#2: Once or Twice Per Week?

Q: Hello Ron,

It’s great to see a guy your size writing about training. I dream about being huge; however, I’m confused. Some guys in the gym tell me that I should train each body part one time each week really hard, but others tell me I should train twice.

What have you tried? What works?

Sincerely,

...Troy Wheeler

A: Hey Troy,

Thanks very much for the question.

As far as training frequency goes, I have generally stuck with hitting everything once per week for the majority of my years in the sport. However, I have been training calves twice per week for many years, and have also started doing back and arms twice per week in an attempt to bring those parts up.

If you do train something twice per week, you will have to decrease the training volume to compensate in terms of recovery. For example, I was doing arms once per week, 12-16 sets for biceps and 12-16 sets for triceps. Now that I do them twice, I have been doing 8-10 sets for each muscle group during each of the workouts.

My current split is as follows:

• Monday - chest/triceps/calves
• Tuesday - quads/hams
• Wednesday - back (mostly pulldown variations)/biceps
• Thursday - rest
• Friday - shoulders/triceps/calves
• Saturday - back (rows and deadlifts)/biceps
• Sunday - rest

This is a very advanced split in terms of targeting my weak points. For the average guy just trying to get bigger, I would train everything once per week, with quite a bit of volume. If you have a glaring weak point, then twice per week is definitely a strategy you could try. Just make sure that your intensity is sky high to begin with. Without high training intensity, it won't really matter what you do, since the results will be very limited.

Stay safe and train hard.

...Ron Partlow, Canadian Champion 2007
askron@seriousaboutmuscle.com

SeriousAboutMuscle.com contributor Ron Partlow is from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and is the 2007 CBBF Canadian Bodybuilding Championships Men's Super-Heavyweight Champion. To learn more about Ron, visit his website at BigRonPartlow.com.