Max Ammount of Rest Between Muscle Groups

[Caleb's Tree]

Let's say you were doing a routine with an A....B....A schedule.

Routine A is upper body.....Routine B is lower body.

One week it'd be ABA....the following week it would be BAB, then back to ABA of course.

I am curious as to how effective this kind of routine is in regards to how long you can go between working muscle groups without losing any strength and still maintaining progress. Depending on what week it is, some muscle groups get almost a full week's rest, while others get worked twice during the week.

Is that OK?

 

[Caleb's Tree]

Let's say you were doing a routine with an A....B....A schedule.

Routine A is upper body.....Routine B is lower body.

One week it'd be ABA....the following week it would be BAB, then back to ABA of course.

I am curious as to how effective this kind of routine is in regards to how long you can go between working muscle groups without losing any strength and still maintaining progress. Depending on what week it is, some muscle groups get almost a full week's rest, while others get worked twice during the week.

Is that OK?

I figured at least one person would attempt to comment on this. My opinion is you can go 5-6 days of rest on a muscle group without losing any gains. I'd like to know if that's accurate or not.

Any help would be appreciated. I am trying to fine tune my routine. If I have to start hitting the gym 4 times a week I will, but 3 times a week works with my schedule pretty well.

 

[oso0960]

i don't know how long exactly it would take to start losing strength from not working something, but i'm sure it's different with other people, especially if somebody's closer to overtraining than another. the overreached person would probably benefit a lot more taking almost a week off of working it than somebody who's half way.

generally, when you split up upper body and lower body, you have 4 days a week instead of 3 alternating. ex. westside.

generally, when you have 3 workout days in a week, they are all full body workouts usually containing a squat, push, and pull. ex. 5x5

not saying the aba bab wouldn't work, but i'm sure the other 2 work 'better' especially since the top athletes prefer/recommend/created it.

 

[hardrock]

Depends on the volume.

I do DC and hit each body part for one working set followed by 2 drop sets, then it's on to the next muscle group.

I hit each bodypart 2x in 5 days.


If I were training high volume the way i used to I would need at least 6 days rest between most parts.

I assume this is what you were asking as opposed to say hitting chest and how long before you move on to shoulders? If that's the case i say no more than 3 minutes.

 

[Caleb's Tree]

Depends on the volume.

I do DC and hit each body part for one working set followed by 2 drop sets, then it's on to the next muscle group.

I hit each bodypart 2x in 5 days.


If I were training high volume the way i used to I would need at least 6 days rest between most parts.

I assume this is what you were asking as opposed to say hitting chest and how long before you move on to shoulders? If that's the case i say no more than 3 minutes.

At my present schedule, and the ammount of time I can devote to lifting, when I do upper body, I mean upper body.....Everything....Chest, shoulders, lats, biceps, triceps, back upper.

When I do lower body....its everything....calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes, lower back and abs.

So I am doing a full body workout once a week, only sometimes lower body gets worked twice, and sometimes upper body gets worked twice.

With both workouts, I don't just do one exercise per muscle. Sometimes I actually work a muscle as much as 3 times with 3 different exercises.

So at my present schedule, I wanted to know if that's good enough, or if I have to actually go to a 4 day workout schedule.