How often to do lift?

CharlesChadworth · 2018-11-21T01:56:35+00:00

Lift more days in the week than you don't.

Morpheus_TNTB · 2018-11-21T01:35:23+00:00

Unless you're doing roids you shouldn't be doing more than 3-4 strength workouts a week to recover properly. I wasted countless months no gains/lost strength with your approach.

[deleted] · 2018-11-21T02:10:58+00:00

There is no single right answer to this question. Everyone's body is different. Assuming no steroids, most people need at least one off-day per week. On the other hand, most people won't continue growing after noob gains without lifting multiple times per week. So the range is basically 2-6 days per week. Obviously, that's quite a wide range and you have to figure out what works for you.

Reading into your post a bit, you mention training different muscle groups each day so you aren't overtraining. While you are right that spacing out exercises for the same muscle groups helps avoid overtraining, it is not a guarantee. There is unavoidable overlap (arms<>chest/back, chest<>shoulders, lower back<>legs,etc.) and also central nervous system fatigue. If you are hitting the gym 6+ times per week, you might benefit significantly from training less and resting more.

Most importantly, you should really not feel bad if you don't go to the gym some days. Firstly, you need recovery days. Second, sometimes there are more important things in life than lifting and missing a session shouldn't make you feel bad if your priorities are straight. I say this as someone that also has irrational negative emotions around missing gym days.

To find your sweet spot, stick to a schedule for 6-12 weeks and monitor your diet closely. Weigh yourself frequently and at different times of the day to get an idea of how your weight is evolving. Take selfies at various points to track your progress. Also consider checking your BF% (skin fold test is cheap). Then, switch it up for 6-12 more weeks and compare. Do this for a few different variations and you'll start to figure out your body. Clearly, this takes a lot of time.

Personally, I am doing push-pull-legs-off, so, working out three of every four days. That works out to 5.25 sessions per week. On the off days I usually do a low-intensity yoga class (stretching, basically). I also do 4-5 hours of light-to-moderate cardio per week through riding my bike to and from work. I also spend a lot of time seasonally doing other recreational athletic activities (cycling, hiking, skiing). Altogether, I probably do too much. Working on it!

SirKolbath · 2018-11-21T02:08:20+00:00

Follow a program. Don't lift or rest at random. And don't design your own program. Find one that has been developed by an expert and proven to work.

DefJ456 · 2018-11-21T03:14:11+00:00

5-6 days a week normally. Only going 2-3 times a week at moment while my shoulder recovers from a bad lift (dont be stupid while lifting, stretch out good !!!)

CharlesChadworth · 2018-11-21T08:37:29+00:00

7 days in the week, train at least 4 times a week brah. Can be weekends as well.

Title	How often to do lift?
Author	HumptyDumptyFellHard
Upvotes	1
Comments	8
Date	November 21, 2018 1:28 AM UTC (7 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/9yykdg/how_often_to_do_lift/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/how-often-to-do-lift.68849 https://theredarchive.com/post/68849

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