how often should you train a muscle group a week.

[cdiggity]

So currently I am working out 3 days a week and doing 3 intense exercises per muscle group. I just wanted to see how others split their workout and train. Like, how do you know you are overtraining and stuff?

Also do remember I'm not huge so please keep that in mind when giving me advice.

Thanks!

 

[Lift-on]

I say work them out as often as u can handle. I like hitting Chest/trys, legs/sholders,Back/Bys. Take a day off and do it again. I think over training is bull. Of course if ur sore as piss then u should take it easy on that group. But if u have two or three days between u should b good.

 

[DreDay187]

Over training is not bull. It's very real and can set you back a great deal depending on your advancement level. Overtraining is simply not recovering from the stress of the workout stimulus. Usually in beginners it's due to improper nutrition or not enough recovery (sleep). Symptoms of overtraining can include depression, lethargy, lack of appetite, loss of libido, sleep problems, achy and stiff joints/body, loss of strength.

I squat heavy 3x/wk so how many times is all relative. I don't do many isolation exercises which would further my need for recovery. If strength is your goal and you're a beginner (judged by the time needed for recovery NOT how much you can lift) I'd suggest Starting Strength.

 

[jets]

I train every muscle group twice per week. I use a variation of the PHAT program by layne norton

 

[CptFKNplanet]

How long have you been consistently training?Are you able to be in the gym only 3 days per week? What does your training look like for those 3 days? A lot of this stuff comes down to what works for you specifically.

 

[cdiggity]

How long have you been consistently training?Are you able to be in the gym only 3 days per week? What does your training look like for those 3 days? A lot of this stuff comes down to what works for you specifically.

I am on my third year of consistent training. I trained 6 days a week last year and didnt see very much results in terms of size or strength, so I moved back to 3 days a week. I currently do 3 exercises on each muscle (considering increasing to 4) and have been getting sore/increased strength.

 

[DreDay187]

I am on my third year of consistent training. I trained 6 days a week last year and didnt see very much results in terms of size or strength, so I moved back to 3 days a week. I currently do 3 exercises on each muscle (considering increasing to 4) and have been getting sore/increased strength.

Size is mainly diet as even a subpar training program is enough for hypertrophy. Strength bough could be both diet and training related. I would suggest you look into Starting strength by Mark Rippetoe. It is amazing for beginners. And by beginner I don't mean to put you down, I just mean its more than likely you can recover from the training stimulus necessary to elicit change in 24-48hrs.

Follow the program EXACTLY as stated and stick with it for minimum of 6months. Eat at a moderate caloric surplus. If you follow those 2 things to the T and make sure to get plenty of rest, you will make more progress in those 6months than you've made in the last 2yrs. It's based off linear progression and works compound movements. After sticking with it a while you can start to add accessory lifts for lagging body parts and things of the sort. Last time I ran it I was on a 400calorie surplus and within 4 months had added noticeable size, strength, and power gains.

 

[CptFKNplanet]

Training 6 days per week requires a lot of rest. With 3 years training you should be able to handle higher volume though.

For what it's worth, this is basically what my split looks like:

M - Legs / Forearms / Abs
Tu - Chest / Tris
W - Back / Bi / Abs
Th - Delts / Traps / Forearms
F - Chest / Arms / Calves / Abs

5 exercises, 4 pyramid sets for the main muscle groups. Starting with compound movements, ending with accessory movements. I usually do 3 exercises for the smaller groups and hit them last.

So my chest / tri day would look like this:

Incline DB press SS Incline DB flye
Flat DB press
Cable crossover
Close grip machine press
Weighted dips
Rope pull down
Single arm pull down

 

[cdiggity]

Size is mainly diet as even a subpar training program is enough for hypertrophy. Strength bough could be both diet and training related. I would suggest you look into Starting strength by Mark Rippetoe. It is amazing for beginners. And by beginner I don't mean to put you down, I just mean its more than likely you can recover from the training stimulus necessary to elicit change in 24-48hrs.

