Can you REALLY build muscle with just two workouts per week at the gym?
Let’s take a look at some of the science behind training just twice per week to see if it’s possible to get more muscular with such a minimal amount of training.
We’ll also look at :
the benefits and drawbacks of a minimalist program
who might benefit from a minimalist program
what to keep in mind if you train 2 or 3 days per week
a example two-day per week training program
Let’s start with seeing what the scientific literature has to say about training twice per week.
Look at this beauty right here…
Training twice a week:
This paper was a systematic review and meta-analysis done on the existing research in 2016 by some of the world’s leading researchers on muscle growth
They screened 491 papers we had available in 2016, to gain a better understanding of the effect of training frequency on muscle growth.
Training frequency just means how often you train each week.
They looked in-depth at 10 of studies to find out whether or not training more frequently throughout the week would help build more muscle.
They found something quite interesting….
Training a muscle twice a week generally resulted in more growth than once a week.
It’s still unclear whether or not training a muscle MORE frequently than twice per week has a clear benefit.
Total training volume, or how many weekly sets people performed, was still a key factor for how much total training you can recover and benefit from.
Certain muscle groups especially seemed to respond to more frequent training.
But people DID put on a solid amount of muscle when they trained them twice a week.
Can you build muscle with one workout per week?
Yes – they found plenty of people doing exactly that.
And this isn’t just one person or incident either… remember – this is a meta-analysis, which means it take a large amount of data (in this case 10 separate studies) into account, which means hundreds of participants.
This finding has been repeated in the research, and has solid theoretical and logical foundation to back it up
To the world’s number one leading expert in muscle growth, Dr. Brad Schoenfeld, on the potential benefit of a higher training frequency…
“Theoretically, keeping Muscle Protein Synthesis consistently elevated over the course of each week would heighten myofibrillar protein accretion and thus have a positive effect on muscle size.” – Dr. Brad Schoenfeld
Muscle protein synthesis rates
Or more simply, the speed at which you’re growing new muscle, is significantly increased for about 48 hours after you train.
Then it returns back to baseline.
So it would make sense to trigger that growth response more than just once per week, if you really wanted to grow as much muscle as possible.
So, yes – training twice a week works – as long as you’re training every muscle that you want to grow, twice a week.
I talk more about this in my free guide to building muscle while losing fat – Body Recomp 101
But who the heck would train a muscle once a week, anyways?
This might surprise you, but a LOT of people do.
Have you ever tried a workout plan that looks something like this?
We’re not talking about total weekly workouts here – we’re talking about how many times you’re actually training each individual muscle.
So any guy who goes into the gym and hits his chest on Monday, then doesn’t do any more chest work until next Monday…
He’s only stimulating that elevated MPS response, just ONCE per week.
It’s an artifact of old school bodybuilding tactics, and is unlikely to have an intelligent place in the training plan of most people.
Here’s what your body is doing…
Green represents the elevated muscle growth response.
You can trigger that elevated muscle growth response, and recover from training again to be ready for another session in just 2-3 days.
Why wait around to train again?
If you want a muscle to grow, train it at least twice a week.
More might be better in some cases, but at least twice.
Now here’s your growth when you press the muscle growth button twice per week:
So why isn’t everyone training twice a week?
While it might seem like a great idea to do just two workouts per week, since you only need to train each muscle group around twice a week for your best gains… that leads us to another issue.
For someone who needs to do a higher number of weekly sets, that might be troublesome.
For example, if I know that you grow best by doing around 20 sets of quad work per week…
That means you’d have to do 5 sets of squats followed by 5 sets of lunges on Monday.
Followed by 5 sets of leg press and 5 sets of leg extensions on Thursday..
And you haven’t even STARTED to train your upper body yet…
So in those cases, it pays to split up your total weekly into more than just 2 days, to preserve the quality of each individual workout.
Think about how psychologically and physically wrecked you would be after 10 sets of hard quad training.
You’d likely be more productive by training your quads on Monday, along with your hamstrings.
Then come in to train your chest, triceps, and shoulders on Tuesday… and so on.
Until you got to your second quad training session on Thursday.
So, no – training just twice a week isn’t for everyone.
Who benefits from doing two workouts per week?
People who want to build muscle, get stronger, or just want to pick up on all the awesome health benefits that lifting weights has to offer.
It will do all of those things.
If 2 days per week of working out sounds good to you – that’s all you need.
Or, If you’re short on time, and two workouts per week is all you realistically want to commit to getting into the gym right now, it’s likely your best option…
Or maybe you’re just getting into lifting weights, and this seems like an approachable place to start – YES, you’re 100% right about that.
You can make all kinds of awesome progress for at least a year (but probably more like a few years) by training just twice a week.
Remember these, if you’re training 2-3 days / week
A few tips, if you decide to rock a more minimalist-style program.
[1] It’s most effective to train your whole body every time
You want to keep MPS elevated, (read above) which means you’ll need to stimulate that response multiple times per week.
[2] Spread your training out evenly throughout the week to allow yourself time to recover between sessions.
If you’re still savagely sore on Tuesday from your Monday workout, then it’s not the best time to train…
You still need to recover between sessions.
[3] You may need to increase the training volume of your workouts
Total weekly training volume is an important factor when it comes to building muscle.
That just means how many hard sets you do.
You might need to do a bit more work in your sessions if you’re used to training 4 or 5 days per week.
Don’t be afraid to slowly add sets over time if you feel like you could recover from more than just 2 or 3 sets per exercise.
You might end up doing 5 sets of chest work, twice per week.
Here’s what a sample 2-day per week training plan might look like:
Of course, you’ll only want to train the muscle groups you want to grow.
But you get the idea.
For what it’s worth – I’ve seen dozens of guys put on muscle, get stronger, and get in awesome shape training just two or three days per week over the last seven years.
They used the type of workouts and ideas that I share in Body Recomp 101
If you want to grab those training plans, and weekly workout advice to help you build more muscle, reduce your risk of injury, and enjoy your training…
Go check it out – it’s pay what you want (in case you want to buy me a coffee).
Hopefully this blog post helps you get started in the gym, or make some better decisions about your training if you’re short on time.
In case you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section of this video – the algorithm loves me for it, and I may even cover your question in the video!
Let’s Win,
Matteo
