When it comes to sculpting a well-defined and muscular upper body, a strong and chiseled chest often takes center stage. Whether you're striving for an aesthetically pleasing physique or seeking to enhance your overall strength and performance, incorporating chest exercises into your training program is essential. However, a crucial question arises: How often should you work your chest to achieve the best results without overtraining or hindering progress?

The frequency at which you train your chest is a key consideration that can greatly impact your muscle development, recovery, and overall progress. While some individuals may believe in hammering their chest with intense workouts every day, others opt for a more conservative approach, prioritizing rest and recovery. To determine the optimal training frequency for your chest, it's important to understand the science behind muscle growth, the principles of effective training, and the individual factors that come into play.

In this article, we will delve into the topic of how often you should work your chest, exploring the factors that influence training frequency, the significance of recovery, and the guidelines to strike the right balance for maximizing your chest gains. Whether you're a seasoned gym-goer or a beginner looking to improve your physique, this information will equip you with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions and design a chest training regimen tailored to your goals.

So, let's embark on this journey together, as we unravel the intricacies of chest training frequency, separating fact from fiction and empowering you to make educated choices for a strong, well-developed chest.

Factors that influence how often you should train your chest

Determining the ideal frequency for training your chest requires considering various factors that can significantly impact your progress and overall results. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, understanding these influential factors will help you customize your training program to suit your goals and individual circumstances. Let's explore some key factors that play a role in determining how often you should work your chest:

Your training experience and skill level are crucial factors to consider when determining chest training frequency. Beginners, who are relatively new to weightlifting, tend to have less overall muscle mass and may require less recovery time between workouts. Therefore, starting with a higher frequency of chest training, such as two to three sessions per week, allows beginners to focus on practice, good technique, and building a foundation of strength.

On the other hand, intermediate and advanced lifters, who have developed a solid strength base and greater muscle mass, can sometimes handle less frequent training due to the higher fatigue demands of their training. In general training chest, twice a week seems to beat training it once, while training it three times a week is only a little better. However, higher frequencies can be applied in short periods to do more total training.

Recovery plays a vital role in muscle growth and preventing overtraining. Each individual has a unique recovery capacity, influenced by factors such as genetics, sleep quality, nutrition, and overall stress levels. It is essential to listen to your body and gauge how well you recover between chest workouts.

If you find that your chest muscles feel sore, fatigued, or performance declines significantly, it may indicate that you need more time to recover between sessions. In such cases, reducing the frequency or adjusting the volume and intensity of your workouts can help optimize recovery and avoid overtraining. In some cases changing exercises can also help. As a barbell bench press might be more demanding than a dumbbell bench press etc.

The volume and intensity of your chest workouts also impact how often you should train your chest. Training volume refers to the total number of sets, while intensity refers to the proximity to failure.

Higher training volumes and intensities generally require more recovery time. If you incorporate intense chest workouts with high volume, such as multiple heavy sets and exercises, it may be necessary to reduce the frequency to allow for proper recovery. Conversely, if your workouts are less demanding, you might be able to train your chest more frequently.

Your specific goals and priorities play a significant role in determining chest training frequency. If your primary objective is to build substantial chest muscle mass, focusing on hypertrophy, you may benefit from less frequent chest workouts. Aim for about two chest workouts a week, emphasizing a variety of exercises that target different areas of the chest, such as the upper and lower chest.

However, if your goals involve overall strength development training your chest more often, but with less volume might be more important, due to the importance of practice. If the goal is improving performance in other sports or activities, you may need to balance chest training with other muscle groups and fatigue demands. In such cases, training your chest once or twice a week while dedicating adequate time to other muscle groups and specific sports practice might be better.

By considering these factors - training experience, recovery capacity, training volume and intensity, and individual goals - you can tailor your chest training frequency to suit your needs. Remember, it's crucial to find the right balance that allows for sufficient stimulation, recovery, and progression over time, ultimately leading to the desired chest development and overall fitness goals.

Here is an example of how chest programming twice a week could look.

The program can then be progressed by adding weight or reps each week. Usually starting the first week at 

 until failure is reached on all sets. Then one deloads and repeat. From week to week, a set can also be added if the chest isn't sore from training. Such that in week two we would have

Barbell Bench Press: 3 sets of 5-10 reps + 2.5 kg

Cabel flies: 2 sets of 10-20 reps + 1 rep

Incline bench press: 3 sets of 5-10 reps + 2.5 kg

This chest training split routine covers various angles and targets different areas of the chest for full chest development.

When it comes to maximizing chest training frequency, finding the right balance is key. Consider factors such as your training experience, recovery capacity, training volume and intensity, and individual goals to customize your chest training regimen.

Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and what works for one person may not work for another. By listening to your body, progressively challenging yourself, prioritizing recovery, and incorporating a variety of exercises, you can optimize your chest training frequency for the best results.

So, whether you're aiming for a sculpted chest, improved strength, or enhanced athletic performance, use the information provided in this article as a guide to design a chest training program that aligns with your goals and individual needs. With consistency, proper form, and patience, you can achieve a strong, well-developed chest and take significant strides towards your desired physique and fitness aspirations. Now, go ahead and start crafting your ideal chest training routine for a powerful upper body!

