How Many Days a Week Should I Work Out to Gain Muscle

Like most things health and fitness related, a simple question like “how often should I work out?” is a loaded question that “one answer doesn’t work for everyone”.

Should you be in the gym 3, 4, 5, 6 or even 7 days per week? Depending on recovery, mass, age, and diet each frequency is can work for most fitness-minded people. Don’t though, just follow the advice many of the bodybuilding magazines recommend! Most of us don’t have the time, energy, and physical capabilities to follow routines professional and elite athletes do.

But Don’t Let Me Discourage You. We All Have a Little Bad AZZ Animal in house. Just place caution in front of your attitude and things will work out much smoother in the gym. Injuries are the prime reasons people stop working out.

Facts on Working Out.

If you’re looking to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible, how often you work out is important, but not as much as other factors like exercise choice, intensity (how much weight you lift in terms of percentage of one-rep max), and volume (how many reps you do).

The bottom line is three well-designed workouts per week can be more effective in terms of muscle building than six poorly designed ones…but six well-designed workouts per week is going to beat three.

And if you’re looking to lose fat (and not muscle) as quickly as possible, then the more exercise you can do, the better, and especially resistance training.

An example of a fairly easy routine would look like this.

Here’s an example of a common once-per-week muscle workout routine:

Training Each Muscle Group 1 Time Per Week

• Monday: Chest
• Tuesday: Back
• Wednesday: Cardio
• Thursday: Legs
• Friday: Cardio
• Saturday: Shoulders/Biceps/Triceps
• Sunday: Off
• Repeat

Now, this routine can be broken up really any way that fits your capabilities and lifestyle.

Training Each Muscle Group 3 Times Per Week

• Monday: Full Body
• Tuesday: Cardio
• Wednesday: Full Body
• Thursday: Cardio
• Friday: Full Body
• Saturday: Cardio
• Sunday: Off
• Repeat

With this program, I’d recommend a circuit style training but certainly can go from group to group.

Training Each Muscle Group 2 Times Per Week

Here’s an example of a common 2 times-per-week workout routine:

• Monday: Upper Body
• Tuesday: Lower Body
• Wednesday: Cardio
• Thursday: Upper Body
• Friday: Lower Body
  Saturday: Cardio
• Sunday: Off
• Repeat

So there you have it. Different frequencies, different muscle groups. If you work out just a short amount of time on a consistent basis you’ll know what will work for you. Guaarentied it will be evolving and the more experience you gain the more you’ll set your own programs.