How Often Should You Train a Muscle? - This NEW Study Is Epic

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:08 Part I: The New Data
9:28 Part II: What Should You Do?

Beats:
2) Home - Hold

References:

[HouseofHypertrophy]

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:08 Part I: The New Data
9:28 Part II: What Should You Do?

[officialftblu_]

A new study came out, Time to change all my life around

[tragicevans]

The best split training frequency is the one you can consistently do and execute right now.

[TheFriApp]

Hulk Hogan found the secret years ago, he would train once in the US, then fly across the international date line to Japan, train again, then wrestle. That way he could train 400 days a year, and still manage recovery. Takes a lot of prayers and vitamins to maintain that schedule brother!

[VNU]

Gonna try my 625 shoulder press sets in 1 day for the whole next year. I'll keep you posted 😜

[BasedChadman]

2x a week per muscle group while hammering the shit out of them and training beyond failure with partials to ensure I feel beat up the next day is what made me start seeing noticeable growth again

Base your training on how long it takes to recover and the training style that fits your schedule and habits

[blazinchalice]

This is the kind of content that I keep coming back for: real research, real answers, delivered clearly and succinctly

[SummersSnaps]

My experience as a natty and steroid user was this;

Everything comes down to recovery. It is very difficult for most individuals to make progress EVERYWHERE on the body, on an ongoing basis. When trying to hit calves, quads, biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, abs and back, every week, with sufficient effort for stimulus... the result in gains are SLOOWW....
I recall decided at one time that my quads were really falling behind. I made the decision to squat 3x/week (20 rep squats). All other muscle groups were trained at a 1x/week frequency but the intensity was very low, we're talking nowhere near failure, whereas the effort poured into the squatting was absolutely maximum. I did this for about 3 months and the results were staggering. My upper body and limbs remained whilst my quads indeed caught up (to the point I was actually being complimented on them).
The lesson here, at least for me (and I think countless others), is that it is extremely difficult to make the entire body grow together, at once. Sometimes you need some specialisation, a deliberate reduction in intensity and cruising on some muscles in order to leave reserves for adaptation to occur.
As a PT I met many interesting individuals, one guy in particular stuck in my head. All he liked to do was bench and curl, he did it frequently, and he was strong and big (as a natural benching 3 plates aside). He also had an impressive back despite never really doing any chins or rows. He was not even weak in the legs either, basically he was gifted genetically. But the question remains, how can someone get such a well developed back, quads etc, when really never directly or indirectly training them? I would argue adaptation can occur more widespread than we think, and the necessity to train all muscle groups with the same attention is probably a flawed way to go about things. Choose 1-2 exercises only, do them 3-4x/week, watch what happens...

[CLONisKING]

I have been stalling in my progression for some years and it really demotivated me. Reducing frequency was the key. I trained most muscle groups 3 times per week and usually I just got worse with every workout. Now I just have 1 direct and one indirect session for my upper body muscles and I finally see some progression again. after 4 years of not going anywhere. And I have to say not feeling totally fatigued when going to the gym really brought back the fun.

[AngelRodriguez-dzyd]

70 sets of Triceps on Monday, not for hypertrophy, but to impress Stacey.

[ozzy]

Recovery is a problem when you're old (63) & down to your last thimble-full of testosterone. I had to adjust my upper/lower split to 3 workouts per week instead of 4 because I wasn't recovering properly between workouts. It meant I only trained the whole body 3 times per fortnight but it did the trick. So age is also a factor in recovery & frequency.

[peterscott]

Wide bars may indicate large individual differences. When I tried once/week I was brutally sore and made no progress, I made best progress with 3/week and nice to not get brutally sore.

[nemonucliosis]

Until the next study comes out next year 👍

[drmarkp]

.. Two caveats to this analysis; 1) Quality Vs. quantity will profoundly affect the end result. Limiting the number of sets for the sake of spreading out frequency over multiple times per week will in effect; affect intensity. Volume in of itself is in fact also a factor toward building up to an optimal threshold of intensity. The concept of dividing sessions for each muscle group into more than one session per week is self limiting because certain amount of volume combined with high intensity is necessary to achieve optimal growth stimulus. The indirect effect of compound movements on other training days therefore adequately compensate for the arguable need for additional frequency when training a target muscle once per week 2) An advanced individual is capable of moving heavier loads than a beginner therefore the total tonnage for the week will be much heavier thus creating greater inroads toward recovery .. These studies were probably performed on individuals who had not been training for very long, so these studies cannot be applied across the board for all individuals depending on the level they are at and the said variables .. And that's just coming from years in the trenches in an effort to almost impossibly put more muscle on to this mediocre genetics frame

[dougnulton]

House of However 😂
Appreciate your work, bro.

[jonathane]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but this says frequency doesn’t matter much when total volume is equal. With muscles taking around 72 hours to recover, I don’t see why this doesn’t support hitting each muscle group twice per week. Because realistically you’re not going to be doing DOUBLE the volume hitting a muscle once per week, so it just stands to reason that twice per week per muscle group makes the most sense if you have the time for it.

[omdc]

I've been lifting and reading exercise articles for 38 yrs. I train full-body 3 x week, 1 exercise/bodypart, 5 sets/ exercise @ roughly 60+% of 1RM w/1 min rest between sets. It's a good solid pace with appropriately difficult weight. I have minor soreness the next day.

I think consistently training to failure is mentally unsustainable and will lead to dreading the gym.

[hawaiidispenser]

No studies matter more than pushing yourself hard, tracking your progress, and being consistent.

[TheDonJaro]

Just listen to your body people. Muscle soreness/fatigue should be your own natural indicator whether you are doing too much or too little.

[tkillen]

I switched back to bro splits after doing upper/lower for years. Bro splits are better, I got thicker, recovery is a million times better, I didn’t lose strength either, I like focusing on 1-2 muscles per workout sesh