5 or 3 days a week?

budweiser90

I'm doing weights 3 times a week.

Mon: Legs Chest
Tues:Rest
Wed: Back, Shoulders
Thurs: Rest
Fri: Biceps, Triceps
Sat: Rest
Sun Rest

I'm wondering would I notice better results by doing 5 days a week? Is it as effective, something like this:

Mon: Legs
Tues: Chest
Wed: Back
Thurs: Shoulders
Fri: Arms
Sat: Rest
Sun Rest

I'm trying to gain weight here, but I know over training will not help me grow. Just wondering am I over training by doing this 5 day routine. Any tips would be appreciated.

boomtown84

howaya!

how long are you weight training and what sort of gains have you seen with your current program?
you might be better off trying to hit every body part twice per week.
something like
mon:upper
tue:lower
wed: off
thur:upper
fri:lower
sat/sun off

you wouldn't be overtraining with the typical 5 day program as long as you were getting enough sleep/food but the research suggests hitting each bodypart twice per week.
to gain weight you just need to eat more.if you're quite skinny and find it hard to put weight on milk is a great way to get extra calories.

budweiser90

Thanks for the reply boomtown,
I've been doing weights for 5 years now on and off. Only really started proper program and diet a few weeks ago. I did notice gains for the 3 weeks I was doing them. I'm taking Serious Mass as a supplement. Unfortunately I had to have surgery so haven't been back in almost 2 weeks. Do you think I should stick to the 3 day a week plan?

boomtown84

budweiser90 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply boomtown,
I've been doing weights for 5 years now on and off. Only really started proper program and diet a few weeks ago. I did notice gains for the 3 weeks I was doing them. I'm taking Serious Mass as a supplement. Unfortunately I had to have surgery so haven't been back in almost 2 weeks. Do you think I should stick to the 3 day a week plan?

No...not the one you're currently doing anyway.
legs and chest in one day is not something i'd reccommend either.
there's a lot to be said for hitting everything twice per week so look into it or even try it for a few weeks and see how you get on.

budweiser90

I think I'll give it a try thanks.
BTW when you say "everything twice per week" do you mean to do whole upper/lower body twice a week.

boomtown84

budweiser90 wrote: »

I think I'll give it a try thanks.
BTW when you say "everything twice per week" do you mean to do whole upper/lower body twice a week.

you can do it that way yeah.
what i have done in the past is concentrate on the big lifts monday/tuesday for strength,take a day off and change the rep range on thurs/fri for hypertrophy.
i made some great progress on that type of split.
there's a natural bodybuilder/powerlifter Layne Norton who advocates this kind of split but his is seriously tough and he does 5 days.i just took the volume down and squeezed it into 4 as i felt i needed more rest and the 5 days on that particular program killed me.
anyway here's the link where he explains the benefits of the program:
http://www.simplyshredded.com/mega-feature-layne-norton-training-series-full-powerhypertrophy-routine-updated-2011.html