Once vs twice a week muscle group training

[Dead]

Do you benefit from training a muscle twice a week instead of once a week?

I started this shit out focusing way too much and reading way too much about the drugs and not enough focus on diet and training. This past cycle I decided to seriously focus on eating 250 plus grams protein 400 plus carbs and 4300 calories and it was a world of difference.

Now that I’m getting a grip on diet I’m trying to get a grip on training. I have no trouble growing on my old split
Monday-chest tris abs, wed legs, fri back bis shoulders,

Recently I changed it to this.


(Strength push hard)

Sunday- chest tris

Monday- back bis

Tuesday- legs shoulders


Wed off


(Squeeze lower weight higher reps time under tension hypertrophy)

Thursday - chest tris

Friday- back bis

Saturday- legs shoulders

-basically the second part of the week as it says is focused more on controlled reps and making each rep as hard as possible maintaining 12 rep range on compound lifts vs the first part of the week which is a normal lift day in which I just push as hard as I can but still maintain form. I’d think it’s a mix of strength-hypertrophy vs straight hypertrophy.

This a decent idea or?

 

[Mac11wildcat]

2x a week is my norm now. 1x a week is a deload/brief change for me.

Just keep volume appropriate.

A modified pull/push/legs is crushing for me and has since I started offseason. Mines structured like this:
1. pull (with bis)
2. push (Chest focus with tris)
3. legs
4. push (delt focus)
5. push
7. arms
(Can add a second leg day if needed, I don’t need one so I took it out)

In yours, id move delts out of leg day to chest/tris day.

The split of weight vs time under tension is a decent idea, OR substitute focus days. First push is chest focus (heavy presses, chest accessories, delt accessories) and second is delt focus (heavy OHP, delt accessories, Chest accesories).

If youre geared and eating overtraining will be a challenge.

 

[Dead]

2x a week is my norm now. 1x a week is a deload/brief change for me.

Just keep volume appropriate.

A modified pull/push/legs is crushing for me and has since I started offseason. Mines structured like this:
1. pull (with bis)
2. push (with tris)
3. legs
4. off
5. pull
6. push
7. legs (or skip if not needed)
8. arms

In yours, id move delts out of leg day to chest/tris day.

The split of weight vs time under tension is a decent idea, OR substitute focus days. First push is chest focus (heavy presses, chest accessories, delt accessories) and second is delt focus (heavy OHP, delt accessories, Chest accesories).

If youre geared and eating overtraining will be a challenge.

Thanks for the input, I didn’t throw delts on chest day because after heavy dumbells there’s no way I’d be able to put full force into OHP my delts already get taxed from dumbell press fans flys, my leg day would be a bit empty without delts and it would make chest day significantly longer. What’s your opinion on this? That’s also specifically why I put legs shoulders after back bis day to give the delts some rest.

 

[Mac11wildcat]

Thanks for the input, I didn’t throw delts on chest day because after heavy dumbells there’s no way I’d be able to put full force into OHP my delts already get taxed from dumbell press fans flys, my leg day would be a bit empty without delts and it would make chest day significantly longer. What’s your opinion on this? That’s also specifically why I put legs shoulders after back bis day to give the delts some rest.

That’s why I split my push day into either chest or delt focus.

Chest focus is heavy pressing, flyes, and pump/accessory for delts.

Delt focus is heavy OHP, Raises and Rows, and then lighter pressing and flyes for chest for the pump.

I leave my leg days solo because they murder me.

But your layout isn’t bad. Just critiquing On my preference.

 

[Dead]

That’s why I split my push day into either chest or delt focus.

Chest focus is heavy pressing, flyes, and pump/accessory for delts.

Delt focus is heavy OHP, Raises and Rows, and then lighter pressing and flyes for chest for the pump.

Damn that’s a good ass idea on splitting focus groups. took me a second to kinda get what you meant by that.

 

[Mac11wildcat]

Happy to shoot some example workouts your way to get a feel for it. May not be for everyone but I love it.

 

[Dead]

Happy to shoot some example workouts your way to get a feel for it. May not be for everyone but I love it.

I would definitely be interested in that. If you would also be able to give me an idea on how many sets you do for each muscle group in general would also be highly appreciated.

 

[Mac11wildcat]

I would definitely be interested in that. If you would also be able to give me an idea on how many sets you do for each muscle group in general would also be highly appreciated.

For sure. It’s in my daily log thread but I’ll screenshot a few and DM

In general, I aim for 8-10 working (failure) sets per day depending on the muscle group. Maybe a bit less for arms. A few more for legs. Total sets probably 20ish with warmups and pump/metabolic sets included. I get in, move heavy weight (with good form) and then make sure I never leave without a nasty pump.

 

[sk8rboy]

i hit most muscles twice a week but my split is technically a 6 day-er

 

[Dead]

For sure. It’s in my daily log thread but I’ll screenshot a few and DM

In general, I aim for 8-10 working (failure) sets per day depending on the muscle group. Maybe a bit less for arms. A few more for legs. Total sets probably 20ish with warmups and pump/metabolic sets included. I get in, move heavy weight (with good form) and then make sure I never leave without a nasty pump.

