Everyone always asks me: “How many times a week should I work out to gain muscle and to start losing weight?”, and honestly…I hate that question.
You see it all depends on the program and your goals. I train 3-4days a week. I don’t train so frequently due to the volume of my workout routine. I train just about every muscle 3-4 times a week. My routine is a simple push-pull routine mix/split. I teach mostly to my clients that are beginning to due push/pull split routines to lower volume and increase frequency.
What I mean by the frequency is that the frequency of my muscles being worked throughout the week is quite frequent, BUT I rest a day in between and I hit my muscles each in different ways. So different parts of that one muscle is being worked but yet that same muscle is still being targeted multiple times throughout the week! Now with volume is mine varies throughout the routine I mix in low and high volume but I keep most of it low volume. The volume is set by the number of reps for that lift. So my compound lifts are always at low volume except if I’m hitting my legs! But all my sessions are high intensity (my main sessions are never circuit training!)!
Honestly with when and how many times you workout during the week is how your program is designed. Just make sure it is all structured correctly. You can not do high frequency with only high volume…then you will be doing too much endurance training. If you want to become stronger and maintain muscle then you should do high frequency and low volume mixed with a bit of high volume to create hypertrophy. But legs are always done at high volume to create mass! And hitting legs frequently will definitely build serious strength, stabilization, and mass!
Now if you are at a low frequency and low volume you can for sure focus on high volume to focus on hypertrophy and fat loss. Since you won’t be working the muscle frequently through the week you need to create a fatigue for the muscles in the end of the session, these types of workouts are a body split routine, aka the bodybuilder blueprint! But some bodybuilders do three day full body routines too which work really DAMN WELL! Because it is high frequency!
In overall, my opinion is high frequency, low volume, with little assistance from high volume. Plus Intermittent fasting is the best for fat loss đŸ˜‰ but we can get into that more on another post ^.-