By Dayne Hudson
For years, many of us have thought training a body part more than once a week can lead to over training.
But - this just isn't always the case, and we've got some evidence as to why!
As you'll learn, if we have a lagging body part, there's good reason and no harm to probably hit it twice a week, without experiencing any "overtraining."
And lagging or not - you can still hit a muscle group multiple times without stressing.
Change Your Split For More Muscle?
One study tells us that 48 hours after a session of pumping iron, muscle protein synthesis returns to baseline (1).
And this was in untrained subjects, who would generally take longer to recover than trained subjects. This means just over 2 days of rest, we're right to get stuck into it again and don't have to wait 7 days.
And for those powerlifters, further research shows that strength gains are superior for those who spread out their volume across three days, instead of doing it all in one (2).
Those who did it in just the one day had 62% of the strength gains of the group who did it over 3 days!
It's pretty powerful information!
Training Lagging Body parts
So if you've got a lagging body part, feel free to hit it multiple times a week and know that it's probably serving you well!
You don't have to train it once a week and wait another 7 days to train it.
Best of luck making that lagging part now one of your strengths!
"Stay Fit, Stay Flexed!"
REFERENCES
1. Phillips SM, Tipton KD, Aarsland A, Wolfe SE, Wolfe RR. Mixed muscle protein synthesis and breakdown after resistance exercise in humans. Am J Physiol. 1997 Jul;273(1 Pt 1):E99-107.
2. McLester J, Bishop E, Guilliams M.E. Comparison of 1 Day and 3 Days Per Week of Equal-Volume Resistance Training in Experienced Subjects. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 07/2000;14(3). DOI:10.1097/00005768-1999050Q1-00443.
