How Often to Train

I have seen lots of guys fall by the way side with their training. They don’t hit their goals and so they give up. I can understand this, but what I don’t understand is why they don’t seem to educate themselves properly.

One of the main areas that the general population need to educate themselves in is how often to train. It is counter intuitive, but often training less is the way to go. This is hard to grasp for many new lifters because it’s unlike just about every other goal that they would have set previously.

Normally, you decide what you want to achieve and then figure out how to get it. And in just about every case, working harder will usually get you to your goal quicker. In school, it’s often not the smartest kids who get the best grades, but the kids who work the hardest.

And so when I tell people to only train half as much as they have been, they begin to wonder what is happening. Surely spending more time in the gym is better? Well, no it certainly isn’t…

Training too often leads to overtraining, which is not the most productive way to build muscle. If anything, overtraining will leave you smaller and less muscular looking.

What I’m about to tell you is the optimum amount of time to spend in a gym per week. It’s not the “lazy man’s” method for lifting; it really is the best way to gain maximum muscle. So once again, I ask you to take serious note and don’t dismiss it as a random rant of mine. You should realize by now that ranting isn’t me at all.

Ok, so what is the optimum amount of time to spend in a gym per week? I say 3-4 hours. Now let me explain how I came to this number. Remember that each workout should go for no longer than 1 hour.

When you work out, I’m sure you already realize that you are putting a lot of stress on your muscles. Now, while this is what causes muscle growth, not much is going to happen unless you give your muscles a chance to recover.

If you continually stress your muscles, day after day, then eventually they will shrink because they just are not able to repair themselves well enough. This means that to build maximum muscle, you need to give your muscles a decent enough rest.

But what size rest is “decent enough”? Is a few hours plenty? Or is a week too short a time span? Because, while we want to give our muscles enough time to rest, we certainly don’t want to be giving them too much time off. While training once a year would lead to well recovered muscles, it probably wouldn’t be the best way to build muscle.

So here’s what you need to do. When designing a workout, it’s important to give your muscles at least 48 hours to rebuild themselves. This is why you should never train the same muscles 2 days in a row.

Now, does this mean you cannot go to the gym 2 days a row? Yes and no. It all depends on what you’re working out. You will notice in the workout guide that comes included that some have your workouts split up by body groups.

If you spend one day training only your legs, then it’s safe to say that your chest is not exhausted. And therefore it is safe to workout the day after, assuming you leave your legs alone that day. So, if you’re training your entire body (and you’ll see why you should soon) then the best way to tackle this is to use 3-4

workouts per week. For beginners, I like to start people off with a whole body workout 3 times a week. This is a great way to start off and it also gives the body a good enough time to rest.

So if you need to train 3-4 times a week and you’re only training for up to an hour each time, you can see how training 3-4 hours a week is the optimum amount of time that you need to spend in the gym each week. Piece of cake huh?

Until next time,

MH www.TheMusclehead.com

PO Box 368, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, AUSTRALIA