The Optimal Number of Times to Work Out a Body Part Each Week 

It all comes to WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU because we are all different. For example when I tested the 2-3 days per week I was always becoming weaker and smaller. In my case the Bro split works for the best for muscle building. I have a friend that is working full body 4 times/week and having great gains. So it all depends.... and only YOUR body can show how it responds best by testing things out.

I use to love 2x a week but now I’ve been training for a few years I seriously believe 1x per week is better for me. I feel better and not as fatigued

As a person who has tried every split and the bro split performing 12 hard sets a week worked best for me. Everything is always recovered and you give each session your all. Studies have even come out where as long as the volume is the same, the spit does not matter in the long run.

Just found this podcast and am loving it. Bringing questions we all have to the forefront...FINALLY. Adding to my daily viewing rotation immediately. \m/

Been watching the channel and learning a ton thanks!

I just love these videos so much. Questions that anybody who trains, have. Especially newbie to early intermediate. Thx fellas

Best video on training practice. Thank you!

Love this channel, best information for the average guy starting to work out.

Each person is different, you need to find out what works best for you!

Guys thank you , outstanding information you all shared in the video..Thank you again..

Great stuff, love you guys

These podcasts are pure gold.

This gotta be the PERFECT podcast. Yall dont miss fr.

Training my whole life and they are on point. Wasn't really mentioned but time constraints is a factor. So busy week maybe 2 and an easier week get in 3 or 4. Great conversation.

This podcast is awesome!!!!

Thoroughly enjoy the content of the show. This is a hard question to answer as everyone is working for a different outcome. Size/Athleticism/Functional/Strength all have different types of programing that work best for that specific outcome.

MWF - Chest Shoulder Tricep Calves. TTHS - Back Bicep Legs 6 sets per muscle group per day. Total of 18 sets per muscle group per week. Works for me.

Personal experience, once per week, gives tendons a better chance for next week, 5 sets of 4 exercises of 8-12 reps. 65-75% of 1RM. Rest up to 5 min mostly compound. Worked like magic results comes in recovery.

Firas Zahabi on Joe Rogan has a brilliant approach to this, which is to exercise every day but at lower intensity. The cumulative volume is MORE when doing this AND it’s more fun, with less chance of injury. Highly recommended podcast.

Great video thanks 👍

I've been working out with weights 42 yrs. I'm 57 and too many workouts a week causes inflammation thus makes my arthritis worse.

Really valuable!

Thanks you!

I always cycle between three main workout each year every 6-9 weeks. Hypertrophy: 9 weeks Chest/Back, Legs, Shoulders/Arms Strength: 5 x 5(9 weeks) Sometimes...I only do this 3 weeks. Pure fun(Full Body)(9 weeks) Repeat

I've always preferred split routines cause I enjoy looking forward to doing different muscles each day at the gym. But I got good results when I did a push, pull, legs 2x a week. Then I went back to a chest, tri/ Back, bi/ Legs, shoulders/ arms routine cause I liked it but quickly hit a plateau again. I like the gym, I've found 5 days a week the sweet spot and have had great results going to an upper/ lower split. Upper 3 days, lower 2 days. And then I go hiking or biking a day on the weekend which gets my legs. Funny is I typically trained my clients 3 days a week and did full body workouts but not myself!

Great informative discussion. We need more of this on RU-vid!

Haha. This is the same thing I tell my chemistry students. Spread your studying out in 4-5 times a week rather than one long session once a week. Brain works like other muscles. Better performance with frequent repetition.

Definitely beneficial to spread volume over the week to avoid junk volume, I agree.

Yeah I’m getting 100 pound adjustable dumbbells and I’m going split up my exercises to 5 days a week to better focus on intensity for each body part (chest, back, legs, arms, shoulders)

I do one body part, once per week. But everyone has been telling me twice per week per body part. So I'm going to do the push-pull workout for a few weeks. Chest/upper back, Shoulders/lats. Legs/abs. I will also train my arms when doing an upper body workout when it's my day off work. Which will help work out fit into my daily routine.

