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

sunflower39

New member
It seems like everyone and their mother is doing either full-body 3 x a week, or a P P L that hits everything 2 x a week.

I never see 3 or 4 day splits where everything is hit once a week mentioned. Has this type of training been "disproven" or something?
 
@sunflower39 Not faulty, per se, but not ideal. If that’s what you like or what fits your schedule, have at it. If you eat well and train hard, I doubt it will make much of a difference.
 
@sunflower39 Do what works for you at whatever point in time it works for you. I've done all sorts of programs over the years and so long as you give it a fair shake of a few months at least, and put the effort in, the difference in results has been minimal.

In fact, I think switching periodically between completely contrasting approaches is a good idea physically and mentally.

Intensity / frequency / volume are all on a sliding scale. When one goes up the others need to go down. When one approach starts to stop working as well, switching gears and focusing on something different can get the gains going again.

Same principle as switching exercises for X bodypart when you plateau. Fresh stimulus.

There's no one perfect way to train all the time for everyone forever. That's just not how it works.

Even things with scientific studies backing them up are only as good as the methods used to measure the outcome, and only 100% relevent to the participants. The more different you are from the people being studied, the less applicable the findings are to you.

Just some things to think about. Effort, consistency and time are way more important than the specific things you do.
 
@sunflower39 Workout hard for 10 years and the results will be about the same. If you’re on the optimal train though, I think most people are now in agreement that 2x a week or more is better than once a week (bro split style)
 
@rsimmons1 Yeah, but what if you do 1.5-2x the volume of a PPL 2x on a bro split? Basically what most pros do.

I think once a week can be more effective than PPL 2x if you absolutely destroy the muscle per session, but most people aren't advanced enough to be able to do this amount of volume on a single day.

Paulo Muzy is a Brazilian doctor and bodybuilder and he advocates that PPL 2x is good for intermediates and bro splits are necessary for advanced bodybuilders, because they reach a point where weekly volume is so high that it would be impractical to do more than one muscle group per day.
 
@spst It’s more about mass per year. 1st year or two gain roughly 20lbs of muscle- if diet and high frequency are on point. Then the gains slow. Maybe 5lbs—10 a year for the next couple years. Then it gets to a point that you’re only gaining 1-2lbs per year so more volume is needed.

Thus, most go:
Full Body- year one
Upper lower- year two
PPL 2x - year three-five
Then most start doing Bro Split- this will get you through years 5-10.

Then you start doing stuff that’s more full body again, Bc around year 7-10 you realize certain muscles recover faster and can get hit again, while others take longer.

So then you’ll have a day that’s Squat / biceps / Delts- and people think “the fuck?” But it’s because those are the ones ready to train that day.

Point being is anything works the first few years. Then it becomes important.
 
@rsimmons1 Well as i said, it doesn't matter. I train for a long time now and tried every split there is. And for me it did not make any difference. Dame expereience for people that in know who tried various splits.

Some people just dont like it to train the whole upper body in one session or even full body for example.

If you have fun doing that ok. But If you dont just do a Bro split and you will be fine too.
 
@sunflower39 It's absolutely fine. Some studies showed it was minimally better to train twice a week but that effect is super small and probably doesn't exist over the long run. Lift the way you enjoy.
 
@sunflower39 This is mike mentzer's way of training, it's called high intensity.

Workout Routine

96 hours apart once every 4 days

Mon-Fri-Tues

Day one: Chest and back

Day two: Quads, hamstrings and calves

Day three: Delts and arms

Day four: Legs again

Day five: Mobility work (calisthenics, cardio, sauna, stretching)

Day six: Mobility work (calisthenics, cardio, sauna, stretching)

Day seven: Mobility work (calisthenics, cardio, sauna, stretching, yoga, swimming, hiking)

WORKOUT REGIMEN

Warm Up
  1. Before attempting max weights to failure, perform 1 light set (25% of your working load) and 1 medium set (50% of your working load) on the first exercise on the body part to be worked.
Intensity Factors

6-10 for upper body - grow increasingly stronger in this range

8-15 for lower body - grow increasingly stronger in this range

Every set MUST be to FAILURE

Techniques

HEAVY SET (heavy set after warm up)(heavy set cycle to failure)

