Short and rare workouts: why they are effective and for whom they are suitable. Optimal training frequency and intensity Frequency of training per week for weight loss

The desire to find a beautiful and embossed body encourages a person to engage in strength training, but progress in the classroom is noticeable for everyone in different ways. One is enough to visit the gym twice or thrice a week to achieve excellent results. Others go to the gym with ease every day, looking and feeling great while doing it, even with the fact that most sources say that muscles need to be given time to recover. And if you want to achieve your goals in a short time, the question of the relevance of daily training comes to the fore.

The human body needs to rest. Otherwise, a state of overtraining will set in, when even the most perfectly matched training program will not bring results. The minimum recovery time is 24 hours. Twenty-four hours after a workout, the body becomes fully prepared for the next lesson.

This condition does not apply to everyone, but only affects the following groups of people:

• beginners, that is, those who have recently started training;
• age athletes who are already fifty years old or more;
• amateurs who do not plan to achieve any serious sporting goals.

The day between two workouts is necessary for the body to regenerate, enzymes to be produced, new muscle fibers to appear, and also to gain enough energy.

The maximum allowable time that a person can devote to training on simulators without rest is three days. A similar mode without interruption is only suitable for:

• actively pumping up the muscles of the arms, legs, back;
• professional athletes working with heavy weights.

These recommendations should not be taken as absolute truth. The body of each person is individual, so the specific period for recovery is determined along with experienced trainers and mentors, but when it comes to self-study, advice should not be neglected.

To increase the volume and relief of the muscles is a goal that is achieved only with a regular and continuous training cycle. Long breaks minimize effort, so rest breaks should be determined on a case-by-case basis. This does not mean that you can simply choose a specific time yourself, because there are rules that cannot be ignored.

The larger the muscle group, the longer it takes to recover, since it requires much more work and load. Therefore, workouts that combine small and large muscle groups are wrong. It is impossible, for example, to simultaneously pump legs with biceps and shoulders. This is due to the size of the first.

The legs account for about fifty percent of the total muscle mass of the whole body. And if you combine training lower extremities with other groups, this will not bring efficiency, since it will not be possible to work out either small or large muscles, since the load exerted will not be enough to pump in both directions. Such a large muscle group as the legs should be given a separate training day. In addition, it should be noted that they will need much more rest than the muscles of the hands.

Small muscle groups, which include shoulder girdle, biceps, triceps and others recover faster, so they can be trained more often. The shoulders, for example, are involved in pumping the pectoral muscles, which in no way contradicts the principle proper recovery after training.

People who have just started exercising may have less rest than more experienced gym mates. This is due to the curriculum itself. Experienced bodybuilders take heavy weights, perform complicated variations of exercises, and therefore the load that is placed on the muscles is much greater.

Beginners don't use their musculature to such an extent because they simply can't keep up with the pace. Absence maximum loads allows them to take much less time to rest, but only until they become experienced bodybuilders. Those who came to the gym recently after pumping large muscles can be restored from 1.5 to 2 days, and experienced ones - from 48 to 72 hours.

Takes much more time. Athletes with experience train intensively and intensively. They work at a pace that comes with experience, which greatly increases the burden on the body. To enhance the effectiveness of training, bodybuilders work out a certain part of the torso at a time, loading each to the maximum.

This principle of split allows you to allocate for individual muscles their own certain period and load them to the maximum. In addition, it gives you the opportunity to have a good rest for a whole week. Thus, it turns out that training for each group is repeated once a week, when they are fully restored.

This is another important point that must be taken into account. The optimal duration of the training should vary between 40-50 minutes. The exact time depends on the number of grids performed. For large muscle groups, they usually do 4-6 sets, and for small ones, 1-3 approaches.

Important points to remember

Arnie, one of the most outstanding bodybuilders in the world, never missed an opportunity to train, but devoted absolutely every free minute. Of course, to achieve this high level, he went quite a long way, which allowed him to train up to several times a day. Of course, you can follow in the footsteps of a famous bodybuilder, but do not forget that Arnie did not immediately become strong.

