How much training do you need to build muscle?

Building muscle is one of the most sought after results of training. So to help you cut through the over abundant information on the subject, I will tell you exactly how much work you should be doing each week to grow more muscle. Keep in mind that muscle building takes time and that you won’t become the hulk overnight. So if you want to get big, give it time and be consistent, and if you’re afraid of getting too bulky, don’t be, you won’t get bulky by accident and you will have plenty of time to assess how much muscle you’re putting on, because it’s slower than you think. So let’s get into it.

Frequency of training for muscle and strength

In this study training frequency did not matter as long as total work (volume) throughout the week was equal. Meaning that you could get all your work done in one day but optimally I would recommend splitting up your weekly volume over the course of the week and not just in one day simply because you can do heavier weights due to recovery and because I don’t recommend a training session being longer than 2 hours. These long training sessions cause too much cortisol (stress hormone) and if cortisol is too high it will negatively impact testosterone and if that happens, muscle growth can be slower. Here are some training splits I recommend:

• Full-Body (2-4 times a week)
• Upper-Lower (2 days upper body, 2 days lower body per week)
• Push-Pull-Legs (2 push workouts, 2 pull workouts, 2 leg workouts per week)

Training volume for muscle growth

Some people will tell you you need a lot of volume to build muscle, some others will tell you that you only need very little. I came across this study on pubmed delineating exactly how many sets is effective to build muscle. So in this study they were separate into three categories:

• Low Volume (less than 12 sets per week per body part)
• Moderate Volume (between 12-20 sets per week per body part)
• High Volume (more than 20 sets per week per body part)

What they found was that as a standard recommendation, you should be doing 12-20 sets per week per body part. I also agree with having a moderate weekly volume since the higher volumes tend to start giving diminishing results and it’s not worth the amount of fatigue. Also keep in mind that if you live an insanely stressful life doing too many sets will most likely be bad for you. Imagine you being like a cup and stress is the water or coffee that you put in it. You can only put so much into it before it overflows and honestly you don’t want that to happen to you but that’s for another article.

Synthesis

We’ve gone over very critical aspects of muscle building and so let’s summarize:

• Frequency of training per muscle group should be 2-4 times per week
• Volume should be between 12-20 hard sets per muscle group per week

Keep in mind that to build muscle efficiently, you should also have the right nutrition for it but for now, I wish you the best and I hope you implement these guidelines into your training and I hope they are of great benefit to you.