Who needs to train more often?

Who Needs to Train More Often? – Answer: Natural lifters. While steroid users can still get significant gains from hitting each muscle once per week, naturals need to stimulate each muscle at least twice a week, and ideally three, to get significant growth past the beginner stage. See, the key to building muscle is triggering protein synthesis, the process in which your body uses amino acids to build tissue. If you want more growth, then protein synthesis has to be elevated to a higher degree and has to stay elevated longer.
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After a workout, protein synthesis remains elevated in the trained muscles for around 24 hours – slightly more or less depending on the workout. By training each muscle only once a week, you aren’t keeping protein synthesis elevated for long in each muscle. Not only that, if you’re training each muscle only once a week, you might actually lose the positive adaptation (muscle growth) by not stimulating it soon enough. This is called “involution.” The body doesn’t want to carry extra muscle mass that’s not useful.
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A natural lifter needs the workouts since they’re the only significant protein synthesis trigger he has. On the other hand, steroid users are artificially increasing protein synthesis. The drugs keep protein synthesis elevated around the clock. Their workouts increase protein synthesis to an even higher degree, but hitting each muscle more often isn’t needed because the overall rate of synthesis will stay elevated 24/7.
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Natural lifters need the workout to elevate protein synthesis. And since it only stays elevated for 24-36 hours after a workout, they need to hit each muscle more often to make significant gains. Enhanced lifters will also make more gains with higher frequency training, but it’s not as necessary for them.