Once a week muscle group concentration - Not working well...

I have been trying the theory of working out only one muscle group a week and I honestly have only maintained. Not gained any muscle to speak of, even while on Test E.

I am going to step it up. Tell me if this is wrong.

I will concentrate on one major muscle group per day and up my sets to 20 sets for muscle development instead of my standard 4-6.

My workout will look kinda like this.

M=Legs
T=Chest/abs
W=Back. Complete including traps
T=Arms
F=Legs
S=Chest/abs
S=Back. Complete including traps
and so on with no days off.

For me, I have always seen better gains with intense workouts.

My greatest gains came last October when I did Lower body one day and Upper the next then back to lower so that everything was hit 3 times a week with Sunday off.

I think I can handle any hard workout. I feel my body responds better to more intense workouts.

Has anyone else worked out this way?

Thanks

So you are thinking of working out 7 days a week so you can work out all body parts twice per week? Seems odd that you want to work abs 2x a week and Tris/Bis only once. I guess if it works for you all the power to you, but personally I just can't see it. What has worked best for me has been the following routine:

Mo - Chest/Tris
Tu - Quads/Abs
We - Rest
Th - Back/Bis
Fr - Shoulders/Hams
Sa - HIIT
Su - Rest

Quote:

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Originally Posted by doby48

So you are thinking of working out 7 days a week so you can work out all body parts twice per week? Seems odd that you want to work abs 2x a week and Tris/Bis only once. I guess if it works for you all the power to you, but personally I just can't see it. What has worked best for me has been the following routine:

Mo - Chest/Tris
Tu - Quads/Abs
We - Rest
Th - Back/Bis
Fr - Shoulders/Hams
Sa - HIIT
Su - Rest

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actually I was suggestiong a workout that is not on any type of exact schedule.

If you can forget that I mentioned days of the week and look at it as simply day 1,2,3,4 and so on, then you would see how I am not on a 1 or 2 or 3 times a week schedule and instead I would workout the same muscle group again when everything else was done.

Kinda like a 4 day full body routine. If there were 8 days in a week then every thing would get hit 2 times a week but in this case it is just shy of that.

Bro from what ive seen of your pics and from what you've said about gear and training, i would say you shouldnt be doing gear and it is your diet that is the problem!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JamesC

Bro from what ive seen of your pics and from what you've said about gear and training, i would say you shouldnt be doing gear and it is your diet that is the problem!

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agreed

As for the training bro, once a week is fine for each bodypart, u def should not be training everyday, that is crazy overtraining, rest and diet are the most important parts! Go on a 3 or 4 day a week program, with a day between training each time, lower your volume, 20 sets per bodypart is far 2 much imo! Keep to compound exercises eg squats, deads, bench, rows, shrugs, skulls, cgbp, dips and barbell curls. Do some research in the diet forum and stop doing gear all the time! If i remember rightly you started a dbol only cycle only 4 weeks after you started training or something ridiculous! Be patient!!

My diet is on key and has been since October 1st. It's 40/20/40 as I continue to bulk this winter.

The pics you refer to are now almost 2 months old. I have not put an updated one up and will not until the end of my current cycle.

From November 1st until today I have worked out like this

Mon - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Tue - off
Wed - Quads, Hams, Calves
Thu - off
Fri - Abs, Back, Bis
Sat - off
Sun - off

and my results have reflected my workout schedule, very little.

For October I did a dbol only cycle and got to see how my body responded to that.

I took November off from using gear and started my Test E only cycle on December 15th at 400mg a week (2 injections) for now. I will continue to use Test E for a full 12 weeks whether anyone disagrees or not.

I am actually glad that I did dbol separate from test e because it has allowed me to see how different they are. Dbol has many side effects and the Test shows no negative sides so far. If I took them together, I would not have known where some of the sides were coming from.

The workout routine above just does not work for me. I feel that all the extra rest is a huge wast of precious time and completely unnecessary.

Has anyone else done 20 set routines while working out muscle groups around 2 times a week and benefited from it? This is what I want to know.

I appreciate any comments but please try not to preach me a sermon about to use or not to use gear. I have already decided that.

Thanks

I still think the training you are propsing is just too much. Your body needs time to recover and you aren't giving it time to do that in what you are suggesting. If you aren't seeing gains then try different exercises and also you might want to try a different amount of reps. Possibly you aren't training hard enough or if you feel you are have you had someone check out your form? Bad for can result in heavy weights when not lifted properly seem like you aren't getting the workout you should be doing.

