Weight lifting frequency?

"Natural" body builders say never train a body part more than 1 day per week. I'm not exactly natural, nor do I do 12+ sets per body part.

I'm curious about how the HRT guys here train and your weight lifting sessions. Can you recover from more than once per week? How may sets per body part are you doing and at what intensity?


Currently, I am lifting weights and working each body part 2x/week. My question is for you guys on HRT (not cycles or deca cycles plus HRT but true HRT), how often do you work a body part?

Here is my current weight training program:

Squats - 2 sets
Leg Extensions - 2 sets (to failure on 2nd set)
Leg Curls - 2 sets (to failure on 2nd set)
Abductors - 1 set (to failure)
Adductors - 1 set (to failure)

Bench Press - 2 sets (to failure on 2nd set)
Chest flies - 2 sets (to failure on 2nd set)

Seated rows - 2 sets (to failure on 2nd set)
Lat pulldowns - 2 sets (to failure on 2nd set)

Tricept Exercise (varies) - 2 sets (to failure on 2nd set)
Shoulder Exercise (varies) - 2 sets (shoulders easily overtrain for me so never to failure)
Bicept - I skip this because I detached the long head of my right bicept a few years ago. And although lots of people like to see a big bicept in the mirror, I don't care.

I am currently doing this routine 2 x / week.

I have a limited amount of time I can spend in the gym (work, kids, etc.) so I do weights on Tuesday and Friday and aerobics on Monday and Thursday. I am looking at splitting weights and doing legs on Tuesday and Friday, rest of body on Monday and Thursday. I would then do 20-30 mins of aerobics 4 days a week instead of just 2 days a week.

I go 3x per week. Chest/Arms on Monday, Legs on Wednesday and Back/shoulders on Friday. I don't do cardio. Each workout is hard and heavy, no real light days at all. For example chest is about 8-9 working sets (not counting warm-ups). Triceps about the same, biceps a little less as tri's are 2/3 of the arm. I stick to basics. I'm stuck training at home although I have a very nice set-up. Work from home, kids, shit like that. I couldn't imagine doing each body part two times per week. Try something like above. Kill each part 1 time a week and rest up!

When I had a gym membership, I was lifting about 3 days per week and doing a full body workout each session. Now I am sort of doing P90X...it's damn difficult for an old guy. Some dumbbell lifting and lots of body weight movements like push-ups, lunges and chins. P90X employs lots of sets/reps in each hour-long session, so it is sort of the opposite of conventional weight lifting thought.

I go 6 days a week

Legs/Shoulders
Back/Biceps
Chest/Tris
I also do cardio 3-4 times a week and I work abs somewhat everyday.

I tend to get a minimum of 12 sets per body part. And I go heavy on just about every set for 10-12 reps. I am in the gym 2 hours with cardio included. I probably do over train, but if I miss a gym day I feel like I am losing muscle and getting fat. LOL!!!

I'm no kid but still think you'd make better gains if you gave your body more of a chance to rest. Maybe alternate resistance training with your cardio. If definitly worked for me as I've gotten older. I do agree with the feeling of losing muscle and gaining fat, but with a little more rest and time to grow, maybe you'll just get bigger!

mine falls where it may, i do the following,

chest, tri, 15 minute LI cardio
legs, abs, 15 minute LI cardio
HIIT Cardio only, rest from lifting
shoulders, traps, 15 minute LI cardio
biceps, back, 15 minute LI cardio
HIIT Cardio only, rest from lifting

then repeat, sometimes i rest two days after biceps and back. also, i use different weights every month, for example one month i use barbell (smith machine) for chest press and the next month i use DB, then back and forth. i also alternate between cables, DB, and straight bar for bicep curls, and so on!

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Originally Posted by GotNoBlueMilk

"Natural" body builders say never train a body part more than 1 day per week. I'm not exactly natural, nor do I do 12+ sets per body part.

I'm curious about how the HRT guys here train and your weight lifting sessions. Can you recover from more than once per week? How may sets per body part are you doing and at what intensity?


Currently, I am lifting weights and working each body part 2x/week. My question is for you guys on HRT (not cycles or deca cycles plus HRT but true HRT), how often do you work a body part?

Here is my current weight training program:

Squats - 2 sets
Leg Extensions - 2 sets (to failure on 2nd set)
Leg Curls - 2 sets (to failure on 2nd set)
Abductors - 1 set (to failure)
Adductors - 1 set (to failure)

Bench Press - 2 sets (to failure on 2nd set)
Chest flies - 2 sets (to failure on 2nd set)

Seated rows - 2 sets (to failure on 2nd set)
Lat pulldowns - 2 sets (to failure on 2nd set)

Tricept Exercise (varies) - 2 sets (to failure on 2nd set)
Shoulder Exercise (varies) - 2 sets (shoulders easily overtrain for me so never to failure)
Bicept - I skip this because I detached the long head of my right bicept a few years ago. And although lots of people like to see a big bicept in the mirror, I don't care.