I’m starting to think bigger muscles are better with more volume less frequency and smaller are better with less volume more frequency could be wrong though

 

[Mac11wildcat]

I’m starting to think bigger muscles are better with more volume less frequency and smaller are better with less volume more frequency could be wrong though

Muscle is muscle.

Remember that the “smaller” groups generally get worked with the larger ones. Whereas back is doing a while during Arm day, bis and tris get pretty direct work on pressing and rowing.

But I generally treat them all the same.

The difference for me is with lagging body parts. Those change things.

 

[Dead]

Muscle is muscle.

Remember that the “smaller” groups generally get worked with the larger ones. Whereas back is doing a while during Arm day, bis and tris get pretty direct work on pressing and rowing.

But I generally treat them all the same.

The difference for me is with lagging body parts. Those change things.

Awesome awesome didn’t see it that way -muscle is muscle-. And yes definitely aware of the smaller groups being worked with the larger ones

 

[Dead]

I feel smaller groups for me recover faster though. But I’m still in the learning process of it all

 

[Mac11wildcat]

I feel smaller groups for me recover faster though. But I’m still in the learning process of it all

Lots of factors there. Muscle size def matters. But also CNS (larger groups use heavier lifts which tax you more), fast vs slow twitch, etc.

 

[Test_Subject]

All of the science that I've read on the subjects points to 2x frequency being significantly better than 1x.

I feel like with 1x frequency a lot of the volume is wasted because you're working beyond what is necessary to trigger growth and just incurring more damage and recovery time for very little effect.

Right now I'm doing a chest/shoulders/tris and legs/back/bis WUP split that's working great. Two exercises per muscle group with as much overlap as possible between the muscle groups to increase overall volume and maintain short sessions.

That's me, though. I can only make it to the gym 4 days a week. You're going 6, so you have more leeway with split variation.

I like Mac's suggestion of chest or delt focus. I do something similar to that with incline bench and light seated dumbell presses one day and flat bench with heavy OHP the next.

 

[Jankauskas]

All of the science that I've read on the subjects points to 2x frequency being significantly better than 1x.

I feel like with 1x frequency a lot of the volume is wasted because you're working beyond what is necessary to trigger growth and just incurring more damage and recovery time for very little effect.

Right now I'm doing a chest/shoulders/tris and legs/back/bis WUP split that's working great. Two exercises per muscle group with as much overlap as possible between the muscle groups to increase overall volume and maintain short sessions.

That's me, though. I can only make it to the gym 4 days a week. You're going 6, so you have more leeway with split variation.

I like Mac's suggestion of chest or delt focus. I do something similar to that with incline bench and light seated dumbell presses one day and flat bench with heavy OHP the next.

I think I saw a Brad Schoenfeld study that stated total volume is the main driver for growth, and that normally the reason people saw better results with higher frequency was because they got in more volume.

But even though what matters is total volume, I agree with you that with once a week a lot of volume turns to junk volume, therefore training higher frequency is more efficient.

At the moment I’m doing 8 sets per muscle group, per session, training around 3 muscle groups per day, which totals 24 sets per workout.

I know I could increase these sets per muscle to 10, according to research, but now I’m cutting so I want to keep my volume not too high, since I just need to do enough to maintain.

 

[Oldman.]

I simply don’t have the energy to work my job and hit every body part twice a week. I get some target areas twice but that’s it.
Monday I do back and biceps with a sprinkle of rear delts. But split the workout into two shorter workouts morning and evening. Morning back and evening biceps. Same for chest and tris on Tuesday. Same for arm day. Morning tris evening biceps. Friday is leg day and some chest. Sat is shoulders. Sunday and Wednesday are off days.

I recently started hitting tris 5 days a week to see what happens.

 

[Dead]

@Mac11wildcat hey man curious if u could give this a quick glance. If you don’t wanna give handouts then it’s cool but if u don’t mind, I was just wondering if this would be overtraining doing these workouts twice a week, again second day is lighter weight...

Chest tris
-Chest
Flat bench
Incline bench
Flys
Dumbell push ups

-Triceps
Weighted Dips
Tricep extension machine
Skull crushers
Tricep pushdown drop sets

Legs shoulders
-legs
Squat
Quad extension
Hamstring curls
Leg press
Calf raises

-shoulders
Dumbell OHP
Lat raises
Reverse flys
(Considering adding something else since I took out front raises)

Thursday back/bis

-Back
Deadlift
Lat pull down overhand
Dumbell rows
Lat pull over
Reverse flys
Shrugs
Lat pull down underhand 2 sets
Barbell rows

-biceps
Dumbell curl
Cable curl
Preacher curl
(Kinda feel I’m lacking here but lots of back exercises work biceps obviously)

 

[Mac11wildcat]

Probably a bit much on the arm work if being done 2x a week.

Since you’re doing shoulders and legs I’d make one day a quad focus and one a ham focus with the shoulder work added to each.

 

[Dead]

Probably a bit much on the arm work if being done 2x a week.

Since you’re doing shoulders and legs I’d make one day a quad focus and one a ham focus with the shoulder work added to each.

Ok thanks