Strength training every other day

There is no standard answer to whether strength training should be done every other day. For fitness novices who are just getting started and ordinary enthusiasts who are used to doing full-body training, practicing once every other day is the most cost-effective option. However, if you have a certain training foundation, do differentiated training, and have the recovery ability to keep up, you can completely break out of this rule, and even practice every day.

Damn, I was also bound by this saying when I first entered the gym. I felt that if I practiced for one more day, I would be exhausted and lose muscles. Later, I chatted with the rehabilitation trainer of the provincial team and found out that this old saying actually has a historical background. In the early years, when fitness was just popular in China, most people were exposed to the whole-body training mode, and they practiced it all at once. All the muscle groups of the chest, back, legs, shoulders and arms have been passed through, and all the muscle fibers have been pulled out of small rips. The academic community has long confirmed that the repair cycle of large muscle groups such as the chest, back, and legs is 48-72 hours, which is just an "every other day" interval. Just at the point of excessive recovery, another stimulation will be given next time. The muscle building efficiency is the highest and it is not easy to be injured.

Last year, I took care of a child who was just a sophomore in college. He usually had to go to class and couldn't spare much time to go to the gym. He didn't know any training knowledge, so I arranged a full-body training plan for him every other day, 40 minutes each time, including squats, bench presses, and bent over rows. He did 3-4 sets each of rows and deadlifts, then touched his arms twice during the remaining time. He actually gained 10 kilograms of lean weight in three months, and even caught less colds. For him, this arrangement was perfect. He didn’t need to use his brain to plan, and he could fully keep up with his recovery.

But if you have been practicing for a year or two and still stick to the "every other day" rule and dare not practice more, then it is somewhat of a waste of time.

I often meet a back-end programmer at the gym. He carries a backpack and goes to the gym every day after get off work. He reports on time six days a week. Today he does chest, shoulders and triceps, tomorrow he does biceps, and the day after tomorrow he does legs. Then he does another round on Thursday and Friday. He rests at home on Sunday. He only targets one major muscle group at a time. After two years of training, my arm circumference increased from 32 to 40, and my bench press went from empty bar to 100 kilogram sets. The progress was more than a little faster than those who practiced three times every other day a week. Oh, yes, and friends who are into powerlifting, with the current mainstream high-frequency training programs, it is common practice to hit the same part two or three times a week. You have to train the whole body every other day, which simply cannot fit in so much training capacity.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that practicing every other day is out of date. Those veterans in the gym who are over 50 years old have been practicing for almost 30 years, and they still maintain the frequency of doing it every other day. They go through the whole body every time, and the weight does not exceed the limit. The muscle mass is stronger than that of many young men in their 20s. People don’t want to compete, they just want to maintain their condition. As they get older, their recovery ability is poor, so practicing every other day is just enough not to be tiring and not easy to get injured. This arrangement is the best solution for them. There are still some old-school players in the bodybuilding circle who believe in the logic of "training one part at a time and resting for 72 hours before training again", and the dimensions they train are not bad at all.

To put it bluntly, there are no iron-clad rules that must be followed. The core depends on your own recovery. If you wake up feeling refreshed and refreshed the next day after practicing, and the areas you practiced the day before are not so sore, then go and practice when you need to. ； If you stayed up late and drank alcohol the day before, and you feel dizzy when you wake up, even if it is the day you planned to practice, it is better to take an extra day off. If you insist on practicing, you will easily get injured.

You are here to keep fit, not to be a slave to rules. Whether you practice every other day or every day, whatever you can stick to and suits you is the best arrangement.