How Long Should You Wait to Train a Muscle Again? 

Hey All! - PATREON PAGE: patreon.com/HouseofHypertrophy - Link to Alpha Progression App: alphaprogression.com/HOUSEOFHYPERTROPHY - Link to FREE Bench Press E-Book: www.houseofhypertrophy.com/free-e-book/ 0:00 Intro 0:51 Part I: 24 Hours vs 48-72 Hours of Rest 2:45 Part II: Training Frequency Science 4:59 Part III: Fatigue & Recovery 8:16 Part IV: Summary

At this point I just listen to my body. My body gives me signs that I need to take it a little easier today, or if I can go hard.

I think the big take away is that if you’re worried about losing gains from extra rest periods, don’t be. It’s worth experimenting with.

I've been weight training for about 58 years now. "More is not better." and sometimes "Less is more." holds true in many instances. It seems the most neglected aspect of many physical fitness routines is the "Mind-Body" connection. When I train, I'm not listening to music, thinking what I have to do later ... my focus is exclusively on what I am doing and how I am doing it. Stay in the moment for a lifetime of quality fitness training. Just ran across this channel. Liked and Subscribed.

Those close frequencies only held me back. Not until I went to training every 72 hours did I start to put on serious muscle.

Right now I switched from daily to every other day training to training once every 4 days, as suggested by Mike Mentzer. This has brought amazing results for me. It’s nuts to think training less often brought better results but they did.

I wouldn't call the 24 hour group that. It was really the 24h-120h group. Because after the three consecutive days, they then had 5 days of rest.

This is quite literally the MOST underrated fitness channel on the whole YT. Good luck for the future!

Years ago, I used to train most days. Now, I only do about 2-3 days/week, but much more intensely with longer sessions. I notice more muscle growth for me with this second method.

ive never gotten good results via increased frequency. I am highly trained, meaning i have trained for years and years and am generally, seemingly , maxed out on strength for my build. But training more frequently does not seem to push me through to the next level in either size or strength. I personally think you inherently know, after years of working out what works for you. You will probably gravitate towards this style of training naturally.

Your channel is truly a gem and I hope you get the recognition you deserve one day.

I’ve been training since the mid nineties. My experience is genetics is everything and your training program will revolve around it. For the genetically blessed group, waiting 1 or 2 days between workouts is usually doable, unless lifting in a HIT fashion, which will require waiting the full 2 days. For the genetically average person, a 24 hour recovery period will be right on the edge, and after about the first year of training will probably not be enough. For the un-genetically blessed group, commonly referred to as hardgainers, then a minimum 3 days recovery time seems to work well. I fall somewhere between the average and hardgainer group, so I find working out every 3rd day works best for me, and full body workouts comprised of basic large muscle group movements have delivered the best results. Additionally, when doing small muscle group movements like biceps, triceps, and deltoids, go for movements that involve more muscle stretch, but use caution and stay away from the ones that over articulate your shoulder joints.

Wow this channel would in fact be a golden mine of research content for anyone doing their PhD. Congrats man

Thank you for all the stuff you do, HOH! 🙌 your efforts have helped many of us ❤

Great content, as usual. It would be great if the research community would perform recovery studies for those of us over 50 who still train hard. There are some studies of older populations but they focus more on gym activities for health and not bodybuilding.

Thank you for actually siting your studies. I don't see it very often and appreciate it.

I'm looking forward to the follow up video. Thanks for these, great stuff

I'm 43 and have been consistently lifting for about 25 years. Over the past few years, my work schedule has been four days on (12+ hours/day) four days off. I can't go to the gym on my work days so I lift on my days off. So I hit one muscle group every 8 days. I have never seen better results. I basically follow a HIT system nowadays. It works perfectly for my lifestyle.

I am a former athlete, and I have been into fitness since I was 9 years old. In my case, I only weight train 2 or 3 times a week since I do full body. I definitely need recovery or rest 48 hours or more. The body is very complex.

