Should I train every muscle group more than once a week?
When
people ask me this I have to tell them that without
realizing they are training most muscle groups more than once a week.
Your arms for instance are working on chest day, back day and shoulder
day - that's WITHOUT any direct work on them! Shoulders work on chest
day and back day as well as shoulder day. Again, THREE days of work for
them! So when people tell you to train a muscle group more than once a
week just think about this.
Now
if there is an obvious lagging muscle group then potentially
introducing additional
supplementary work 4-5 days after your primary workout for that group
might help. I'd look at using a 15-20 rep range, slow negatives in order
to induce enough stimulation and blood blow without hammering the
muscle, CNS or connective tissues involved.
How much weight should I be lifting?
This
is a totally relative question to what YOU were doing 1 month, 2
months, 3 months, 6
months or 12 months ago. The very reason we want to see a gradual
increase in muscle strength is to create more stress via progressive
overload (provided the reps, rep tempo and rest periods are all equal!)
and to do this its only YOUR previous strength that matters. So I always
say, keeping with the prescribed info such as tempo, rest periods and
reps just focus on beating yourself.
Why is it important to use a wide rep range rather than just 8-12
every week?
I'm
NOT just pushing Y3T when I say this, regardless of your training
preference you MUST include periodisation. If you do not, you will hit a
plateau fast and not be able to overcome that. You're CNS will adapt,
your muscles will adapt, your energy systems will adapt and therefore
leave you stuck. This is why I insist upon the 3 week rotation of
training volume and reps.
In
terms of the
rep ranges themselves this is to ensure you are hitting 100% of your
muscle fibre population, rather than only 30-50% which is what a lot of
people do with their 1 dimensional approach to training.
Are dumbbells or barbells better?
It
always depends on the movement, on your biomechanics and the goal.
However, for hypertrophy purposes and as a means to transcend as much
stress, tension and load onto a specific muscle with maximal precision I
would choose dumbbells because you have the added freedom to manoeuvre
your levers and wrists slightly to increase the tension.
Is 4 days a week training really enough?
There's
two parts to this answer. Firstly, quality is far more important than
quantity. If you are training with the intensity you SHOULD be then rest
days are something
you crave because your body needs it. If you can train 7 days a week I'd
argue that you aren't training properly unless you are extraordinarily
adapted to that volume (elite athlete for example) which would be a
minority let me tell you!
The second part is
that once you have your recovery nailed, your rotation sorted you can
potentially look at your lagging parts and introduce a 5th IF its
necessary. But in a lot of cases even some of my pro athletes lift 4
times a
week.
Neil Hill
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