How Often Do You Train?

Training Powerlifting
21

100% of my progress has come during period where I benched 3x per week, plus upper back, and squatted 2-3 times per week, but if you eliminate warmups, ramp-up sets, set up, and rest between exercises, I only did a maximum of about 10 minutes of main pressing+10 minutes of a secondary bench press exercise, 10 minutes for upper back, 10 minutes of squatting and 10 minutes of deadlifting or a squat assistance exercise. That is time working with rest periods after hitting my first real work set, so 30 minutes 3x for benching/rows and 20 minutes 2-3x per week for squats+deads or assistance.

I might have spend at most about double that time in the gym.

Example, M, W, F: 5 minutes warmup, 10 minutes ramping up with 1-3 reps, 10 minutes doing 4-8 work sets, 5 min break to assistance for 10 minutes, and 5 min break to rows for 10 minutes (55 minutes)

T, Thurs, Sat: (skipping thursday about half the time): 15 minutes warmup and ramping for squats, 10 minutes of work sets (4-8), maybe 10 minute break, and 10 minutes of work sets on deads or assistance squat. (45 minutes)

And I probably only did a bench assistance, or deads or squat assistance about half the time.

probably an average of 3 1/2 to 4 hours in the gym per week. When I spent more time working out I did a lot of useless stuff, and didn’t get any more big sets, and didn’t make progress.

I took my bench from 320-360 in 4 months by just benching for 10 work minutes 2 times a week, and doing 10 minutes of assistance about half the time.

Main exercises work for me, and I don’t see a point in more than 2 presses, or 2 lower body exercises, plus 1 row.

22

I’m just below master level 1355 raw total 198lbs (43yrs old)

Weight training 4 days a week 1 - 1.5 hours (except during competition cycle when I go to 3-days a week 1 hour sessions)

Light conditioning on off days.

I can’t weight train consecutive days anymore…I need a buffer day to recover. I squat and bench 3 days a week.

23

Two times a week is pressing training, one deadlift training and one squat training, so four per week. If I feel rested i do one more training for back on weekend.

24

3 times per week

Sunday - Squat and Deadlift + Vertical Pull, Hams, and Core.

Tuesday- Press Day + Horizontal Pull, Triceps, and Biceps sometimes.

Thursday- Front Squat and Speed Pulls + Traps, Glutes, and Core

occasionally drop swap Sunday for a Saturday Strongman Event Day.

Guess I’m a intermediate lifter…
Body Weight: Not so lean 220
Squat: 505
Bench: 325
Dead: 535
Push Press: 300

25

Cundy first guy to pull 800, 3 days a week

Jerry Jones 675 raw squat at 198 in 1974, 4 days a week, 2 PL and 2 BBing

Jack Barnes at times 2 week 700lbs squat at 181 with crappy crepe bandage knee wraps back in 1971

Frenn 853 squat at 242 in 1970 wearing a singlet and loose shorts (with same crepe knee wraps) 2 x week weights, needed other days to throw hammer

Dr Mauro P. from PL USA did a lot of his training on 2 week

all these guys had long carreers, jobs families etc

reall hard to train more than 4 times a week unless you are a college kid

26

The strongest guys Ive trained with never seem to need more than 3-4 days a week, an hour per session.

I’ve found out that for me, the more frequency, the better, period.

Something to consider.

Edit: It should be noted that those guys were not taking anything but maybe creatine. Reread this and it kinda made me think it would lead to some assumptions

27

[quote]mkral55 wrote:
The strongest guys Ive trained with never seem to need more than 3-4 days a week, an hour per session.

I’ve found out that for me, the more frequency, the better, period.

Something to consider.

Edit: It should be noted that those guys were not taking anything but maybe creatine. Reread this and it kinda made me think it would lead to some assumptions[/quote]

I’m only on the creatinzes too bro.

28

[quote]Reed wrote:
3 times per week

Sunday - Squat and Deadlift + Vertical Pull, Hams, and Core.

Tuesday- Press Day + Horizontal Pull, Triceps, and Biceps sometimes.

Thursday- Front Squat and Speed Pulls + Traps, Glutes, and Core

occasionally drop swap Sunday for a Saturday Strongman Event Day.

Guess I’m a intermediate lifter…
Body Weight: Not so lean 220
Squat: 505 (SPF)
Bench: 325
Dead: 535
Push Press: 300

I also do roids.
[/quote]

Fixed it a bit for you :slight_smile:

29

I typically train 6 days a week alternating squat/bench and Front squat/Press. Working up to a training maximum everyday (until the weight gets slow) I have made the fastest progress in my time training doing this. I find the big lifts which are much more technique dependent really benefit from high frequency training.

30

4 times per week. Monday is squat and legs, Tuesday is bench and shoulders, Thursday is deadlift and back and friday is close grip bench and arms. All main movements are 2-5( I almost never max out), first assistance is 3x5, everything else above 10. Except or Friday, which every assistance is around 20 reps.