I am currently doing this routine 2 x / week.

I have a limited amount of time I can spend in the gym (work, kids, etc.) so I do weights on Tuesday and Friday and aerobics on Monday and Thursday. I am looking at splitting weights and doing legs on Tuesday and Friday, rest of body on Monday and Thursday. I would then do 20-30 mins of aerobics 4 days a week instead of just 2 days a week.

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why not at least 3 sets? do you get much with doing 2 sets?

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Originally Posted by bass

why not at least 3 sets? do you get much with doing 2 sets?

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The 2 sets do not include any warmup. I have made good gains in strength and added lean mass, but like most people, I want to make more and want to get the most out of my workout. If I went to training each body part only once a week kind of thing, I would definately up each exercise to 3 sets.

I remember watching the Mentzer brothers train back in the 70's. Both of the brothers won Mr. Universe. They did one set per exercise, and only two exercises per body part! The intensity of each set, however, was unbelievable to watch. Their sets were so intense that I would get a huge pump in my arms by just watching those guys train arms.

that sounds interesting! can i find these video on youtube?

4-5 days a week

.back
.shoulders
.chest
.arms(bi's/tri's)
.5th day would be any missed set/muscle

so answer is one muscle per week...only exception...i do one or 2 leg exercises each day in the gym to break up legs as well as an core exercise (ab work, oblique, back extension, etc.) every day in the gym

so usually 2-3 days of rest for the week sometimes split up sometimes all at once like a vacation....what sucks is i get more hungry on days not in the gym and harder to keep to diet/calorie goals

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Originally Posted by jpkman

what sucks is i get more hungry on days not in the gym and harder to keep to diet/calorie goals

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ain't that the truth?! this is why i try not to rest for too long! but knowing i have a cheat day it help controlling my hunger urges!

Makes sense that on TRT there is no reason to worry about tanking your testosterone level.

Natural guys, if they over work themselves, their testosterone level will drop like a bad habbit.

When you are injecting the amount of T you have, its whatever your injection amount becomes in your body, so far as I know changes very little regardless of the workload on the rest of your body.

i work one body part once a week,it seems to help me out more,giving my body time to heal properly

Im not on HRT but regardless I think mixing the training routine up every 6 months or so is a good idea... Wether it be volume, intensity, split, rest time, reps etc. It keeps the body guessing, and helps me personally get through plateous. Im also a firm believer of listening to your body... If joints are starting to ache or you feel burnt out, take a few days off... If I do a big squat session, and the legs dont feel right for the next scheduled leg day, I just give it another day. There is a thousand different splits out there, dont believe one is the best...

On that note there is a guy at my gym, who does almost a full body workout 5 days a week. I see him go from chin ups, to bench, to curls, to tri's etc etc... He does this every time I see him in the gym haha. Its against all bodybuilding principles... I want to pull him aside and set him straight... But he is twice my size and twice as ripped haha the irony. It must work for him...

Thanks for your responses guys. I'm going to give the once a week per body part a try. I'll up my sets from 4/body part to 8, as a general rule.

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Originally Posted by bass

that sounds interesting! can i find these video on youtube?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcMOG0ECqDU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqI6z6g3dXM

Supposedly Darian Yates followed this approach too, although I have no personal knowledge of this. Back in the 70's the Mentzer brothers were doing 7-9 sets TOTAL for their workout. Not 7-9 sets per body part, 7-9 set TOTAL! They were training 3 days a week and doing their entire body each workout. Later he revamped this to have more rest between workout days. He eventually dropped from training 3 days a week to working each body part once every 4-7 days. The 4-7 was based on individual recovery (how many steroids you taking so how fast can you recover).

The downside to Mentzer's approach is you have to hit the high intensity part hard! There simply is no way to do with without a training partner that can give you forced reps, negative repts, etc. You also really need a partner who won't let you stop a set before you start sweating blood! I have no interest in meeting that level of intensity. But the concept presented is important: You have to push hard and then push harder; doing 8 "warm-up" sets won't do much good.

Tendon/Ligament health is an issue when training too frequently. Tendons and ligaments are avascular, meaning they lack a good blood supply. This is why the can not heal as quickly as your muscles and why most overtraining injuries are something along the lines of tendonitis. This is why resting and deloading are very important.

