Not making strength gains since Ive been training 6 days a week

[flinstones1]

So I decided to try hitting each muscle group twice a week.  I feel like my strength has gone down actually. Looking back to when I made the best strength gains, it was when I was hitting each bp  every 5th day. What works best for you guys? strength wise..

Thinking about going to a basic westside routine.

[TestDummy]

I constantly change it up since I get so bored with routines but I hit arms, back shoulders, and legs twice a week and abs whenever there not still sore from the last workout and that works good for me

[Thin Lizzy]

You need to read this, dammit!

Vince was tossing around the iron before you were even a sperm in your daddy's nutsack.

[The True Adonis]

So I decided to try hitting each muscle group twice a week.  I feel like my strength has gone down actually. Looking back to when I made the best strength gains, it was when I was hitting each bp  every 5th day. What works best for you guys? strength wise..

Thinking about going to a basic westside routine.

Same happens/happened to me.

I was going to post this last night actually.

[TheShape.]

I've been making great progress myself, strength gains are up and arms are 18" now. I'm still waiting for all the girls though.

[Thin Lizzy]

Same happens/happened to me.

I was going to post this last night actually.

You need to read that, too, dammit!

Vince was hangin' an' bangin' when you were playing with one of these:

[WalterWhite]

I was a powerlifter so I learned the hard way how important rest was to my body to make gains. I carried that philosophy over to how I train now and found once a week per body part works for me. I do high volume, fast training and I always mix up reps often going very high.

[Competitor 9]

So I decided to try hitting each muscle group twice a week.  I feel like my strength has gone down actually. Looking back to when I made the best strength gains, it was when I was hitting each bp  every 5th day. What works best for you guys? strength wise..

Thinking about going to a basic westside routine.

Honest question are you enhanced, 2x a week if your truly killing it might be much if your natty your doing more harm then good

Plus at some point your strength gains are going to get less and less. To the point you might not notice anything for months. You can just keep getting stronger and stronger the will be a point of diminishing returns

[Rambone]

Could just be part of the overreaching process. How long have you been training the same muscles twice a week? And much has your volume gone up compared to your once a week routine?

[kh300]

I hit each body part 2x a week. One exercise per body part.

Much better gains then doing more volume, or high volume one body part a week.

[TestDummy]

I hit each body part 2x a week. One exercise per body part.

Much better gains then doing more volume, or high volume one body part a week.

Only one exercise per body part?

[wikkedonez]

I think ur over training. .back works ur bi's and chest works ur tri's so ur probably working them 4 times a week.

[Powerlift66]

Each body part once a week, spread out over 4 training days seems to work for me. (Like 4 sets of each exercise, approx 8 reps).
Mixing up rep schemes on occasion as well. Everyone's different. I've tried other methods (5/3/1, Bill Starr 5x5, etc).

Maybe I just enjoy my 4-day, 4x8 the best (not big on change)... Find what works, good luck...

[ChristopherA]

Honest question are you enhanced, 2x a week if your truly killing it might be much if your natty your doing more harm then good

Plus at some point your strength gains are going to get less and less. To the point you might not notice anything for months. You can just keep getting stronger and stronger the will be a point of diminishing returns

Is Flintstone's natty? Fucking newb

[calfzilla]

Who cares about strength 

[jamesjenkinsfitness]

Honest question are you enhanced, 2x a week if your truly killing it might be much if your natty your doing more harm then good

Plus at some point your strength gains are going to get less and less. To the point you might not notice anything for months. You can just keep getting stronger and stronger the will be a point of diminishing returns

Exactly this....

Also, what do you mean by training for strength? What is your definition of this. Are you truly training for strength or still following a bb routine..
Are you enhanced?
Are some of these sessions speed days?
What percentage Of your maxes are you working with? Volume?  Rest per night, protein intake?
Past training experience, caloric intake?
All of these would be needed for anyone to truly give you a reasonable response

[mazfit]

bla bla bla

one rep max bla bla bla

just take more gear and train less.

why do people make bodybuilding so difficult

get bigger and stronger, eat more use more gear. easy

[jamesjenkinsfitness]

bla bla bla

one rep max bla bla bla

just take more gear and train less.

why do people make bodybuilding so difficult

get bigger and stronger, eat more use more gear. easy
[/quote

Lol, if hes thinking of running westside hes going for powerlifting not bodybuilding. And if either were that simple everyone would be competing on elite levels...

