How Often to Train?

Many beginner athletes, even with ready-made training programs, often face the question: how often to train to achieve the best results? To dispel all doubts and help you train correctly, we have prepared this article based on scientific research and the experience of successful athletes. Our team, the AnabolShop.org, will tell you how often you need to train to lose weight, gain muscle mass and increase strength.

Before we delve into the details, let’s clarify the basic concepts to avoid confusion and speak the same language:

• Frequency of training is the regularity of full-fledged training in the gym or at home. You can train one, two, three, four or even five times a week. Theoretically, you can train every day, but in this case, overtraining will most likely occur or you will simply stop progressing.

In this regard, the question of the optimal training frequency arises, that is, how often should you train so that the body responds most effectively to the load and improves athletic performance, such as strength, endurance and muscle mass.

The key problem in determining the optimal training frequency is to plan sessions in such a way that they occur at the peak of supercompensation. What is supercompensation?

• Supercompensation is a period when physical fitness, including strength, endurance and muscle mass, exceeds the initial level.

The concept of supercompensation includes many factors. For example, glycogen stores are restored within a few hours after training, but muscle cells damaged during training require about 2-3 days to fully recover. Thus, it is necessary to find a balance when determining the optimal training frequency.

It is also important to consider that the more intense and difficult the training, the more effective it is, but the more time it will take to recover and reach the supercompensation phase.

Optimal Training Frequency?

Even with a perfectly selected set of exercises, you will not be able to achieve success without the correct frequency of its implementation. Forget about training “by feel” - for progress you need a clear plan that determines not only the choice and sequence of exercises, but also the frequency of their repetition during the week. This is the only way you can build a truly competent training process.

If you do not want to delve into details, such as calculating training weights, the number of repetitions and the choice of exercises depending on your goal, then we recommend that you order an individual training program from a professional.

Now let’s move on to the main thing - determining the optimal frequency of training.

Infrequent Training

Unfortunately, infrequent training is a common problem among athletes, regardless of their level of training. As a rule, this is due to three main factors:

1. Family concerns that take up a lot of time (kindergarten, shopping, etc.).
2. Constant workload at work without days off or with minimal rest.
3. Banal laziness and unwillingness to train.

Thus, if you train less than twice a week, we can say that your training has become infrequent.

Infrequent training entails negative consequences, directly affecting your athletic performance. You will not be able to achieve progress, since training does not fall into the supercompensation phase. In most cases, infrequent training occurs in the third recovery phase, when your form has already returned to the original level, or, even worse, in the detraining phase, when your athletic performance begins to deteriorate. Naturally, with this approach, you should not expect an increase in muscle mass, strength or endurance.

Frequent Training

Excessively frequent training, regardless of the chosen program or sport, can lead to overtraining.

As you already know, the ideal option is to train at the peak of supercompensation. However, with too frequent visits, for example, to the gym, the body simply does not have time to recover from the previous workout. Therefore, if you like strength training and strive to train often (four or more times a week), you should choose split training, where each muscle group is worked out about once a week.

If you are a beginner, then training that involves the whole body in one session (full body) is suitable for you. But you cannot train with full body often, since it works all muscle groups in one workout, the difference is only in intensity (light, medium and heavy load).

In most cases, frequent training does not allow the body to fully recover - at best, only the first phase of recovery is achieved, when the body returns to the original level. This leads to the accumulation of fatigue (both muscular and nervous), and the first signs of overtraining appear:

• Loss of strength
• No desire to train
• Aching pain in muscles and joints

If you do not change your approach, the symptoms of overtraining will progress. As a result, you can lose the physical fitness you have gained, get injured, and also reduce your immunity, which can lead to an exacerbation of chronic diseases and acute respiratory viral infections.

Frequency of Training for Strength (Strength Indicators) Increase

To achieve significant growth in strength indicators, training should not be frequent, but very intense. On certain days, your work should reach 90-100% of your maximum, that is, you should work with maximum and near-maximum weights.

Strength training is significantly different from training aimed at muscle mass growth. The main differences are as follows:

1. Rest time between sets - always increased, usually 2-4 minutes.
2. The number of exercises for major muscle groups - limited, usually 2-3 exercises, no more.
3. The number of repetitions in the set - from 2 to 6.
4. Working weight - periodically reaches 85-100% of your maximum.

Naturally, such differences in the training process require different training frequencies.

If training for muscle mass growth can be carried out from 2 to 5 times a week, depending on the chosen program (full body or split), then strength training is usually carried out no more than 3 times a week.

Frequency of Training with an Emphasis on Muscle Growth

The peculiarity of training aimed at muscle growth is that an increase in strength inevitably leads to an increase in mass. That is why training aimed at increasing strength indicators, especially at the initial stage, also effectively contributes to muscle mass gain.

