Can You Build A BIG CHEST By Working It 7 Days A Week?

Can you workout your chest everyday and make gains?

Today's Ask Lee Video Q & A question comes from one of my YouTube subscribers "Jan Marxen" and he asks...

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"Hey Lee! I have been trying to grow a bigger chest to make it propotional to my back (Im a rower) and since I have been working out for a short time only I started working chest EVERYDAY hoping it would grow fast. I have this fear of not getting the results if I have a day off the gym. Im skinny and tall and I have been spending 7 days a week in the gym for about 3 months.. I must say I can see some results but not the ones I expected.. Everyone has a different opinion about this muscle recovery.. If I sleep 8 hours and eat well can I train a certain muscle everyday with heavy weights? Im 1.87m tall and I weight 63kg.. Im trying to gain size and muscle mass but I also have this fear of getting fat and losing the abs I worked hard for.. What do I do!?"
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I can relate to what Jan is going through because I felt the same way when I started working out. I used to think that more was better, so the more often I worked out, the longer I worked out, the better gains I thought I was going to make... But unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Building muscle is a process that involves stimulating muscle growth (i.e. going to the gym and working out) and then you need to give your muscles time to rest, recover, and grow. If you skip any one of these steps than you'll shortchange your muscle gains.

It's hard for beginners to realize the importance of recovery and its impact on muscle growth. We're constantly bombarded with the "No Pain, No Gain" mantra. The media, movies, etc. constantly sensationalize guys working out and killing themselves in the gym and getting huge and jacked because of it. But they don't emphasis that those hardcore workouts need to be followed up with adequate rest and recovery in order to allow the muscles time to grow.

If you skip the recovery process than you'll end up breaking down your muscles faster then they can rebuild. When this happens you'll end up "over trained" and you could even lose some of the muscle that you have now. Not only that but over training breaks down your entire body and stresses your central nervous system. This can weaken your immune system, making you more susceptible to getting sick.

It generally takes 72 hours for a muscle to recover after training. So you should allow for at least that much recovery time between body part workouts. This means that you should train each major muscle group no more than twice per week. This will ensure that you are not short changing your results. It will allow your body go through the full process of stimulating muscle growth, and then giving the muscles time to rest, recover, and grow.

[screenname]

You can train everyday (you'll even get faster results ) however your volume and intesity have to be lowered significantly

[janmarxen]

Thanks a lot for your answer! Im now working my chest about 2 to 3 days a week and I must say I feel much better and I am gaining more size! Thanks again Lee and have a nice weekend!

[markmcford]

I workout 3 days a week, i left 48 hrs between workouts and i do a full body workout routine, and honestly it's work perfect for me.

[JuergenSpang]

Training a muscle group 2 times (upper limit 3 times) a week should be enough. If you want to build up your chest do a lot of pull-ups, too. Being able to retract and depress the shoulder blades and engage your lats is necessary to achieve a proper position on the bench while bench pressing and also while doing dips. Without a strong upper back your chest training will not be efficient. The things you don't see in the mirror are the key to success.

[thwonder]

the real question here is...why would you want to train chest seven days a week? Chicken legs for the win?

[BoyBlessing]

It's pretty much common sense that lifting something heavy everyday will results in faster gain than lifting something heavy 3x/week

[GrantHxClife]

I workout every day and feel great, getting good results. I'm 22, 175 cm, 175 lb. I go to the gym every day, one day upper body (about an hour) and next day legs and abs (about 30 minutes), and repeat. At the moment I'm doing hypertrophy training, I do every last set of every exercise until failure (including drop sets in many exercises), and I'll be lucky to feel muscle soreness the next day, in 48 hours I'm ready to go again. Working the chest (for example) 2 times a week isn't for me, I wouldn't be using my full potential if I did that.
Moral of the story, listen to your body and base your workouts on your own personal experience, no one knows you better than yourself.

[slatt]

I do a Monday chest, then Friday Chest, then a Tuesday chest, then start over again the next Monday. Monday, Friday, Tuesday Monday...etc.

[Advection]

I modified Lee's 12 week program for a slightly longer recovery. I now train every other day... which comes to 4 days a week on 1st week & 3 days a week on 2nd... repeat cycle.
Should be a good balance between his program and a 3 day split 1 muscle a week...

[SteveZ-ydem]

I can bench 405 for 3 reps! I train chest once every 6 days! Then after about 6 months I’ll train chest heavy on Monday, then light for the next 5 days straight. When I mean light I’ll rep 135 for 4 sets of 50 reps non stop. Then I’ll test it for 10 days straight. This is a plague breaker for me. Kinda weird but I do things out of the norm.

[SubZeroMGu]

I'm 28 years.. workout for about 3 and half years now ... atm im training monday chest+shoulder+tri tuesday back+biceps wednesday legs+abs thursday day off friday again chest+shoulder+tri saturday back+biceps and sunday another day off :)

[rscully]

This advise is incomplete. You need to advise what type of exercise the rest is from. In other words if you are not sore not much to recover from.

[elyjahtravis]

Do your research people, train your chest 7 days a week for 4 weeks and you will increase the number of nuclei in your muscles... that means more gains, our bodies are built to adapt to our surroundings. If you are benching everyday, itll find a way to make it easier

[mattczerwik]

Lol who ever disliked this video should pls stop trolling. This is the best informative video for anyone that does work out 7 days a week because it'll help that person. Lee I use your workout app and follow your advanced workout for over one year experience and I love the routine that you set up, four days a week and one off in between. I have been doing it for about a month now and love it. Will you be adding anymore advanced workouts to the app soon?

[HelgaLeen]

Totally true, I am all about hormones and this Cortisole get on top while working out and it is a cathabolic hormone, meaning it is breaking down your body to some extent. It stays in the samt top level for two hours after finished workout and the level goes down to normal after 24 hours, and THEN the recovery can start. Lots of other "bad-ass" hormones to consider, but this Cortisol is really good to keep an eye on, kind of :-)
And Lee, I would really like a Tshirt like yours !!!! Thanks for being there for all of us, you are the best!

[BigRed]

If your on the juice you can train chest everyday

[rdbr]

Lee, I've heard a lot about the stress in the nervous central system while doing large compound exercises such as squads and dead lifts. I understand the emotional stress as these exercises demand a lot of effort, but could please better explain how does that work and what are the pros and cons. Thanks, Renato

[texican]

+Lee Hayward what if the muscle group wasn't sore next day? Could I still work it out?

[davidjenson]

Listening to you makes me think you should be a dj. You have a voice for radio. Interesting video, though. I was just watching another guy talking about ballerinas and how they train every day for up to four hours a day, and they have massive calves. So, I'm not sure what to believe. But, I enjoyed listening to your advice. :)

[dylandesmond]

I eat once a day train on an empty stomach and train the same muscles ever day to failure...i never get sick i sleep 4-5hrs per day...i eat vegan with occasional salmon... im the strongest fastest worker at my job of 300 people...i don't take supplements