[Donny]

A Natural Guy will if he trains hard enough grow on 3-4 times a week hitting each muscle group 1x a week but don´t forget the overlap. A good variety of Basic exercises and it´ll work well. Just got to get the right balance of Basic and more shaping moves in there. If your Goals are Building muscle and shaping your body a powerlifting routine won´t  "cut it". For me a 6 Day a week routine is too much.. shoulders suffer and i lose strength. I also do a fair bit of running so maybe a factor too although i do not agree with V Gironda it depletes the body of hormones.

[oldtimer1]

If gaining strength was the magic bullet to making a bodybuilder wouldn't we all be doing sets of super low reps like 1 to 3?  I think the magic bullet is for a lack of a more appropriate scientific term is gaining muscular endurance. When I use the term muscular endurance don't confuse that with cardio ability. Using more weight for 3 to 6 sets of ten will make a muscle bigger. Not necessarily increase one rep strength compared to very low rep training. Increasing intensity for medium to high reps I think is the key instead of one rep strength. If Olympic lifters are the sprinters of the strength world bodybuilders might be considered the middle distance runners of the strength world.

 When training the body for bodybuilding once a week there is over lap because the body works as a unit. In many splits directing exercises toward one body part once a week you are still hitting it more than once during the week. Look at the split below.

Monday: Chest
Tuesday: Back
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Delt and arms
Saturday and Sunday off.

On chest day you are hitting the triceps hard with any pressing exercise. You hit them again on delt and arm day.  On delt and arm day you are hitting chest with dips or close grip tricep presses. On back day you are hitting legs with dead lifts or your power cleans. On leg day squatting is hitting your lower back as well as your upper back stabilizing. Watch someone squatting an you will see their back muscles everywhere are contracted.  On delt day doing military you can't remove the chest from contracting with each rep.  Even doing something like a barbell row involves so many muscles throughout the body when you are targeting lats.

The body works as a unit in any athletic capacity and not as individual body parts. The way bodybuilders train isolating things like biceps is just foolish to increase athletic function but important for bodybuilding contests.

One thing for sure. You don't need to be a scientist to be a bodybuilder. It's not rocket science. Some champions take a real analytic approach and some just wing it without any real thought. Both succeed.

[The Grim Lifter]

You could make strength gains training twice a week. Right now you are overdoing it. Most people underestimate what it takes to recover from a workout. No point training if you arn't recovered and going to improve.

[Grape Ape]

I find that for me, training for strength in the 70-80% max range, with the occasional deload week works best for me.  I mostly do some sort of full body stuff though.

[Donny]

If gaining strength was the magic bullet to making a bodybuilder wouldn't we all be doing sets of super low reps like 1 to 3?  I think the magic bullet is for a lack of a more appropriate scientific term is gaining muscular endurance. When I use the term muscular endurance don't confuse that with cardio ability. Using more weight for 3 to 6 sets of ten will make a muscle bigger. Not necessarily increase one rep strength compared to very low rep training. Increasing intensity for medium to high reps I think is the key instead of one rep strength. If Olympic lifters are the sprinters of the strength world bodybuilders might be considered the middle distance runners of the strength world.

 When training the body for bodybuilding once a week there is over lap because the body works as a unit. In many splits directing exercises toward one body part once a week you are still hitting it more than once during the week. Look at the split below.

Monday: Chest
Tuesday: Back
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Delt and arms
Saturday and Sunday off.

On chest day you are hitting the triceps hard with any pressing exercise. You hit them again on delt and arm day.  On delt and arm day you are hitting chest with dips or close grip tricep presses. On back day you are hitting legs with dead lifts or your power cleans. On leg day squatting is hitting your lower back as well as your upper back stabilizing. Watch someone squatting an you will see their back muscles everywhere are contracted.  On delt day doing military you can't remove the chest from contracting with each rep.  Even doing something like a barbell row involves so many muscles throughout the body when you are targeting lats.

The body works as a unit in any athletic capacity and not as individual body parts. The way bodybuilders train isolating things like biceps is just foolish to increase athletic function but important for bodybuilding contests.

One thing for sure. You don't need to be a scientist to be a bodybuilder. It's not rocket science. Some champions take a real analytic approach and some just wing it without any real thought. Both succeed.

Good Post. although i agree about biceps , training a weak body part is another matter. You have to give some extra attention. No not rambling on about Weider Principles but common sense. Seen some great biceps built from close grip chins. Was doing this myself and Bill Pearl told me to do some Preacher curls too. saying you need to really do something for your Biceps too.

[CalvinH]

Once a week on all body parts and twice a week for arms works best for me.

[oldtimer1]

Some times what passes for strength is incredible inflexibility developed through doing lifting though a limited range of motion. I bet we all know big bench press guys that can't even get 135lbs down to their arched chest. How is this helping you in any athletic activity to be so tight?