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Originally Posted by jpkman

4-5 days a week

.back
.shoulders
.chest
.arms(bi's/tri's)
.5th day would be any missed set/muscle

so answer is one muscle per week...only exception...i do one or 2 leg exercises each day in the gym to break up legs as well as an core exercise (ab work, oblique, back extension, etc.) every day in the gym

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Ha, I do the same exact routine. One body part per week. I usually do 3-4 sets of 8-15 reps each depending on the muscle I'm working. I'm usually doing heavy weights (80% of max) depending how I feel at the time.

Lets not forget that both Mentzer brothers are now dead. Lots of issues there. I have seen both in person and saw Mike at the Night of Champions 2, Southern Professional Cup in Florida if my memory is correct (only time it was held out of NY I believe). He was awesome. I was also actually at the First NOC at the Beacon Theater in NY. Really cool. A lot of what they did was hype though, It's how they "counted" their sets that sold their hard core program. Their marketing was brilliant at the time. They still did plenty of warm-ups and pyramided up to their working sets.

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Originally Posted by ozy battler

Im not on HRT but regardless I think mixing the training routine up every 6 months or so is a good idea... Wether it be volume, intensity, split, rest time, reps etc. It keeps the body guessing, and helps me personally get through plateous. Im also a firm believer of listening to your body... If joints are starting to ache or you feel burnt out, take a few days off... If I do a big squat session, and the legs dont feel right for the next scheduled leg day, I just give it another day. There is a thousand different splits out there, dont believe one is the best...

On that note there is a guy at my gym, who does almost a full body workout 5 days a week. I see him go from chin ups, to bench, to curls, to tri's etc etc... He does this every time I see him in the gym haha. Its against all bodybuilding principles... I want to pull him aside and set him straight... But he is twice my size and twice as ripped haha the irony. It must work for him...

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great post

I follow Charles Poloquins prescribed method of training a body part twice a week, so ill train 4 times a week, Mon upper body Tues legs rest Wed and repeat Thrs and Fri with weekends off. I dont do cardio if im bulking because as most know here you cant bulk and strip fat, its one or the other.

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Originally Posted by leewil1

I follow Charles Poloquins prescribed method of training a body part twice a week, so ill train 4 times a week, Mon upper body Tues legs rest Wed and repeat Thrs and Fri with weekends off. I dont do cardio if im bulking because as most know here you cant bulk and strip fat, its one or the other.

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I have a very hard time with this one. I want to lose fat, but I get myself all worked up thinking I am going to lose muscle if I don't lift. So I lift and do cardio all the time. I guess I need to just stop and lift light and do cardio and get rid of the fat then go back to the heavy weights.

Quality resistance training will burn more fat than cardio. It elevates your metabolism for a longer period of time. Also, the more muscle your body carries, the more fat you will burn all the time. Remember also that muscle weighs more than fat, so don't judge yourself just by the scale, use the mirror. Work on your nutrition, you'll get there! If your not seeing progress, change something. Your body responds to consistency by giving you just what it has to to get through your workout. Doing the same thing all the time will only get you the same results. Meaning do different things and shock your body into adapting. Increase the weight, change the pace, reverse the order of your exercises, etc. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by NOSUPERMODEL

I have a very hard time with this one. I want to lose fat, but I get myself all worked up thinking I am going to lose muscle if I don't lift. So I lift and do cardio all the time. I guess I need to just stop and lift light and do cardio and get rid of the fat then go back to the heavy weights.

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I also battle with this and have a hard time lifting light

about once or twice a week...i feel as i recover enough to do a body part twice a week but i think it would be counter productive

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Originally Posted by kelkel

Quality resistance training will burn more fat than cardio. It elevates your metabolism for a longer period of time. Also, the more muscle your body carries, the more fat you will burn all the time. Remember also that muscle weighs more than fat, so don't judge yourself just by the scale, use the mirror. Work on your nutrition, you'll get there! If your not seeing progress, change something. Your body responds to consistency by giving you just what it has to to get through your workout. Doing the same thing all the time will only get you the same results. Meaning do different things and shock your body into adapting. Increase the weight, change the pace, reverse the order of your exercises, etc. Good luck!

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exactly! i am in the process of trying to lose fat while put on some muscle, its been very difficult but i find by confusing my body i get better results. and you are so correct about don't be afraid to put on size, and then let the fat melt on its own, meaning lift heavy and eat right! it takes time!

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Originally Posted by bass

exactly! i am in the process of trying to lose fat while put on some muscle, its been very difficult but i find by confusing my body i get better results. and you are so correct about don't be afraid to put on size, and then let the fat melt on its own, meaning lift heavy and eat right! it takes time!

