Strength training once every few days is appropriate

There is no standard answer that applies to everyone. For ordinary fitness enthusiasts, 3-5 times a week is the most universal and efficient range. The final frequency must be adjusted based on the three core variables of your training goals, recovery ability, and daily rhythm. It doesn’t matter if you do it more or less. The one that suits you is the best.

The most common mistake for newbies is to copy the class schedule from fitness bloggers. If they do 6 exercises a week, you should follow them, regardless of your background. Last year, I met a junior boy who just went on summer vacation. He tried hard to build abdominal muscles in two months. He did chest exercises one day, back exercises one day, legs, shoulders and arms, for 12 consecutive days. In the end, he had a fever and went to the hospital. It was found that his immunity was weakened due to excessive fatigue. It took him half a month to rest. All the strength he had gained before was lost, and it was not worth the gain.

To be honest, friends who are new to strength training really don’t need to engage in such complicated differentiated training. Three full-body trainings a week are enough. Just practice compound movements such as squats, bench presses, deadlifts, and rowing to perfection each time. After all, the brain of a novice is still weak in controlling muscles, and many muscle fibers cannot be mobilized at all. If you train the whole body in one go, each part can receive enough stimulation and the recovery can keep up. I used to take care of a mother who had a two-year-old baby, so I could only squeeze in an hour each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night to practice. Just follow this rhythm. After 3 months, she could carry a 20-pound baby up to the fifth floor without gasping for breath.

If you have been practicing for half a year and want to increase your muscles and dimensions, the frequency can be adjusted upward according to your time. Current mainstream research supports that each muscle group should be stimulated at least twice a week. If you have enough time, you can choose to train the upper and lower limbs 4 times a week, or practice the pushing and pulling legs 6 times a week. This industry has actually been quarreling for many years. Old-school bodybuilding players like to use a split model of five exercises a week. Each part is only done once a week, and more than 20 sets of high-volume exercises can still build amazing muscles. New-school trainers prefer a high-frequency, low-volume model, training each part two or three times a week, and doing a few fewer sets each time, which is also very efficient. There is really no need to argue about who is right and who is wrong. The key is whether your body can handle it. If you are energetic the next day and can work overtime to take care of your baby, then it’s absolutely fine to practice one more time. If you can’t even open your eyes when you go to work the next day after practicing, then you should honestly reduce the amount.

Many people have a misunderstanding that muscles grow while lifting weights in the gym, but this is not the case at all. To put it bluntly, when you lift iron, you are tearing out some tiny wounds in the muscle fibers. Afterwards, eat well and sleep well, and the body will repair these wounds to be thicker than before. This is the process of growing muscles, which is often called over-recovery. I also did it when I was young. I went to the gym 6 days a week and stayed up late every day to play games. I practiced for a year and the bench press was stuck at 60kg and I couldn't move. Later, I adjusted it to 4 exercises a week and slept for 8 hours a day. In three months, I increased to 75kg. It's funny to say it. I was just suffering all the time.

Really don’t compete with your own pace of life. If you are a 996 programmer, or a parent who usually takes care of a baby, if you can practice three times a week, you are already better than 90% of people. Don’t set a KPI for yourself to practice five times a week. If you can’t complete it, you will feel anxious. Fitness is to add points to your life, not to add trouble to you. I have a student who works in e-commerce operations. During the big sales period, he only slept 5 hours a day for half a month. During that period, he practiced three major exercises twice a week for 40 minutes each time. He didn't lose any muscle. It was better than practicing until he got sick.

Oh, by the way, there is another very useful criterion: you have some expectations before going to the gym every time, you are not forced to complete the task, you stretch your body after the exercise, and you are not so tired that you can't even walk, then this frequency is the most suitable for you. There is really no need to worry about how many days it takes. The frequency that you can stick to for a long time is the best frequency.