Muscle Building Schedule

Next to "how many reps should I be doing", "how often should I train" is the most often asked question in gyms by the people who are trying to be serious about building muscle. And for good reason. It is probably the least understood and most complex ingredient to a muscle building plan. It might also be the most important. Here is the answer.

The first thing you must know is that muscle building is a continuum and therefore by definition you are never "done". Hence where along the time line continuum are you, because that is the first variable that makes this a complex situation. The second variable is the related mass continuum.

Muscle is a very metabolically active tissue. It takes a lot of work for your body to maintain it. Therefore the more muscle you have, the more it needs to be trained. The old "use it or lose it" philosophy. But you aren't trying to simply not LOSE it you are trying to ADD to it, which now becomes the third variable. So as you can see the answer to how often to train can become quite complex very quickly. But there are some general guidelines that can help most people become more efficient at muscle building. Muscle Building Schedule

The first is, if you are a beginning lifter (depending on age this is someone lifting for less than 6 months, 20 something's and teenagers 3 months), train your whole body in each workout and try and do this every other day for 3 sessions then take two days in a row off.

Secondly, if you have a base of lifting (not a beginner as defined above), stop training your whole body in each workout. Instead divide your sessions into 4 groups, legs, back, chest and shoulders. Train each of these twice a week, doing two groups at a time. Now you are at 4 training sessions every 7 days instead of 3.

Thirdly, after plateauing, break arms out as a fifth group and train each group 3 times a week, doing 3 groups in each workout. This means each of your training sessions will be longer than before and there will be 5 workouts every 7 days. If this starts to sound like a lot of training, you are right. Remember, the more muscle you have the more it has to be trained to grow.

Obviously, regardless of your level never isolate the same body part on consecutive days. Don't work your chest two days in a row, for example. Fit abdominal work in as many days as you would like. For most people this is a body part that can't be over trained. For advanced lifters, abs becomes the sixth group and gets trained 3 times a week like any other muscle group. Muscle Building Schedule

Now you can see why professional bodybuilders have split sessions daily and train, basically every day. You can also see why "how often should I workout to build muscle" is a very complex question and really is unique to everyone. Muscle Building Schedule