Some guys only do 5 sets of 5, some less, some more. I personally do 3 sets of 8 for most exercises for my best results. Are you going to failure or are you going short of failure, this is a preference to go to that point or not but you may want to try something different if you are getting results. Abs 2x a week is just crazy, abs will come out if your diet is in check and fact that you want to work them 2x a week says something.

I haven't seen any of the pics the other guys are referring to or any of your cycles, but in your last post you say that your diet has been in check since Oct 1 and you did a cycle in Oct? Thats not good, you should have had your diet in check and a good workout going for more than a year before you start a cycle. I could be wrong here but it sounds like you are trying make something happen overnight that just needs time. Being in shape and having a great body is work, if it was easy everyone one would be fit. I don't know how your physique is but one thing I have told people in the past is that you spend years feed junk into your body, you can't expect to have years of abuse on your body completely reversed that in a couple of months.

Bottom line... work on your diet and routine. Revise both until you are happy. If you think you have a good routine and you are not seeing results then post it here for people to give feedback on. Also have someone at the gym watch your form to make sure its good. If your form is bad, not only are you not working the muscles you are aiming for but you risk injury.

I think I get the best gains when I train hard, everyone trys to get all tech. about it, but obsiviously "over training" has worked for me. Good luck though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lavinco

I have been trying the theory of working out only one muscle group a week and I honestly have only maintained. Not gained any muscle to speak of, even while on Test E.

I am going to step it up. Tell me if this is wrong.

I will concentrate on one major muscle group per day and up my sets to 20 sets for muscle development instead of my standard 4-6.

My workout will look kinda like this.

M=Legs
T=Chest/abs
W=Back. Complete including traps
T=Arms
F=Legs
S=Chest/abs
S=Back. Complete including traps
and so on with no days off.

For me, I have always seen better gains with intense workouts.

My greatest gains came last October when I did Lower body one day and Upper the next then back to lower so that everything was hit 3 times a week with Sunday off.

I think I can handle any hard workout. I feel my body responds better to more intense workouts.

Has anyone else worked out this way?

Thanks

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IMO I think eventually yur Central Nervous Sysytem is gonna tell you to talk a walk. I don't believe you are getting enough rest with what you prepose. If I could handle hitting a body part twice a week I would do something like this......


Mon
Chest,Tris, Shoulders
Tues
Legs
Wed
Rest
Thurs
Back,Traps, Bis
Fri
Chest, Tris, Shoulders
Sat, Sun
Rest

Week 2
Mon
Legs
Tues
Back, Bis, Traps
Wed
Rest
Thurs
Chest, Tris, Shoulders
Fri
Legs
Sat, Sun
Rest

Week 3
Mon
Back, Bis, Traps.........Etc

This way every third week you are doubling up a body part but still allowing for rest.

Good Luck Though.

Some people think that two poor sessions a week are better than one good one. Also some people think that they are overtraining and that they are getting results, but they aren't really overtraining because they aren't training in the first place!

Present company excluded, because I don't know what any of you are doing. It is just what I have seen in my own experience.

Generally beating the living shit out of your CNS doesn't pay dividends, you might get a few premium bonds, but the results will soon drop off.

Here is the most important point:

If you work your CNS when it is not fully recovered, it cannot recruit muscle fibres, so you end up not working your muscles as fully as you could have done. You can end up undertraining your muscles, but continuing to overtrain your CNS, still leading to apparant systemic 'overtraining'.

two muscle groups per day should be fine. dedicate one day only to one of the muscle groups that is lacking the most to you, but not all of them. body needs time to rest in order to grow.

lavinco, what do you mean by intense? in my opinon ntense doesnt mean more sets. When i need an increase in intensity i never up the sets. i increase the intensity method. are you utilizing enough forced reps, rest pauses, statics, partials and negatives to make your sets productive? i only do ONE working set, with 2-3 warm up sets. Most of the warm up sets are 2-4 reps except the first set which is 7-10 to get the blood flowing into the muscle.
i do this and hit each body part once a week and it works nice. i do bodyparts together, not seperate, ie. back and biceps, chest delts and tris. in and out in les that 50min, but INTENSE.


And eating is my religion. every 2 hours, no fail.


JMHO

Oh and abs once a week with weight on leg days for 10 reps is the only thing that ever gave me a six pack.

screw reps to infinity and crunches.

Thanks for all the good advice!

Some of it will be considered.