each body part once a week vs more than once

[spesmilitis]

Diesel reccomends one body part a week. However, this guy who also seems to know what he's talking about (alotta the same info in diesels and aunits posts) says that each body part should be workouted more than once a week. http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=97428

What do you guys think?

 

[Cableguy]

I have never heard anyone recommend working a body part more than once a week with the exception of abs and calves. Overtraining seems to plague alot of people who insist on training the same parts twice a week. That's not to say you can't train body parts twice a week and not get results, it's just that every trainer I know and bodybuilders I respect stress the importance of recuperation.

 

[Production6257]

I recently changed from once a week to twice a week, except for legs, which take a little longer to heal. After a workout the muscles take 48 hours to heal. After that, they will go into a catabolic state until your next workout. So by doing it twice a week, you keep this to a minimum.
However, you should cut down on your exercises if you are going to do this. For example instead of doing 4 exercises for your chest, just do 2. When I did it once a week, I did Bench Press, incline bench, decline bence, and dumbell flyes. Now I just stick to the basics and do bench press and incline bench. This way, you cut down on overtraining.

 

[donjuanjovi]

You can work a body part as often as you want. But make sure it has fully recovered from the previous workout. If you want to go more often than go easier on the muscles. This doesn't mean less weight, it means don't pound away at a muscle with 10 different exercises until you can't move.

Listen to your body. We all recover differently.

 

[[S]alvatore]

It all depends on reps, sets, % of 1RM, intensity and your goals. I'll try and dig up my text book from my personal training course, it had a table of certain reps, sets, intensity, and recovery times for different types of training (Muscular endurance, strength, hypertrophy, power etc).

 

[thefonz]

With the once a week bodypart routine, you never really work that bodypart only once. For example, when you do shoulders your also working your triceps, when you do chest you're also working your shoulders. It's not like the bodypart is completely resting for one week. I don't go to the gym anymore but when I did I found that the bodypart routine was more just getting used to the certain bodyparts that participated in a movement rather than just bombing one part which is what I started out doing. I think if you can get a good mental image of what you want to look like in your head than you can create your own workout based on how certain movements make you grow. You should be working out for at least a year before you can get to this level though.

 

[mrRuckus]

The more than once a week workout routines usually do the lifts with the same amount of volume per week, but less per day.

For example, 2 sets of db flat bench on monday... 2 sets of db flat bench on friday.... instead of 2 sets of db flat bench and 2 sets of incline flat bench on the same day. The volume is just spread through the week.

If you don't beat the muscle completely to hell in one day it's recovered enough to work hard a few days later given that you have average recovery abilities. You don't need to completely exhaust a muscle for it to grow. The growth stimulus is much less.

Multiple times a week gives the same muscle a growth stimulus twice in a week and theoretically if you stimulate a muscle to grow more often then it grows quicker. A muscle group doesn't need an entire 7 days to rest.

5x5, Rippetoe, Hypertrophy Specific Training (HST), and DC training all depend on training the same muscle groups frequently and these programs get tons of people big and strong. Of course, they have built in ways of relieving accrued muscular and neural fatigue.

Unless you're already well on your way (or maybe even then) i'd recommend looking up the rippetoe workout just because it's simple and everything is laid out for you and includes all of the most important lifts and is proven to work for most anybody.

 

[MetalFortress]

I work each part 3 days a week. I do nothing but squats, power cleans, and BB jerks, 3 sets of 5 (4 for jerks). It works perfectly for me. How frequently you can work a part simply depends on the other variables - IE volume, types of exercises, failure or no failure, etc.

 

[Throttle]

to build on and clarify thefonz's point, a 3-day push-pull-leg split based around the big three (chest, deads, squats) doesn't really work each muscle group once a week. There's a great deal of overlap between deads & squats, and when you work shoulders you use your chest a great deal, and vice versa. And so forth. Diesel's recommendations are in line with the 3-day split that most guys on these boards use UNLESS they're using one of the programs cited by Ruckus.

And it ultimately doesn't change much. Rippetoe's plan and the 5x5 have you squatting 3 times a week. The alternative that many of us use is a 1-2x6 + 1x20 (ahhhh, widowmakers...) Either way, the plan is to beat the crap out of your quads and glutes over the course of a week. Rippetoe & the 5x5 spread that out, while other programs beat you senseless on one day and come back at you later for more pain with deadlifts.

Anybody who says you HAVE to do it this way or that way is ignoring the fact that many of us have gotten big... doing it different ways. Nothing can substitute for big compound movements with good form, adequate calories & protein, adequate rest, and having short & long term goals. And that's what all the big guys have in common. The rest of this stuff is an excuse to sit around avoiding the things I just listed.

 

[Doggystyle]

Once a week is enough on each body part as long as you eat right. It is the recovery stage that you actually put the muscle on remember, the lifting is just like the ignition.

 

[Warboss Alex]

to work out more frequently you have to reduce the training volume - most people won't do this and therefore burn out quickly.

 

[Knockout King]

here is a great read on full body vs. body part splits http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/310/


It's a very informative article, though I can't agree with it entirely, as certain bodypart split routines do have their merit (I gained very well on Max-OT, run a google search if you're interested)

Both training methods have their merits. A debate b/w splits and fullbody is a win/win debate, as long as you choose the right routine. Make no mistake, the wrong routine (aka routines found in magazines or constructed by your friend/football coach) will stall your gains tremendously.

If you like splits I reccomend Max-OT. If you like fullbody workouts, Bill Starr's 5x5 is the best, bar none.

 

[Frink']

Max-OT: I grew some. Not fast.
Other split routines: Same deal.
hst: grew pretty fast
doggcrapp: grew very very fast.
madcows 5x5: I grew and still growing very very fast. Getting freaky strong too.