Training Frequency: What is the best workout split?

Training Frequency: What is the best workout split?

Mar 23, 2019 | Exercise

In the past two articles, we have looked into training volume and intensity. Based on these articles, we now know that most people should train every muscle group with about 10-20 sets per week in a 5-15 rep range. If you get this right, you will experience significant improvements in muscle growth. But there is one last factor that still needs to be discussed: Training Frequency.

How you distribute your volume and intensity throughout the week is relevant for muscle growth. Say someone trains their chest with about 15 sets per week. Should this person do all these 15 sets in one training day? Or should this volume be distributed over multiple days? (e.g. 8 sets on Monday and 7 sets on Thursday).

In this article, I will go into detail on training frequency for building muscle. After reading this article, you will have a better idea of how you should organize your training to support muscle growth. As always, this article is based on the most recent scientific research and logic.

Training Frequency: The Research

Training frequency essentially refers to how you organize your volume and intensity in a training week. Training frequency is a relevant variable because it impacts how much volume you can handle and recover from.

Some people like to train a muscle group so hard once every week, that they cannot train that muscle group again until the next week. Although this may “feel” effective because you are constantly sore, there are more effective ways to organize your training. It’s generally a good idea to divide the volume you have per muscle group over multiple training days. The research supports this.

Example Study 1:

A 2015 study divided 20 trained male volunteers into two groups. Group 1 trained each muscle group 3x per week with a full-body routine, group 2 trained each muscle 1x per week with a body-part split. Training volume (defined as Reps*Sets*Weight) was matched between groups. After 8 weeks, the full-body training group gained more muscle.

Example Study 2:

A 2016 meta-analysis gathered the data from 10 resistance training studies on training frequency and muscle growth. The researchers found that training each muscle 2-3x per week is more effective than training every muscle group 1x per week.

Example Study 3:

A more recent 2018 meta-analysis gathered the data from 22 resistance training studies on training frequency and strength. In this review, it was found that higher training frequencies also generally translate into greater strength gains.

Better Performance & More Practice

The most likely reason that training each muscle group 2-3x per week is more effective is that it allows you to perform better in your training. Just think about it. Let’s say you train your back with 15 sets in a week. If you perform all of these 15 sets in 1 training day, the second half of your workout will be of lower quality.

Training frequency

The first 8-10 sets or so will fatigue your back for the rest of your training session and your performance will drop. This is different if you divide those 15 sets over 2 or 3 training days. You will be able to maintain a high level of performance on most of your sets since you are more recovered. As you probably know, consistently performing better will eventually lead to better training adaptations.

Higher training frequencies also work well because they allow you to practice your main movements more often. Strength is a skill that requires consistent practice. So if you want to improve a certain exercise, it makes sense to practice that exercise more often in a week. As an example, instead of having 6 sets of bench press in 1 big “chest day”, have 3 sets of bench press divided over 2 upper body days. This allows you to get more high-quality “learning” on the movement you want to improve.

Later in this article, I’ll show more practical examples of high-frequency training.

Training Frequency & Protein Synthesis

There is also another interesting theory for why higher training frequencies are more effective for muscle growth. Muscle growth basically occurs when muscle protein synthesis exceeds muscle protein breakdown. This is known as having a “Positive Protein Balance.”

Training affects the protein balance mainly by boosting muscle protein synthesis up. But the duration at which muscle protein synthesis remains elevated after training is pretty short. Research shows the rate of muscle protein synthesis remains elevated for about 48 hours after training. So the muscles you train stop growing after about 2 days. If we consider this, it does not make sense to train a muscle group just 1x per week.

Now, this does not mean that everyone should train each muscle group every 2 days. You need to be able to recover from your training as well. But this only further supports that training your muscle groups more frequently in a week is a good idea if you currently train them only 1x per week.

High-Frequency In Practice

Now that we know higher training frequencies are beneficial for gaining muscle, let’s look into some splits that fit within high-frequency training. There actually are many different ways you can divide your weekly volume to train each muscle group 2-3x per week. Popular splits that fit within our desired frequencies are:

  • Upper/Lower splits (2x Upper, 2x Lower)
  • Full-Body (3-5 Full-Body Workouts)
  • Push/Pull/Legs (Every Workout 2x)

Training frequency

But these are not black-and-white routines. Remember that there is no 1 “best” training split. As long as you train with enough volume, have the right intensity range, and divide your volume per muscle group into 2-3 sessions/week, you will see great results. So if a certain split fits your preferences and allows you to hit your training targets, then go for it.

