Is hitting a muscle group once every 7 days regarded as a "faulty" way to train?

[oilumiun12]

@sunflower39 I've trained since I was around 15 years old. Im 45 now and tried just about every type of split and form of training there is over the years. It all works. so long as the intensity and volume is the same per week (or month) whether that's spit up into 2x a week or 1x a week.

Personally I've found myself I make most of my growth on a 'bro split' It allows for more volume per muscle group whilst keeping the workouts relatively short (no more than an hour) whereas as on a full body or PPL there is no where to go volume wise past a certain point as the workouts get too long and any extra volume turns into 'junk' volume as well as impeding recovery due to systematic fatigue .

It's also worth noting that if programmed well (so there is no overlap of muscle groups) your muscles are getting stimulus twice a week, such as if I hit shoulders on a Monday with 16 hard sets, my front delts are getting some stimulus when I hit chest during the week as well as my rear delts when I hit back,

Enough stimulus to 'top up' yet not enough stimulus to count as volume for shoulders or impact recovery, much the same for biceps and triceps.

The pros and cons are that you get to spend a full hour (or however long) punishing that one muscle group. it's a pro or a con depending on how you like to train?

Ultimately so long as programmed well and balancing out the same volume over the month and keeping intensity it all works, whether you're hitting a muscle group once every other day or once every 10 days. Just find what you enjoy the most, that enables you to stay consistent, even if that means cycling from say PPL to a bro split every few weeks or any other type of split

 

[lcnolen2022]

@sunflower39 Yes.
Research has proven that training a muscle twice per week results in way more muscle growth compared to training it once.

The difference between 2 and 3 times per week however is not as big.

Personally i train 6 out of 8 days, dont know why every program is focused on the 7 day week.

 

[trumpeter2]

@lcnolen2022 Way more? That's quite the overstatement.

 

[lcnolen2022]

@trumpeter2 No it's not.

3.7% vs 6.8% muscle growth is almost double.

So yes, way more.

https://www.issaonline.com/blog/post/its-time-to-ditch-the-one-time-per-week-muscle-mentality

 

[dawn16]

@lcnolen2022 Dogshit studies

 

[blueskye30]

@sunflower39 Not "faulty", but perhaps "suboptimal".

If you put all your working sets into one session for a body part, then you either aren't getting the optimal amount of sets per week for muscle growth or are doing too many sets in one session such that you are accumulating "junk volume". The first sets will be good, but after so many the extra sets give diminishing returns in the same session due to fatigue.

 

[jcreigns]

@sunflower39 The is a correlation between high quality volume and gains. 1 time a week frequency eill usually allow less of that unless you are really strong.

So if you squat 180kg*10 training quads hard once a week might be enough and even optimal in some cases. While lateral raises can maybe be trained 6 times a week if you want.

 

[bandr]

@sunflower39 Too hard to reinforce muscle memory if you only do something 4 times per month.

 

[ministrysongs]

@sunflower39 I think the consensus is that it's not as effective, due to 1) not maximizing protein synthesis, and 2) too much volume for a single body part on a given day means that your overall weekly volume is less (as opposed to breaking that same training into 2 sessions a week per say)...this is due to fatigue and training too close to failure towards the end of your workout. I also notice my deadlift progresses way better when I hit it twice per week.

 

[fbrooks83]

@sunflower39 Not ideal and you'll get gains slower than if you hit em 2-3 times a week,most likely at least, but you will get gains if you stay consistent.

 

[kimnerdy]

@sunflower39

He debunks this exact training frequency nicely here

 

[triumph1]

@sunflower39 Your muscles don't know what a week is, only how hard they worked and how much time they have to recover. Tons of bodybuilders do a "bro split" and hit a muscle group or two each day but they hit them hard. Personally, I like to hit a main day of say, chest, and then also throw in back and later in the week I'll do one or two more chest exercises to keep it constantly working but not going so hard I can't recover.

As is 99% of lifting advice - do what's best for you lol