Differences between 3 and 6 days a week?

[arunkumar]

I know this topic has been beaten to death but just for a bit of background, I do a heavy labour job so recovery is very important to me. I love training 6 days a week but am curious if volume and intensity remain equal and training is spread across 6 days rather than 3, is it easier or harder to recover from in your experience?

 

[amyser]

@arunkumar If you tried to fit 6 days worth of volume into 3 days, what would likely happen is that half of your workout would be pretty solid, and half would be a waste of time. During an individual workout, there's only so much volume you can handle before your body will just tap out. So those later sets and exercises just won't have the same vigor and energy as the first few and you'll just be doing junk volume, working with no real benefit. Recovering from the super long workout won't really be an issue, the main problem is that you'll likely spend an extra hour in the gym doing stuff that isn't contributing to your gains

If 3 days a week works better for you due to your labor job, that's fine. If you can commit to going super hard on your workout 3 days a week, and give yourself that extra time to recover, that actually probably better than phoning it in 6 days a week because you are struggling to recover between the workouts and your job.

 

[arunkumar]

@amyser Thanks for the reply bro. Makes sense however in my case it’d be more taking the volume for a typical 3 day program and spreading it over 6 days instead, so each day would be pretty low volume. It’s what I’d prefer to do if it won’t mess with my recovery

 

[we_are_all_human]

@arunkumar I have been doing PPL 6 days a week and I am not sore most days. I have been reading that being sore is not necessarily a good indicator anyway.

I can fit about 3 sets for 3 exercises in about an hour, and I take my time.

 

[carlossantana305]

@we_are_all_human Soreness is probably just an indicator of muscle damage. The twist, though, is that muscle damage does not equal hypertrophy... it's simply just muscle damage that needs time to repair before you're operating at full capacity again.

So, if you're progressing in your lifts and you're not getting overly sore, then you're doing it right.

 

[we_are_all_human]

@carlossantana305 Yea that makes sense.

 

[chucky82]

@arunkumar I also work hard labor and wonder this as well. Is it better to do 2 muscle groups every other day or 1 muscle everyday

 

[john_christian_brother]

@arunkumar More days usually means more time for isolation exercises