How many times a week you hit one muscle group of your body?

[orca]

Is it ok to hit it once? Will it still grow and develope?
Heres my routine

1st day
Chest and shoulders
2nd day rest
3rd day
Back and legs
4th day
Biceps n triceps
5th day rest
6th day chest n shoulders
As you can see im hitting my back legs and arms once a week only. Will muscles still grow and develop even if you hit it only once a Week? What do you think? Thanx in advance

 

[Twelve75]

i'm far from an expert,but your working your biceps on days 3 & 4,also a whole workout {day 4} devoted to bi's & tri's seems very unnecessary for someone still at the stage where they need to ask for advice.

you'd be better off looking at stronglifts 5x5 imho.

 

[j123]

twice

 

[Hotora86]

My routine:

On a serious note, you can actually hit all groups every day with moderate intensity and have decent results with more energy to spare and less DOMS and injury risk.

I've been "greasing the groove" as per Tsatsouline and very satisfied.

Splits are not the best for beginners, nor are they essential for advanced lifters.

 

[Sano]

Depends on how your body responds to it, and which body part we're talking about. There is no set in stone way of doing this. Usually it takes a little more volume to get the upper body to respond though.

Some people have success with only doing certain body parts/lifts once a week, others not so much. Personally I like higher frequency for actually improving something and getting better at it. Also, much less DOMS that way as long as you have a sensible load scheme. 2-3 times a week seems to be good for most people.

 

[ZemoKicks]

I hit legs abs obliques and shoulders arms usualy on every sparing session, sometimes neck too if the guy is unlucky

 

[Bloodhy]

I strongly suggest picking a different split. There is an entire day dedicated to arms, yet back AND legs are scrammed into a single day; that doesn't make sense.
Also, hitting body parts twice a week can yield good results if your goal is hypertrophy.

 

[BOWHUNTER]

biceps 14x a week.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Aren't you the guy who says he has really small legs? If that's the case, maybe you should do more. Plenty of people squat three times a week.

 

[Halge]

Squat twice, bench twice, deadlift once, OHP once. I goof around with bis and tris every saturday. Thats about it. I don't really bother with brosplits.

By the way I don't call it week. I call it strong. I workout 5 times per strong.

 

[Blackjack]

Is it ok to hit it once? Will it still grow and develope?
Heres my routine

1st day
Chest and shoulders
2nd day rest
3rd day
Back and legs
4th day
Biceps n triceps
5th day rest
6th day chest n shoulders
As you can see im hitting my back legs and arms once a week only. Will muscles still grow and develop even if you hit it only once a Week? What do you think? Thanx in advance

You have to realize we are not all born with the same amount of recuperative ability. Just as there are giants on one end of the height spectrum and midgets on the other end of the spectrum, there exists a spectrum of recovery ability. If you want, you can use a split similar to what you have, although I would suggest you try working thighs, back and biceps on Monday and Thursdays then on Tuesdays and Fridays work on chest, shoulders, triceps and calves. Work abdominals roughly 3 times a week.

If this doesn't result in gains, you are clearly not a "recuperative giant" so cut the frequency in half so you have the same split routine but only Mondays for thighs, back and biceps and Thursdays work chest, shoulders, triceps and calves.

I this still doesn't work you may be a "recuperative midget", also known as a "hard gainer." In this case I suggest experimenting with giving each muscle group up to 8 days rest, with maximum of a total of two workouts (each working roughly half the body) each 8 days. This will allow 96 hours between workouts, and 192 hours between working the same muscle groups.

There is no need to do more than two sets per muscle group, excluding warm-up sets. The is not an endurance contest. The objective is to achieve the stimulation of muscular growth. Once you have stimulated muscular growth, leave the gym. Doing more sets (just because you feel you can) will only serve to cut into your limited stores of recuperative ability.

AS for how many reps to do, many books will tell you to do 10 reps. 10 reps is an even, easy to remember number, but it is also totally arbitrary. In each set, after thoroughly warming up, work each set until you are unable to accomplish one more rep. Only this level of intensity will ensure you have reached the necessary level of intensity required to stimulate muscular growth. Remember, growth must literally be forced. If you could curl 60 pounds for 8 reps and never tried for a ninth rep, continuing to curl it for 8 reps in each biceps workout, do you think your biceps would grow and get stronger? No! They would have no need to do so. It is only by placing a greater stress on them than they are currently able to do by giving your all to attempt that 9th rep that the body is forced to adapt by growing larger and stronger.

 

[orca]

You have to realize we are not all born with the same amount of recuperative ability. Just as there are giants on one end of the height spectrum and midgets on the other end of the spectrum, there exists a spectrum of recovery ability. If you want, you can use a split similar to what you have, although I would suggest you try working thighs, back and biceps on Monday and Thursdays then on Tuesdays and Fridays work on chest, shoulders, triceps and calves. Work abdominals roughly 3 times a week.

If this doesn't result in gains, you are clearly not a "recuperative giant" so cut the frequency in half so you have the same split routine but only Mondays for thighs, back and biceps and Thursdays work chest, shoulders, triceps and calves.

I this still doesn't work you may be a "recuperative midget", also known as a "hard gainer." In this case I suggest experimenting with giving each muscle group up to 8 days rest, with maximum of a total of two workouts (each working roughly half the body) each 8 days. This will allow 96 hours between workouts, and 192 hours between working the same muscle groups.

There is no need to do more than two sets per muscle group, excluding warm-up sets. The is not an endurance contest. The objective is to achieve the stimulation of muscular growth. Once you have stimulated muscular growth, love the gym. Doing more steps (just because you feel you can) will only serve to cut into your limited stores of recuperative ability.

AS for how many reps to do, many books will tell you to do 10 reps. 10 reps is an even, easy to remember number, but it is also totally arbitrary. In each set, after thoroughly warming up, work each set until you are unable to accomplish one more rep. Only this level of intensity will ensure you have reached the necessary level of intensity required to stimulate muscular growth. Remember, growth must literally be forced. If you could curl 60 pounds for 8 reps and never tried for a ninth rep, continuing to curl it for 8 reps in each biceps workout, do you think your biceps would grow and get stronger? No! They would have no need to do so. It is only by placing a greater stress on them than they are currently able to do by giving your all to attempt that 9th rep that the body is forced to adapt by growing larger and stronger.

Thank you for the advice and information!

 

[DrBdan]

It's better to think in terms of movements e.g. squat, upper body push, upper body pull. Your current split has you hitting arms every gym day (since they are part of bench, rows, shoulder press etc)

Read the S&P FAQ and also take a look at the Beginner/Intermediate routines thread that is linked there.