The first question for a beginner starting to play sports in the gym or at home is how many times a week you need to train. The second question is how many days it takes to pump up the buttocks / chest / biceps. However, the frequency of training is a rather individual issue, depending on a number of factors.
For example, for weight loss, you can play sports even daily – but not less than 3-4 times a week for 30-40 minutes. For a set of muscles, in turn, 2-3 workouts per week are enough – and only professional athletes can swing every day (taking into account the cyclicity of muscle groups for recovery).
How often should you train?
In terms of effectiveness for muscle growth and recovery, less exercise is better than excess exercise. Daily sports activities are only permissible if the program is planned correctly – and if there is a certain date (for example, an exhibition performance or a competition).
In fact, the answer to the question of how many times a week you can exercise has to do with your daily routine. Most often, it is more convenient for people to visit the gym 3 times a week – usually Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There is no scientific evidence in this case.
On the other hand, if sports are conducted solely for pleasure, then the maximum frequency should be determined by the person himself. At the same time, most professionals train every day not at all to improve results, but because they like it.
Slimming workouts
The only time that daily training is beneficial is the desire to lose weight as soon as possible. But even in this case, the most effective solution would be to alternate types of activity. For example, one day of moderate cardio, another day of interval cardio, the third day of abs, and so on.
Ultimately, regular exercise alters the body’s metabolism, improving tissue sensitivity to insulin and helping to store fast carbohydrates as glycogen (muscle fuel) rather than in fat stores. But a person’s age and general fitness are also important.
At the same time, scientific recommendations operate with figures of the total load per week – usually the minimum value is called 20-30 minutes per day or 2 hours of moderate training per week. Plus, the number of steps taken also has an impact.
How much muscle recovery?
On average, the time required for muscle recovery is 48 to 72 hours – or 2 to 3 days. In reality, the figure depends both on the level of experience of the athlete and his age (the older the person, the longer the recovery lasts), and on which muscles were involved in the training.
If small and medium muscle groups (biceps, abs) require about 48-60 hours, then for the full recovery of large muscles (legs, chest, back), and, in particular, the central nervous system, which also experiences serious stress during exercise, it is necessary at least 72 hours ¹ .
// Recovery time of muscle groups:
| Shoulders | 48 – 60 hours |
| Chest | up to 72 hours |
| Back | up to 72 hours |
| Press | 48 – 60 hours |
| Triceps | 48 – 60 hours |
| Biceps | 48 – 60 hours |
| Buttocks | up to 72 hours |
| Thigh muscles | up to 72 hours |
| Caviar | 48 – 60 hours |
Muscle Pain – Good or Bad?
It is often believed that specific “pulling” muscle pain after exercise is directly related to muscle growth. From a scientific point of view, this is not entirely true, and muscle growth can take place without pain at all – it all depends on the individual characteristics of a person’s metabolism.
The pain felt in the muscles after strength training means that the body is successfully repairing muscles and eliminating toxins formed after exercise. Typically, this pain begins 12 to 24 hours after exercise and ends completely within 24 to 72 hours.
Active recovery
We also note that complete rest is not at all the optimal way to recover from training. Research shows that moderate exercise on rest days increases blood flow and detoxification rates, thus speeding up the regeneration and growth of muscle tissue.
Gentle cardio (including swimming) at a heart rate of 130-140 beats per minute and lasting 20-25 minutes on days free from strength training will not only speed recovery, but also allow you to train more effectively for muscle growth and definition.
How many times a week to swing your legs?
Legs are one of the largest muscle groups, so they should be trained no more than once every 72 hours. If you’ve done heavy squats on Monday, the next time you’re doing your legs is Thursday or even Friday. However, if you trained exclusively caviar, then the time is reduced.
At the same time, the total number of days required for muscle recovery also depends on the body type – sports mesomorphs can train more often (and, ultimately, build muscle faster), while ectomorphs and endomorphs need an increased amount of time to replenish energy reserves.
How often do you press?
Beginners can work out the abs even 5 times a week – the presence of “delayed” pain will help to feel the abdominal muscles, which will increase the effectiveness of the abs workout. However, we are talking about performing single abdominal exercises without additional load or simple workout at home.
Full sets of exercises for the development of the abdominal muscles will take about 48-60 hours to recover. Separately, we note that more frequent workouts of the abdominal muscles are completely unable to remove fat from the abdomen faster (this requires only a diet). In fact, they will only cause overtraining and negatively affect overall progress.
How many times a week do girls train?
Separately, we note that for girls, daily workouts for weight loss can have the opposite effect of the desired one – especially against the background of a decrease in calorie intake. Instead of speeding up the metabolism, the body can increase the level of the stress hormone cortisol, thus provoking not at all the loss of fat, but its gain.
Losing weight should begin with normalizing nutrition, excluding fast carbohydrates and excessively high-calorie foods. Fat burning workouts are just a way to level out blood sugar levels, not a mechanism to get rid of excess calories and directly “burn” fat.
Among other things, the phase of the menstrual cycle also plays. In the early days, low estrogen levels allow you to burn fat more efficiently – and is ideal for cardio.
