How Many Days Per Week Should You Work Out?
Why Training Muscle Groups More Than Once Per Week is Essential for Maximum Strength and Muscle Gains
When it comes to building muscle and strength, most people think of traditional "bro splits"—where you hit a muscle group hard once a week and then wait for seven days before doing it again.
A “Push, Pull, Legs” routine is the perfect example.
However, research and real-world results show that training muscle groups more frequently—at least 2-3 times per week—leads to better gains in both size and strength.
Maybe you’re thinking: “I’m to get massive or become a bodybuilder”.
That’s fine! If your goal is to get leaner, more toned, look athletic, and have visible muscle definition, this applies to you too.
In this article, we'll explore why frequency, volume, and intensity are the key factors in driving muscle growth and why group classes or random workouts often fall short. We'll also dive into how you can strategically vary exercises throughout the week for the best results.
Why You Should Train Muscle Groups 2-3 Times Per Week
The idea of training a muscle only once a week might sound appealing, especially if you're short on time. But here's the truth: more frequent training sends more consistent signals to your body to build and strengthen muscle. It’s like practicing any skill—the more often you do it, the faster you get better.
If you want to know the technical reason why this works, the “signal” your body responds to when you train a muscle is called “Muscle Protein Synthesis”.
More frequent MPS = more gains.
According to a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, training a muscle group twice per week resulted in significantly more muscle growth compared to hitting it just once per week . Another study in the European Journal of Sport Science confirmed that frequency plays a major role in hypertrophy, showing that those who trained muscle groups multiple times per week saw better gains in muscle size than those training once weekly. Check the bottom of this article for the details on each study.
By hitting the same muscle groups multiple times per week, you’re reinforcing the signals to your body to repair and grow. But it’s not just about frequency—volume and intensity play critical roles too.
How Training Volume Effects Muscle & Strength Gains
Volume refers to the total amount of work you do for each muscle group in a week. If you only train a muscle group once per week, you’re forced to squeeze a lot of sets into one workout, which can lead to fatigue and reduced quality as the session progresses. If you spread that volume over 2-3 days, you’ll get more high-quality sets in without burning out in a single workout.
Research has found that spreading volume across multiple sessions improves muscle growth. A review in Sports Medicine revealed that lifters who accumulated around 10-20 sets per muscle group per week—distributed over 2-3 days—saw significantly better muscle gains than those who tried to do it all in one day.
When we work with our 1:1 training clients, we spread their training volume across all of the days they have available to train. For some, that’s 3 days per week, and for others, it’s 5.
How Does Intensity Affect Your Muscle & Strength Progress
Let’s talk about intensity. This is where two people can follow the same program and get drastically different results. It’s all about how close you take each set to failure. Training with intensity means pushing yourself to the point where you’re challenging your muscles to the max, ideally bringing each set within a few reps of failure.
In practice, that means that the last rep of your set should be a lot slower, and much more challenging than the first few reps.
With our clients, we call this level of effort a “Hard Set”. It means you stop about 1 or 2 reps before failure.
Click the video to the left to see what “Hard Sets” look and feel like.
Research in the Journal of Applied Physiology shows that training to failure—or close to it—recruits more muscle fibers, leading to greater gains in size and strength . So, while frequency and volume are essential, intensity is what separates those who see amazing results from those who don’t. It’s about more than just showing up—every set should count.
The Problem With Group Classes and Building Strength and Muscle
Now, let’s talk about group classes. While group fitness classes can be great for general fitness or cardiovascular health, they often fall short when it comes to physique improvements. Why? The random nature of the classes. You might hit your legs hard one day and barely touch them for another week, or you might do a mix of exercises that never target your muscles with enough volume or intensity to see real change.
In structured strength training programs, you have a clear plan: you’re progressively overloading your muscles, working them with enough volume, and training them multiple times per week. Group classes, on the other hand, often jump from one exercise to the next with little continuity, which means you’re missing the frequency and progressive overload needed for muscle growth.
It’s not that you “shouldn’t” do these kinds of classes, it’s just that you need to have the right expectations for what you’re going to get out of them.
How to Structure Your Training for Optimal Progress
Here’s the good news: you don’t need to do the exact same exercises every time you hit the gym. In fact, it’s better if you don’t! By switching up exercises—while still targeting the same muscle groups—you’ll keep your workouts fresh, hit different angles and muscle fibers, and avoid overtraining injuries.
For example:
On Monday, you might do heavy squats for your lower body.
Later in the week, you could focus on lunges or leg presses with lighter weights and higher reps.
This variety helps you build well-rounded strength and muscle mass. Another benefit? It helps prevent burnout, both mentally and physically. As long as you’re targeting the same muscle group and progressively increasing the difficulty over time, you’ll see results.
Let’s Summarize
If your goal is to build muscle and strength, training each muscle group 2-3 times per week is one of the most effective strategies you can adopt. By spreading out your volume, maintaining intensity, and varying your exercises, you give your body more frequent chances to grow and recover. Remember, it's not about how many days you're in the gym—it's about what you do with that time.
If you're tired of random, ineffective workouts and want a plan designed to maximize your time in the gym, click the button below to learn about working with our team.
References:
Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2016). Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 30(6), 1689-1697.
Ralston, G. W., Kilgore, L., Wyatt, F. B., & Baker, J. S. (2018). The Effect of Weekly Set Volume on Strength Gain: A Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine, 48(5), 1207-1216.
Grgic, J., Schoenfeld, B. J., & Mikulic, P. (2019). Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Gains in Muscular Strength: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine, 49(10), 1479-1488.
Morton, R. W., et al. (2016). Training to Failure vs. Not to Failure in a Periodized Resistance Training Program. Journal of Applied Physiology, 121(4), 898-906.