CHAPTER 11

When and How Often

“Why on God’s green earth are you weight training for two and a half hours per day? By following this routine you have a better chance of being struck by lightning or dating a supermodel than you do of being a top pro bodybuilder. It’s great to be motivated and want to be the best bodybuilder in the world, but there is a fine line between intensity and stupidity.”

– Frank Sepe, top bodybuilding writer and model, answering a beginner’s question about whether two-and-a-half hours of training per day is too much.

When people ask me the best time to train, I usually tell them, “today!” The most important thing is not so much when you work out, but rather the fact that you work out regularly. Don’t let anyone tell you that you must work out at sunrise, or in the evening. The best time to train is whenever you can fit it into your daily schedule.

That being said, researchers tell us that hormone levels usually peak in the early morning hours. Training at this time helps you take advantage of the body’s natural rhythms. Also, you may have more energy because you’re not drained from a stressful day at work or school. Of course hopping out of bed at sunrise to head to the gym is not for everyone. In fact, most people find that they need a couple of hours to “wake up” and then another couple of hours before they reach peak efficiency. This would move the time to late morning/early afternoon. But since this time is inconvenient for most people, they usually train between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. (for students) or 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. (for workers).

If you’re flexible with your time, even better – most gyms are open from 5 or 6 in the morning to 10 or 11 at night. A few gyms are even open 24 hours. Training early in the morning or late at night allows you to avoid the crowds at peak times.

HOW OFTEN?

“Train three days per week and work your whole body each training session. Spend more time working your larger muscle groups such as your legs and back rather than your chest, arms and shoulders. Stick to basic exercises, keeping your sets at 3 or 4 and reps between 8 and 10 on the smaller muscle groups and 10 to 12 on the larger.”

– Bill Pearl, bodybuilding legend, offering his views on the type of training program an ectomorphic beginner should follow.

Although telling you when to work out is rather easy, telling you how often is a bit more difficult. Generally speaking, you want to work the muscles hard enough to stimulate new growth, but not so hard that they won’t recover before the next workout. Endless routine combinations will help you achieve growth. This book is designed to take you from the beginner level right up to the competitive levels of bodybuilding. Unfortunately, you can’t skip the beginner and intermediate levels and go straight to pro-level training, because your recovery system is not yet capable of enduring heavy training intensity. Jay Cutler didn’t start out by following a double-split, six-times-per-week training program! In fact, Jay and most of the other pros follow six-day splits only in the few months before a contest. The point, however, is that they started out small and eventually built up to their present training intensity. Here are the most popular split routines followed by bodybuilders. Later in the book we’ll go into each in more detail.

Photo of Bill Wilmore by Ralph DeHaan

THE WHOLE BODY – THREE TIMES PER WEEK

This is the routine most beginners start with, and it guarantees great results. You train the entire body during one workout, and then take a day off from training. Do this three times a week, with a day off between each workout. The day off between workouts gives the body adequate time to repair itself before the next workout. On average it takes a muscle about 48 hours to recover from low- to medium-intensity workouts.

The primary disadvantage of this routine is that you’ll only be able to do 2 or 3 sets for each muscle group. Trying to do more sets for each muscle group will leave you overtrained. Besides, trying to do 10 or 15 sets for every muscle group would take you three or four hours!

FOUR DAYS PER WEEK – TWO ON, ONE OFF

The four-day-per-week split is probably the most common and effective routine for gaining muscle size and strength. The body is divided into two halves, with each half trained on one of two consecutive days. After one day of rest follow two more days of training. Unlike the full-body routine, where all the muscles must be trained during one workout, the four-day split allows you to do more for the muscles since you’re training only half of them during any given workout. Instead of 2 or 3 sets of one exercise, you can do 3 or 4 sets of two, three or even four different exercises for each bodypart.

There are two different approaches to the four-day-split routine. You can train Monday and Tuesday, take Wednesday off, train Thursday and Friday, and take weekends off, or you can simply go two on, one off, regardless of what day of the week it happens to be. Many bodybuilders like to use the first approach, as it gives them the weekends off.

Some individuals have difficulty following this four-day split because they find training two days in a row too strenuous. For those who need that extra day’s rest between workouts, a variation of the four-day split called the two-week split might be the solution.

TWO-WEEK-SPLIT ROUTINE

Just like the four-day split, you divide your training into two workouts. However, instead of training two days in a row, you train one day and take the next day off. While you can go one on, one off indefinitely, most bodybuilders do Day 1 on Monday and Friday and then Day 2 on Wednesday. The following week they perform Day 2 on Monday and Friday and Day 1 on Wednesday. Basically you spread your training cycle over two weeks and perform each workout three times (twice in one week and once the next). See the example routine below of how this might work.

SIX-DAY-SPLIT ROUTINE

Eventually, most bodybuilders give the six-day split a try. As with the four-day split, you train different muscles on different days. In this situation, you divide your training into three separate workouts, perform them for three consecutive days and then take a day off. Some bodybuilders prefer to perform both three-day cycles back to back – six days in a row – and take the seventh day off.

