How Often Should You Train The Same Muscles

If building big, strong muscles was all about spending as much time as possible lifting weights everybody would have a physique like Rambo and it’d be easy to get there – we’d just spend every spare minute we can lifting. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Our muscles require other things such as nutrients and rest. A successful trainee must find the optimal balance between training, nutrients and rest in order to make continual progress. A common question many new trainees face is how often to train the same body part. Is there an optimal number of days that the muscles are fully recovered in and ready to be trained again?

Most people cite 72 hours as being a good starting point, but that’s all it is.

Nothing is set in stone because the very nature of lifting weights is constant change.

One individual may have better recuperative ability than another when it comes to the same exercises, reps and sets, but if that person should change their program up and include higher volume or heavier weight they may find their recovery time becomes slower than the other persons.

You have to constantly be vigilant and adjust based on how you feel. Some exercises, volumes and intensities will take their toll on you more than others and may force you to rethink your program to some extent. That’s just the way it goes.

In a program which has regular changes of exercise/protocols and a good diet, stagnation based on lack of routine change and diet can’t be blamed and other factors must be looked into – usually overtraining by doing too much too often in some way or other (too many sets, too many reps, too much weight, training too often).

It’s often a revelation to people that they get better results by training less. Be on guard and remember: Generally, the more voluminous and/or heavy a training session is, the longer the rest you will need.

Most training programs repeat on a weekly basis. Don’t be afraid of breaking out of this and repeating your program every 8-10 days instead of every 7, if you need the extra recovery time. Or, having shorter training cycles of 5 days, perhaps, if you don’t need as much rest time.

More is to be gained by listening to what your body is telling you it can cope with than stubbornly following a routine your body is struggling to deal with.