Does watching the ads verses skipping them help this channel - because this is a great channel!!

Another great breakdown of important training considerations

I wish there was more information from this study on the level of intensity they trained at. I've been following Mike mentzer's philosophy lately of pushing things really hard to failure, then pushing it a little more once failure is reached on the same set

Making sure that while in the gym each training session that you're doing he's done within 1 hour to 70 minutes, exercise selection, reps and tempo of each set performed should all be taken into account as it will be critical in your recovery for getting back into the gym. Coupled with nutrition plenty of rest and possibly some form of deep tissue massage will aid with the recovery process.

damn bro your videos are amazing, high quality and deep research. love it

So appreciate your work my brother!

Thanks. From now i will do full body workouts twice everyday. Gotta get that gain in.

I always usually take 1-2 day of rest after 1 day of working out and I do labor intensive work from Mon - Friday and one week I decided to work out everyday without rest to see if I could get bigger more quickly and I injured my shoulders and back I would say I overtrained and learned the hard way that REST is extremely important

great video as always

Super travail enrichissant et concret 💪 continue comme ça

Regardless of how long it takes others to recover, I discovered that with relatively hard chest workouts, my strength gains were quite minimal over a 6 week period with even 4 full days rest between chest workouts (PPL split); once decreasing frequency even further to a chest workout every 6 days, progress spiked. I am 59, so that may be a factor.

I’m approaching 76. I think that I will stay with 48 hours between full body workouts.

Great information. Thanks for this 😘

I was wondering about it recently! Thanks man.

It’s not the muscle that needs adequate recovery so much, it’s the nervous system. Once the CNS gets taxed you’re at risk of getting sick because it also compromises your lymphatic system. You’ll know your CNS is taxed when you are sleepy even after 8 hours of sleep. I remember getting sleepy in the middle of the day.

I do a full body workout every other day and I’m happy 🤷🏻‍♀️ Granted I’m not a body builder or anything I mainly do it for my mental health. It keeps me sane.

I'm really happy to hear this. I'm greasing the groove.

I think something important to note is that the 3 sessions per week still allowed 4 days of rest before returning to the 3 consecutive days of training. There are people who think that 24hrs rest and returning to the same muscle group will be fine even if you train it 7x/week, you will run into issues eventually

I've switched to full body a couple years ago and I started making tremendous gains. I don't know if it's my own bro science thoughts or not but I try to alternate which muscle heads I isolate during my routine, i.e. one day I do hammer curls for brachialis and the next barbell curls. Im not sure if it's placebo or not but it seems to help my recovery and fatigue when hitting the same muscle groups 4-5 times per week

Great video💪

I’d like to say whoever runs this channel does an exceptional job AND I notice their comments are always humble and willing to be critiqued without being defensive. So my deepest respect to the House of Hypertrophy. Thank you for adding QUALITY content and for always demonstrating a respectful attitude in your comments. Impressive!!!

I'm still convinced that intensity is the key and have always made the best gains from training every muscle directly once a week, 4 x 45-50 mins per week in the gym should be more than enough.Absolutely no point in doing for instance 20 sets per week for biceps and being in the gym for hours and hours, a couple of intense sets to failure will stimulate muscle growths and avoids you digging a deep hole you won't properly recover from anyway (let alone build some muscle on top of that). If you even think about training a muscle group, let's say chest, 3 times a week you are training nowhere near intense enough.

The problem is not the muscle recovery, but the joints, those take much longer to recover. So the muscle might be fine after 24 hr rest but the joints and connecting tissues need more time

Great video 👍

Great video.

I know everyone says good job for providing amazing content and this us more than true, but I feel like no one ever brings up that research that you present debunks common myths, pseudoscience, and even straight up lies. So thank you being one of the good, no BS fitness youtubers. You have nothing but my respect for your honest and integrity. Cheesey? Yes. True? Also yes.

So we’re supposed to apply this to our training with a study that was done for three weeks and a secondary that was done for seven weeks? And we’re supposed to take this seriously? What a joke.

