By the healthiergang writer , personal trainer.
How Many Times To Go To The Gym?The first question that comes naturally to ask our Personal Trainer when we start or go back to the gym is: how many times do I have to come to train?
The answer to this question is not as easy as it sounds.
To understand how many times it is better to train, you need to evaluate the person under various aspects: the work he does and for how long, how much fatigue and stress he accumulates, the type of diet and how many times a day he devotes to it, how many hours he sleeps and therefore how much time he devotes to recovery.
As we know the recovery, which must necessarily be carried out, ensures that the various muscle reconstruction processes take place correctly, both from a qualitative and quantitative point of view.
Similarly we know that nutrition is of fundamental importance, as it provides the nutrients necessary for proper muscle reconstruction and energy for training sessions.
Let's not forget that it is the purpose of training is to induce biological adaptations (through stresses) in order to allow an improvement of specific qualities, in order to arrive at the so-called "supercompensation".
If the first stressful stimulus is not followed by others, the system tends to gradually return to the starting condition (reversibility, de-training); it is therefore important to subject the body to continuous stimuli, interspersed with appropriate recovery phases, in order to increase what has been acquired after the first stress.
Un excess of stressors, will lead to an excess of stress and fatigue, with the negative connotations that we all know, resulting in over training or overtraining.
Based on the above, the planning of a training must therefore necessarily respect the following principles:
1 individualization;
2 specificity;
3 correct overload;
4 correct recovery.
1. Volume, Intensity and Frequency
Equally important are the parameters: volume, intensity and frequency.
These parameters are interdependent with each other and related to the law of supercompensation and overtraining.
For this reason a proportionality between them is necessary, where the prevalence of one of the parameters must necessarily correspond to a decrease in the others.
A workout cannot be voluminous, intense and frequent at the same time, as it would certainly lead to overtraining, thus being ineffective; on the contrary, a training is valid when the parameters listed above are alternated in the domain of one over the other, so as to allow the supercompensation to occur; therefore as the intensity increases there must be a reduction in volume and frequency and vice versa.
2. So How Right is Training?
Based on what has been said, the choice depends on:
1 by the degree of training of the user;
2 from the training period;
3 from the goal to be achieved;
4 by the various subjective factors mentioned above.
In the case of a Neophyte
They are optimal, for a complete body stimulation, if of adequate magnitude and duration, 2 days a week, so as to avoid excessive initial stresses that could harm the person, adequate to induce the necessary adaptations to improve the initial conditions.
Once the subject has adapted and will therefore be able to easily carry out the workouts (from 2/3 up to 6 weeks or even more), it will be possible to set up a new training protocol, which may include the addition of one or more more days according to the needs of the subject.
At this stage, a planned workout with the classics 3 days a week, will be optimal for 90% of subjects.
In the case of a professional athlete
Depending on the goal to be achieved, which may be the increase in volumes or the definition, the improvement of muscle deficiencies, the preparation for a competition, based on the scheduled split routine or one workout / day or two workouts / day, it is possible train from 3 to 5 days a week up to even a 6 days a week.
In this case it is essential to remember that a muscle, before it can be stressed again, it is advisable to leave it at rest for 30 to 48 hours!
Another parameter that can help us understand how long to wait for a new solicitation is the sensation of pain; if you do not feel muscle discomfort or soreness then you can proceed with a new solicitation, without forgetting the existing synergies at the muscle level!
The number of training sessions also varies according to the goal to be achieved.
For example, if there is a need for a strong weight loss, you can also train four / five days a week alternating aerobic and anaerobic training protocols or using circuits such as: AAS, HIIT, PAC ...
If the goal to be achieved is an increase in muscle volumes, you can train from three to six days a week.
This also depends on the degree of training of the user, the time available, the subjective factors we have talked about, the correct combination of volume and intensity; the same applies if the goal to be achieved is a high level of muscle definition.
Also in this case there is a high correlation between the various elements such as the degree of training of the user, the goal to be achieved, the training period and subjective factors.
In conclusion
The advice I can give you is to contact a professional who can help you understand how long, how long and when to carry out your training sessions.
It is important that all the aspects we have talked about are evaluated in order to plan a good training protocol.
An excess of training can lead to over training and therefore to suffer possible trauma to the muscles, joints, tendons.
Training sessions that are too sporadic or poorly arranged may never lead to improvements.
Don't forget that de-training occurs very quickly; in fact all the effects of training are transient and reversible.