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what dose did u decide on bro? start yet?

not yet JP! but soon, i want to make sure i get enough before i start!

[QUOTE=NOSUPERMODEL;5649852]I have a very hard time with this one. I want to lose fat, but I get myself all worked up thinking I am going to lose muscle if I don't lift. So I lift and do cardio all the time. I guess I need to just stop and lift light and do cardio and get rid of the fat then go back to the heavy weights.[/QUOTE]
You have to decide 1st if your going to add muscle ie forget burning fat or if your going to burn fat. If you decide to do the latter then you continue with your weights program but with a view to maintaining your loads and not improving them, you would then drop calories at least 500 below maintenance and add card to the programme. 20 mins interval training is best for stripping fat. All the same you will lose mass, but you can control how much you lose by gradually decreasing calories below maintenance and gradually increasing card. The idea is to maintain strength. The lower the bf % the harder it will become to lose bf.

When you say maintenance what do you mean. I did a metabolism testing a few weeks back, and it takes my body 2400 calories to just survive. I am estimated to use 3600 calories for my lifestyle, if I did not workout. That is based on a seditary lifestyle(desk job). So do I eat 1900 calories? Because right now I am eating around 26-2800 calories. I had been eating WAY to low before I did the testing. I was only consuming around 1500-1750 calories a day and working out 2 hours a day and the fat was not falling off. I think at those calories I was putting my body into starvation mode. So now I am trying to slowly bump my calories up each week. I was going to try and consume around 3000 calories a day.

But if I understand this correctly I eat 500 calories below maintenance(whatever that number is) and I maintain lifting the same weight I am now, and not going up. Plus adding in cardio. Which I do 3-4 times a week already.

How do you go about bulking? Not that I want to at this point right now. I have some decent size. I am 260lbs at 18% BF, the only problem is I carry it all in my back, love handles and stomach, so its hard to see the muscle I have.

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Originally Posted by NOSUPERMODEL

When you say maintenance what do you mean. I did a metabolism testing a few weeks back, and it takes my body 2400 calories to just survive. I am estimated to use 3600 calories for my lifestyle, if I did not workout. That is based on a seditary lifestyle(desk job). So do I eat 1900 calories? Because right now I am eating around 26-2800 calories. I had been eating WAY to low before I did the testing. I was only consuming around 1500-1750 calories a day and working out 2 hours a day and the fat was not falling off. I think at those calories I was putting my body into starvation mode. So now I am trying to slowly bump my calories up each week. I was going to try and consume around 3000 calories a day.

But if I understand this correctly I eat 500 calories below maintenance(whatever that number is) and I maintain lifting the same weight I am now, and not going up. Plus adding in cardio. Which I do 3-4 times a week already.

How do you go about bulking? Not that I want to at this point right now. I have some decent size. I am 260lbs at 18% BF, the only problem is I carry it all in my back, love handles and stomach, so its hard to see the muscle I have.

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my understanding would be you would use the 3600 figure if you are going to continue that lifestyle but keeping in mind that the 3600 number can/will change to lower as you lose weight...
that would prolly be a good guess at where i started when i first started losing weight before my trt when i went down from 280lbs to 250 without trt...i did it gradually by consuming around 2900 calories..but then was stuck at 250 even though i would dip down to 2000 -2200 calories...this is when i went on trt, at that point i was able to even eat 2900/3,000 cals and still lost weight but got stronger the whole time...
the bulk question i will bump for you as i cringe at the idea :)

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Originally Posted by NOSUPERMODEL

When you say maintenance what do you mean. I did a metabolism testing a few weeks back, and it takes my body 2400 calories to just survive. I am estimated to use 3600 calories for my lifestyle, if I did not workout. That is based on a seditary lifestyle(desk job). So do I eat 1900 calories? Because right now I am eating around 26-2800 calories. I had been eating WAY to low before I did the testing. I was only consuming around 1500-1750 calories a day and working out 2 hours a day and the fat was not falling off. I think at those calories I was putting my body into starvation mode. So now I am trying to slowly bump my calories up each week. I was going to try and consume around 3000 calories a day.

But if I understand this correctly I eat 500 calories below maintenance(whatever that number is) and I maintain lifting the same weight I am now, and not going up. Plus adding in cardio. Which I do 3-4 times a week already.

How do you go about bulking? Not that I want to at this point right now. I have some decent size. I am 260lbs at 18% BF, the only problem is I carry it all in my back, love handles and stomach, so its hard to see the muscle I have.