Very interesting information, no BS and straight data.

Thank you for the great content! A couple thoughts for future videos… 1. How to train to get more flexible… the science behind how to stretch! I’m probably not the only guy that would like to look like JCVD and be able to do the splits! 2. How to improve your vertical jump… like the science of what makes you jump higher and how to program it… again, I’m probably not the only guy that would like to dunk a basketball! 3. How to train for the NFL combine… I was thinking how to improve your 225ld bench press and 40 yard dash time… two of the most popular tests! I know these topics are a little out of focus from the theme of the channel, but I think a lot of other viewers could be interested too! Regardless, keep up the great work!

I love working out every day. I wouldn't change, no matter what the science says. HOWEVER, it IS nice to know that I'm not screwing up too bad. Awesome video. I like this format. This stands out when your feed is Dr. Mike, Jonni, Greg and Geoffrey (etc.)

This was very uplifting to hear. I recently switched to training full body every day, only resting when my sport watch measures my ANS hasn't recharged. I thought I was leaving gains on the table, because of all the inaccurate brouhaha the fitness community keeps feeding me, but willingly made that trade, because it just fits me better to workout everyday. Another idea I have is that because I bully my muscles often, I will force an adaptation that allows me to recover faster, glad you covered that as well :D. I don't go hard on the muscles everyday, I cycle heavy, moderate and active recovery, for example, I never have 2 heavy sets for upper body on the same day. TL:DR people should pick the workout split that feels the best, you're more likely to be consistent if you like what you do! 😁

A well-made video well-deserving of a subscription

Really interesting, surprising & as usual well explained

olympic trainers in Russia will often workout everyday with compound movements, but very light weights, so in general it all depends how far from failure you are. So for example, if you can do 3 sets of 5 pull ups, go and do 3 sets of 2 pullups everyday or even twice a day. In 2 months you'll be hitting 10 pullups easily

I usually do twice a week out of convenience. Age, genetics and diet and intensity of workout play a huge part in this. The older you get, the more recovery you need. An absolute minimal is probably once a week if you go either really intense or have low goals. Most people will need twice a week to progress or maintain. If you are body building a muscle group for 3 or more days, you probably need your diet specialized, but if you do lighter workouts, everyday is fine. Let your body tell you how often you can train. You’ll know if you aren’t making or maintaining progress.

Great content as usual, do you have any video about the fascia in the context of weight training and hypertrophy

Awesome channel

Test on your own body. When I was in my teens, for a year I trained 6 days per week. Very little gains. Then I trained 3 days per week, gains! I'm an ectomorph with high metabolism. Now at 65 I take 48+ hours between workouts and I am gaining.

I think it all comes down to the individual and their programming of their split in regards to intensity and volume etc. You could train the same muscle everyday or once every 7-10 days and get equal results as so many variables to take into account

Nice channel

Literally what I been searching for

I can hear Mike Mentzer rolling in his grave.

Age matters. I now train low rep, low sets, high weight, with 3-5 days off between heavy training. My strength has increased more since stopping higher frequency training. My mass has also increased. I'm always stronger in the next session. I also take a week off of training to enjoy life, and return still stronger than before. My joy of training and quality of life has increased due to less time in the gym and with easier recovery. I suggest people stop thinking only about their muscles. Your nervous system and hormone levels (critical for natties like me) must also recover, and this takes longer when you get older.

Wow, starting really to get a following! Understandable from the quality or vids

Keep going, bro! Appreciate the content! Is there any study on people just doing compound lifts in order to achieve muscle growth and strength?

Full body workouts every day is most convenient method for me because of the following reasons, 1. I can do as little as 2-3 sets per muscle group per day. 2. It becomes an habit to lift just like how you brush, eat etc so that you won't be able to miss it. 3. Helps to achieve the overall training volume for the week with little effort everyday which compounds. 4. Helps you to get better at every lift because you do it day in and out. Neural and muscular co-ordination improves. 5. Muscle can adapt/recover quicker if you make it an habit to lift everyday.