The frequency of training aimed at muscle mass growth depends on your level of training:

1. Beginners are recommended to have no more than 3 workouts per week to avoid overtraining.
2. Experienced athletes can train 3-4 times a week.
3. Advanced athletes can train 5 times a week, but with a competent distribution of the load on different muscle groups.

Let’s turn to scientific data to understand how the frequency of training affects muscle growth.

Experiment: the effect of training frequency on strength and muscle mass

In 2018, a study was conducted in which 23 athletes were randomly divided into two groups. The first group performed few exercises, but with a high volume (based on the split principle), and the second group performed many exercises, but with a lower volume for each muscle group. Both groups trained 5 days a week.

1. The first group performed 2 exercises in 5-10 working sets.
2. The second group performed 11 exercises, but only 1-2 working sets in each of them.

After 8 weeks of the study, it was found that both groups showed an increase in both strength and muscle mass. However, the group that trained more often showed slightly better results, and in the long term this gap would increase.

The full title of the study for those interested: 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.

It is interesting to note that athletes from the group with rare training of individual muscle groups more often complained of post-workout muscle pain (delayed onset muscle soreness), although their results were worse. This suggests that muscle pain is not always an indicator of training effectiveness and its absence does not mean that the training was less productive.

Results of other studies

Another study (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.) showed that in novice athletes, muscles respond better to stress and continue to grow for 2-3 days after training. In experienced athletes, this period is reduced to approximately 16 hours.

It is important to understand that all these scientific studies are advisory in nature and are not strict instructions. Eight weeks is not one or two years, and all these experiments do not take into account many factors, such as nutrition, recovery outside of training and the level of dedication in training. Therefore, the most important indicator is your well-being and, of course, positive dynamics in achieving your goals.

In addition, it should be remembered that some basic exercises (for example, deadlifts and squats with a barbell) involve a large number of muscle groups and at an intensity of 70-80% can cause severe fatigue. In such cases, daily training is out of the question.

When Losing Weight and Drying

The frequency of training when losing weight can vary depending on your specific goal. Some athletes need to “dry out”, that is, reduce the fat layer while maintaining muscle tone. Others, especially women, are more concerned with a slim figure.

Approach to training when drying muscles:

For athletes who want to dry muscles, the frequency of training should be determined based on their actual ability to go to the gym.

For example, as you already know from our article, for more effective weight loss it is better to separate cardio and strength training, in which case the number of workouts can reach 5-6 per week. But if you do not have the opportunity to go to the gym so often, then you can do 3 full strength training with cardio in one day. In this case, aerobic exercises should be done after strength exercises, otherwise you simply will not have enough strength for strength exercises due to glycogen depletion. But maintaining muscle tone is a priority when drying.

Overtraining and Steroids

If you feel a loss of strength during training, a deterioration in athletic performance, overall physical fitness, and even a loss of motivation, this may be due to overtraining. This is a condition when the load (emotional, psychological, or physical) exceeds the recovery capabilities of your body.

One way to prevent and treat overtraining is to reduce the frequency of training.

For example, if you usually train 3-4 times a week and suddenly feel that you have no strength, and no pre-workout complexes or extra sleep help, then we recommend increasing the rest time between workouts by 1-2 days. Sometimes this helps prevent the development of overtraining at an early stage.

What to do if overtraining is already at an advanced stage? The answer is simple - you need to take a break from the training process. Usually 2-3 weeks of rest is enough for the body to recover.

Features of training on a course of anabolic steroids:

Training on anabolic steroids differs from natural training in that it can be done more often and more intensively due to the accelerated recovery of the body.

Testosterone is a male sex hormone with a powerful anabolic effect. During strength training, under its influence, muscles and strength grow quickly. If you take steroids, then recovery occurs much faster, and you can train up to 5-6 times a week without fear of overtraining. This is why the advice and training schemes of professional bodybuilders are not suitable for “natural” people.

They cannot withstand the same volume of training as chemical bodybuilders. In addition, their systems are not ideal and work effectively only when taking anabolics.

Conclusion

So, to make sure you have no questions about the optimal training frequency, we have collected all the key information in the table below.

Table: Optimal Training Frequency

Don’t try to achieve all your goals at once. Pick two at most and stick to them. It is important to remember that some goals are incompatible, such as increasing muscle mass and losing weight at the same time. The best goals to combine are: muscle mass and strength, endurance and weight loss, muscle definition and endurance/weight loss.

Also remember that regardless of your training frequency, whether high or low, without proper nutrition and proper recovery of the body, it will be very difficult, and sometimes impossible, for you to achieve any sports goal.

Good anabolism to all!