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Home > The FITSPRO Podcast > 048 | How Many Days Per Week Should You Train?
Podcast: The FITSPRO Podcast
Episode:

048 | How Many Days Per Week Should You Train?
Category: Health
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2019-12-03 04:00:25
Description: HOW MANY DAYS PER WEEK SHOULD YOU TRAIN? This is a question I have received so many times via the gram and in real life conversation. I’d say it’s more common among newer lifters, people who are just starting out or new to weight lifting specifically. The question is multifaceted and I plan to cover the topics of: “How many days should I lift?” “Is three or five days per week better?” and“Can I progress only lifting three days per week? I am sure you’ve either had or heard some rendition of these questions. People just want to know how to spend their time wisely in the gym in order to get the results they are wanting. And I don’t think we can blame them for that. So, I’ll answer all questions with my fav answer + give a generalization then dive into things like training age and options for three, four or five day per week training sessions. It depends First off, to answer all training questions, IT DEPENDS. How many days you should train per week depends on your training history, your current goals, what you’re actually doing in the gym during your training sessions, and so much more. To give a blanket statement would be ignoring all of the factors just stated. But I will give you a blanket statement, nonetheless. Then dive deeper into what all goes into that statement. How many days per week should you train?  Generally speaking, three to five. That is a VERY vague statement my friends! Is that three days a week at 30 minutes per session or 90 minutes per session? Is that high intensity work? Strictly strength training? Do you see why yes, it may be true that 3-5 days per week of training will get most humans the results they’re looking for, but there is SO MUCH more that goes into that answer. Let’s lay the ground work here so you understand what context I am speaking from. We’re talking about my humans who want to increase strength, mobility, work capacity or a skill of some kind. Skills ranging from a back squat to a pistol squat, pull up or muscle up. Okay? They are training upper and lower body. Whether that happens on the same day, we don’t know yet. But humans need to work their entire body, that’s where I am coming in answer this question. With the above scenario… 3-5 days of training seems to work for most humans - why not two days per week? If you’re training two, you’re maintaining at best or only focusing on one area while everything else decreases. If someone is wanting to improve one area, sure, two days per week would do it. But if you’re wanting to maintain strength, and muscle mass, MAYBE. With very strategically planned lifts. But we are likely NOT making gains training twice per week. The caveat here would be for a newbie. Yes, someone with a very young training age [meaning they are new to weight lifting] will make gains only training twice per week. Most of these gains will be neurological gains. Their body is learning A LOT of new skills and improving neural pathways from brain to muscle. If you have experience weight training, two days per week might allow you to maintain if you’re working at 75% of your max. But I wouldn’t count on making any gains. I don’t say six days per week because I honestly don’t think the average person looking to get stronger, increase mobility or work capacity or perhaps improve body composition needs to be training six days per week. And if they are, they better be able to get a proper amount of fuel and recovery for it. This is not of course scientifically backed. I am only speaking from personal and client experience. Training four to five days per week seems to be a sweet spot for gains, consistency, and joy in the gym. This allows for work to be done on mobility, strength, and work capacity + play with training splits without exceeding 70 minutes in the gym per session. Because we must consider time and energy spent per session as well. We aren’t taking about body builders or competitive weightlifters or cros...
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