3 ms·

As someone who goes to gym at least 3 times a week (I find that the bare minimum to feel good), I think going only once a week must be actually damaging to the

by brabel 4y ago

As someone who goes to gym at least 3 times a week (I find that the bare minimum to feel good), I think going only once a week must be actually damaging to the body... even when I miss one day and go only twice in a week, I can feel that the body has had enough time to "lose" much of the power it gained from the previous visit several days before, so it just kind of tries to regain that power back... it's like your energy levels going up and down from basically sedentary to just barely active, then back down... I imagine going only once a week would be like that, but with larger swings up and down, which surely can't be good for you. About 3 times a week, to me, is the sweet spot where I don't feel constantly tired, but also feel like my energy levels remain more or less stable.

atwood22 4y ago
Everybody is different. I've come back from a week's rest a felt way stronger. I justified this as the rest letting my body fully recuperate, but who knows why this happens.
- hombre_fatal 4y ago
  Yeah, same. Maybe it's all mental, but it doesn't feel like it. That said, I imagine you also aren't making a habit of it. Maybe training every day and then accidentally taking a week off give you some recuperation you didn't realize you needed.
kiba 4y ago
I am incorporating some daily exercise to avoid the nasty side effects of DOMS, although that may be unnecessary past some amount of weeks. For example, squatting gives the worst DOMS. The solution is to just squat more frequently. I still have push, pull, and leg days. They just emphasize different muscles.
- heurisko 4y ago
  > The solution is to just squat more frequently. I've found stretching also is important prior to exercise.
  - RobertoG 4y ago
    Do you mean warm up? Stretching before strength exercise sounds like a bad idea to me (but an excellent idea after).
    - ch4s3 4y ago
      Static stretches around leg work in general is a good way to hurt yourself, especially if you do them inconsistently.
    - heurisko 4y ago
      Like this https://www.livestrong.com/article/554158-how-to-stretch-legs-for-squatting/ https://www.livestrong.com/article/554158-how-to-stretch-leg...
krageon 4y ago
I lift one time per week and this works very well for me. Every body is different :) It must be said I do do light aerobic exercise the rest of the days, but I would not call that "working out".
thesz 4y ago
According to Louie Simmons, strength athlete at top shape can lose about 20% of 1RM weight in two weeks of inactivity. Regular people also lose their shape, at slower, but increasiingle faster rate, as they gain shape. It is enough to lose 2%-4% (usually around 2.5%) of progress per week to hit a plateau in typical chest-back-legs split. But, the fact that body can lose some shape can be beneficial. For example, hypertrophy-specific training [1] recommends 7-9 days rest period between end of one training period and start of next one. During this time body loses resistance to growth stimulus but does not detrain too much. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20201111175258/http://hypertrophyspecific.com/hst_index.html https://web.archive.org/web/20201111175258/http://hypertroph... Also note here that HST recommends to abandon the typical split and perform all body training each training session, but with smaller number of sets, two sets maximum. More or less in line with what article talks about. And, having mentioned Louie Simmons, I should mention Bulgarian Method: just train every day, using your max for a day, rest one day a week, make a world record. ;)
- evol262 4y ago
  > According to Louie Simmons, strength athlete at top shape can lose about 20% of 1RM weight in two weeks of inactivity. Westside was a very specific training methodology, and neurological adaptations matter, and Louie cared a lot more about performance in competition (which has a fair amount to do with one's mental state) than whatever the science says. Supercompensation is a real thing: https://www.google.com/search?q=supercompensation+strength+week+site%3A*.gov https://www.google.com/search?q=supercompensation+strength+w... That is -- a period of NO or virtually no activity for a week can actually increase performance above the peak for a small window where your body has had time to repair the muscular damage but the neurological adaptations haven't faded. Two weeks is just about the end of that window, but it's completely at odds with what Louie believed. Louie and or the Conjugate Method have absolutely nothing to do with Abadjhiev or the Bulgarian/Soviet methods, despite whatever his claims are. The Soviets/Bulgarians never used any of the things Conjugate is known for (bands, chains) or the periodization. Those nations focused on the classic/olympic lifts, or the sport of "weightlifting". Bands and chains are antithetical to everything they'd do there. Bulgarian was, specifically: snatch or clean to a max for the day, do 5 singles, drop 10% and do 3 triples || drop 5% and do 3 doubles, do a power/hang/block variant of the lift you didn't do earlier, same scheme but higher reps, some squat variant (front/back), some pull variant (snatch/clean). For the vast majority of people -- those who are not training for competition, or those who are not training to compete at an elite level -- all of this is useless and borderline counterproductive. Competing in (or training to compete in) a sport WILL eventually cause injuries. The best advice you can give to people is "find something in the gym you enjoy enough to keep you going until it becomes a routine", because after 5+ years, if you're not aiming to win medals/break records (locally, state-level, nationally, whatever), the best overall outcomes will be from those who stayed in the gym, and getting injured is a big deterrent to that.
mypastself 4y ago
I do strength training exactly three times a week, and there’s at least 48 hours between each session for much needed rest. Reducing that time has often been a recipe for injury. And if I miss a couple of sessions, even if it’s due to something like travel rather than illness, performance declines to some extent. I just don’t realize it until I’ve pushed too hard, which again can result in injury. So as another piece of anecdata, three times a week seems like the sweet spot.

