# muscle groups twice or once weekly



## barsnack (Mar 12, 2011)

Was getting some advice form guy who runs my gym who told me only work out each muscle group once per week.....then another guy butted in (who was a big guy) and said he agreed unless, then walked away....obviously he meant AAS....Anyway, is it a general rule

1 muscle per week natty

2 muscle per week allowed if on AAS

Or have I too much time to be asking silly questions on a Monday


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## 2004mark (Oct 26, 2013)

As with everything, there is always more than one way to skin a cat. Type of training would effect it massively... probably a bigger factor than assisted v natty,

Natty I'm training everything twice every 8-9 days on half body workouts... so training every 2-3 days


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## Dark sim (May 18, 2013)

Both methods work assisted or not


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## Ryhardcastle (Mar 13, 2015)

I'd say try abut of both. I usually do each muscle once per week but regularly throw in an extra session for arms / calves / delts etc.


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## Ultrasonic (Jul 13, 2004)

The usual suggestion is higher frequency is better natty, not the other way round. The argument is partly that when on gear you are more able to complete the higher volume of work required in a single workout for this approach to work. I'm natty and currently train whole body every other day BTW, there are lots of options regarding training frequency.

Generally I think far too many people use once a week training without giving at least twice a week training go, whether natty or assisted.


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## ZUKOSAURUS (Nov 23, 2014)

2 x a week natty.

1 x a week steroid.

I believe this is correct. Naturally the body will only rebuild muscle for 28 hours after you hit the muscle so twice a week makes sense.

On gear growth is more prolonged.


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## The-Real-Deal (Dec 5, 2014)

It all depends on your bodies recovery levels. If you feel recovered after two days then train on the 3rd, its person specific as is your routine intensity etc. Don't be pigeon holed. listen to your body. If you feel recovered enough to train then train. If not rest that extra day till you do. Its about building muscle not destroying it. You grow when your not in the gym. The lifting of weights is the stimuli for growth.


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## Ultrasonic (Jul 13, 2004)

Level of training experience is a big factor in determining optimal training frequency BTW, with less frequent training generally becoming a better idea when more experienced.


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## Ultrasonic (Jul 13, 2004)

Oh, and I believe that pre steroid era bodybuilders mostly used whole body training FWIW, with split routines becoming much more popular later on.


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## barsnack (Mar 12, 2011)

going to stick to twice aweek for each body part except legs....see how I get on....fancy a change up anyhow


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## Smitch (Dec 29, 2008)

I've done full body workouts 5 times a week at one point when i was strength training and it was working.

And that was squatting and deadlifting most sessions too.


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## barsnack (Mar 12, 2011)

Smitch said:


> I've done full body workouts 5 times a week at one point when i was strength training and it was working.
> 
> And that was squatting and deadlifting most sessions too.


is that why your walking funny in your Avi?


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## 2004mark (Oct 26, 2013)

barsnack said:


> is that why your walking funny in your Avi?


haha... I've always thought it was a walking stick in his hand until I just had a better look :lol:


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## Quinn92 (Jul 25, 2010)

Think it depends on a number of things. I was doing twice weekly, but I like to train quite high volume, drop sets, forced reps etc. etc. and twice a week was too much for me. Went back to once a week and I started putting more size on


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## BLUE(UK) (Jan 9, 2008)

100% natty, not no 5% stuff here...

very much depends on training volume.


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## IDntEvenLiftCuz (Feb 21, 2015)

Natty twice a week can be fine if you eat and rest right.

Not sure if I could myself training everything twice a week in the low rep range though, perhaps when I've trained for a bit longer, but for general hypertrophy I could.


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## Ultrasonic (Jul 13, 2004)

> Natty twice a week can be fine if you eat and rest right.
> 
> Not sure if I could myself training everything twice a week in the low rep range though, perhaps when I've trained for a bit longer, but for general hypertrophy I could.


The best option for most is probably one low rep workout and one higher rep workout.


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## nitrogen (Oct 25, 2007)

I mix things up, group different body parts, frequency , rep range, volume etc. I have trained 6 times a week for third week. Some body parts as often as 3/week.

Sometines I lift heavy sometimes moderate to light controlled. Never the same.


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## Frandeman (Mar 24, 2014)

Weak body parts sometimes twice a week... Calves traps abs


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## wylde99 (Feb 23, 2008)

Been working my Traps and Chest twice a week for a month and has made a big difference, although I have never been as low bf as I am now so my "Bigger Chest" may just be an Illusion.

Running Test and Var.


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## Arliquin (Sep 7, 2014)

Always trained body parts twice a week (occasionally more for legs) and had consistent results natty. Total weekly volume is probably the same as if you did once a week tho just spread over two sessions


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## Fortunatus (Apr 12, 2013)

I do a 5 day split, sometimes I go to the gym 10 days in a row others I miss day's I just train the next muscle on my list.

or if I want to focus on a particular muscle i.e calves I train those little twigs every day


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## barsnack (Mar 12, 2011)

full body workouts then?


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## GPRIM (Mar 21, 2011)

Muscle group twice weekly gave me good gains but I was much more consistent with my training doing a 6 day split and ultimately worked better for me.

Always hit a muscle group twice weekly for 8 weeks and then switch it around. Depends if you have a specific timeline to hit your goal.


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## bigjohnc (Apr 10, 2014)

It depends on a lot of factors not least of all CNS recovery.

the weight, the volume of reps and sets, are you training to failure? using drop sets? super sets etc?

Once a week works great but read up on the Smolov squat routine, that's crazy high volume that has you squatting 4 times per week.


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## HornyGoat (Jun 26, 2015)

Depends on an individuals recovery and personal choice.

If you know there's a certain muscle group that's not quite up to scratch with the rest of the body work it twice a week.

If you're fortunate enough to get to the gym 5/6 a week working everything twice shouldn't be a problem.


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## dtlv (Jul 24, 2009)

Several studies recently on this, and some actually using trained individuals with a good set up or realistic exercises suggest that if volume matched (in other words either doing say ten sets per bodypart once a week or five sets twice a week with similar reps and loading) that twice a week shows significantly better results for muscle hypertrophy.

The one question that the studies don't answer is what about if the once weekly condition uses more volume. Obviously volume increases and gains increases are not linear, and at some point super high volume actually becomes detrimental to gains, with the graph of volume vs gains being like an upside down U,,,, too little volume per session the danger of very high training frequency) and muscle gains aren't optimized, but also too much and they aren't either.

IMO the trick is finding the balance. For me, with all the routines I've tried over the years I think one thing that complicates it is that different muscles respond best to different amounts of volume and different frequencies, so any routine that has all muscles trained to the same frequency will always be better for some muscles than to others. For me though the best all-rounder is training everything roughly every 4 or 5 days depending on loading or volume at the time, so forgetting about routines that cycle over a calendar week.


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