As a novice, he attended gym no more than two or three times a week. When his body got used to the stress, he increased the number of training days. Any other experienced athlete can do the same, but only when the muscles do not ache or hurt. In addition, one should take into account the moment that victories in competitions, fame and money became an excellent incentive for him to maintain his form.

In the world of professional bodybuilding, the competition is quite tough and every athlete strives to become better. This was the main reason that Arnie had to completely revise his training plan, increasing the intensity and frequency of classes. Some bodybuilders take steroids with proteins, which allow you to speed up recovery processes, as well as quickly adapt to increasing loads.

The key to the success of successful bodybuilders is that they are fully able to concentrate on training process and not be distracted. They can bring themselves to exhaustion even when they lift small weights, because they have a clear idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe result they want to achieve.

Another important point What absolutely all beginners should take into account is that without rest days they train intermittently, but only three or four weeks before the competition.

Training plan

If you are going to become the owner of a beautiful sculpted body, you must have a clear training scheme and follow this program.

Pumping a specific muscle group every seven days

It might look like this:

• Monday - chest;
• tuesday - back;
• Wednesday - rest;
• Thursday - legs;
• Friday - shoulders.

Rest on Saturday and Sunday. Thus, it turns out that only one large muscle is worked out during the week, and then it is restored over the next week. The main thing is that specific muscles are loaded on each day.

The load on the muscle should be maximum. Otherwise, the training day will be wasted, and this will slow down the development of pumping. You can't stress too much. A good balance must be struck in order to next lesson be fully restored and full of strength.

Torso pumping

It is carried out three times a week - Monday, Wednesday, Friday. The entire torso is loaded. The rest of the days are dedicated to rest. Such a training scheme creates a good load, but no stress. With a three-time training scheme for the entire torso, from 3 to 4 sets should be done for each muscle group within one session. In other words, the total number of approaches is 9-12.

Two day workout plan per week

On Monday and Thursday they pump the top, and on Tuesday and Friday - lower part torso. Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday are days off.

It turns out that each muscle group has a separate training day. This is an intermediate option between the first and second training scheme, which allows you to avoid both excessive and low loads.

The number of approaches for each category of exercises varies from 5 to 6. The pace is chosen moderate, which allows you to maintain frequency and volume without any extremes. The total number of sets per week is 10-12.

Bodybuilders most often resort to a training scheme in which a large muscle is worked out once a week, but this approach is not the most effective. This is especially true for those who are not used to working with large weight limits.

If it seems to many that such an attitude to this training plan does not reflect reality, you can compare this scheme with the one that involves loading twice a week, then total classes per year is 54 versus 102, respectively. Conclusions suggest themselves.

In other words, it turns out:

• workouts with a frequency of once a week are the least effective;
• classes three times a week are most suitable for beginner bodybuilders;
• training with a load on a muscle group twice a week can improve strength, get rid of excess body fat, gaining muscle mass.

Therefore, based on the above information, we can conclude that daily training for a specific muscle group will not give a result. Muscles are pumped best when they have time to recover.

When you make a training program, first of all, you need to decide on the first important point - regularity of training. How many times a week should you exercise?

I understand… this is quite a broad question. And the terms “exercise regularity” and “training regularity” can have a lot of different meanings.

Nevertheless, there are 3 values ​​that are worth paying attention to:

• General training frequency: How often do you need to do certain exercises (strength training, cardio, and so on)?
• Regularity strength training: How many times a week should you do strength training?
• Regularity of exercise individual groups muscles or body parts: How many times per week should you train each muscle group or body part?

The only thing we missed on this list is cardio training. This is a separate topic, which we will talk about a little later.

And now let's look at the 3 most important aspects in the regularity of training.

Overall training frequency

The first thing to decide is how many times a week we will do workouts. They can include strength training, cardio, and so on. All this applies to the regularity of classes in general.

This is one aspect that may vary depending on you and your goals (for example, fat man with an initial goal of losing weight may do 4 cardio workouts per week, while a lean person with an initial goal of gaining muscle mass may do no cardio at all).

Therefore, it is impossible to say exactly how many times a week you need to exercise.

However, there is one general rule which works for everyone.

And this is the rule: do least 1 day off from training.