31

[quote]ahnz wrote:

[quote]Reed wrote:
3 times per week

Sunday - Squat and Deadlift + Vertical Pull, Hams, and Core.

Tuesday- Press Day + Horizontal Pull, Triceps, and Biceps sometimes.

Thursday- Front Squat and Speed Pulls + Traps, Glutes, and Core

occasionally drop swap Sunday for a Saturday Strongman Event Day.

Guess I’m a intermediate lifter…
Body Weight: Not so lean 220
Squat: 505 (SPF)
Bench: 325
Dead: 535
Push Press: 300

I also do roids.
[/quote]

Fixed it a bit for you :slight_smile:

[/quote]

Fuck off, asshat. Why did you feel the need to point this out? Because he is stronger than you, or because you are a pussy? Or is it both?

32

I prefer to lift 5 days a week. Right now I’m lifting 4, trying to put on some weight. Squat 3, dead 1-2, and currently benching 2 but about to move that up to 4.

33

I’ve lifted anywhere between 2 and 5 days per week and find my current sweet spot to be 4 days per week. Depending on how I continue to recover between workouts as I get into my thirties, I’d like to maintain this in the years to come.

34

4 days a week, 2 hours, upper-lower-upper-lower.

35

Would depend on genetics and age.

I’m older and slower so I switched recently from two on and one off to every other day. I usually train an hour and half to two hours.

On dead lift day and squat day at around one hour my head is feeling dull and feel as though I could close my eyes and sleep.

But I don’t. I’m always watching always on guard.

36

I have four primary training sessions a week, ME and DE squats Monday and Friday, ME and DE bench Wednesday and Sunday. However, I usually come in for 45 minutes to an hour of ab, core and flexibility work on Saturdays, and a mini version of that on Tuesdays. I was a little concerned about training 6 days a week when I started doing it, but the extra core strength has taken my squat and deadlift from eight year old girl level to at least thirteen year old girl level.

Current PRs:
Bench - 325
Squat - 400
DL - 430

While I think 3-4 is best I also think if your sleep is good and your calories are high you can pull off an extra session or two if you want to.

37

[quote]Terry Gibbs wrote:
Cundy first guy to pull 800, 3 days a week

Jerry Jones 675 raw squat at 198 in 1974, 4 days a week, 2 PL and 2 BBing

Jack Barnes at times 2 week 700lbs squat at 181 with crappy crepe bandage knee wraps back in 1971

Frenn 853 squat at 242 in 1970 wearing a singlet and loose shorts (with same crepe knee wraps) 2 x week weights, needed other days to throw hammer

Dr Mauro P. from PL USA did a lot of his training on 2 week

all these guys had long carreers, jobs families etc

reall hard to train more than 4 times a week unless you are a college kid[/quote]

Interesting. I wonder if they primarily trained this way most of their lifting careers and if they were natural or not. I mean, when this Barnes guy took his squat from 400 to 600lbs was it still twice a week?

It took me awhile to figure out what bothered me so much about the conversation between the client and trainer at the gym, but after awhile I figured it out.

Many of the population - even those who train regularly - seem to regard organizing frequency simply as a balance between fatigue and recovery. Hit the gym, rest, repeat ad infinitum, and your numbers will slowly go up.

However, this mindset completely ignores the idea of skill related to lifting, There is little to no concept of learning, practice, perfecting technique, and experimentation in methods.

Training without practicing the skills needed to master the sport will only you take you as far as your natural athletic talent and genetics allow you.

38

For me the whole thing depends on assistance work - not the main lifts. If all I do is squat, pull and press and leave, I absolutely could go 6 days a week. But after I throw in a few heavy assistance movements for each lift and then conditioning, there’s no way. It comes down to do you need to actually squat - do you need to grease the groove, develop technique, etc., or are you savvy (advanced) enough to maintain your technique and work on weaknesses

. If it’s the latter, imo, frequency decreases because you are technically lifting heavier per lift even if it is not heavier overall. For instance, my front squats and incline barbell presses are crap and reveal weaknesses for me - thus working them hard takes there toll on me even if the weight is not heavy, relatively speaking. This is harder on me physically and neurologically than squatting 6 times a week. I personally have erased the notion of a 7 day training week and think in terms of 10 day weeks. I am 45 and this works well for me.

39

I spend around 3-4 days a week in the gym, however my sessions are really long. They’re sometimes upto 3 hours. I think this is because I take long rest periods and I really need to work on my conditioning. I could, and probably will, split the workload over 6 days though and get in and out of the gym in 90 minutes.

40

[quote]Bauber wrote:

[quote]mkral55 wrote:
The strongest guys Ive trained with never seem to need more than 3-4 days a week, an hour per session.

I’ve found out that for me, the more frequency, the better, period.

Something to consider.

Edit: It should be noted that those guys were not taking anything but maybe creatine. Reread this and it kinda made me think it would lead to some assumptions[/quote]

I’m only on the creatinzes too bro.[/quote]

I think you should be banned for calling yourself intermediate+

not srs

semi srs