How many times a week is the most appropriate amount of strength training?

For more than 90% of ordinary fitness enthusiasts, strength training 2-5 times a week is a completely reasonable range. There is no absolute "standard answer". Whether it is suitable or not depends entirely on your training goals, life rhythm and body recovery ability. If you try to copy other people's training frequency, it is easy to get half the result with twice the effort.

Unfortunately, when I first entered the fitness trap two years ago, I was fooled by the online saying that "you need to practice five times a week to get started." I forced myself to go to the gym on Mondays, Wednesdays and fifths every week.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that high-frequency training is useless. There is a little brother who competes in bodybuilding competitions in the gym I often go to. During the preparation period, he trains 6 times a week, doing a double cycle of pushing and pulling legs. After each training, he also needs to add 40 minutes of aerobics. Carbohydrates, proteins and sleep are stuck to the minute level. In three months, his body fat dropped from 18 to 8, and his muscle mass increased by 4 pounds. When he went on stage, his abdominal muscles were as clear as cut dried tofu. The premise of such high frequency is that people's goal is to achieve competition results, and they only practice 1-2 parts at a time, which just hits the 48-72 hour excess recovery window of the muscles. If an ordinary part-time worker were to practice like this, he would definitely be so tired that he would not even have the energy to clock in for work within two weeks.

If you are like my programmer colleague, you just want to practice to look good in a T-shirt, climb stairs without panting, and have no intention of competing for any competition, then 2-3 times a week is really enough. He would spend an hour and a half every Tuesday and Thursday night, practicing compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and pull-ups. He would go through the major muscle groups of his body every time. After a year of training, his round beer belly was flattened, and his American shirts were stiffened by the shoulder lines. During the last team building climb on Mount Tai, he walked at the front carrying two boxes of mineral water, which made the colleagues who shouted for fitness every day but were too lazy to go to the convenience store downstairs look stupid.

Oh, yes, there is also a very popular minimalist fitness school, which says that strength training once a week is enough. Many people call it an IQ tax, but it is not. This frequency is aimed at people who have reached a state that they are satisfied with and no longer need to challenge the dimensions and strength. I know a brother who used to do powerlifting. At his peak, he could squat 220kg. Later, he opened a barbecue restaurant and kept busy with the shop every day. He took an hour and a half every Sunday morning to go to the gym and practice 5 sets of each of the three major events. Two years later, he can still squat 180kg steadily, which is enough for his daily needs of carrying goods and going out to play ball with friends.

It is actually very simple to judge whether your training frequency is appropriate, and there is no need to calculate any complicated indicators: First, your state is online every time you enter the gym, and you will not be so tired after doing two sets of squats that you want to slump on the equipment to fish.； Second, except for the slight muscle soreness on the second day after training, it will not affect your normal work, carry things, or go shopping with your partner. If you have difficulty climbing the third floor on the second day after training, or you have caught colds or oral ulcers frequently recently, then you must have practiced too much, and just reduce the number of times. After all, recovery is always more important than training. Those who shout "If you don't practice to death, practice to death" are most likely to be fooled by supplement sellers.

To put it bluntly, fitness is to add points to your life, not to add KPIs to you. Many people haven't applied for the card yet. They struggled for half a month on "how many times a week is the most appropriate to practice", but in the end they didn't even buy the card and it was of no use. Even if you start with once a week, practice for two months and then add more when you feel you have the strength, it is better than anything else - the frequency that you can stick to is the most suitable frequency for you.