Cool video, the only thing is that people in 24 h. group had extra recovery for 4 days and that's a LOT. Are there any studies that compare 24 hour style with 48-72 hour style while training non-stop (every day for 24 hour group and 3 days for 48 hour group)?

I was asking myself exactly that, couldn't go gym on Sunday because the street to the city was banned so I did a high rep light weight workout at home and then trained legs heavy yesterday. I was sore but actually felt more pumped and focused more on quality sets. Because of university I didn't go to the gym as frequently and instead did resistance band work and train the same bodypart the next day, my strength and size increased! So less total intensity and more total volume and frequency

Anecdotally, I've found that improvements on 1-3 MR's (Maximum Repetitions) every week were possible with a window of 4-6 recovery days in between to allow for supercompensation. When I tried to train with only 3 days in between, there was a 50/50 chance of no improvement, and after 7 days, signs of a loss in strength started to show.

I think it just depends on the muscle. I train my traps and lats 6 days a week and I'm fine, meanwhile if I train my chest everyday it starts to suffer. I think you could also get away with forearms and calves training every day since they recover quickly.

i train 3 days per week for each muscle group because of the strength gains it gives

I like to lift every day. Take a day off here and there.

Im 35 and I train Monday and Friday's Warm Up walking on Incline tredmill 5 mins of streatching then 4 sets of Pull Ups, Push Ups, Dips, Bodyweight Squat's. My job is extremely physical. I install granite countertops, floating Islands, vanities ect so this makes sense for me and the way I train.

I'm a huge proponent of full body. Some things to keep in mind. Some body parts heal faster and or are made up of many muscles. I like to pick a focus each day and add an extra set. If you're someone who goes hard, real hard be careful. Blue collar workers get jacked doing their jobs every day. Your buddy can handle it.

My anecdote is of course not data. But it does remind me of the extreme hypertrophy I experienced in my legs during my stints as a bike messenger. As an older individual who's had tendinitis diagnosed in the past and who climbs as a hobby, I look forward to the connective tissue discussions.

"Hypeeeeertrophy" LMAOO you say it soo funny 🤣

Training intensity is also an incredible important variable. After I started to lifting as heavy and with as much volume as I could tolerate in a day, resting longer has become more important to me. And I had to implement those changes to go back on progressing again

House of Hypertrophy, you hit the nail on the head here, about joint repair from training every 24 hours over 3 weeks. It is fairly self-evident that bones and torn tendons take about 8 weeks to repair themselves. Tendons and bones have something similar: a poor blood supply. This could explain the long time to repair injuries. This is why short-term 3-4 week studies on what is most effective for muscle growth are worthless. If the training stimulus cannot be sustained over the course of 8 weeks, or even 8 years, it's not going to result in growth, but rather injury. Bodybuilders must not only avoid joint tears, but also avoid overtraining. Some have speculated that if the muscle grows significantly faster than the strength of the tendons, this is also a setup for failure. From my own experience, high rep training leads to better joint recovery, say, in the 20-30 rep range. But 50-100 rep ranges seem to cause too much metabolic damage, and more joint problems, from whatever process, I cannot say. Furthermore, doing too much training in low rep ranges, say in the 5 rep range, over 2 months, then also leads to joint aches and pains. What I have found works best is to vary the training between 20-30 reps then back to 5 reps, then back to high reps, and avoid overtraining, and adding in rest weeks, to avoid training that eventually leads to joint problems. Lifting has many paradoxical problems. When I was too consistent, such as when I was about age 30, lifting 3 years straight, it led to joint pains that crept up on me that I did not notice because I was so strong. Eventually I tore a muscle with slightly bad form, but was it the form or was it a weakness that finally manifested from overtraining? Or was it a lack of minerals and poor diet?

wait, do you have same gains in the end with both? or do i get more gains from the daily workout?

