Question of the Day

There are really two fundamental principles for gaining muscle: force the muscle to contract and give the muscle a little more work each time.



Learn more about the science behind training by reading The Seven Laws of Training.

Now, if that were going to be published in a magazine, it would get pretty boring, no? So magazines must take these fundamentals and then hype them. You'll read a previous issue that says you can train the muscle only once per week. You'll find another issue that hypes doing it three times per week.

Here's the catch ... the body is fairly adaptive. If you are doing the same routine ad nauseum, then changing it is bound to provoke a response, whether in strength gains, soreness, or actual muscle mass.

So what happens is people read the magazine and think they are training great, see some new technique and try it out and find they get results. Suddenly this is "the way" to train and they tell everyone about the "key" to success. Of course, after a few months, the gains start to slow, they try a new routine, and then the cycle starts all over again.

There is no optimal frequency to train muscles. The reason why studies vary so much is because they simply compute an average response due to the study. Some groups will respond one way, others a different way. When you first start training, you can see a response with as many as 3 - 4 times working the same muscle each week! After you've been training for years, you might work the same muscle every ten days.

There is no "simple" answer. The magazines have to package a "lowest common denominator" article so they can appease the masses. If you want average results, go with the status quo "average" that is copying the articles from those magazines. You want unique, distinct results, keep a detailed journal, experiment with a variety of methods and find what works the best for you!

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