


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## 2004mark (Oct 26, 2013)

One thing that needs to be taken in to consideration is that there is nothing to say you have to base your plan on a 7 day week. Of course most do for convenience or the sake of getting in to a routine, but there would be nothing wrong with training each body part twice over say a 9 or 10 day period and then repeating, I'd obviously put your schedule out of sync with the days of the week, but it's not hard to remember what you did on your last workout and just follow on.

I generally stick to a push, pull, legs shoulders split each week, but will be doing my push tonight (which I also did on Monday) as I managed to get an extra session in this week.


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## 8103 (May 5, 2008)

martin brown said:


> Perhaps not for sheer size gains though.
> 
> I've been thinking of finding a guinea pig for a routine based on upper/lower with variation in intensity, volume, and load. I think it'd work well on maybe a ten day rotation - soley for size gains I mean (I am my own guniea pig for pure strength gains lol)


Can you expand? What were you thinking?


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