This is a good video since it gives a clear summary. Some of your other videos have inconclusive summaries which make it harder to apply to programming. I would suggest trying to use this video as a model to provide clear summaries and conclusions.

Pretty sweet that taking a rest day is actually fine. We're on a 2 days on - one day off sort of thing, sometimes we need a second day off, though, we go hard with about 24 sets to failure in total.

Great informative video. Thank you.

Agreed with most of the comments of of the experienced lifters. The stronger you get over the years the more rest you need between workouts as it’s more intense on the body

48-72 hours sounds a lot. I've always heard 24-48 hours as the standard advice (typically 24h for small muscles like shoulders and 48h for bigger like quads). I guess they wanted to test two extreme cases to make the effects more visible. But maybe there was some optimal point in the middle.

This topic will go on and on.

Excellent ❤😮😊

Well, of course you can train the same muscle even e.g. 3 times per day, 7 days a week. That doesn't mean anything. All depends on the volume and intensity, body part, and how advanced lifter you are (when thinking about the gains). Fact is that your sets have to be "hard enough", say max 2-3 reps from failure, with good quality repetitions, and having enough volume (whatever that "enough" is). Only after those comes the frequency. And it depends on your gender, age, how advanced you are, nutrition, sleep/rest, stress etc. I can agree that calves you can train really hard/really often, but not your legs. So as a summary, it is not that simple as this video suggests.

I believe it's possible to train 6 days a week and have 1 rest day, as it was since the beginning. But that's only really possible if you are already a veteran in the gym. For newbies or for people who rarely exercise certain muscles, they may need to wait quite a few days or sometimes even a week to recover before targeting the same muscles again. And how you exercise them will also affect how long they take to recover.

What I have found, sometimes, is that if I'm working a muscle group out one day, and I'm not really feeling or out getting quite the workout I wanted, doing the same muscle group the next day, just not with as high a volume usually gets it done, maybe before working out whatever else I was planning on doing that day. It's like I'm getting that last little pump I couldn't quite get the day before.

Im not sure how and I dont know if i could prove it but I believe mindset and psychology plays a huge roll in things.

My personal suggestion and attitude towards training is quite simple. If i sore, I'm not recovered. If i'm OK next day even after brutal workoaut, I good to go (kinda). Basically it varies even for one individual not changing training variables (due to adaptations), not to mention differences between individuals.

I do bro splits (as a natural) and it's been working for me. I use to to train each muscle group more than once per week but didn't make as much progress surprisingly. Admittedly, my sleep isn't the best and I train martial arts regularly, so I have no idea if that impacts it or not

Good video , look forward to the connective tissue video , especially over 40-50 years old

3:37 That might not be due to the increased muscle mass but due to the neurological adaptation. They practiced more = they got better at bench press, squats, and rows. These are the exercises which require a pretty high level of skill compared to exercises performed on machines

if you train your legs " balls to the walls" i would like to see how you do the same after 24 or 48 hours. if you are new and lifting 5 kg then yeah you can train next day the same group

I’m 52 and train 5 times a week and have for about 5 years previously I was training 3 to 4 days a week and honestly I’ve had better gains since switching to the 5 day schedule and that’s at my age of 52 so a younger person probably would hav great results thank u

Depends on what you did the day before. If i had a hard training session like a ohp shoulder day ill take the next day off and come back to hit my back in 2 days .

MAJOR FLAW: 4 DAYS BREAK AFTER 3 CONSECUTIVE DAYS OF TRAINING

Amazing

I have a bad shoulder- it’s a defect where it gets aggravated with more frequent activity and gets better when I rest. I noticed that my biggest strength gains happened after I HAD to take a break due to shoulder pain.

I think this highly depends on the individual and how hard you push. If you go very close to failure I don't see how you can train the same exercise even twice a week with low volume, personally I don't recover and strength always goes down from doing 1 set close or to failure. Rotating exercises can make high frequency viable for me, but it also adds a degree of complexity that can be hard to manage as not all combinations of exercise rotations work.