Geschatte leestijd: 4 minutenYou can train your muscles two or three times a week. Small muscle groups can even be trained more often than this. But muscle soreness and the recovery capacity of the muscles are not the only factors that determine how often you can train a muscle group. You also have to take into account the effects of training on your tendons and joints, as well as your central nervous system. In this article, we explain how to best train your muscles.
Composition of Muscles
When you perform a fitness exercise, various processes are set in motion in your body. The brain sends a signal to the muscles which then goes via the central nervous system to the skeletal muscles. Ultimately, this signal causes a contraction of the muscle, also known as muscle contraction.
A muscle is composed of several parts. Below is a list of these different parts:
- Muscle fiber bundle
- Muscle fiber
- Myofibrils
- Myofilaments
- Sarcomeres
- Actin
- Myosin
Muscle Anatomy
To visually represent the different parts that make up a muscle, below you can see the anatomy of the muscle divided into the different elements.
The muscles work because there are many myofibrils in the muscle fibers. These are long protein structures. On top of the myofibril, the structure of actin and myosin is visible. Together, they form a sarcomere. The sarcomere is the smallest structure that comes into function when a muscle contracts. So, the sarcomere is a composition of thick myosin filaments and thin actin filaments, which overlap each other.
The energy released in the muscles occurs when the signal from the brain reaches the muscle cells. Here, energy is released by the splitting of ATP (adenosine triphosphate). The ATP is split into ADP (adenosine diphosphate), P (phosphate), and energy. To convert this ADP + P back into ATP (from which energy can be released again), energy systems in the body are needed to do this. These are the phosphate pool, the lactic acid system, and the oxygen system.
Through the release of this source of energy, the muscle moves, and the actin and myosin slide into each other. This movement causes the sarcomeres to shorten, resulting in a muscle contraction. This occurs in all sarcomeres of a muscle cell that is activated.
Training Muscle Groups
Now that you know how the muscles in your body work, we’ll move on to how to best train the muscles. If you’ve never trained a muscle group more than once a week and you want to train it more often, don’t start too quickly. Take a few weeks to let your body adjust to this new intensity.
Also, consider that when you train heavier, it takes longer to recover. This way, you cannot quickly stress your muscles more often. Your body should get used to the new way of training. Many professional bodybuilders often rotate the intensity of their training, sometimes training with heavy weights and other times with much higher repetitions and lighter weights.
Guideline for Training Muscles
Training a muscle group two or three times a week is an option for many. Small muscle groups can even be trained more often than this. This can also be done with large muscle groups, as long as the number of sets is maintained.
One of the most common mistakes is not the number of times a muscle group is trained per week, but the number of sets per training.
For example:
Two times a week training schedule: if you currently train your chest once a week with 12 sets and you want to increase it to twice a week, don’t do 2 sets of 12 sets each, totaling 24 sets. Instead, aim for 6 sets per training, so you end up with 12 sets per week. Make sure to fully stress your chest in each training session.
Three times a week training schedule: if you currently train your biceps with 9 sets per week, don’t do 3 sets of 9 sets each, totaling 27 sets. Do 3 sets per training session, totaling 9 sets in total.
Weekly Number of Sets per Muscle Group
Below is a guideline for the number of sets per muscle group per week. If you’re not sure if you have enough, always start with the minimum number of weekly sets and then build up:
- 9 to 15 sets per week: large muscle groups, such as chest muscles, back muscles, shoulders, and quadriceps.
- 6 to 9 sets per week: small muscle groups, such as biceps, triceps, calves, abs, and hamstrings.
- 0 to 3 sets per week: minimal muscle groups, such as lower back, forearms, rear shoulders, and trapezius.
Number of Reps per Week
There is no magic number for the number of reps. Progress, more weight, and maximum number of reps per weight are much more important than the number of reps. However, there are some guidelines you can follow for the number of reps to maximize your results.
Compound exercises: For most compound exercises, it is recommended to stay between 5 to 12 reps per set.
Isolation exercises: For isolation exercises, the number of reps per set is between 10 – 15. Dipping below this range often means the weight is too heavy, and execution may suffer.
Legs: The number of reps for legs is often higher because it benefits the leg muscles. Therefore, the number of reps for legs is a maximum of 20 reps per set.
Calves: Calves are often well developed and usually do not need to be trained. If your calves are not growing or you want to work on them, try to stay between 12 and 20 reps per set.
Training Heavier
If you want to achieve muscle growth, you can only do so by training with more weight or resistance. In summary, this means that you should aim for as many reps as possible with the right amount of weight for each set. When you can perform the number of reps per set, increase the weight. However, make sure you can continue to perform each exercise correctly. Force yourself to complete each rep properly, and stop if you feel you won’t make the next rep.
Rest Between Sets
Remember why you came to the gym. To build muscles. There is no reason to rush from set to set. For many professionals, working with shorter rest periods between sets may be valuable, but for many beginners and intermediates, this is not yet applicable.
Take 90 to 120 seconds rest between sets. If you have done heavy compound exercises, this may be between 3 and 5 minutes. This only applies to deadlifts, squats, and bench presses. Remember that the goal is to maximally stress your muscles. For isolation exercises, 60 seconds of rest is more than enough. For all exercises, rest until you feel ready to go again.
