How many days between workout?

[patbox]

How many days do I need between workout of the same muscle group to give the muscles time to grow? I assume doing the same muscles group every second day is to short? In my work plan I am thinking to the the same muscles group once a week.

What is yoru advice?

[Sea2Sea]

One week is a good rule of thumb, And after a lot of trial and error, i have found that working out no more than two days in a row works well. for example, I do HITT on Mondays and lift on Tuesday, take off wed, then lift thurs and FRI, take off the weekend. but it will really depend on your goals. and the above routine only works with a three day split on the lifting part.


Good luck

[chicanerous]

48 hours is a figure that's commonly thrown around. However, among less significant factors, manipulation of nutrition, sleep, volume, intensity, and the exercises being performed can change this, allowing greater training frequency or forcing less.

[JoeSchmo]

Originally Posted by chicanerous

48 hours is a figure that's commonly thrown around. However, among less significant factors, manipulation of nutrition, sleep, volume, intensity, and the exercises being performed can change this, allowing greater training frequency or forcing less.

^ This.

The exercise itself matters alot. Recovery from deadlifts and squats takes significantly longer than say, recovery from bicep curls.

[patbox]

I am not speaking that much about recovery. I wonder how many days muscles grow after training before they stop growing. Say doing biceps every 20 days is not enough, but doing every second day is also not good. So what is optimal?

[modmaven]

God I wish that I could go just 48 hours between working a particular muscle group. When I'm on, that's what i aim for. But it gets complicated even with a 3 day split of (1) chest and shoulders, (2) back and arms, and (3) legs and abs. The bench press, a major exercise for (1) will indeed involve arms. Deads for (2) involves not just back but hams. And an exercise I'm hoping to incorporate for (3) legs, the glute-ham-raise, also involves the back. So it seems almost impossible to do a 3 day split more that about once a week. Is that right? Is there some way to cheat this?

[chicanerous]

Originally Posted by patbox

I am not speaking that much about recovery. I wonder how many days muscles grow after training before they stop growing. Say doing biceps every 20 days is not enough, but doing every second day is also not good. So what is optimal?

Recovery is the amount of time needed to prepare the body to work again at at capacity (or reasonably close to it). If your body is able to work at capacity, you are able to induce further growth. 48 hours is commonly cited because you can expect your muscles to grow and continue to grow if you're working on that interval, using workouts of a moderate volume and intensity, and eating to support growth. It's the middle of the road figure.

Originally Posted by modmaven

God I wish that I could go just 48 hours between working a particular muscle group. When I'm on, that's what i aim for. But it gets complicated even with a 3 day split of (1) chest and shoulders, (2) back and arms, and (3) legs and abs. The bench press, a major exercise for (1) will indeed involve arms. Deads for (2) involves not just back but hams. And an exercise I'm hoping to incorporate for (3) legs, the glute-ham-raise, also involves the back. So it seems almost impossible to do a 3 day split more that about once a week. Is that right? Is there some way to cheat this?

The idea behind a split to hit your muscles hard enough that each group needs a whole week to recover. This is where manipulation of volume and intensity comes into play. In other words, the goal of a split is to have a lot of each, so that you can work the same muscle groups so infrequently.

Just FYI, as far as volume and intensity go, I would rank:

<25 total reps - low volume
25-50 total reps - moderate volume
>50 total reps - high volume

60-75% of maximum - low intensity
75-85% of maximum - moderate intensity
85-100% of maximum - high intensity

I'm probably a bit generous with those ranges.

[JoeSchmo]

Originally Posted by patbox

I am not speaking that much about recovery. I wonder how many days muscles grow after training before they stop growing. Say doing biceps every 20 days is not enough, but doing every second day is also not good. So what is optimal?

They are one and the same. Recovery is the process by which your muscles repair themselves and adapt (i.e. get stronger) to the stimulus that you have provided (your workout). What is optimal depends on a whole host of factors: your diet, your physiological recovery capacity, your sleep, stress, the exercise you are doing etc.

Recovery is also systemic as well -- Your body has to draw on more resources to recover from a whole body exercise like squats than it does for an exercise like tricep extensions. So, it is hard to come up with a one-size fits all optimal number that you can use.

[tsk2264]

Originally Posted by patbox

I wonder how many days muscles grow after training before they stop growing.

Highly variable, but generally around 48 to 72 hours. According to one study, muscle protein synthesis increases by 50% 4 hours after training and 109% after 24 hours. It returns to baseline synthesis after 36 hours. But keep in mind these are just the results of ONE study using ONE type of exercise one ONE bodypart (arm).

Other studies indicate 72 hours. I suspect this study might have examined larger body-parts.

Also, beginning lifters tend to get bigger strength gains when training a muscle more frequently with moderate intensity, and more seasoned lifters get a better strength response when training less frequently with more intensity. So I'm sure this would be an added variable to the studies I mention above.