by brabel 4y ago

atwood22 4y ago

Everybody is different. I've come back from a week's rest a felt way stronger. I justified this as the rest letting my body fully recuperate, but who knows why this happens.

hombre_fatal 4y ago
Yeah, same. Maybe it's all mental, but it doesn't feel like it. That said, I imagine you also aren't making a habit of it. Maybe training every day and then accidentally taking a week off give you some recuperation you didn't realize you needed.

kiba 4y ago

I am incorporating some daily exercise to avoid the nasty side effects of DOMS, although that may be unnecessary past some amount of weeks. For example, squatting gives the worst DOMS. The solution is to just squat more frequently. I still have push, pull, and leg days. They just emphasize different muscles.

heurisko 4y ago
> The solution is to just squat more frequently. I've found stretching also is important prior to exercise.
- RobertoG 4y ago
  Do you mean warm up? Stretching before strength exercise sounds like a bad idea to me (but an excellent idea after).
  - ch4s3 4y ago
    Static stretches around leg work in general is a good way to hurt yourself, especially if you do them inconsistently.
  - heurisko 4y ago
    Like this https://www.livestrong.com/article/554158-how-to-stretch-legs-for-squatting/ https://www.livestrong.com/article/554158-how-to-stretch-leg...

krageon 4y ago

I lift one time per week and this works very well for me. Every body is different :) It must be said I do do light aerobic exercise the rest of the days, but I would not call that "working out".

thesz 4y ago

According to Louie Simmons, strength athlete at top shape can lose about 20% of 1RM weight in two weeks of inactivity. Regular people also lose their shape, at slower, but increasiingle faster rate, as they gain shape. It is enough to lose 2%-4% (usually around 2.5%) of progress per week to hit a plateau in typical chest-back-legs split. But, the fact that body can lose some shape can be beneficial. For example, hypertrophy-specific training [1] recommends 7-9 days rest period between end of one training period and start of next one. During this time body loses resistance to growth stimulus but does not detrain too much. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20201111175258/http://hypertrophyspecific.com/hst_index.html https://web.archive.org/web/20201111175258/http://hypertroph... Also note here that HST recommends to abandon the typical split and perform all body training each training session, but with smaller number of sets, two sets maximum. More or less in line with what article talks about. And, having mentioned Louie Simmons, I should mention Bulgarian Method: just train every day, using your max for a day, rest one day a week, make a world record. ;)

evol262 4y ago
> According to Louie Simmons, strength athlete at top shape can lose about 20% of 1RM weight in two weeks of inactivity. Westside was a very specific training methodology, and neurological adaptations matter, and Louie cared a lot more about performance in competition (which has a fair amount to do with one's mental state) than whatever the science says. Supercompensation is a real thing: https://www.google.com/search?q=supercompensation+strength+week+site%3A*.gov https://www.google.com/search?q=supercompensation+strength+w... That is -- a period of NO or virtually no activity for a week can actually increase performance above the peak for a small window where your body has had time to repair the muscular damage but the neurological adaptations haven't faded. Two weeks is just about the end of that window, but it's completely at odds with what Louie believed. Louie and or the Conjugate Method have absolutely nothing to do with Abadjhiev or the Bulgarian/Soviet methods, despite whatever his claims are. The Soviets/Bulgarians never used any of the things Conjugate is known for (bands, chains) or the periodization. Those nations focused on the classic/olympic lifts, or the sport of "weightlifting". Bands and chains are antithetical to everything they'd do there. Bulgarian was, specifically: snatch or clean to a max for the day, do 5 singles, drop 10% and do 3 triples || drop 5% and do 3 doubles, do a power/hang/block variant of the lift you didn't do earlier, same scheme but higher reps, some squat variant (front/back), some pull variant (snatch/clean). For the vast majority of people -- those who are not training for competition, or those who are not training to compete at an elite level -- all of this is useless and borderline counterproductive. Competing in (or training to compete in) a sport WILL eventually cause injuries. The best advice you can give to people is "find something in the gym you enjoy enough to keep you going until it becomes a routine", because after 5+ years, if you're not aiming to win medals/break records (locally, state-level, nationally, whatever), the best overall outcomes will be from those who stayed in the gym, and getting injured is a big deterrent to that.

mypastself 4y ago

I do strength training exactly three times a week, and there’s at least 48 hours between each session for much needed rest. Reducing that time has often been a recipe for injury. And if I miss a couple of sessions, even if it’s due to something like travel rather than illness, performance declines to some extent. I just don’t realize it until I’ve pushed too hard, which again can result in injury. So as another piece of anecdata, three times a week seems like the sweet spot.