Training more frequently is one way to potentially increase your muscle gains that used to be overlooked, but today is a widely recognized strategy. When you increase your training frequency, this increases your total weekly training volume, so you can often see a boost in muscle gains from this single simple tactic.
A lot of coaches and athletes consider 5 days a week an optimal frequency, and serious physique athletes will often lift 6 days a week, hoping to optimize their gains.
Here’s the problem: Usually, the people who thrive on high frequency training are bodybuilders with better than average genetics and better than average recovery capacity. Not to mention, these are also people who have a lot of time on their hands. To this day, the single most reported obstacle to training consistently is “lack of time.”
People training almost every day are often competitors or even pros. Arnold Schwarzenneger was famous for not only training 6 days a week, but twice a day 6 days a week. Of course, lifting was his full time job and he was a genetically gifted bodybuilder.
Unfortunately, when recreational lifters and other “mere mortals” try higher frequency training, especially those who are getting older, they burn out and start seeing symptoms of overtraining syndrome.
By the way, this appears to hold true for both definitions of frequency: 1. How many times you work each muscle in one week. 2. How many training sessions you do each week.
As more people started to realize that lifting 6 days a week or even only 5 days was biting off more than they could chew, the demand for 4-days a week and even just 3 days a week muscle building programs has increased.
Today I want to talk about 4-days per week training programs and introduce you to an outstanding and different type of lifting schedule that can build serious muscle with only 4 training sessions per week.
I call it 3 X 4 Muscle. This type of training schedule is ideal for people who:
1. Are experienced lifters.
2. Are serious about gaining muscle.
3. Like body part splits (rather than full body training).
4. But are busy and can realistically only train 4 days a week consistently.
5. And or, have felt burned out training more often like 5 days a week, and especially 6 days a week
For more than a decade, our T.N.B. (“The New Body”) workouts have been hugely popular 4-days per week training programs. This is the lifting plan seen in the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle book. TNB is a 2-way split with an upper body day and a lower body (plus abs) day. There are 4 workouts a week.
The only downside is that after following upper lower splits for years, most people start feeling bored and stale and want something different.
Also, after using the upper-lower schedule a long time, many people are ready for a more advanced program that could keep the gains coming strong.
This is where a 3-day split comes in. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the two most popular ways to split are:
3-DAY CLASSIC MUSCLE:
Day 1: Chest, Back, Abs
Day 2: Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps, (Forearms optional, traps optional)
Day 3: Quads, hams, calves (Direct glute work optional)
PUSH-PULL-LEGS:
Day 1: Chest, shoulders, triceps, abs (push day)
Day 2: Back, Rear Delts, Traps, Biceps (pull day)
Day 3: Quads, hams, glutes, calves (leg day)
Each of these routines has its own advantages. For example, on 3-Day Classic Muscle you can use antagonist supersets, which saves a lot of time. On Push-Pull-Legs, you can optimize recovery. You can choose whichever fits you the best; you can’t go wrong with either.
The problem is, most people understand that you’re supposed to train 5 days a week on these splits. Some gurus even insist that you need 6 workouts a week with these splits. (Which will drive a lot of people to overtraining).
5 days a week is standard, and the way I usually prescribe both of these routines if you have the time and decent recovery ability. However, you can use these same 3-way splits and get awesome results training only 4 days a week.
This is where a 3 X 4 schedule comes in. 3 X 4 means a 3-day split with 4 workouts a week.
You get the same great muscle gains as you would with 5 workouts a week, as long as you do enough volume, train hard (within a rep or two of failure), and use progressive overload.
Here’s how easy it is to schedule.
Let’s suppose you’ve chosen the Push-Pull-Legs split. You have more than 1 option. A week of training would look like this:
PUSH PULL LEGS OPTION 1 (Weekends Off):
Monday: Push
Tuesday: Pull
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Push
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
Repeat, continuing to rotate the 3 day cycle where you left off (The following Monday is pull day).
PUSH PULL LEGS OPTION 2 (Train on Saturday):
Monday: Push
Tuesday: Pull
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Off
Saturday: Push
Sunday: Off
Repeat, continuing to rotate the 3 day cycle where you left off (The following Monday is pull day).
I can guarantee you that if you choose the exercises well, select the right number of sets and reps, train with intensity, and use progressive overload over time, that you will get phenomenal muscle gains on a schedule like this, even if you’re a very experienced lifter.
If you’d like to see a complete 3 X 4 plan, (sets, reps, and exercises for both home and gym workouts), I’ve just updated our 3 X 4 program at Burn the Fat Inner Circle. Members can see it here:
==> 3 X 4 Muscle 2024 Update (members only)
In addition, if you are interested in the Push-Pull-Legs (PPL) variation of the 3-way body part split, our new PPL program was just released and is still on sale:
==> PUSH-PULL-LEGS 2.0 (20% Off Until September 30th)
And here’s an even better deal too: Inner Circle members have access to these programs free (Included with membership).
Join us in the Inner Circle today and you’ll get the New Push-Pull-Legs 2.0 program, access to the 3 X 4 split routine schedules, and our entire training program library (20 training plans in total):
==> Burn the Fat Inner Circle membership Click here
Train hard and expect success!
-Tom Venuto, Author of, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (BFFM)
Founder, Burn the Fat Inner Circle
About Tom Venuto
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilding and fat loss coach. He is also a recipe creator specializing in fat-burning, muscle-building cooking. Tom is a former competitive bodybuilder and is today a full-time fitness writer, blogger, and author. His book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is an international bestseller, first as an ebook and now as a hardcover and audiobook. The Body Fat Solution, Tom’s book about emotional eating and long-term weight maintenance, was an Oprah Magazine and Men’s Fitness Magazine pick. Tom is also the founder of Burn The Fat Inner Circle – a fitness support community with over 52,000 members worldwide since 2006. Click here for membership details
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