How Often Do You Really Need to Exercise to Build New Muscle?

There is a great deal of conflicting advice for physical training to build new muscle.

Some exercise experts suggest that maximum benefits are obtained by working out every muscle group three times a week. Other trainers tell us that working out any single muscle group more often than once a week is overtraining. There are even some exercise physiologists who call for daily workouts, with one day a week off, for optimum results. Which approach is best?

There Is No Single "Correct" Workout Program

No training program is best for all people at all times. Sometimes it is best to work out every day. Sometimes it is best to work out every other day (three times a week). Sometimes it is best to work out just once a week--although working out less frequently than once every two weeks will result in loss of hard-earned muscle mass.

The suggestion that working out every day gets maximum muscle benefits comes not from the peer-reviewed academic literature of training and exercise physiology but from anecdotal, informal reports from the Frekvensprosjektet, which is Norwegian for "Frequency Project."

The Frekvensprosjektet recruited 16 Norwegian power lifters, 13 men and 3 women. All 16 volunteers were put on the same workout program, except half were told to do the full routine 3 times a week, and half were told to do half of the routine every day, a total of 6 days per week. The 3-day and 6-day workout groups did exactly the same amount of work, but over different time periods.

According to exercise experts Christian Finn and Matt Perryman, at the end of 15 weeks, the three-times-a-week exercisers had gained, on average, 5% more muscle strength. One participant in this group failed to make any gains at all, and one participant gained 10% muscle strength.

In the every-day workout group, the average gain in muscle strength was 10%. The participant in this group who had the least improvement still had about 6% greater muscle strength at the end of the program, which was more than the average gain in the other group. The average gain in this group was about the same as the greatest gain in the other group, and one participant in the every-day workout group gained 15% new muscle strength.

However, there were people in both groups who actually lost muscle mass, that is, there were people who worked out on both schedules whose muscles got smaller, not larger. There are also reasons not to try to apply these results to most people who are simply trying to get back into shape.

See Also: Five Easy Meals To Gain Muscle Fast

What Works for Elite Athletes May Not Work for You

In the Norwegian Frequency Project, the average age of the athletes was 21. All of the athletes had participated in international competitions. Moreover, physiologists have found that the muscles of elite athletes and people who don't exercise regularly build new tissue very differently.

When elite athletes work out, their muscles build new fibers from protein for 24 to 48 hours. When non-athletes work out, their muscles build new fibers, which make them stronger, for just 12 to 16 hours. 

Be Cautious Taking Advice from Coaches of Elite Athletes

What works for Olympic gold medalists probably won't work for you if you weigh 400 pounds and your primary exercise activity is opening bags of potato chips. There is some evidence that working out every day won't hurt if you are out of shape, but if you can't drag yourself to the gym six times a week, three times is still better than none.

What is some advice that applies to beginners as well as elite athletes?

The harder you work out, the less often you need to work out.

If you do a lot of repetitions of a muscle building exercise, you need to work out fewer times per week. If you do just a few repetitions of a muscle building exercise, you need to work out more times per week.

Let's say you lift the heaviest weight you can, but just once. It might be alright to do this every day, as long as you are not damaging ligaments, tendons, or bones. But if you lift the heaviest weight you can 10 times, or 20 times, or 30 times, you should weight several days or even a week before lifting it again.

It's OK to vary your workout routine.

Let's suppose you workout on a machine and you decide to do 90 repetitions a week. You could do 30 repetitions of the exercise every other day, three days per week, or you could do 60 repetitions in one session and 30 repetitions a few days later, or all 90 repetitions in a single session.

The more often you work out, the more important it is to vary your routine.

If you want to work out every day, or every other day, use a heavier weight some days and a lighter weight other days. This gives your muscles the stimulation they need to continue to grow, but helps you improve your balance and coordination.

If you follow a low-carbohydrate diet, you should not work out every day.

Muscles are not made just of protein. The protein you eat is of primary importance to building the fibers that give the muscle its strength. The bulk of the muscle, what "pumps it up," is actually carbohydrate. More specifically, muscle mass is made with glycogen, which is a chemical combination of glucose and water that the muscle can use for energy when it is using energy faster than the bloodstream can deliver glucose. The combination of water with glucose to make the more stable molecule glycogen is what gives muscles their contour. If you work out so much that your muscles deplete their glycogen supply, they will actually shrink until they have a chance to replenish carbohydrate. If you become dehydrated, your muscles won't be able to "pump up" with glycogen.

Smaller muscles can be worked out more often.

If you are focusing on a smaller muscle group, such as your biceps or triceps, you don't need to as much recovery time between workouts because smaller muscles don't require as much glucose, to make glycogen, and protein, to build new, stronger muscle fibers.

See Also: Why Pro Athletes' Workouts Won't Work Out For You

Once you have reached your strength goals, cut back on the frequency of your exercise sessions.

Lifting weights twice a week is enough for nearly anyone to maintain muscle mass and strength. Missing workouts for more than two weeks is usually enough to guarantee some loss of muscle strength.