3 days a week or 2 days a week???

[evil30]

I have a question regarding working out.

Currently, my next door neighbor and I workout in my basement. We have been religously following a 3 day a week total upper body workout for past 4 months with decent results. We do a Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday routine. My question is, would we get better results by switching to a Sunday/Monday and Wednesday/Thursday routine. The three day a week does take a while to hit all the muscle groups and we are dog tired at end of workout. We are thinking of switching to twice a week per muscle group may up our intensity and also up focus per group.

My thoughts are this. By going to twice week we could hit say Chest/Tris/Shoulders and Back/Bis. This would allow for more time and effort and more reps per body part and would also allow for more rest imbetween workouts(2 days as opposed to 1 now). However, each muscle group would only get worked twice a week as opposed to three times?

Any thoughts?

[evil30]

Bump

[hankdiesel]

What are your goals? Why are you doing full body workouts 3x per week?

[evil30]

My goals are to increase as much lean muscle while losing somebody fat as well. Right now I am lifting 3 days a week and doing a full upper body lift with my partner. He ma be able to do a 4 day a week routine.

[NC600cbr]

Jeez you'd probably get better results splitting groups over 3 days.

And why no leg lifts? At least do lunges / body weight squats or something.
How many sets and exercises are you doing per muscle group?
How are you breaking the groups down?

Even a

Chest / Tri

Back / Bi

Leg / Shoulder

3 days a week routing sounds better to me than just upper body 3x a week.

[graeme87]

Jeez you'd probably get better results splitting groups over 3 days.

And why no leg lifts? At least do lunges / body weight squats or something.
How many sets and exercises are you doing per muscle group?
How are you breaking the groups down?

Even a

Chest / Tri

Back / Bi

Leg / Shoulder

3 days a week routing sounds better to me than just upper body 3x a week.

Agreed, split your routine up into muscle groups and not full body workouts. You get more intensity and volume by doing a split routine.

Make sure you are doing bench, deads, squats, shoulder press and pullups as the foundation of your routine.

[evil30]

So following a Sunday/Monday and a Wednesday/Thursday what would be a good split for muscle groups to hit each muscle group twice a week?

Sunday = Chest/Tris
Monday = Back/Bis/Shoulders

Wednesday = Chest/Tris
Thursday = Back/Bis/Shoulders

[NC600cbr]

At 4 days a week i'd try.

Sunday - Chest / Tris / Abs
Monday - Back / Bi's

Wed - Shoulders / Abs
Thursday - Legs

If you're lifting heavy and getting a good days worth of work in, lifting each body part once a week is plenty sufficient. You can always add things in, such as forearms on shoulder day or however you would like to tweak it.

I would not suggest completely ignoring your lower body.

And graeme87 gave you some great advice in this
"Make sure you are doing bench, deads, squats, shoulder press and pullups as the foundation of your routine."