To give more examples, you can also combine the workout splits I’ve mentioned earlier:

Training Frequency

As you can see, there are almost endless possibilities, which is good because it allows flexibility. This is why the routines of my clients look quite different on an individual basis. Based on personal preference and how you progress, you can tweak many things in your training so that it suits you better.

But if you are just looking for a simple routine you can put into practice today, you can check out my 3-day full-body routine. In the YouTube video below, I go over the entire routine and walk you through day 1 of the program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9MPDSUAXek

 

Main Takeaways & Final Words:

  • Training a muscle group 2-3x per week is more effective than 1x per week for muscle and strength gain.
  • When you train a muscle group more frequently, you divide the volume you currently have over more training sessions. Don’t do the same high-volume workouts more frequently.
  • Higher training frequencies allow you to manage fatigue more effectively. This results in better training performance.
  • There are many different splits that allow you to train each muscle 2-3x per week. As long as you hit your volume, intensity, and frequency goals, you can make your choice based on preference.

That’s all for this article and my 3-part blog series on training programming! Now that you have a deeper understanding of volume, intensity, and frequency, I hope you can be more effective in programming your own workouts.

For Extra Help: My Coaching Service

If you still would like professional guidance on how to plan your training (and nutrition), I suggest you read up on my online coaching service. Through this online coaching service, you outsource the “thinking” work that comes with designing your training and nutrition to me. This allows you to fully focus on executing to achieve your fitness goals.

This is a 1-on-1 service in which I design your training and nutrition based on a thorough assessment. I also keep you accountable via text messages, weekly email consults, and monthly Skype calls. If this is something you are interested in, leave your name and email below and I’ll get back to you with the details.

 

Rest Between Sets For Muscle Growth (Science-Based Approach)

Rest Between Sets For Muscle Growth (Science-Based Approach)

Jan 19, 2019 | Exercise

There are conflicting opinions when it comes to how long you should rest between sets for muscle growth. Some believe you should rest very little to stimulate growth hormone, whereas others rest longer to maximize performance.

In this article, we’ll discuss the science behind rest intervals. With the use of the available scientific evidence, we’ll look into the effects of different rest times between sets. This will help you make more informed decisions on how long you should rest between sets to maximize muscle growth.

Typical Rest Interval Recommendations

You probably have seen a figure like the one below before on the internet or in an old-school exercise textbook.

Rest between sets for muscle growth

The rest periods for muscular endurance and strength make sense. In line with the principle of training specificity, your muscles need to “endure” more if you have rest intervals of under a minute. So you’ll mostly achieve muscular endurance adaptations if your rest between sets is short.

For strength, the opposite applies. When you rest longer, you are able to train with heavier weights, which then results in strength adaptations that help you produce more force.

Now, when it comes to muscle growth, the typical rest recommendations we see that state you should rest 30-60 seconds are mostly based on outdated theories.

Hormonal Response & Rest Intervals

The idea that short rest periods are beneficial for muscle growth is primarily based on the finding that short rest intervals increase human growth hormone levels (HGH). Since HGH is an anabolic hormone, increasing HGH by having short rest intervals must be beneficial for muscle growth, right?

Well, not really.

First of all. HGH has a weak relationship with muscle growth. HGH is mostly involved in building up connective tissue (tissue that attaches muscle to bone), not so much muscle itself.

Also, temporary increases in anabolic hormones do not increase muscle growth. Even if it’s testosterone. Changes in anabolic hormone levels can only influence muscle growth if these changes occur over the long-term.

Just think about it, cortisol (= stress hormone) and muscle protein breakdown (= breakdown of muscle) also increase after training. But we know this isn’t harmful because it’s not a long-term change, it’s just a temporary spike. The same holds true with temporary spikes in HGH or testosterone, these mean very little.

So just because HGH or any other anabolic hormone is acutely increased after having short rest periods, doesn’t mean this will translate into more muscle growth.