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JP is correct, and so are you! don't drop your cals or you will get stuck like many of us. here is what i do (i learned this from Milo's!) don't worry about counting cals, just make sure you eat 1.5 g of protein per pound of body weight, keep your carbs from fruits and vegetables all week except Sunday or whatever day you want to make a cheat day, then on cheat day eat anything you want as much as you want! this is the only way i was able to break the plateau! and when you get stuck again, change it!

fruits i eat like apples and watermelon!
veggies, anything green!
protein, chicken breast, tuna, and beef (London broil) but once or twice a week.

let your body adjust to it then you'll see results! look at me now from a year ago!

another thing to keep in mind! we are NOT trying to look like pro bodybuilders, so don't kill yourselves with weighing and measuring everything down to a fraction, whether its food or weights! just have fun with it, eat clean and do proper lifting! it'll come, we just need to be patient. after all many of us took 10-20 years to put all the fat on and get out of shape, so it'll take some time. a realistic goal would be 5 years! i have 2.5 years to go!

I am not looking for it to be quick. I know quick weight loss usually means you are losing muscle because you are under eating. I get anywhere from 350-360 grams of protein a day. I weigh 260, so its not right at 1.5, but close. I need to up my veggies, I hardly eat them at all. I get most of my carbs from brown rice and whole wheat bread, and whats in my protein shakes. But I usually only eat about 150-200 grams of carbs a day. Fat is very minimal.

I began working out in a gym in March of 2009 weight 272lbs. I dropped down to 225lbs by that September. Then football season came and holidays and I put it all back on. Then summer of 2010 I lost it again, but only down to 235. Football season and holidays again and I put it back on. So I started again this year at 265lbs and I am at 260 right now. Now mind you back in 2009, I lost a lot of weight, but I have nowhere near the muscle mass I have right now. For example. In 2009 when I started I could barely bench 250lbs. Now I am able to rep out 315lbs x 7 times. So I might be heavier, but the lean muscle mass to fat ratio is completely different. I am 260 right now at 18%BF. I would like to get down to about 235lbs and be about 10-12% BF.

I am definately going to keep with it this year and not let it all go back with football season. Each time I have done that it has been harder to get it back off. I do it again and it might not come back off. LOL!!

at 260 with 18% BF thats allot of muscle there! even if you get down to 220 with less than 10% bf it would be awesome considering where you were before you started!

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Originally Posted by bass

another thing to keep in mind! we are NOT trying to look like pro bodybuilders, so don't kill yourselves with weighing and measuring everything down to a fraction, whether its food or weights! just have fun with it, eat clean and do proper lifting! it'll come, we just need to be patient. after all many of us took 10-20 years to put all the fat on and get out of shape, so it'll take some time. a realistic goal would be 5 years! i have 2.5 years to go!

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this is my mindset....i am happy to be between 12-15% bf and keep a moderate diet with enjoyable food often

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Originally Posted by GotNoBlueMilk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcMOG0ECqDU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqI6z6g3dXM

Supposedly Darian Yates followed this approach too, although I have no personal knowledge of this. Back in the 70's the Mentzer brothers were doing 7-9 sets TOTAL for their workout. Not 7-9 sets per body part, 7-9 set TOTAL! They were training 3 days a week and doing their entire body each workout. Later he revamped this to have more rest between workout days. He eventually dropped from training 3 days a week to working each body part once every 4-7 days. The 4-7 was based on individual recovery (how many steroids you taking so how fast can you recover).

The downside to Mentzer's approach is you have to hit the high intensity part hard! There simply is no way to do with without a training partner that can give you forced reps, negative repts, etc. You also really need a partner who won't let you stop a set before you start sweating blood! I have no interest in meeting that level of intensity. But the concept presented is important: You have to push hard and then push harder; doing 8 "warm-up" sets won't do much good.

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i forgot to thank you for the links! thanks!

I found this link: http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/train...wice-per-week/

It is about 10+ articles daisy chained together. At the bottom of each page is a "What's Next" link to the next article. You have to read them all to fully benefit from what this guy is offering in his articles.

The info presented is basically how many times a week to train, how many sets to do, how many reps to do, etc. He makes some very good comments and a good arguement for his conclusions. The thing that is really nice about his conclusions is that you can use them to train once a week or twice a week per body part.

Based on his research, it really comes down to how many reps you do a week, not how many training sessions, sets, etc. He also throws in options. So if you want to train heavy at 6-8 reps you should do more sets. But if you train lighter, 12-15 reps, you should do fewer sets. The goal is to get in the correct number of reps.

5-6 times a week. Get the biggest bang for your buck while on TRT ;)

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Originally Posted by Marine2000

5-6 times a week. Get the biggest bang for your buck while on TRT ;)

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thats true for muscle but not for joints at our age!