Higher frequency less sets?

[prodigal1]

Keeping the number of weekly sets the same, is there a downside to hitting a muscle group more times a week instead of just twice?

For example:

Biceps

M: 4 sets
T: 4 sets
Th: 4 sets
F: 4 sets
=16 weekly sets

Or

M: 8 sets
Th: 8 sets
=16 weekly sets

Both would give me the same amount of working sets per week but is one better than the other? Both also would be better than just doing 16 sets in one workout once a week. But which is the best option?

 

[533th3r]

@prodigal1 I did the high frequency Jeff Nippard program for a while and it definitely works. The big problem I had with it is warming up. You can't just jump from one body part to the other. So for that reason, and the lack of a big pump I would opt for 2 days training, maybe 3. Still wouldn't do 8 sets per day, I think 6 is plenty for biceps.

 

[lordylordy]

@prodigal1 While you certainly can hit higher frequency on muscle like arms, I wouldn’t do it daily. You need recovery for the muscle, do remember the growth happens in the recovery not the breaking down of muscle fibers. Also, another consideration would be systemic fatigue, leads to injuries with joints and tendons. Even if you can do high reps and high frequency with arms it will rob you from your other lifts/exercise potential thud diminishing gains due to systemic fatigue from overload. Not the same as progressive overload. So hit arms, higher reps at controlled weight say on Monday and then on Thursday again. One last thing, don’t forget you use your arms for most upper body lifts too. My opinion.

 

[leena2016]

@prodigal1 I think of it as: High frequency is high risk high reward. If you can do high frequency, STIMULATE growth, & recover & grow, then you've successfully stimulated growth maybe twice as many times as the person doing a lower frequency. But if you're trying the high frequency approach & hitting the muscle again before it's recovered then you're essentially completely wasting your time.

Lots of different frequencies work so long as the volume is inversely matching, so I don't wanna write anything off. But I'm gonna put my neck out there just a little & say that training a muscle every 24 hours, is probably just a bad idea. Actually stimulating growth & being recovered in 24 hours, I don't see it happening, by & large.

 

[bmabramczyk]

@prodigal1 I did that. Went from a PPL, to full body 5-6 times a week with the volume spread evenly through the week.

I had good results and improved in all areas quickly, but I started getting forearm pain and needed a serious deload after a month or two.

 

[dawn16]

@prodigal1 So I think taking it to an extreme like in this doubt 4 sets 4 times per week, recovery will definitely be an issue if you’re training to failure. 16 sets per week for any muscle group is near the high end, and that’s certainly true for biceps.

In general, higher frequency means you should be more fresh for every set but that is only the case if you can recover. I think training anything 4 times per week can be a bit much unless you’re only doing two or maybe three sets to failure each time for a muscle group you know can handle it.

 

[chrisjohnstonone]

@prodigal1 It’s about recoverable volume aka volume (and intensity) that you can recover from

16 sets at 4 sets for 4 days to failure every day probably isn’t the best idea

4 sets for 4 days where 1 day is close to failure, and the other days are less intense in the way of weight and or reps is probably doable

 

[overcoming1]

@prodigal1 3-6 sets per day and 10-12 sets weekly. u can use it in way you want bro maybe just 2 days will overload your tendonds or you gonna get bored doing 3-4 times a week. try and figure out most of things doesn't makes big changes at gains

 

[tenderloin]

@prodigal1 Depends on the muscle and how well you recover. Like I could hit biceps, and calves probably 4x a week. Back too if I go back and forth between vertical and horizontal pulls. Hamstrings though? Twice is my max. I couldn't recover from more. Quads though? Depending on how hard I go it could be anywhere from 2-3 timed. So it's pretty individual. See what works for you. If you're recovering, your performance is getting better and not worse over time, your overall fatigue isn't too high, and keep going