THE HIGHS AND THE LOWS BY JIM STOPPANI Avoid workout overload with these planning strategies for training frequency How often do you train? Most likely, you hit the gym 3 to 6 times per week. How often should you train? Now that's a tough question. While it wouldn't stir a heated debate on a par with "Who's hotter — Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Lopez?", arguing about how often you should train for maximum benefit has brought many gym rats close to exchanging right hooks. At one end of the continuum is the high-intensity, low-frequency training programme, which advocates plenty of recovery between workouts to optimise muscle growth potential. Followers of this theory are typically in and out of the gym pretty quickly, training each muscle group once every 7 to 10 days. On the opposite end of the continuum are believers in the ‘if a little is good, then more is better' approach. They may train each muscle group in excess of three times per week, sometimes employing two or more sessions per day.

Somewhere in the middle are those who follow the more traditional programme of training each muscle group twice a week. So, which is best? Actually, each routine has its place in a well-designed training programme. The key is knowing how, and when, to use them. DIALLING IN THE RIGHT FREQUENCY For our purposes, training frequency can be defined as the number of training sessions for a specific muscle group completed in a given period. Most likely, you regularly tweak variables such as intensity (how much weight you move over a certain period), the volume of your sessions, the exercises you choose and the order in which you do them. Yet very few recreational or even more serious lifters regularly alter their training frequency. Like disciples of a religious cult, bodybuilders tightly hold on to one specific doctrine regarding how often to train and resist change. This serious mistake could be holding back your progress. Cycling between periods of low and high frequency can play a critical role in the success of your training programme. First, you must define the lower and upper limits of your personal frequency scale. As a general guideline, the National Strength and Conditioning Association (the NSCA is the world's leading authority on strength and conditioning) recommends that at least one day of recovery, but not more than three days, should separate workouts that stress the same muscle group. These guidelines are based on the idea that the lack of a training stimulus for too many days will likely cause a de-training effect. This concept is supported by several research studies that have investigated the effects of different training frequencies on strength performance. If we apply the NSCA recommendations to an average weekly workout plan, this ranges from a low-frequency limit of two workouts per week to a high-frequency limit of three per week for each muscle group. Of course, these are only guidelines and not commandments carved in stone; in fact, they're designed more for strength athletes than bodybuilders. To build muscle, you'll probably need more recovery than someone training for strength or power — muscles grow during rest, not during a workout. Taking that into account, you should use a frequency range of working a bodypart at least once per week, but definitely no more than three times. Whether you'll be working each muscle group one, two or three times weekly should be based on a variety of factors unique to you, and you alone. LOOKING HIGH AND LOW When deciding on a training frequency, consider factors such as your weightlifting experience (are you a novice or highly trained?), the weight and rep scheme you're using, the types of exercises you're doing and your activities outside the gym. These factors influence your body's ability to recover from the previous workout and impact on when it will be optimal to provide the next training stimulus. Because training frequency should be designed to enhance your recovery and accelerate muscle adaptations, your training frequency should change as these factors do. Staying Low Resistance training is a stress imposed on the whole body. While this stress often leads to positive adaptations, too much can have detrimental effects on your gains and overall health. To avoid these negative effects, a lower training frequency should be used when you're: ›› performing high-volume training. ›› using heavy weight (fewer than eight reps). ›› using high-intensity methods (negative reps, forced reps, drop sets, supersets). ›› performing a lot of multijoint movements (squats, deadlifts, bench presses). ›› doing a lot of other activity (aerobic training, sports, job- or household-related labour, sparring in the gym over arguments about female celebrities, etc.). If one or more of these conditions apply to you, give yourself more than three days of rest between workouts for the same muscle group, and maybe at least one day of rest between workouts for different muscle groups. Longer recovery periods are also essential for novice lifters and those using high-intensity training methods, since both groups are particularly susceptible to greater levels of muscle damage. When sections of muscle are damaged, they're replaced with new muscle cells that become larger, stronger and more resistant to further damage than the old cells, a process that's believed to take 5 to 14 days. Chemicals produced during the removal of the damaged muscle cause nerve fibres to signal a ‘pain' message to your brain; this soreness you experience a day or two following that intense workout is an ‘SOS' signal from the damaged muscle fibres begging for some time to recover. You'd be wise to listen to their demands. Giving them 5 to 7 days of rest between workouts should allow enough time without risking too much of a de-training effect. Going Higher Higher training frequencies can be handled by more experienced lifters because their bodies gain a protective mechanism against further severe muscle damage. Muscle fibre that's more resistant to severe damage grows through enhanced protein synthesis. The force of the weight isn't enough to induce serious muscle damage, but instead stimulates