Working your muscle twice a week may be the way to go....

[coolcolj]

mostly my traps/back though - olylifts one day, then back work the day after etc.

erectors get hit that much as well.

 

[Lee]

actually i like to work my traps 3 times a week. they are a more stubborn muscle but they grow good if u hammer em often.

 

[Holz61]

I enjoy working each group twice a week. I don't do as much volume per say, each session, but the intensity is not lacking.

Typically

Monday: Chest, Shoulders, Tris, Abs
Tuesday: Legs, Back, Bis

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: Chest, Shoulders, Tris, Abs
Friday: Legs, Back, Bis

Weekend: Off

I have been doing this for about 8 weeks now and have enjoyed some nice strength gains

But who knows I change my workout plan constantly


-Eazy

 

[Mildot]

I hit each muscle group once a week on a 4 day split with very high intensity. More than once a week would kill me at this intensity, and I would almost feel like I was being a lazy ass if I lowered the intensity and increased the frequency.

 

[collegiateLifter]

While I tend to agree with what casual wrote,

1) The muscular system. The muscle cells themselves don't really give a crap about "intensity" or failure training. All they know is tension. "There was X amount of weight being supported by this muscle cell." And if that weight is greater than what the cell's used to, it'll grow.

Muscle cells take 36-48 hours to recover from a bout of exercise-induced damage (this is how growth occurs). This number is not at all dependent on intensity; it is a fixed timeframe.

I don't think it is quite so cut and dry. such a model does not seem to make allowances for say when you have DOMS for a 5 days.

 

[casualbb]

such a model does not seem to make allowances for say when you have DOMS for a 5 days.

The thing is, DOMS don't really indicate much of anything. I mean, you can make your DOMS worse by not warming up and not stretching. There are something like 3 or 4 main theories behind why people get DOMS, and each has pros and cons to it. I think it's safe to say that DOMS is not an accurate measuring stick by which to judge the state of muscles.

-casualbb

 

[collegiateLifter]

The thing is, DOMS don't really indicate much of anything. I mean, you can make your DOMS worse by not warming up and not stretching. There are something like 3 or 4 main theories behind why people get DOMS, and each has pros and cons to it. I think it's safe to say that DOMS is not an accurate measuring stick by which to judge the state of muscles.

-casualbb

but you will grant that DOMS is caused by training. That is i am not sore, i go bench a lot boom next day I'm sore.

And what is DOMS? i would think that it is damged muscle fibers. I have not yet thought of any other reasonable alternatives as to what DOMS is and notice i am not talking about why you get it, just that it is excercise induced trauma on muscle fibers.

something that seems to contradict this statement.

"Muscle cells take 36-48 hours to recover from a bout of exercise-induced damage "

 

[casualbb]

DOMS is not necessarily indicative of damage. Every lifter has had breakthrough growth minus DOMS. Also, working a sore muscle causes the soreness to disappear. Unless the muscles were damaged and magically healed, I don't see how DOMS is caused by muscle damage.

-casual

 

[scotty green]

I wish I could do the 2 times per week deal. But I generally dont get over the soreness till 6 or 7 days after. Because I use so many compound lifts my secondary muscles stay fatigued. Ive tried 2 times per and all my lifts went down after three weeks and remained down till I stoped. Physically I looked no different and felt much worse. You just have to find what works for you but there are some good points here. Just give it a try.

 

[gonelifting]

This is a very interesting thread. I`m forever trying to find out why I`m SO SORE FOREVER. casualbb`s got some good info there too. I used to do the whole body in 2 workouts half on Monday the other half on WED then start again on Fri with the first half and MON... so on... So I would be doing 3 workouts in 2 weeks.
It worked out good for me because I did`nt like doing alot of volume anyway so I could do half the body in one day no problem.