Optimal Training Frequency

I’m coming to the end of Ian King’s 12 week guns program and am very impressed with the results. The thing is after the first few weeks I basically threw his recommendation to keep legs/chest/back on a low volume out the window. This was due to the necessity to train legs 3 X a week to rehabilitate an old knee injury. So here I was training arms tuesday and saturday, chest/back on thursday on a low volume, but then training legs on monday/wednesday and sunday averaging around 800 reps plus plyometric work on each day working very hard with sets between 15 and 30 reps. According to guys like Poliquin/King/Staley etc this type of frequency should have not only been overkill but possibly lead to overtraining. Ian actually specifically states to prioritise the arms on the program but in actual fact legs were definitely prioritised. It makes me think that all those recommendations to train no more than two days consecutively maybe wide of the mark after all.

I dont know. I have observed similar reslts however I still belive that you should lisen to the fequency tips. My body wrks best with alot of rest. I acn push myself hard every day and not really lose any srength or muscle but I wont really be gaining any muscle either. I recomened that after you finish a major traing program you should take about a week off, catch up on your sleep, and keep your protein high. Give it a try and see what happens.

I understand what you are saying. I can certainly make good gains under Poliquin/King type recommendations. But I now feel that by training more frequently but still keeping the program periodized, you will obtain better results probably because if you’re training six days a week the body’s hormonal environment will be kept in a more anabolic state than just training 3 or 4 days a week.

Reg, it sounds like you combined three different King programs, The Limping series for legs, 12 Weeks to Super Strength for upper body, and Great Guns. Ian recommends that if you are going to use the Great Guns program, that you merely maintain the other body parts. That would mean that you would have only two more workouts, in addition to the two you do for Great Guns, per week to do the rest of your body. He sees no issues with combining the leg and upper body workouts though. Ian contends that upping your volume may get you results in the short term, but he believes that it causes overall fatigue to the point that it will hinder your progress in the long run. I do think that results can be very individual, depending on your age and circumstances. I used to get great results from Leo Costa’s Bulgarian Burst program during college, but ten years later, I cannot handle the volume.

Hyok, I didn’t combine the two programs. Like I said the three leg sessions per week were for the purposes of rehabilitating an old knee injury. In total, of my six weekly sessions, five were what I would classify as heavy days with one of the leg sessions a medium-heavy day.