Working out a muscle group only once per week

Is this reccomended? Is this effective? How intense does the workout have to be for this to work?

 

Nope, try working out a full body workout 2 days a week. 3-4 hours.

 

Wow that's a lot of time.

 

Did I read right? 3-4 hours???!?? Thats long ass time in the gym. Fuck that I dont buy that.

 

So maybe it

 

There is the direct and indirect way to look at it. I'll take it from a strength perspective rather than a BB one, but here's the example. If you train shoulder presses one day and bench presses a few days later, you've got a pretty good overlap of muscles being used. Chest, shoulders, triceps. So, even though you're only doing each movement once a week, the muscles are getting used twice a week.

Same would apply for BB. Train biceps one day, then back another and your biceps will get trained twice, once directly, once indirectly.

 

I have to fit both BJJ and workouts on my schedule and I can

 

So is that saying that working the back once a week won't work? I do deadlifts, bent over rows etc. once a week. Unless Squats and romanian deadlifts work your back also, I do squats once a week, and bench press once a week.

 

Of course squats work your lower back, if you do them correctly.

OK, Vagabond Musashi, here's a short answer to your question:

It's fine to just work out 3 times a week. Do a squat day, a bench press day, and a deadlift day. I'd even do them in that order. Once you get a feel (and added some serious poundage) on those three movements, then you can worry about a more specialized routine. Until you've been at it for months at least, I don't see much point in getting more complicated.

Here is a shorter answer to your question:

READ THE DAMNED STICKIES DID YOU NOT SEE THE PART OF THIS GOD FORSAKEN FORUM WHICH SAID "READ ALL THIS SHIT BEFORE YOU POST?"

 

i do bench and squats twice a week
deadlifts and powercleans once a week (deadlifts and powercleans i do on diff days)

 

working a muscle group once a week won't be to effective, do it twice a week

i work out 4 times a week

 

Anyways when I do my squats, as I lower it's almost as if I was doing a barbell good morning. So I guess I'm "directly and indirectly" working out my back twice a week.

 

If a routine like that doesn't put you into the ground, you're either:

a) a complete novice

or

b) not training with sufficient intensity

Period.

 

before urban sees this, i'll save him the trouble....


dont think in terms of muscle groups, think in terms of movements.


The guys doing compound exercises already do this, whether they think about it this way or not.

 

if you're really that pressed for time, you could narrow it down to one exercise a day. I mean if you go balls out on a good lift (deadlift, clean, squat, snatch, bench, incline bench, military press, bent over row, pullups, etc) and toss in some grip and core work here and there, you should be fine... so claims dan john in his one exercise a day routine. here's the deal, those movements I just listed all include many muscle groups and many are full body. that's what you should be going for.
one exercise a day: http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=04-034-training
one hard thing: http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=05-123-training
and tabata's for those really pressed for time: http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=04-046-training

As far as the original question, I am playing with pressing more often during the week. I find that I've been training my posterior chain via squats and deadlifts twice a week for so long now that my presses may benefit from a similar treatment. As such, I'm currently hitting them with a bit more volume. if you're wondering about splitting exercises up by chest, arms, shoulder, back, and legs throughout the week, you're in the wrong forum. bobdybuilding.com is That way. Otherwise you can read the stickies and learn what's already been said on routine construction.

 

One lift per day would suffice. It depends on your training goal.

 

i do a 5-day split and i only train 1 body part per day and as long as each muscle is spaced out efficiently it shouldnt be a problem for you

 

3-4 hours per workout? If that is what you are saying I think you spend WAY to much time in the gym. Each body part 2 times a week I agree with.