Is there an optimal way to train?
Posted on March 20th, 2008 | by Reformator | 59 viewsThe Ultimate Weight-Lifting Formula
by Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness
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Q. I lift weights three times a week and do all my upper and lower body moves at once. But I have a friend who says that I should be lifting every single day and dividing up the body parts that I work. What is the best way?
A. There are as many recipes for weight lifting as there are for chocolate chip cookies, and no one way is the best. How you shape your training regimen depends upon your goals. And weight lifting goals could include focus on developing strength, endurance, hypertrophy (building bulk) and/or power.
The standard strength-training formula is to work out all your major muscle groups at once on two to three days per week with a day of rest in between. So during each workout you’d do around 8–10 exercises that target muscle groups in your arms, back, shoulders, butt and legs.
But many bodybuilders do split routines where they divide their target muscle groups up and only focus on a few per session. They amp up the volume of the weight training by doing several different exercises per muscle group, and more than two or three sets of each move. So they might do four or five sets of exercises for the chest and triceps on Monday, the back and biceps on Tuesday, the shoulders and abs on Wednesday and glutes and legs on Thursday. The groupings might then be repeated once more during the week so that weight training takes place up to six days a week, and any group is hit once or twice during a week. At the extreme end of this approach are those who do double-split routines, where they perform two sessions per day, totaling up to 12 sessions per week.
Although increasing the total volume of load lifted by doing more sets and/or exercises per muscle group will provide greater stimulus for the muscles, whether this intensity and frequency is needed, even for the most elite bodybuilders, is up for debate. There are many ways to challenge muscles, including alternating the amount of reps and weight lifted per set, and varying the types of exercises chosen, the rest periods in between sets and the number of reps and/or weight lifted, for example.
You can also modify the intensity of each session with a light, moderate or heavy day. During a light day you might choose lighter weights and perform two sets of 15 reps of each exercise. On a heavy day you might choose a heavier weight and perform four sets of five reps of each move. Each type of stimulus works the muscle fibers in a slightly different way.
You can also take a long-term approach to planning your routine, a method known as periodization. You divide weeks or months into weight-training cycles and vary the exercise choice and volume to focus on strength during one four-week phase, then power during the next phase, for example.
Many of these techniques are not necessary unless you have developed a solid base of strength and are trying to fine-tune your program to achieve high levels of performance. The average person simply trying to get stronger and maintain their strength can experience sufficient gains by sticking to the basic prescription recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine: Performing one to three sets of 8–12 reps of exercises for each major muscle groups on two to three days per week. Always leave a day of rest in between workouts that target the same muscle group to allow for complete recovery. For more information check out Optimizing Strength Training by William Kraemer, Ph.D.
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Martica is a Manhattan-based exercise physiologist and nutritionist and an award-winning fitness instructor. She has written for a variety of publications including Self, Health, Prevention, The New York Times and others. Martica is the author of seven books, including her latest, Cross-training for Dummies. (Read her full bio.)
