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Same body part twice a week?

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feinburgrl

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I've been working out my body twice a week for a few years and have not seen any gain. So, I start to do it only once a week. Now that I'm bulking, do you think it's a good idea to go back to twice a week working out the same body part? First time doing a bulking cycle and always eat between 1k to 2k a day for over 10 years. Asking because I'm intaking over 3.5k calories a day now and thinking I will use that energy to build muscle faster.
 
You didn't get any bigger for the last 10 years because you weren't eating enough.
1-2 thousand calories is like breakfast and a snack for me. I wouldn't train the same body part too often. Especially chest back and legs. 3-4 days minimum between larger muscle groups. You won't grow if you are constantly breaking the muscle down and not giving time to recover and grow.
 
I think you can do it - but I wouldn't go out of my way to get all the body parts in 2x in a week. I generally train 5x/week (plus cardio & random abs/calves/yoga/whatever makes it 7 usually) - but depending on my split - its more important to get sufficient recovery - but also remember that even if you aren't focusing on that one bodypart, other larger muscle groups tend to work them. I'm thinking specifically of shoulders, bis & tris. I don't think its all that important to beat on these muscle groups because they will get some work w/ chest & back. ... if that makes sense.

What is the split you had in mind?
 
Just up the calories a bit more and continue to work each muscle once a week. Try this for a couple months and see what happens.
 
everyone should be working out each body part 2x a week. training a body part once every 7 days just about always results in far less than optimum gains in strength and/or increased muscle mass with the proper diet.
 
LAM said:
everyone should be working out each body part 2x a week. training a body part once every 7 days just about always results in far less than optimum gains in strength and/or increased muscle mass with the proper diet.
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Can you offer proof of this, or is it just your opinion? I only train each bodypart once a week and have for quite sometime, and I think my gains have been substantial.
 
LAM said:
everyone should be working out each body part 2x a week. training a body part once every 7 days just about always results in far less than optimum gains in strength and/or increased muscle mass with the proper diet.
Click to expand...

I don't have anything to back this statement up but speaking from experience I agree with it. In my earlier years of lifting (19-23 yrs old) I predominantly focused on training each muscle group once a week with satisfactory gains. After taking a couple of years off I came back at 26 years old and did the exact same lifts, exact same supplements, exact same diet only my splits now focused on training each major muscle group twice weekly and that is when I exploded. To this day (at 31 years old now) I still try to stimulate each major muscle group twice a week because of how impressed I was with this transition. Again, this is simply speaking from experience and I'm sure everyone is different
 
And I respect your input Captain, it's based on your experience. But was there a change in your diet, stress levels, ability to rest better? Maybe it was maturity that allowed you to handle changes in training better even though you didn't realize it. These are the variables that I think make the biggest impact in my opinion.

I to trained each bodypart twice weekly at one point. But as I've gotten older, even with optimum nutrition and rest, I can't do it anymore. My question to the poster above was to show that a blanket statement "everyone should train each bodypart twice a week" is not a good statement to make. A 20 year old newbie can do that, a 50 year old newbie, probably not. I don't like blanket statements, they more often then not are inaccurate.
 
CaptainNapalm said:
I don't have anything to back this statement up but speaking from experience I agree with it. In my earlier years of lifting (19-23 yrs old) I predominantly focused on training each muscle group once a week with satisfactory gains. After taking a couple of years off I came back at 26 years old and did the exact same lifts, exact same supplements, exact same diet only my splits now focused on training each major muscle group twice weekly and that is when I exploded. To this day (at 31 years old now) I still try to stimulate each major muscle group twice a week because of how impressed I was with this transition. Again, this is simply speaking from experience and I'm sure everyone is different
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Ok, that is from your experience, and yours alone, though. Not everyone is the same, so to say that "everyone should be working out each body part 2x a week" is a bold statement...

However, I'm jealous of you being able to do this because my body and schedule would never allow me to do this! haha
 
For some reason the site is down atm, but on bodyrecomposition.com Lyle has a great article detailing why you should hit each bodypart 2x a week.

I also saw a graph on TNATION in one of Thibs articles showing the advantages of training this way, let me see if I can find it.
 
ANIMALHOUSE said:
Ok, that is from your experience, and yours alone, though. Not everyone is the same, so to say that "everyone should be working out each body part 2x a week" is a bold statement...

However, I'm jealous of you being able to do this because my body and schedule would never allow me to do this! haha
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Totally agree with you. That's why I emphasized that this was my experience only.
 
Anabolic5150 said:
And I respect your input Captain, it's based on your experience. But was there a change in your diet, stress levels, ability to rest better? Maybe it was maturity that allowed you to handle changes in training better even though you didn't realize it. These are the variables that I think make the biggest impact in my opinion.