It means that at the very least You can work out 6 times a week (and that includes strength training, cardio, and so on).

I am sure that among the readers of this article there is no such person who needs to work out 7 times a week and who will derive any advantages from this.

I will say more: most people will take 3-5 times a week as the norm, depending on their goals.

Why? Because not only is there no point in daily training to achieve your goals, on the contrary, it can lead to the opposite results.

Regularity of strength training

There are many individual characteristics that should be considered in the regularity of training in general. However, when it comes to strength training, the opposite is true. I can accurately name the regularity of strength training.

The frequency of strength training refers to how many times a week you need to do them.

Some people can do 5 workouts a week (although in most cases, they are not needed at all), some people can stop at two. However, for most people in most cases 3-4 strength training per week is enough.

I rely on most well-designed training programs that are designed for 3-4 workouts per week.

The same goes for the rule do not do more than 2 workouts in a row.

Regularity of exercises for individual muscle groups or body parts

And the last thing is the regularity of exercises for individual muscle groups or parts of the body.

Properly calculating the optimal frequency of training is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. It is necessary to do this depending on whether you are doing it to increase muscle mass or to lose weight. After all, glycogen is restored in just a few hours after a workout, and muscle structures need several days.

Theoretical information

For a person who trains for the sake of building muscle, it is advisable to carry out each subsequent workout during the supercompensation phase. The moment of its onset depends on the condition of the muscles and the intensity of the training. The stronger and more muscle the longer it takes them to recover. Therefore, the optimal frequency of training should be calculated very responsibly.

The phase of supercompensation, in most cases, occurs 6-7 days after the session. Therefore, theoretically, the frequency of strength training should not exceed 1 - 2 per week. It is on this regime that some experts insist.

However, other experienced athletes and coaches urge you to visit the gym literally every day. As evidence, they show their own results, assuring that it is possible to build muscle even if the frequency of training is high.

Having become acquainted with such conflicting information, a novice athlete may become confused. Therefore, it is advisable to consider how strength training and mass training programs are built in practice. It is important to remember that a high frequency of strength training can lead to overtraining.

Optimal frequency to ground

Having studied the theoretical recommendations regarding the construction of a training program, let's go directly to practice. Exercising once a week is ineffective, and exercising every day, you risk harming the body. Consider an option that will be safe and beneficial for a bodybuilder.

According to practitioners, the optimal frequency of mass training should be 3 to 4 times a week. Moreover, the athlete should train according to the split program, working out specific muscle groups every day. That is, in fact, the same muscles receive a load 1 - 2 times a week - directly in the supercompensation phase.

Optimal drying frequency

If you want not so much to build muscle as to emphasize relief and lose weight, it is permissible to train more often. The best option is 4 or 5 times a week. Some people can exercise every day - the main thing is not to overdo it and prevent overtraining.

A person who is solely interested in getting rid of excess weight, can be engaged almost daily, preferring aerobic exercise. Use cardio exercises, work with high intensity and light weights. The result will not keep you waiting!

If your goal is drying and creating a relief, once a week it is recommended to conduct strength training with a predominance of anaerobic exercises. Devote all other days to cardio loads. Thanks to this approach, you will lose less muscle mass, while getting rid of the fat layer that hides the relief. The frequency of training per week is often chosen individually, based on the capabilities and needs of the athlete.

What will unsettle you, or you just hit the ceiling. Training should be beneficial to the body, but not harmful, and for this the optimal frequency of training per week, a clear plan and schedule should be chosen. In this article, we will try to determine the optimal frequency of training per week for the best progress.

How often do you need to train for muscle growth?

Most experts say weight training shouldn't be done every day because it creates micro-tears. muscle fibers, and the muscles then need rest within 24-48 hours to repair themselves and become stronger. But in reality, it all depends on many factors, such as: gender, age, what weight you work out with, how you recover, whether you use additional drugs, etc. If we take into account general recommendations subject to all the rules of progress, then train each muscle group can be no more than 2 times a week and at least 1 time in two weeks! And then it all depends on the methodology you choose and on the correctly drawn up plan.