Research on Rest Between Sets

Training volume is the main driver of muscle growth. Volume can be defined as the total of Reps*Sets*Weight you perform per muscle group. Up to a certain point, research consistently shows a positive relationship between volume and muscle growth.

Having short rest intervals directly impairs the amount of volume you can do in a workout. As a simple example, if you rest 45 seconds between each set of your squat, you’ll perform worse than if you rest 2-3 minutes between each set.

rest between sets for muscle growth

So having longer rest between sets allows you to perform more volume in your training. If you consistently can perform more volume, you generally also get better training adaptations. The research supports this.

A 2016 study led by Dr. Schoenfeld randomly assigned 21 trained males to a 1-minute rest between sets (SHORT) and 3-minute rest between sets (LONG) group. After an 8-week training period, the long rest group gained significantly more muscle than the short rest group. Most likely because the long rest group was able to handle more volume in their training.

Another 2009 study had similar findings. In this research, the group that rested 2.5 minutes between sets gained more muscle than the group that rested only 1 minute between sets.  Again, this likely was because the long rest group was able to perform more volume.

Exercise Selection & Rest Intervals

So it’s evident that having longer rest periods is beneficial for muscle growth. But exactly how long you should rest between sets depends on the type of exercises you perform. The goal is to adequately rest so you can perform well again on your next set. On some exercises, you need more rest to recover than others.

Compound exercises like the squat, bench press and overhead press are inherently more fatiguing than isolation exercises like the side delt raise or bicep curls. So it’s a good idea to rest a bit longer between sets when you perform compound movements and a bit shorter during isolation lifts.

A good general rule of thumb is to rest 2-3 minutes between sets on heavy compound exercises and 1-2 minutes on low-stress isolation exercises. For most people, this should be enough to recover properly and hit it hard again when your next set comes up.

Shorten Training Time

A common concern when it comes to resting longer between sets is that the training time increases drastically. If you have only limited time in the gym but would still like to maximize performance, there are a few training tools that can help you. To be specific: Supersets & Rest-Pause Training

Using Supersets

A superset basically refers to alternating between 2 exercises with no rest in between them. If you use exercises that train opposing muscle groups, this can be a great way to save time without negatively affecting your performance.
Rest between sets for muscle growth
A good example is supersetting the barbell bench press with barbell rows. While you train the barbell row, your chest and triceps rest from doing the bench press. While you train the bench press, your back and biceps rest from doing cable rows.
Just make sure the exercises you superset do not train the same muscle groups. If you superset the bench press with cable chest flyes, your performance will take a hit. Also be careful with supersetting “whole-body” exercises like squats, deadlift, and heavy overhead pressing. These exercises by themselves tend to tire you out and shouldn’t be combined.

Rest-Pause Training

The primary reason short rest periods are suboptimal for muscle growth is that they impair training volume. One way you can work around this while still having short rest periods is by performing more sets in your training until you reach your volume goal. This is exactly what rest-pause training allows you to do.

With rest-pause training, you take your first set close to failure, rest for 10-15 seconds and repeat the process until you reach your volume goal.

Rest between sets for muscle growth

For example, you are in a hurry and need to perform 3 sets of 10 reps on cable side delt raises, you can set a volume goal of 30 reps and use rest-pause sets (see picture above) to quickly finish your workout. Recent research shows this is an effective way to accumulate volume for muscle growth.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that a breakdown in form is common when using rest-pause training because of its fatiguing effects. So it’s a good idea to use this training tool with isolation lifts only to minimize the risk of injury.

Conclusion: How Long You Should Rest

If we take all points discussed above into consideration, we reach a simple conclusion about how long you should rest between sets for muscle growth.

Long rest periods are more effective than short rest periods because they allow you to accumulate more volume.

This primarily holds true on heavy compound exercises like the squat, bench press, overhead press etc. On these heavy compound movements, rest ~2-3 minutes between sets. For low-stress isolation exercises like the tricep pushdown and side delt raises, you typically can get away with shorter rest periods of ~1-2 minutes between sets.

Make sure you monitor how well recovered you feel after your rest periods. Feel free to rest slightly longer if you think this will benefit your performance or have shorter rest periods if you tend to recover quickly between your sets.

For times when you are in a hurry and would like to reduce your time in the gym, use training tools like supersets and rest-pause training, as described in the previous paragraph.

