Science support’s a low frequency (1/wk - muscle) for trained men.
It’s not that’s being not a difference, it’s favouring lower frequencies.
So I don’t understand why this frequency stuff is still a thing. Like the Jordan Peters crowd oder Renaissance Periodization.
Clear meta-analysis with studies of leading experts. Just read the conclusion at the end.
“Those RT subjects who are well trained may not provide the muscle with enough stimuli to increase muscle growth. However, it appears employing a training protocol with a low frequency per week that increases the total volume per training session may produce body mass enhancements, as well as increases in strength, particularly upper-body strength.29 Yue et al29 suggest that higher metabolic stress associated with a high-volume low-frequency protocol may represent the stimulus necessary to create an enhanced anabolic response by skeletal muscle. Increased volume routines have been associated with a greater posttraining increase in growth hormone and testosterone, accentuating the potential for muscle tissue remodeling.29”
I think people still do it because it works for them. I’ll 100% trust something I’ve done that has built mass on my physique over what a study says works, and I think the same goes for most people. Science can help lead us in the right direction but it can’t tell us with 100% certainty what to do. It’s such a soft Science, and so many people respond to different levels of stimuli very differently. Jordan Peters and DoggCrapp have helped a lot of people get jacked for a long time and that’s really all the evidence they need.
The pendulum swings back and forth every few years and ultimately it all works. A ton of guys have gotten amazing results with 1x muscle frequency a week, and a ton of guys have gotten amazing results with higher frequencies. I seriously believe that a variable that trainees trip up the most with is worrying “which split is the best, maybe this, maybe that” but guess what? It doesn’t matter. The best bodies natural and enhanced have been built with all of these splits.
Do whichever enables you to turn up consistently and push hard. There are way more important things to worry about.