Training Frequency

[Tanner Tunsky]

I’m wondering if somebody could discuss training frequency for me. I’ve been doing full body workouts for a while and made great progress but I am getting bored and want to try the come here cannonball program to bring up my shoulders. I know Joe knows what he’s talking about and I want to trust the process but I just shake the idea that if I only hit a muscle group once a week (legs, chest, back) then I’m going to shrivel up and lose muscle. Thanks for any input and keep putting out amazing content!

[Julian Lee]

Yes so I’ve been thinking about this myself a bit as well. I’ve been training PPL twice a week for over a year prior to getting into Joe’s program recently, because I believed in the literature saying working each body part twice a week is better than once a week. But when I train really hard (training to failure with heavy load like in Joe’s workouts) for each session I just can’t recover a body part(especially legs) in just 2-3 days. So what I did was split each body part into base work and pump/activation work where in the former I do all the meat and potato stuff and progressively overload and in the latter I just do some pump works and try different workouts or might do a couple of heavy load work if I feel good. I still follow this kind of routine just cuz I like to go to the gym everyday. But I guess from a hypertrophy pov, Joe prefers single sessions per week because the more advanced you are you won’t really grow unless you produce sufficent force which you can’t really do with those pump works and he would rather rest to recover fully and get the most out of the meat/potatoe workouts. This is just my thought on his approach and I’d love to hear from Joe on this question. But I think the most important thing is to really train to failure or very close to failure with the meat/potatoe workouts and progressively overload with perfect form with those and with good nutrition/rest you will grow.

[Gabe]

I’ve been wondering the same thing since starting on this app…I’ve been lifting 6-7 days a week very hard (lots more working sets than he has programmed, though I’d be lying or ignorant if I said they were true 1 RIR) for 8 months now. I’ve gotten really good results but I’m wondering if I’m actually losing results/gains due to overworking. I don’t really get sore too much and have great lifts, and I’ve taken some de-load periods when I’ve gotta more tired. Excited to also hear what Joe thinks about this!

[BryceBahm]

[Gabe]

BryceBahm wrote:

Thank you for the wise words coach, I appreciate them.

[Joe]

[Tanner Tunsky]

Awesome, thanks for the feedback from everybody! Very helpful.

[Author]

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