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Lose Fat Without Losing Muscle

Lose Fat Without Losing Muscle

Sep 8, 2016 | Exercise, Nutrition

Muscle growth doesn’t come quickly to us natural lifters. That’s why you want to cherish every pound of muscle you build. The last thing we want to do is lose a significant amount of muscle during a fat loss phase.

If you approach your fat loss phase incorrectly, this can occur. But as you’ll see in this post, it’s more than possible to preserve muscle well while you are in a fat loss phase.

How Fat Loss Affects Muscle Growth

When your body is in an energy deficit, it will have to tap into its energy reserves. The most obvious reserve to turn to is body fat. This is why your body gains fat when you overfeed it, so it can use it in times of food scarcity.

But body fat isn’t the only energy source available that is used to balance out an energy deficit. For instance, research shows that protein breakdown also increases when you’re in a calorie deficit.

The human body builds (protein synthesis) and breaks down (protein breakdown) muscle proteins every day. If the number of muscle proteins you’ve built exceeds the number of muscle proteins you’ve broken down, you’ve built muscle.

In a calorie deficit, research shows that protein synthesis rates drop and protein breakdown rates increase. This negatively affects the amount of muscle you build and can potentially make you lose muscle if your approach is too aggressive.

lose fat without losing muscle

There are 3 main factors that can minimize (or maximize if you do it incorrectly) the negative effect an energy deficit has on muscle growth.

  1. Caloric intake
  2. Protein intake
  3. Resistance training

We’ll discuss how you can use these factors to your advantage, one by one.

Caloric Intake

You’re probably thinking that I’m going to tell you to ”maintain a small deficit” or ”keep fat loss very slow”. I’m not, the slower you’re losing fat, the longer it takes to reach your fat loss goal. Why is this not beneficial for muscle growth, you ask?

Well, research shows that the longer you’re underfeeding your body, the more susceptible to muscle loss you become. That’s why you don’t want to drag out your fat loss phase if there is no need to.

That said, severe calorie restriction is also not the answer (unless you’re morbidly obese). Research by the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences shows that muscle and strength loss is significant when non-obese individuals eat way below their caloric requirements.

So how many calories should you eat to maximize muscle preservation while still losing fat rapidly?

A good starting point is found in a scientific review paper, which was designed to provide evidence-based recommendations for natural bodybuilders (people like you, who want to gain more muscle and lose more fat).

They found that losing 0.5-1% of total body weight per week is a good starting point for those who want to improve their body composition. This generally can be achieved by maintaining a calorie deficit of roughly 20-25%. Like in this study, in which athletes lost an average of 1.2 lbs per week by maintaining a deficit of 24%.

Protein Intake

The role of protein during a fat loss phase is very simple: it increases muscle preservation and keeps you full for longer. That’s why it’s highly beneficial to maintain a somewhat high protein intake during your fat loss phase.

lose fat without losing muscle

But most people take this the wrong way. Because a higher protein intake is beneficial, they think they should stuff themselves with protein every 2-3 hours. This is not necessary.

A 2017 systematic review indicates that consuming as low as 0.7g/lb. (1.6g/kg) of body weight is able to maximize muscle growth. If you want to err on the safe side of things and make use of the satiating effects of protein, you can feel free to consume more protein in a day.

Resistance Training

The human body is quite fascinating. It’s able to survive in extreme circumstances due to its adaptive capabilities and efficiency.

It won’t hold on to muscle tissue that is not used for an extended period of time. It sees this as unnecessary extra weight, which costs energy to preserve. For the same reason, you won’t just build muscle.

You need to give your body a reason to preserve and eventually build muscle. You provide this stimulus simply by using your muscles in training. This helps explain why research by the Washington University shows that weight training increases muscle preservation in calorie-restricted individuals.

lose fat without losing muscle

To maximize muscle preservation and perhaps even build muscle during your fat loss phase (depending on how close you are to you are to your genetic limit), you need to train for progressive overload.

