How Long Between Workouts Should You Wait To Build Muscle?

Resting between workouts helps build and sustain the muscle-building process. However, there is less consensus when it comes to the exact time to wait before starting that next workout. Many fitness trainers claim that seven to 10 days are necessary and scientifically proved, but others say that this is an exaggerated timeline, and some successful fitness programs train muscle groups repeatedly during a one-week period.

Background

Training with the intent to develop muscle and strength has been practiced for millennia. With the scientific and technological advances of recent centuries, new theories and exercises have become available. One such theory is the effect of recovery periods on muscle development. This theory questions how much exercise is necessary to see impressive strength gains and what amount of time is required to maximize the effectiveness of each workout.

Problem

Trainers must perform enough exercise to tear their muscles in order to initiate the recovery process. Overzealous training can lead to muscle exhaustion, in which the muscle is torn before having fully healed and results in a halt to strength gains. In order to combat overtraining and muscle fatigue, trainers now focus on perfecting their recovery cycles. The goal is to perform the next weight-training session only once the muscle has fully healed, but different opinions exist on how long recovery takes.

Solutions

There are nearly as many recommendations on weight training and muscle recovery as there are people giving the advice. While many trainers advise waiting at least one day between sessions, author Timothy Ferriss, in FourHourWorkWeek.com, rests at least two days between workouts and increases the rest time after a few weeks. A former bodybuilding titleholder, Karen Sessions, in CriticalBench.com, recommends resting fully seven to 10 days between workouts to give the body time to recover naturally.

Disagreements

While it may seem that the trend is in favor of extending rest time between workouts from one day to more than a week, the popular P90X program works muscle groups to failure multiple times per week and produces astonishing results in as little as 90 days. Athletes and bodybuilders train the same muscles five days or more each week and use recovery times as a way to boost physical performance during competitions. Clearly, muscles do not require 10 days between workouts to perform at high levels. Which way is right?

Conclusion

Approaching muscle recovery without understanding the different approaches to muscle training causes unnecessary problems. Every weight-training program puts the body under a different level of stress and requires unique recovery times tailored specifically to that individual workout. Additionally, people come in all shapes, sizes and fitness levels, and each person will find that his recovery needs do not fit into a simple recommendation based on average requirements. The best practice is for a person to learn how to identify the signs of overtraining and to adjust his workout frequency based on his individual needs.