rangers97

if you work out a body part twice per week and plan a schedule around that, will you force your body to adapt to that? For instance, i am gathering that a majority of people here work out a part once a week to make sure they are getting enough rest, etc., even I do that now, BUT, if we somehow change the routine to do a part twice a week, the body must adapt to this new stress no? All you hear is how the body is such a wonderfully adaptive machine, yadda yadda, surely it can adapt to the more frequent stress placed upon it, and in theory, wouldn't this lead to greater gains? If I do my chest on a Monday, sometimes I really believe that waiting 7 days is counter productive. I do also believe that working out like a madman 6 or 7 days a week is counterproductive as well, but I don't think it's because of the actual lifting, I think it is because we all have crazy lives and stress and that is why we can't do it, but I think in a purely stress free environment, you can work out like a madman each body part twice or maybe 3 times a week. So you need to factor in life's stresses and you come up with the standard "rest a body part for a full week before you work it again". In conclusion, I am not sold on the fact that you need a week to rest a muscle. Why is it a week? Who made that law? Why not 10 days or 15 days? Why 7? Because it fits in our busy life schedules and we are conformed to that, and I am convinced that is why the standard recommendation is once per week, since we are now basing our training on the calendar. for example, I screwed up my routine last week and wound up doing my shoulders on monday, wednesday, and friday for some reason. What happened? On Friday's workout, I did the most weight I have ever done on military presses and dumbbell presses. Today they feel good and I almost feel like I can hit them again. Remember, you dont need to be sore to have a good workout, in fact soreness is counterproductive I think. Last week also I hit my bis on monday and friday with a back workout on tuesday thrown in there for good measure, once again, top lifts on my bicep exercises on Friday. So what am I saying? If you can come up with an individualized routine to take into account your particular stresses in life, I believe each body part should be worked more than once in a week, how much is up to you, but the once a week rule I feel is just there because it is an easy method to follow, and makes sense when you fit it into your daily schedule.
thanks for reading, and this is my opinion, and I welcome "Friendly" debate about it

sabre81

i think different things work for different people, i find working a body part once a week works best for me. My old gym buddy however likes working muscles with more sets and more often. Now, i am beating him in the strength to bodyweight ratio, but i think that is based on the fact that im a bit more dedicated to the gym than he is. Who knows..

Squaggleboggin

I've thought about what you've said before, ranger, and I've often wondered the same thing. For example: If you were suddenly put in a situation where your body had to work hard every single day (such as in the military), wouldn't it eventually adapt? I think the answer is that it would. After all, the people in the military eventually get used to it, even though it may take a while. So I wonder how often you could put stress on your body... maybe every other day? Every day? Of course this will also depend on the type of exercise (I think you can do bodyweight exercises more often because they're less stressing for the most part), but I agree that you can put more stress on your body than weekly exercises. I just realized something, actually. Two years ago I got into working out. I did exercises every other day (benching, pull downs on a machine, and maybe a couple other things). Even though I now realize that the workout was pretty terrible as far as balance, I think I was actually stronger when I was doing it. Okay, so you're thinking I could've just been naturally stronger two years ago. Well, I was thirteen, so now that I think of it, perhaps I can do something to modify my workout so it's every other day... except it would take a long time to put all those exercises into one day, not to mention how draining of energy it is. Thanks for posting this though; you made me realize that perhaps I should just do one basic workout every other day rather than doing different body parts different days once a week.

TrojanMan60563

I typically do high volume workouts and used to only workout each bodypart once a week. I do my workout split like this.....back....chest/bi.....legs....shoulder/tri....day off....repeat.....this works great for me. So I don't plan my workouts around a 7 day week....I figure this works great because on chest days you use your shoulders and tris to a good degree....so there is a days rest before doing the shoulders/tris...so its like working each bodypart twice in a week....one direct workout...and one indirect workout....I think it that is the best workout plan I have ever used. It gives all muscles time to recoupe