The training you perform in the gym is considered a stress that forces an adaptive response. Your body adapts to training by building bigger and stronger muscles so that it can deal more efficiently with the provided training stress in the near future. So for consistent muscle growth to occur, you need to constantly challenge your muscles beyond their present capacity (a.k.a. Progressive Overload)

Final Words

As you just read in this blog post, you do not need to go to any extremes to preserve muscle during a fat loss phase. As long as you eat at an appropriate deficit, consume enough protein and train regularly, you will not lose muscle.

If you are interested in learning more about maximizing your muscular potential, check out my new eBook “The Art & Science of Muscle Growth. This book translates the currently available scientific data about muscle growth in “Basic English”, so everyone can start implementing an evidence-based approach to training and nutrition.

The Art & Science of Muscle Growth

Click here to purchase this eBook

Progressive Overload: Primary Driver of Muscle Growth

Progressive Overload: Primary Driver of Muscle Growth

Aug 10, 2016 | Exercise

Do one quick Google search on how to train for muscle growth and you’ll get a massive amount of different answers. Although muscle growth is indeed a bit complicated, it essentially can be boiled down to one single key principle: Progressive Overload. In this article, I’ll explain why progressive overload is an important component of your training if you want to get bigger and stronger.

What Is Progressive Overload?

Progressive overload refers to training your muscles beyond their present capacity. In other words, being able to lift more weight or perform more volume (like an extra rep or set) than before. There is research indicating this is a key driver of muscle growth.

Progressive overload has a greater impact on muscle growth than any muscle building ”secret”

The training you perform in the gym is considered a stress that forces an adaptive response. Your body adapts to training by building bigger and stronger muscles so that it can deal more efficiently with the provided training stress in the near future. So for consistent muscle growth to occur, you need to constantly challenge your muscles beyond their present capacity

This means that you need to program your training in such a fashion that it allows you to train with heavier weights and more volume over multiple training periods.

But a stronger muscle isn’t always a bigger one, right?

That’s true, research shows that your body recognizes movement patterns and becomes more efficient in them after repetitive practice. This enables you to lift more weight (get stronger) without actually having bigger muscles. This is known as Neuromuscular Adaptations.

But after a certain point, your training becomes very efficient and an increase in strength can at least partially be attributed to an increase in muscle size, which allows for more force to be produced.

Progressive overload

Training For Muscle Growth

Even though it’s to a lesser degree, research shows that next to progressive overload (or more specifically, increased mechanical tension), there are two other primary ways muscle growth can be achieved.

  • Muscle damage:

Damaging the muscle fibers, so they can grow back bigger and stronger. This naturally occurs with resistance training and trying to maximize it doesn’t seem to positively affect the amount of muscle you build. So training specifically for muscle damage is not necessary.

  • Metabolic fatigue: 

Training the muscle to failure. Making the muscle fatigue, like in high rep ”pump style” training.

The issue with training specifically for metabolic fatigue or muscle damage is that it’s counterproductive to the goal of progressively overloading your muscles. Research shows that training with high reps, short rest-intervals, and lighter weights does build muscle, but it’s at the cost of another important variable: external load.

Think about it, training with very high volume and short rest-intervals limits the amount of weight you can lift. This results in less overload in exchange for more metabolic fatigue. As said earlier, progressively overloading your muscles has been suggested to be more important for gaining muscle

progressive overload

Unfortunately, training for progressive overload isn’t a concept many follow. When you look at the average ”bro” in the gym, you’ll see them perform random drop sets, supersets and taking 30-60 seconds rest in between sets without even thinking about long-term progress.

This is something we have adopted from the world of bodybuilding, and it works very well for them. But that’s probably because the big bodybuilding stars are all on performance-enhancing drugs. Because of this, they react differently to training.

There’s even a study that shows non-training steroid users build more muscle than resistance-training natural individuals. In case you didn’t get the message, the steroid-users built more muscle, without any form of exercise.

So just because you see fitness celebrities build massive amounts of muscle by doing drop sets, supersets, mega-sets or whatever, doesn’t mean you should mimic them. As a natural lifter, you’re way better of lifting heavy and making awesome progress in the gym.

Learn More In My New eBook

If you are interested in learning more about maximizing your muscular potential, check out my new eBook “The Art & Science of Muscle Growth. This book translates the currently available scientific data on muscle growth in “simple English”, so everyone can start implementing an evidence-based approach to training and nutrition.

The Art & Science of Muscle Growth

Click here to purchase this eBook