How Often Should You Train for Maximal Results?

*photo credit: John Meadows*

 

Hmm…that’s a tough question.

In most cases, I would say 3-4x per week.

But, it depends on a lot of factors – your goals, schedule, preferences, and how quickly you can recover.

Let’s go over each factor individually.

 

Goals

Each goal provides a target.

And each target requires a different amount of work in order to reach it.

If your goal is to “get healthier” for example, it doesn’t matter how often you train because any amount of training – even if it’s just once per week – will improve your health.

If your goal is to “squat 500lbs” on the other hand, training once per week won’t cut it.

That’s because building a 500lb squat requires an enormous amount of training volume, and you can’t fit the volume you need in to a single training session.

For most strength and physique related goals, 3-4 training sessions per week seems to be ideal.

That’s because it:

1. Provides enough volume to stimulate adaptions.
2. Provides enough recovery, via rest days, for those adaptions to actually take place (you grow outside of the gym, not in it).
3. Allows you to train each movement or muscle group multiple times per week.
4. Allows for highly customizable and adjustable programming.

Training 1-2x per week will still lead to results, but the limited amount of volume puts a limit on how much progress you can make.

And training 5-6x per week provides more than enough stimuli for strength gain and muscle growth, but the low number of rest days leads to a higher level of physical and psychological fatigue – especially if you’re training at a high intensity – which may lead to hindered progress in the long run.

 

Schedule

I probably should have put this first, because your schedule – regardless of your goals – has the biggest impact on your training frequency.

If you’re a college student – who doesn’t have a job or a family to take care of – you probably have no problem making it to the gym at least 3-4x per week.

If you’re a single mom with three kids, two jobs, and who’s also trying to maintain some semblance of a social life, getting to the gym more than once per week may be extremely challenging.

Now, schedules change, so how much time you have available to train now may not be how much time you have available to train later (which is why you need to be flexible).

But, you have to take what you’re given.

And although there’s some truth to the saying “you don’t find time to exercise, you MAKE time,” not everybody can adopt the high frequency training schedule of a pro bodybuilder (at least not right now).

 

Preferences

Some people may not agree with me here, but I think your preferences – or in other words how often you like to train – matters, and also has an impact on your training frequency.

I know I’ve used this quote before, but “the best plan on paper doesn’t matter if you don’t follow it.”

If you only want to train two days per week, there’s no point in trying to force yourself to train four days per week.

Sure, training four days per week may provide more volume, and therefore more stimulus for muscle growth (and strength gain).

But, if it causes you to get frustrated and give up – because you don’t want to sacrifice all of the time you would have had to devote to other activities – you might as well stick with a less frequent approach.

 

Recovery

Finally, how well you recover is another factor that must be taken in to account when choosing a training frequency.

Some people?

They can train six days per week – at an extremely high intensity – and have no problems (i.e. they can still perform at a high level).

Other people – like me – train six days per week and feel like they got run over by a bulldozer.

The magnitude of the fatigue you build through each training session, week, or month depends on your programming, training split, how hard you’re training, how much attention you’re putting towards recovery, and your genetics, so there’s no way to know for sure how much training YOU can recover from.

Most people?

They can’t handle more than 3-4 intense training sessions per week (at least not for a prolonged period of time).

But, who knows?

You may be different.