I to trained each bodypart twice weekly at one point. But as I've gotten older, even with optimum nutrition and rest, I can't do it anymore. My question to the poster above was to show that a blanket statement "everyone should train each bodypart twice a week" is not a good statement to make. A 20 year old newbie can do that, a 50 year old newbie, probably not. I don't like blanket statements, they more often then not are inaccurate.
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Obviously I wasn't the same person I was when I was younger, perhaps a bit less partying so I get what you're saying but I think with everything else I was on ball. Just to clarify, when I say I train each major muscle group twice weekly I still put in the same amount of sets for each major muscle group in a week, it's just that instead of doing 10 sets for chest in one session for example I will do 4-5 sets per session on separate days grouped with something else. But all of you are correct and I've heard this before that as we age moving to training each major muscle group once weekly is the prudent approach for most, I guess I haven't gotten there yet maybe.
 
for a young fit adult nearly all research and theory ive read suggests absolute beginners 3 times a week as they wont be using heavy enough weights to really throw there recovery abilities. nearly EVERYONE else though should be 2 times per week, there is lots of theory that backs that up firstly if you are natural increased protein muscle synthesis only last a maximum of 36 hours, thats the mechanism that new muscle is generated, the longer rest people use arent for muscle but the CNS can take much longer to recover. If someone is very advanced and they are lifting incredibly heavy weight then a full week of rest may be needed, but this isnt the average person who goes to the gym its a very small percentage of people that get to this stage.
 
^ I agree with this for a large portion of the population, but I also like what anabolic said about blanket statements. There are very few things that apply to all people without exception.
 
Some can train twice a week for the same bodypart, some once. Look at what Arthur Jones prescribed with Mike Mentzer, a bodypart hit what was it, every 9-11 days.
 
but the 2 stated are firstly very elite and not the majority like i was stating and secondly took a boat load of steroids which keeps you in an anabolic state for far longer.

thats not to say that once a week doesnt work it clearly does but its probably not optimal for most
 
dteller1 said:
but the 2 stated are firstly very elite and not the majority like i was stating and secondly took a boat load of steroids which keeps you in an anabolic state for far longer.

thats not to say that once a week doesnt work it clearly does but its probably not optimal for most
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And again, can you explain where your evidence that it is not optimal for most comes from. Again, this is a blanket statement and in my opinion is not based in any way on fact. Not trying to be a dick, just asking for you to back up such a bold statement.
 
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I think we can all agree on one thing: everyone responds to training frequencies differently. You have to find what works for you. So to the OP, don't be afraid to try it again. Only you can know if it works for you or not.

Personally, training a body part once a week is all my body could handle. I wish I could do more to make faster progress but my body tells me
nono.gif
 
i have provided you with some evidence its up to you whether you ignore it or not, studies show that protein synthesis the process of making new proteins only last 36 hours maximum after resistance training after this time it returns to baseline, so for 36 hours you are growing muscle, after that you are in a sort of anti catabolic state until you next hit the weights with that muscle

The time course for elevated muscle protein synthe... [Can J Appl Physiol. 1995] - PubMed result

http://rodrigoborges.com/pdf/forca_05.pdf

there are two studies and papers that show that, there are more but id be googling for a long time just type into google and you can find some, at the bottom of the second link on that paper it states that in there opinion that optimum frequency is two-three times per week per group for muscle gains
 
For every study that supports it, there is one that claims once a week is better. There are to many variables to say that one way is the best. The best training method, routine, frequency, is the one that works for you. I don't care what a study says, I care about the results I achieve from my training. I can't train a bodypart twice a week and grow because of my recovery ability. So now I have proven your study wrong through my own research. There is no one right way to do this, never has been, never will be. Do what works for you.
 
you asked for evidence and i gave you it, as soon as i do you say its rubbish, but like i said it works for the MAJORITY of people not everyone, if it doesn't work for you so be it. and you say there are studies that state once a week is better, care linking me? ive never seen a study supporting this, ive seen peoples opinions but never seen an actual study.
 
I never said it was rubbish, I said training is not a one size fits all program. If you prefer to train a bodypart twice weekly, do it. It's what works for you. And any study posted by either of us can be refuted by something else. Just because a "study" says something is best does not make it best for everyone. They don't take all the variables into play and many times test groups are selected as they will provide the best response to the test stimulus therefore backing the results the tester wants. I'm not gonna argue with you bro, I'm gonna continue to train once weekly for bodypart, you train however works best for you. That's what I'm getting at.
 
I don't even believe that IFBB pros train each group twice a week! My theory is, if you need to hit it twice in one week, you hit it like a bitch the first time! Haha.
 
hey animal house you never heard of ronnie coleman? he trained twice a week and i don't think he hit anything like a bitch
 
once a week or twice a week just like everything else in this sport it comes down to genetics and how fast YOUR body heals.
 
My larger muscle groups can only handle once every 5-6 days. Calves and abs I hit every 3rd day. I assume you guys that hit each bodypart twice a week scale back the volume a little bit? I can only imagine 30-40 sets of chest (or anything else) a week.
 
I scale back the volume quite a bit for twice a week, yes.
 
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