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Why is training bodyparts more than 1X/week bad?
- Thread starter alexsmom
- Start date
Alexsmom,
The rationale behind recovery time lies in the fact that you grow while you're recovering. When you rip a muscle fiber (which is every time you weight train) you must let it completely heal. When it heals, it heals LARGER than before. Like every time you workout and heal, you are throwing a shovel-full of dirt on a pile. If you rerip the fibers before they heal, they lose that ability to allow hypertrophy.
I believe that everyone is different when it comes to recovery time, and that within each person different muscles recover at different rates.
I also believe that over training is LESS of a problem than underrecovering. As a PL, I train each part about twice a week; however, I do active recovery several times a day, take Glutamine, eat well, massage/water therapy, etc... All these things speed recovery.
Also as a PL, due to training intensity (and lack of volume), I am putting on ALOT more size than I ever did in my high volume BB routines, and I'm also alot leaner due to the mega calories burned from high intensity training, and muscle sparing diet/training techniques.
When I get ready for my BB show next spring, I will still train like a PL, because the intensity and frequency (2X a week) really adds more mass TO ME. Others may be different.
On a lighter note:
We'll try not to think less of you...we're not THAT anal.
The rationale behind recovery time lies in the fact that you grow while you're recovering. When you rip a muscle fiber (which is every time you weight train) you must let it completely heal. When it heals, it heals LARGER than before. Like every time you workout and heal, you are throwing a shovel-full of dirt on a pile. If you rerip the fibers before they heal, they lose that ability to allow hypertrophy.
I believe that everyone is different when it comes to recovery time, and that within each person different muscles recover at different rates.
I also believe that over training is LESS of a problem than underrecovering. As a PL, I train each part about twice a week; however, I do active recovery several times a day, take Glutamine, eat well, massage/water therapy, etc... All these things speed recovery.
Also as a PL, due to training intensity (and lack of volume), I am putting on ALOT more size than I ever did in my high volume BB routines, and I'm also alot leaner due to the mega calories burned from high intensity training, and muscle sparing diet/training techniques.
When I get ready for my BB show next spring, I will still train like a PL, because the intensity and frequency (2X a week) really adds more mass TO ME. Others may be different.
On a lighter note:
We'll try not to think less of you...we're not THAT anal.
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With me it all depends on what my goals are.
If I am trying to build mass, then I will lift each body part once per week.( Hard and Heavy)
If I am trying to cut, then I lift each body part twice per week.
I just started working my puny little legs, so once per week suits them fine.
If I am trying to build mass, then I will lift each body part once per week.( Hard and Heavy)
If I am trying to cut, then I lift each body part twice per week.
I just started working my puny little legs, so once per week suits them fine.
benchmonster
New member
I think something that is getting overlooked here is intensity of training. When someone is going to failure on every set doing multiple sets to failure on several different exercises for more than one bodypart, then I have no doubt that person cannot train more than one time per week, at least on that bodypart.
That being said, I only go to failure on two exercises per week. Once on M.E. bench, and once on M.E. squat. If I took every set to failure, there is no way I could train as often as I do. But I would not be nearly as strong as I am now. I have improved my strength immensely after dropping the mentality that I had to take every set to failure. I did a ton of damage to my body and my long term goals by having this uneducated mentality.
I train my bench press for competition, the rest of my body I train just for overall body strength, and not with an eye toward competition. That being said, I train my bench pressing muscles between 2 and 4 times per week. Rotators and lats sometimes get more than 4 times per week.
So to the thread starter, there is no reason to say across the board that exercising a bodypart more than once per week is bad. It could not be farther from the truth.
B.
That being said, I only go to failure on two exercises per week. Once on M.E. bench, and once on M.E. squat. If I took every set to failure, there is no way I could train as often as I do. But I would not be nearly as strong as I am now. I have improved my strength immensely after dropping the mentality that I had to take every set to failure. I did a ton of damage to my body and my long term goals by having this uneducated mentality.
I train my bench press for competition, the rest of my body I train just for overall body strength, and not with an eye toward competition. That being said, I train my bench pressing muscles between 2 and 4 times per week. Rotators and lats sometimes get more than 4 times per week.
So to the thread starter, there is no reason to say across the board that exercising a bodypart more than once per week is bad. It could not be farther from the truth.
B.
As benchmonster was saying, a single variable in and of itself is meaningless.
Weightlifting is the careful balancing act of Volume, Frequency, Intensity [% of 1RM] and Effort [failure or not].
Saying that training once a week is good, or that going to failure is good or whatever....... is automically wrong if you don't further qualify it.
MHO
-Zulu
Weightlifting is the careful balancing act of Volume, Frequency, Intensity [% of 1RM] and Effort [failure or not].
Saying that training once a week is good, or that going to failure is good or whatever....... is automically wrong if you don't further qualify it.
MHO
-Zulu
Once again, I agree with Zulu.
A couple things are overlooked, the first being conditioning. Athletes frequently train a certain part every day, and they're bodies adapt to the demand. Similar to training bench more often for conditioning your body to accomodate that workload.
2nd, your body has no idea what day or week it is. Time is man made, so...
3, listen to your body, and don't just hear what you want to hear. You know when you've recovered, when you're tired, feeling lethargic, getting sick easily, losing your appetite, etc...
We are ALL different. A week is CONVENIENT because trying to base a program that's cycled every 4-5 days doesn't work properly with work weeks, training times, and the like.
A couple things are overlooked, the first being conditioning. Athletes frequently train a certain part every day, and they're bodies adapt to the demand. Similar to training bench more often for conditioning your body to accomodate that workload.
2nd, your body has no idea what day or week it is. Time is man made, so...
3, listen to your body, and don't just hear what you want to hear. You know when you've recovered, when you're tired, feeling lethargic, getting sick easily, losing your appetite, etc...
We are ALL different. A week is CONVENIENT because trying to base a program that's cycled every 4-5 days doesn't work properly with work weeks, training times, and the like.
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