I keep my workouts at an hour. That's on a split workout. Monday legs (4-5 sets). Tuesday back & biceps (4-5) sets. Wednesday shoulders & triceps (4-5 sets). Thursday chest & abs (4-5) sets. Friday try to hit all body parts twice

This is an underrated channel.

When you say x amount of sets, does that combine compound and isolation? E.G; you use biceps in pull ups, so do they count towards the max sets of bicep engagement or do you just count the sets of curls?

Full body routines are great, however, in my experience, I have found many people who develop great physiques while performing body part splits or upper/lower splits.

i do one time a week for muscle group heavy training(6-7 exercises 3 sets each 3-7 reps max excluding warm-up sets) all sets to failure! its working for me very good.

It’s called overcompensation training. Quads, hams, glutes, - every 4 days Chest, shoulders, back - every 3 days Bi’s, tri’s, forearms, calf’s, abs - every 2 days. Design a program that balances each, and you will have a different combination of muscle groups every 12 days.

Question: If I start working my chest (or another muscle) three times a week, and my max I can do a good form set is 10 reps 135lb rn, should I do max 35lb on each side on each of the three days?

Simple answer. Listen to your body. I’m only sore for 2-3 days after a very intense training of any muscle other than legs. Hence, I need to train each muscle twice a week.

I've tried a little bit of everything. The "Bro" split, full body, upper/lower and push/pull/legs. With fullbody 3 days a week I got strong as hell fast but i noticed I didnt have much muscle definition or mass for that matter. I also started having over-use pain on my elbow joint and knees and shoulders (mostly because it was hard for me to hold back reps and sets when I was off the preworkout lol). I was most cut and lean with the bro split but was also the weakest. Upper/lower was okay but i stopped because i feared of muscle imbalances.

What do you measure your results by ? Just a feeling ? Or strength or actually measured muscle growth with a dexascan

why is it that almost all mr olympia winners train each body part once a week?

I've always responded best to whole body 6x a week, 1 set of 1 exercise per bodypart to failure. For super high reps.

Ok 53 year old here always stay in shape but I’m looking to cut down workout days from 6 to 3 so on off days I can do Muay Thai. Here’s what a typical week looks like. Monday and Friday- 3 sets db incline or flat bench 50lb dbs 3 sets chin ups 3 sets knees over toes guy lunges with 50lbs 3 sets goblet squats 50lbs 3 sets hip thrusts 50lbs db 15 reps each 3 sets overhead press 3 sets light deadlifts(careful with old back surgery) Wednesday- 5 sets cable flys 3 sets upper chest stretch behind head(name look like skull crusher) 3Rear flys 3 sets lateral raises 3 sets deadlifts 3 sets bent over rows Banded clam shells 3 sets curls 3sets tricep push or skull crushers Abs and calves Muay Thai days Any help? Is this too much or enough to gain sculpted look? I’m 150 5’6

2 per week, with intensity and with intention. I split the week in 2 four-day halves: Sunday to Wednesday and Wednesday to Saturday. Whatever I do I make sure I worked out the entire body before Wednesday ends and the same before Saturday ends.

Interesting. I've been doing a grueling 5 day-body split the past 2 weeks. I'll change it to a upper/lower/upper/lower split focused on form and not complete exhaustion

Agreed.

how many excercises for each body part? specifically for strenght training

Does any body actually measure their results with a dexascan ? Or is it measured by strength gain or just what they think

What is your take on mike mentzer?

Push you through comments.

My experience I’ve always got injuried if I trained my body more then once a week and I never recovered properly I’ve tried every routine going and I always gone back to bro split

Studies always have "limitations". But it s about time somebody says something about the MASSIVE and much more serious limitations of personal experience.

Bro Split works best for me. I've never seen such great results on other programs/splits.

I do 1 workout for each muscle Group per week: Monday: chest Tuesday: legs Wednesday: shoulders Thursday: back Friday: biceps&triceps I don’t really get fatigued when I do these workouts. I found it works best for me and keeps me on track what exercises I hit. I tried hitting multiple workouts throughout the week, but personally I didn’t get as good results that way

I've been doing 3 full body workouts for 14 weeks now , mom Wed Friday, incorporating 5 x 5 on compound movements, great results so far , but my diet has helped with clean food and some fats 5 times a day

I switched from benching three days per week at the same intensity to one day and I got huge gains. Then I realized if I added one more day with super light weight and only one set that I was way stronger the next week. It was as if the second day of benching helped my recovery. A few years ago I went back to just one day per week and then I transitioned to one heavy week and one light week. Now I've hit a wall. 1) Do you guys think just doing each part one day a week actually prevents someone from recovering? 2) I know you say don't train to failure but - and leave a few sets in the tank - but as you get stronger don't you eventually get to a point where you hit failure (i.e., you can't do anymore reps with a particular weight)?