MAINTAIN PROPER FORM (This meant taking 4+ seconds on the positive, and 4+ seconds on the negative)

(Optional) PARTIAL REPS (When you can no longer do 100% full rep motion move on to - 75 % reps, 50% reps, 25% reps)

(Optional) Static Hold (Before failure on the 25% reps hold the weight up as high as you can and hold long as you can where there’s tension)

(Optional) THE TRIPLE DROPS on heavy sets (every set to failure - drop weight 10%-25% - max out - drop weight 10-25% - max out - drop weight 10%-25% - max out)(Max out within the the rep range you set for the body part)

(Optional) REST PAUSE do three or four reps, rest a few seconds, do two more, rest a few seconds, then do one or two more and that would be the closest I’ll come to a maximum lift.

Extra

On a heavy basic routine, the lowest I go will be three or four reps and I rest-pause those. So I do three or four reps, rest a few seconds, do two more, rest a few seconds, then do one or two more and that would be the closest I’ll come to a maximum lift. I always do at least six to eight reps in whatever exercise and set I’m doing.

Exercises

QUADS

Free weight squats (8-15)

HAMSTRINGS

Day Two:

Seated leg extension (8-15)

Lying leg curl (8-15)

Day Four:

Seated leg extension (Static hold) (10-25 seconds)

Lying leg curl (Static hold) (10-25 seconds)

CALVES

Standing calf raises (12-20)

CHEST

Chest pec fly machine (6-10)

Barbell Smith machine incline 30° positioning - close hand grip (1-3)

BACK

Close Grip palms up pull down (6-10)

Deadlifts (interlocking grip) (5-8)

SHOULDERS

Dumbbell lateral raises (6–10)

Bent-over dumbbell laterals (6–10)

ARMS

Straight barbell curl (6-10)

Machine barbell curl (6-10)

Tricep pressdown (straight or v bar) (6-10)

Weighted dips parallel bars (3-5)

DELTS

Dumbell laterals (6-10)

Pec deck backwards (6-10)

ABDOMINALS

Sit ups over a bench nice and slow to concentrate on the contraction (When you can do more than 20 reps with your body weight, hold a barbell plate in your folded arms (at the chest) so that you’re only able to do 10 to 12 reps. Stay with the new weight until you can do 20)
 
@sunflower39 Higher frequencies results in a measurable difference in the short term. This effect is probably over-emphasized in the longer term: muscle growth is logarithmic i.e. the more muscle you have, the harder it is to put on more muscle. That means that if you're slightly less efficient, because you have less muscle, you're in a faster growth phase relative to the person who maximized their growth a little more—the gap between you narrows over time. This is why bro splits were able to catch on in the first place.

I think it's still worth it to do higher frequencies because
  1. missed sessions have a smaller impact
  2. higher frequencies with the same volume distributed allow for the same gains with lower RPEs (I suspect because the volume is of greater quality per-set because you're hitting the muscle when it's fresher)
  3. the higher your frequency, the lower the soreness, etc.
Some people do train with PPL 1x a week. It's just more rare because people want to either maximize or optimize their growth, and it does neither; if you only have 3 days a week, you're better off doing a split that lets you pair up antagonist muscle groups e.g. squat + leg curl
 
@sunflower39 Proteins synthesis happens for 36 hours after a workout. The only way to extend muscle protein synthesis past 36 hours is through steroids. It works great for steroid users but is a horrible way to train for natural athletes
 
@sunflower39 You need to figure it out yourself, the "science" has A LOT of flaws. Use it as a general guideline but don't get into the details as that will send you down a rabbit hole. The bodybuilders before our generation had no science helping them and they were just fine. We have every other exercise scientist disagreeing with each other because they interpret the data differently, that should tell you something.

Example from personal experience: My legs grow immensely when I train them really hard once every 4-5 days, for whatever reason I can't explain and there is no scientific recommendation for it either, I just figured it out by experimenting.

Tried 3 sets every 48h, didn't work. "Lower" twice a week, didn't work. And once every 7 days was too long. Still figuring out my upper body.
 
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