Once or twice a week per body part for muscle progress?

[web_girl]

Hi Cathe

Quick question from one of your army of British fans...

To see toning and strengthening is it best to work each muscle group once or twice per week?

I only have three days per week that I don't do any cardio as I commute to work, off road, by cycle 4 days per week and rack up just under one and a half hours interval cardio on those days. I find trying to follow that with a challenging weight workout is a little much and I start feeling like I am over training.

However, I can 'find' three days, Wednesday and Saturday and Sunday, for pounding the pounds. Is that enough to get significant benefit? Or am I just making myself sore once a week but will see no progress by training and focusing on each muscle once every seven days?

It obviously doesn't leave me with any 'rest days' at all. Is that a problem?

I would love your views.

Best wishes on your recovery,
Claire

 

[Aquajock]

Claire, I'm not Cathe, but in my opinion you can get excellent results with doing weights Wed.'s, Sat's and Sun's. You could do, on a weekly basis, a split-set approach (using Cathe's Pure Strength, Slow and Heavy, and Gym-Styles series{es?}), performing one workout each weight day (giving you a total-body blast by the end of the week), OR you could do total-body workouts each Wed / Sat / Sun. using Maximum Intensity Strength (MIS), Muscle Max, Power Hour, Supersets, Push-Pull, and a premix-mix from the Pyramids.

The lack of a weekly rest day can become a problem, so I'd like to suggest doing a 3-week-on-1-week-off, where the fourth week you go very light or totally weight-free to give your body a break.

HTH -

A-Jock