My whole like I trained slip monday chests ect. I never grow any significant amount of muscle since I stared full body each other day. I grow some muscle

When you start out, learn the skill and do multiple sets. As you learn and get good at the exercise, add more intensity and reduce sets. You need enough intensity to provide a stimulus to the body it needs to build more muscle. This doesn't mean do more sets and reps, it means do less of them, but with greater skill and quality. Otherwise, you may find you lack enough intensity and are just doing junk volume. I personally hit a body part 2 times per week and I am testing 1 set to positive failure. So far (about 5 months) works great and has a lot of evidence showing that is all you need. Get rid of the junk volume, get good at the skill of an exercise (if you need to), and then add intensity. From there, make sure to provide a lot of recovery so that you can rest, recover, and grow on top of that recovery. Sal gets it right regarding athletes and skill. However, muscle building and skills are separate things and should be done separately unless you are competing in that particular skill/exercise with weights (such as powerlifting). A high intensity, controlled exercise to positive failure will recruit all muscle fibers. That is all the average person needs to see results and saves a ton of time. Now, if you need to develop a skill, do that separately from your muscle building workouts as there is no carry over unless you are competing with that specific exercise.

I do push pull legs 4x’s a week for most body parts. I am doing calves and neck 3x’s a week. I got good results hitting traps 3x’s a week so may depend on genetics and the individual body part recovery time.

Could I do 5x5 of the main compound workouts daily? Alternating squat and deadlifts each day.

There's a story about the great Steve Reeves that I've always liked. Reeves believed that every rep should be done with strict, perfect form and to never let your ego make you add weight that prevented your form from being perfect. One day at the gym, some young guy made a snide comment to Reeves about the weight he was using, being "girlie weight" or something like that. Without a word Reeves walked over to where the guy was doing deadlifts, he had about 350 lbs. on the bar. Instead of grabbing the bar, Reeves reached out and grabbed the first plate on either side of the bar with the tips of his fingers and then without much effort, stood up with the weight and then put it back down again, walking off all without saying anything, leaving the younger guy standing there with his mouth hanging open.

Training in general 3-4 days a week or each muscle group 3-4 times a week? There’s only 7 days a week so what if I only have 4 days to hit the gym

can you still do mini workouts every day?

I love the information that these guys give out and it is working for me. However I am slightly confused about the fact that they have so much good advice but their physiques do not seem that impressive to me. However it still does not take away the fact that their information is fantastic!

Rest 48hrs (at least) in between workouts. 1 warmup set and 1 working set to failure, that is all you need to stimulate muscle growth. Anything more than that is muscle endurance training.

The skill argument is a big one, how much difference in effectiveness there is between a well trained squatter versus someone that barely knows how to do it. It makes an enormous difference in effectiveness

I do 3 on 1 off. Push Pull Legs. I love it.

Thank the lord! This has been my experience as well but your frequency is high… depending on how your other variables are. But I guess I just get better results with less than you guys. Weird.

I do about every 4-5 days, some times 6 depending on how deep of a trench I dug during the workout. Then again I do HIT training now so you are maxed out anyway for the first 3 days and sore as hell.

I guess the real question is. What is the person is in a deficit trying to cut and drop bodyfat and they are losing 1 pound to 1.5 pounds a week which would be considered a healthy range as it’s under 2 pounds a week.. training a muscle group twice a week every third day would that be the best an ideal or do you think maybe once a week in this particular situation obviously, no steroids no enhancements all natural? As I believe, recovering is more important, especially in a deficit, and if you are already losing weight, it might just be too much for your nervous system and your whole body ? So maybe perhaps once a week would be ideal if someone is specifically cutting? What’s your thoughts about doing so in this particular situation in which would be the better option and way of doing so?

