How often should you train a muscle per week?

How often should you train a muscle per week?

Instead of a body part split in which you train every muscle group 1x per week. Based on research, it typically is recommended to train each muscle 2-3x per week [1, 2].

Let’s say you have 20 sets of chest training in a week. Instead of performing all 20 sets in 1 workout, your performance would benefit from dividing this chest volume over 2 to 3 days. Having 10 sets of chest on Monday and 10 sets of chest on Thursday, will help you have higher quality sets on each day and realize better progressive overload.

Side note: A higher training frequency is not always better. There is also research showing that if you train with a relatively low volume, you can get away with training each muscle group 1x/week without harming muscle growth [3]. But as you train each muscle with more volume over time, it makes sense to divide your volume per muscle group over multiple training days.