What is the best training frequency for building muscle based on science?

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The best training frequency for muscle growth based on science
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Scientific research shows that exercise is one of the main factors that helps us prevent some of the most common diseases such as cardiovascular disease and it’s also one of the main factors that can allow us to live 10+ years longer.

However, you might be wondering what is the best training frequency for building muscle.

And since there may be a lot of different opinions on this topic I think it’s a good idea to make a post on what is the best training frequence for building muscle based on science.

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If you want to find out what are the scientific benefits of exercise then click here to read my article.

What is training frequency?

Training frequency is how often do you work out per week. To be more precise, training frequency is how often do you train each muscle group per week.

What is the best training frequency for building muscle based on science

A systematic review of 25 studies shows that there’s no significant difference between higher and lower frequency on a volume-equated basis. [1]
That means that it didn’t matter how many times people trained each muscle group per week as long as they had the same amount of training volume (measured in total reps per week per muscle group).

For example, if one group did 40 reps of squats 3 times per week, and another group did 30 reps of squats 4 times per week, they would gain about the same amount of muscle, because both groups did 120 reps of squats per week in total.

However, on a non-volume-equated basis results showed a significant effect favoring higher frequencies. [1] That means that if you’re doing a lot of volume (reps) per week per muscle group then it’s better to spread this volume (reps) across several workouts instead of doing it all in one workout.

A systematic review of 22 studies also shows that higher training frequencies are translated into greater muscular strength gains. However, these effects seem to be primarily driven by training volume because when the volume is equated, there was no significant effect of resistance training (RT) frequency on muscular strength gains. [2]

Summary

So, what is the best training frequency for building muscle based on science? Well, it looks like scientific research shows that training frequency doesn’t matter as long as the volume (number of reps) is the same.

However, if you’re doing a lot of volume (reps) per week per muscle group then it’s better to spread this volume (reps) across several workouts instead of doing it all in one workout.

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