What about undertraining?

[Parker]

I have a friend who was training only 1x per week for a few months in his offseason this year. He worked full body in three workouts, each bodypart once every three weeks. While it may seem he wasn't training enough, he was getting stronger every workout. He's preparing for a competition now so he's upped his routine to about 3-4x per week. I just find it interesting some people grow on one end of the extreme(6 days on and one day off) and others grow on the other end of the extreme(1 day on and 6 days off).

[bex]

Less can often mean more.........

[jbrand]

Originally posted by Parker
I have a friend who was training only 1x per week for a few months in his offseason this year. He worked full body in three workouts, each bodypart once every three weeks. While it may seem he wasn't training enough, he was getting stronger every workout. He's preparing for a competition now so he's upped his routine to about 3-4x per week. I just find it interesting some people grow on one end of the extreme(6 days on and one day off) and others grow on the other end of the extreme(1 day on and 6 days off).

there is no universal 'best' workout program. ones workout regimen should incorporate variegrated principles and it is in ones own best interest not to get attached to one particular train of thought as far as training. constant periodization is essential IMO, which would incorporate differentiating various loading parameters. periods of high volume are usually best followed by significantly lower volume protocols. in fact, the eastern bloc athletes used to plan cycles of overtraining followed by 'undertraining' so to speak which seemed to be efficient in which tapering off volume tends to increase strength with most individuals.