The primary advantage of six-day splits is that you train only a couple of muscles each day. This means that you can train each muscle with extra sets and exercises. While it sounds great in theory, most bodybuilders find that they can endure training six out of seven days for only about two months. And I’m talking about the most experienced and genetically gifted bodybuilders out there. Most bodybuilders will limit this type of training to their pre-contest phase of training. They then switch back to a four- or five-day routine after the contest.

DOUBLE-SPLIT ROUTINE

The double-split routine is great for those who have less than 45 minutes to work out during each session, or for those who have plenty of time but prefer to concentrate on only one bodypart in a workout. You simply train twice a day, hitting one bodypart at a time. The advantage to this is that you can devote all your energy to training just one muscle. You will be in and out, shower and all, in 30 to 45 minutes, or even less. Double-split routines can be incorporated into either four- or six-day splits, but most bodybuilders work it into the six-day split.

EXAMPLE: TWO-WEEK-SPLIT ROUTINE
WEEK ONE	WEEK TWO
MONDAY: Chest, back, biceps	MONDAY: Legs, shoulders, triceps
WEDNESDAY: Legs, shoulders, triceps	WEDNESDAY: Chest, back, biceps
FRIDAY: Chest, back, biceps	FRIDAY: Legs, shoulders, triceps
Taking a day off in between each workout provides plenty of time for recovery. Many bodybuilders who had followed the four-day split found that when they switched to this routine, their strength and size gains increased dramatically.

Photo of Kiyoshi Moody by Robert Reiff

The primary disadvantage of double-split training is that most people either do not want to, or don’t have enough time to work out twice a day. And don’t forget that training twice each day can be hard on the recovery system. It’s true that you’re training only one muscle group for a short period of time, but you’re still completing two workouts on the same day. If you were incorporating this into a six-day split it would mean 12 workouts per week. That’s a lot of work.

ONE-MUSCLE-PER-DAY ROUTINE

The biggest obstacle most people face when trying to gain muscle size and strength is overtraining. For the average person not juiced up on performance-enhancing drugs, spending more than two hours in the gym for six or seven days a week is just not possible. In fact, it becomes counterproductive. Back in the 1960s, a few of the top bodybuilders at the time, including Mr. Universe Vic Downs, figured out a solution to this problem. Instead of multi-muscle sessions lasting two, three or four hours, you train just one muscle. Instead of pacing yourself for hours on end, you hit the muscle hard for 30 to 45 minutes and then leave the gym. The nice thing about the one-muscle-per-day routine is that it satisfies those who need to be in the gym every day, but at the same time it won’t place too much of a demand on the body’s recovery system. Such a routine also allows you to do multiple sets for that one muscle group. Instead of 10 to 12 sets, you could do 15 to 20. This lets you hit the muscle from just about every conceivable angle, which is great for lagging muscle groups.

Photo of Troy Tate by Alex Ardenti

One of the drawbacks to the one-muscle-per-day routine is that you can easily do 20 sets in 30 to 45 minutes. While the big muscles such as the chest, back and thighs might be able to handle it, this many sets would be too much for the smaller supporting muscles such as the triceps and biceps.

Here is an example of the one-muscle-per-day routine:

SAMPLE ROUTINE
MONDAY	Legs
TUESDAY	Chest
WEDNESDAY	Back
THURSDAY	Shoulders
FRIDAY	Triceps
SATURDAY	Biceps

WORKOUT DURATION – HOW LONG?

There’s a close relationship between workout length and type. If you follow the low-set, high-intensity style (i.e. Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Duty program), you’ll be in and out of the gym in under 20 minutes. Conversely, a 20-set per bodypart routine could have you hoisting iron for two hours. We feel that your workouts should take anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes (including cardio).

The topic of workout duration is always being debated. Some suggest that the human body has energy reserves for only about 60 minutes. Any longer and you’re just going through the motions. There’s also the argument that two- or three-hour workouts place an incredible strain on the recovery system. Some feel that they have not stimulated the muscle adequately enough after a short workout. There is also some merit to the argument that longer workouts do a much better job of stimulating the cardiovascular system. If you follow the high-volume style of training, give yourself 90 to 120 minutes. If high-intensity training is your preference, you should be spending anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes working out, and no longer.

CONCLUSION

I’ve just described to you the most common routines followed by bodybuilders. Later in the book I’ll be showing you how to incorprate the various exercises into these routines. I strongly urge you to follow them as described. They have been arranged in ascending order of difficulty. Don’t make the mistake of jumping to Ronnie Coleman’s or Jay Cutler’s pre-contest six-day split routine. Not only do you not need it, but your system won’t be able to handle it. As time goes on, such factors as time, goals and personal preference will let you decide what kind of split routine to follow.

Photos of Mark Dugdale by Robert Reiff