The optimal value here would be a range of 3-5 workouts per week, depending on the split you choose. Beginners are recommended to train 2 times a week (conditionally dividing the whole body in half). And for the more advanced and those who use pharmacology, you can train 6-12 times a week, i.e. do 2 workouts a day (strength + cardio). But again, everything depends not on quantity, but on quality, i.e. you should get bigger and stronger from every workout, but not vice versa, and for this you need to learn yourself and your body in order to (constantly) intelligently grow and achieve the effect of supercompensation.

How often should you exercise to lose weight?

- these are, first of all, questions, i.e. the total calorie content of food eaten per day should be lower than your daily costs. You must burn 300-500 more calories than you eat to lose weight. And the rate of weight loss should not exceed 1 kg per week, otherwise, along with fats, you will lose precious muscles.

Well, as for the question of the frequency of training, then for weight loss it is recommended to carry out them at least 3 times a week, these should be mainly low-intensity cardio workouts lasting about 1 hour. If you are training in gym, then after the power it is recommended to spend 30 minutes. cardio, which will give a significant fat burning effect .

How often can you do cardio workouts?

well suited for strengthening the heart, losing weight and relieving depression. brisk walking, swimming, aerobics, elliptical trainer or moderate pace cycling should not strain the muscles for too long (more than 60 minutes), otherwise it can lead to catabolism processes, i.e. muscle loss.

If you combine cardio and strength training, then for this approach it is recommended to do cardio training 3 times a week, taking into account 3 strength training sessions. If we talk about low-intensity cardio, then you can train up to 6-7 times a week, and for high intensity cardio spend no more than 3 days a week.

How often do stretching / stretching?

The frequency of classes is always determined by the intensity of the loads themselves, i.e. it all depends on what kind of stretching method you use (there are about 11 in total). If you use simple methods like passive and static stretching (the most popular in general), then the optimal frequency of training is daily training, and even more optimal is 2 times a day, but with less volume. For example, if you stretch daily for an hour, then switching to a 2-time one, you need to do a morning workout 30 minutes long and an evening workout 20 minutes or vice versa.

Stretch at least 2-3 times, and ideally train 5-7 times a week.

Day of rest

Give yourself at least one official day off a week from any physical activity and daily routine work. Such a day will only benefit not only your body, but will also allow you to relax mentally and emotionally. But if you want to make the day off more functional and spend it for the benefit of the body and body, then you can just take a walk, which is very useful for a person.

Frequency and volume of training are the 2 key parameters that most affect the growth of muscle mass and strength and improvement sports performance. We have compiled translations of 2 training frequency texts into this one for your convenience (and we also love to work out well).

Until recently, it was believed that a high-volume study of each muscle group once a week is optimal for mass gain. New research shows that spreading training volume over several sessions per week (i.e. increasing frequency) is more effective. Moreover, frequent training becomes a necessity as experience is gained. Why? Due to muscle protein synthesis.

Protein synthesis and hypertrophy

Today, most scientists associate muscle hypertrophy with the process of muscle protein synthesis (1). After a workout in which the muscles are under sufficient stress, the level of synthesis increases: the body assembles new proteins from amino acids, that is, new muscle tissue.

But the duration of the period of increased synthesis differs between beginners and experienced trainees. Research shows that for beginners, synthesis processes can last two days ; simply put, after each workout, they can grow 2-3 days (2).

Recent experiments, on the other hand, have found that in experienced athletes (accustomed to training loads), the growth period is reduced, reaching some 16 hours (3).

This is one of the main reasons for slowing down the rate of hypertrophy in trained people - and a reason to increase the frequency of visits to the gym. While a beginner can grow just fine by working a muscle group once a week, for an experienced lifter this is not far from the most effective strategy.

How Much Worse Is a Round Split: A 2018 Study of Experienced Athletes

Researchers (4) took 23 athletes of average fitness level. Their average result in the squat was ~165% of their own weight, and in the chest press ~130% of their body weight. The subjects were randomly divided into 2 groups: with a very high and very low frequency of training.

Both groups trained from Monday to Friday and did the same 11 exercises with the same load (70-80% of ) and the same number of sets (about 15 per muscle group per week) - until muscle failure. That is the volume and number of exercises in the groups were the same during the week.