I disagree. I enjoy my workouts more when I only hit each muscle once per week, because I want it more when I have to wait 7 days to hit it again and I actually feel like that muscle got worked. If I do 2 or 3 times per week, my muscles feel like they got a half assed workout and I dread the next time I hit the muscle because I just did it and it bores me. I also don’t like limiting my exercises because I’m having to hit the muscle multiple times per week. I maintain the same level of mass doing it this way as I did working everything multiple times per week. There’s no point in doing it any other way for me.

Push legs pull and repeat with sundays off. Is that a good split ?

I do stronglifts I can't imagine doing 15 sets of squats in one session

How many exercises per body part

I do hit everything once every week hard for few weeks. After that i do full body work out and hit every body part 3 times. You need to shock the muscle, doing 2 hours legs can be very good for a few weeks, just switch it up

I know dorian trained a body part once a week which I used to do on and off for years , only pepblem was I never trained to thst intensity, also with work I missed sessions so sometimes the body part was getting trained some times every 10 days , full body keeps me more consistent even if I miss a day or 2

I workout the same muscles every other day and my results are insaaaane. It’s all what works for you.

When you say 2-3 times a week. What do you mean by that. I train push,pull, legs. Lets say Monday:Push Tuesday: pull Wednesday: legs Then how Can i hit every mucle group 2-3 times in that week. I only have Thursday, fridag,saturday and sunday. If i should hit every mucle group 2 times a week i only have 1 rest day -sunday. But you are saying that 3-4 times a week is optimal. But how do i so hit every mucle group 2-3 times a week It sounds impossible Can anyone explain this to me? :)

The PT I speak to in the gym says" bro splits are what thr pros do" bro we everyday people and have work and life , said try push pull or full body so I took his advice and working well for me

I'm sure the extra volume helps the pockets with this guy lolz....

As someone with fked up elbows doing ppl or upper lower is real hard

Leroy Colbert, Steve Reeves and Reg Park (body builders from the 40s and 50s) did full body work outs 3 to 4 days a week.

So how do I hit every body part 3-4 times a week with an average of 15sets a week when I only have time to lift 4 days a week? I already lift for 2 hours a day hitting each body part once with 5 sets

When they say 21 sets do they mean 21 sets of hard compound exercises? Cause I once had 26 sets of shoulder exercises for a week but almost half of them were only isolation- mostly lateral raises cause I really wanted side delts. Can you still have a nice workout & enough recovery when doing so?

I agree agree with this man even me when I star hitting my chest 3 times a week I got good results results 💪

I do lots of intense cardio so 1.5-2 days per week is best for me because I'm getting like 5 leg days essentially per week

How do you know how hard to work out if you're splitting it into 2/3 or more times a week?

Let's say i do a 4 day split: Day 1: back & shoulders Day 2: arms Day 3: legs & abs Day 4: chest Does that mean I trained my bicep twice once on arms day and once on back day? Or is it considered once per week?

I hit legs once a week most of the time, sometimes twice a week I find they take around 5 days to recover most of the time

Id like to see pics of y’all’s physique saying that bro splits are best once per week.

How do you explain Tom platz?

“Bang for your buck”

Personally I prefer hitting each muscle group twice a week!

Every other day works best for me.

guys we need to do mesocycles

Honestly, I think these dudes that do legs only once or every other week did the 2 to 3 a week for years and no longer needed it after they gained their size so now once a week is enough to keep their size.

15 Sets of Squats in a week ? Thats means what 5 Sets 3x a week ? I don't know what he's doing but if your Quads are not absolutely hammered after 2 hard sets of Squats in a single workout you're doing something wrong or not pushing hard enough

Every other day is counter productive, It took 8 months for me to realize I only need to work muscle groups 2 times a week and at most 5 times in a two wk time frame

Yes too much, I noticed my progress regressing then I push more and get injured, so time to back off or Mother Nature is finna make u back off

Hell no! Screw frequency and volume! It’s kept me plateaud for years, as soon as I introduced intensity and one time a week each muscle with super intensity gives me tremendous gains 30+ plus but only the first 5 sets heavy