Follow the program EXACTLY as stated and stick with it for minimum of 6months. Eat at a moderate caloric surplus. If you follow those 2 things to the T and make sure to get plenty of rest, you will make more progress in those 6months than you've made in the last 2yrs. It's based off linear progression and works compound movements. After sticking with it a while you can start to add accessory lifts for lagging body parts and things of the sort. Last time I ran it I was on a 400calorie surplus and within 4 months had added noticeable size, strength, and power gains.

I will have to look into that. Most of my lifts right now are compounds, usually squats, dips, chin ups, pull ups, tri dips and so forth. I tend to try to avoid barbells because I have overworked my right arm more than my left and it was causing problems, or I would do bench press too (I do a dumb bell bench press to make sure each body part is lifting the same weight). I just got started on a diet with 3J so hopefully that will fix me up. If that doesn't work I will look into the starting strength.

All though since I went off of the 6 days a week exercises I have been noticing strengh increases, so that is a plus.

 

[DreDay187]

I will have to look into that. Most of my lifts right now are compounds, usually squats, dips, chin ups, pull ups, tri dips and so forth. I tend to try to avoid barbells because I have overworked my right arm more than my left and it was causing problems, or I would do bench press too (I do a dumb bell bench press to make sure each body part is lifting the same weight). I just got started on a diet with 3J so hopefully that will fix me up. If that doesn't work I will look into the starting strength.

All though since I went off of the 6 days a week exercises I have been noticing strengh increases, so that is a plus.

You'll def have the diet portion down with a diet from 3J. Now I'm somewhat biased towards strength training since that is my main goal but to say you couldn't add size or gain aesthetics with strength training isn't true. You're doing yourself a big favor in keeping to compound lifts. They work the body as a whole system rather than isolated parts. If you're looking for more bodybuilding style training for mass, I'd keep compounds as the main lift for each day and supplement them with certain accessory and isolation movements plus increase the sets and reps from what's recommended in starting strength while decreasing the intensity slightly to account for more volume. If strength is more your goal I would do starting strength exactly as described.

There's nothing wrong with bodyweight movements like dips, chins and pull ups but you get to a certain point where the stress they induce is not sufficient to drive progress and you'll have to add weight to them. The issues you faced with barbells can be due to form. Yes your weaker hand will get slightly more work since its weaker but the effect of this is very minor (unless you're competing and symmetry is a real concern). Dumbells are better than barbells in a lot of ways but the one thing that they are inferior in is LOAD. You will never be able to load the same weight on a dumbell as you would a barbell. This won't be an issue early on but imagine trying to bench 375 with dumbells, its just not realistic whereas its pretty common in a barbell.

I think the number one factor that caused you to notice an increase in strength is the added recovery. Beginners only need 2-4days in the gym and they can recover fine in 48hrs. An intermediate might need 3-5days in the gym to induce enough stress to drive progression but in between those days is an active recovery day where intensity and volume are reduced but you still lift to keep your CNS motor pathways intact and increase blood flow to the body and since volume and intensity are reduced, you're not adding stress to the body hindering recovery.

 

[cdiggity]

I guess you are right, I probably should start looking into doing more bench press, I will work that into my next rotation after I move.

In terms of the dips/chin ups, Im actually finding that my back is not as strong as my chest. 10 dips for 3 sets is no problem, but I can only acheive 1 set of 10 for my back, and that is if I am lucky. Once that builds up in strength I plan to add more weight to get them going but I know that overdeveloping one side of the body can be bad.

 

[un4gettable]

This has been my split since April...

Mon-Quads n Hams n Abs
Tues-Delts n Traps
Wed-Chest n Calves n Abs
Thurs-Bi's n Tri's
Fri-Back n Traps n Abs

I weight train midday n do abs in the evenings after 30min of cardio