The difference was this: low frequency group I did these exercises in split mode - each muscle group was trained once a week. And the high frequency group distributed the exercises in such a way as to load each muscle group in each workout.

In fact, it turned out that the group with a low frequency of loading in training performed only 2 exercises, but in 5-10 working approaches, and the group with a high frequency, on the contrary, did 11 exercises, but only in 1-2 approaches in each. Recall that the total number of approaches and exercises per week was the same.

Here's how the groups trained:

Left: The low frequency group did 2 exercises, but 5-10 sets each. And the group with high frequency did more exercise, but only 1-2 approaches in each.

And here are the results: both groups of participants gained strength and mass - without a statistically significant difference. However, if we consider the absolute figures, the high-frequency group still achieved more . Since the experiment lasted only 8 weeks, it can be assumed that in the long run the difference would be more noticeable.

Comparison of groups according to different indicators (from left to right): 1. Growth of dry muscle mass. 2. Increasing strength in the bench press. 3. Increasing strength in squats.

Another interesting discovery was that the low frequency group suffered much more from post-workout pain caused by infrequent high volume workouts, but the results showed slightly worse.

Thus, more significant microtrauma did not lead to greater hypertrophy. Namely, because of the pain many mistakenly prefer the split, believing microtrauma is an indicator of the quality of the workout. Because of this, they cannot work out a muscle group more than once a week, choosing the frequency according to sensations, that is, according to delusions = throwing.

Benefits of increased frequency

By working a muscle group more often, you will, of course, reduce the number of working approaches in each individual workout, but you will gradually increase the total volume over the week.

Let's say at the very beginning of your workouts you loaded your legs once a week, doing 8 sets of squats. After that, the muscles probably hurt for several days (but grew at the same time). When we gain experience and get used to the loads, anabolic reactions after the same workout can end the very next day. It is clear that the intensity of an advanced athlete will be much higher, but all the same, after a day, growth will already stop.

We divide the same volume into 2 workouts: 4 working sets of squats twice a week. Firstly, you will be able to train more intensively, recovering more easily after each session. Secondly, the leg muscles are worked out more often (and protein synthesis increases more often), and - which is also important for hypertrophy - you can vary the exercises, for example, in one workout 4 sets of squats, and in another 4 sets of leg presses. All this only contributes to a set of muscle mass.

How to increase the frequency correctly

Of course, it is necessary to increase the frequency wisely and in due time. If you have recently started training, then at least the first 4-6 months work according to the usual program.

When you gain experience and muscle growth slows down, increase the frequency gradually:

1. Do not immediately double the frequency of working out the muscles of the whole body. Go alternately, gradually adding a second workout for each muscle group. This way you reduce the risk of injury and do not impair recovery.
2. Reduce the volume of each workout, you can not just go and start doing the same 10 sets of squats twice a week. Divide this volume into 2 sessions and vary the exercises.
3. If you are recovering well, increase your total weekly volume in small increments by doing more work sets or further increasing the frequency.

In any case - no matter how experienced you are - always listen to your body and do not overwork. Muscle growth is stimulated training load, but largely depends on your recovery abilities. If you do too much (or too often), you will quickly overtrain.

Scientific sources:

1. Atherton, P. J., & Smith, K. (2012). Muscle protein synthesis in response to nutrition and exercise. The Journal of Physiology, 590(5), 1049-1057.

2. Phillips SM, Tipton KD, Aarsland A, Wolf SE, Wolfe RR. Mixed muscle protein synthesis and breakdown after resistance exercise in humans. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 273: E99–E107, 1997.
3. Tang, J. E., Perco, J. G., Moore, D. R., Wilkinson, S. B., & Phillips, S. M. (2008). Resistance training alters the response of fed state mixed muscle protein synthesis in young men. American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 294(1), R172-R178.

4. High-frequency resistance training is not more effective than low-frequency resistance training in increasing muscle mass and strength in well-trained men. Gomes GK, Franco CM, Nunes PRP, Orsatti FL. J Strength Cond Res. 2018 Feb 27. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000002559.