the muscle cells to synthesise new proteins. The more contractile protein produced, the greater the size and strength of the muscle. Higher-frequency training allows you to take advantage of the ‘staircase effect'. According to this theory, the stimulus provided to the muscle by each workout builds on the effects stimulated by the previous workout, as though you're climbing a set of stairs. Since protein synthesis is usually completed in about 24 to 48 hours, scheduling the next workout before the effects from the previous workout are lost should lead to an additive effect on overall protein synthesis and growth. Lifters not experiencing high levels of muscle damage and/or soreness might try following a frequency schedule that allows only 1 to 2 days of rest between workouts for each muscle group, at least for a short period. To reduce the chances of overtraining, make sure to keep your volume low and your intensity moderate — weight is moderately heavy and no high-intensity methods are used. You may also need to cut back on other activities if fatigue becomes an issue. Knowing how to manipulate all of the training variables, such as frequency, will enhance your recovery and muscle growth. So, before you hit the weights again, be sure that you have a plan of attack which takes frequency adjustments into account to ensure that you make frequent gains. HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU TRAIN? Use this list to help you determine your own optimal training frequency. Remember, no one system of training will work forever. It's important to continue to adapt and change your routine to reflect the changes in your physique and as you become a more advanced bodybuilder. Your training background is quite possibly the most important factor in determining your optimal frequency of training. The longer you've been hitting the weights, the more likely you'll benefit from cycles of higher-frequency training. Those who have been training for less than a year may not have built a sufficient base to support this type of training. The type of muscle contractions emphasised during your workouts has a significant impact on the type of frequency that may be most effective for you. If your workouts feature a lot of heavy, eccentric work and partner-assisted negatives, you'll benefit from a lower training frequency. These workouts cause higher levels of muscle damage that requires more recovery time between sessions. Muscle ‘pump' sessions that include lighter loads and focus on concentric contractions may be repeated more often due to the lesser degree of damage that's caused. The type of exercises you do on a regular basis also affects your decisions regarding workout frequency. You will recover more quickly from single-joint, isolation moves than from multijoint, compound exercises. Likewise, the muscle groups worked will contribute to your decision to train more or less frequently. Research indicates that upper-body muscles seem to handle more frequent heavy-training workouts better than lower-body muscles. Smaller muscle groups also recover more quickly than larger ones. Use of recovery techniques such as massage, whirlpool, ice and/or stretching could improve your muscle recovery and thus, increase your ability to train more frequently. Alternating between lighter and heavier workouts may also enable you to train more often. FREQUENCY CYCLING Ready to mix up your training in pursuit of more size, or knock yourself off a training plateau? Try cycling the frequency of your workouts. How you do this will depend on whether you consider training frequency a primary or a secondary variable within your programme. Primary variables define your training programme and influence all other variables (the secondary ones). If you consider training frequency a secondary variable and intensity (the amount of weight you're using) a primary variable, then you should adjust your frequency according to how you cycle your weight. For example, if you train heavy one week and light the next, then training frequency can follow a similar pattern — low the first week and high the next. To design your training programme with frequency as a primary variable, you'd schedule your frequency cycles and adjust the other variables (amount of weight used, number of sets and reps) accordingly. Start with equal cycles in the beginning: two weeks of low frequency/high intensity followed by two weeks of high frequency, lower intensity, and repeat the cycle. Because your muscle fibres gain a greater protection from damage as your experience increases, however, muscle damage becomes less severe and less frequent. To enhance the synthesis of muscle protein in damage-resistant fibres, gradually increase the length of the high-frequency period over time until you reach a maximum of eight consecutive weeks. M&F REFERENCES ›› Baechle, T.R., Earle, R.W. Essentials of strength training and conditioning (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2000. ›› Brooks, S.V., Opitek, J.A., Faulkner, J.A. Conditioning of skeletal muscle in adult and old mice for protection from contraction-induced injury. Journals of Gerontology 56(4):B163–B174, 2001. ›› Graves, J.E., Pollock, M.L., Leggett, S.H., Bishop, L.E. Effect of reduced training frequency on muscular strength. International Journal of Sports Medicine 9:316–319, 1988. ›› Hoffman, J.R., Kraemer, W.J., Fry, A.C., et al. The effects of self-selection for frequency of training in a winter conditioning programme for football. Journal of Applied Sport Science & Research 4:76–82, 1990. ›› Hoffman, J.R., Maresh, C.M., Armstrong, L.E., Kraemer, W.J. Effects of off-season and in-season resistance training programmes on a collegiate male basketball team. Journal of Human Muscle Performance 1:48–55, 1991. ›› Hunter, G.R. Changes in body composition, body build and performance associated with different weight training frequencies in males and females. National Strength & Conditioning Association Journal 7(1):26–28, 1985. ›› Koh, T.J., Brooks, S.V. Lengthening contractions are not required to induce protection from contraction-induced muscle injury. American Journal of Physiology 281:R155–R161, 2001.