How often should you work your chest

Compound exercises are exercises that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. Examples include the squat, deadlift, and bench press. Isolation exercises, on the other hand, focus on working a single muscle group. Examples include the bicep curl and leg extension. Both types of exercises have their own benefits and can be used in a well-rounded workout routine. Compound exercises tend to induce a larger stimulus for muscle growth but at the cost of higher fatigue, while isolation exercises let you do more total training when added to the right places.

Compound exercises have several benefits, including:

More total muscle mass used: Compound exercises engage multiple muscle groups at the same time, leading to a greater amount of muscle mass used and an overall larger muscle growth stimulus.

Improved functional strength: Compound exercises usually use fundamental human movements patterns, such as a squat or a press. This means that there often will be a larger carryover to sports or everyday activities.

More efficient workout: Since compound exercises work multiple muscle groups at the same time, you can get a full-body workout in less time than if you did isolation exercises for each muscle group. Assuming you aren't too strong.

It's also worth noting that compound exercises are generally considered to be more demanding than isolation exercises, and therefore they may require more preparation and recovery time.

Isolation exercises have several benefits, including:

Targeted muscle growth: Isolation exercises focus on working a single muscle group, making it easier to target specific areas for muscle growth. This can help you bring up muscle groups that don't get much work from compound movements.

Isolation exercises are often less demanding than compound movements and they will allow you to get more training to muscle groups that can tolerate larger training loads. (squatting and deadlifting might cause a lot of spinal erector fatigue, but the quads might be able to take more training load etc.)

A good training program will usually combine the use of isolation and compound work if the goal is to maximize hypertrophy results. It's also worth noting that isolation exercises are generally considered less demanding than compound exercises, and therefore they may require less preparation and recovery time.

Factors to consider when deciding between compound and isolation exercises

When deciding between compound and isolation exercises, there are several factors to consider:

Goals: Consider what you want to achieve from your workout. If you want to improve strength in specific movements or work a large amount of muscle mass at the cost of more fatigue, compound exercises may be more beneficial. If you want to target specific muscle groups to get a bit more training stimuli, isolation exercises may be more appropriate.

Time: If you have limited time for your workout, compound exercises can be more efficient as they work multiple muscle groups at the same time.

Experience and fitness level: as you get stronger compound lifts become more and more demanding and some benefits can be gained by doing more isolation work.

Injury: If you have an injury, isolation exercises or variations of compounds may be more appropriate as they may allow you to work specific muscle groups with less or even without feeling pain.

Recovery: Consider the time you have to recover after a workout. Compound exercises are more demanding and may require more recovery time.

Training split: If you're following a specific training split, you may want to use a combination of both compound and isolation exercises.

Ultimately, the best approach will depend on your individual goals and fitness level. A well-rounded workout routine should include a combination of both compound and isolation exercises to target different muscle groups and achieve optimal results.

Tips for incorporating both types of exercises into your workout routine

Here are some tips for incorporating both compound and isolation exercises into your workout routine:

Prioritize exercises with a large stimulus magnitude: Some exercises will cause a larger muscle growth stimulus. Think squats and deadlifts etc. Often these movements are compound movements that move large amounts of load and will cause disruption in a large amount of muscle mass.

Use isolation exercises to complement compound exercises: Isolation exercises can be used to target specific muscle groups, and this can be used to complement compound movements. One can for example get more quad training by using a leg extension after the stabilizer muscles have been fatigued from squatting.

: To continue to see results, it's important to progressively increase the weight, reps, or difficulty in your exercises over time.

Focus on proper form: Proper form is crucial to be able to track progress over time. It allows you to move more efficiently and deliver training stimulus to the muscles you want to work and keep the fatigue of assisting structures lower.

Apply strategic variation: Mixing up your workout routine can help to prevent boredom, avoid overuse injuries and use exercises that are currently the most stimulating for you. When an exercise starts feeling stale, progression is lacking and etc. Trying different exercises and switching up the order in which you do them might help improve the results from training.

If one becomes too strong in a compound exercise. It is possible to keep using the exercises, by pre-fatiguing the targeted muscles with an isolation movement first.

By incorporating both compound and isolation exercises, you can target different muscle groups and achieve optimal results. Remember to listen to your body and adapt your workout routine as needed.

In conclusion, both compound and isolation exercises have their own benefits and should be incorporated into a well-rounded workout program. Compound exercises work multiple muscle groups at the same time, inducing a larger stimulus for muscle growth but at the cost of higher fatigue. On the other hand, isolation exercises target specific muscle groups, making it easier to bring up muscle groups that don't get much work from compound movements.


When deciding between compound and isolation exercises, consider your goals, time, experience and fitness level, injury, recovery, and training split. Prioritizing exercises with a large stimulus magnitude, using isolation exercises to complement compound exercises, applying progressive overload, focusing on proper form, and applying strategic variation are some tips for incorporating both types of exercises into your workout routine. Ultimately, the best approach will depend on your individual goals and fitness level, and it's important to listen to your body and adapt your workout routine as needed.

Should I do compound or isolation exercises first?

Strength training is a type of physical exercise designed to improve muscle strength. While this is to some degree either the goal or the purpose of most resistance training we will specify it a bit more. Strength usually refers to general strength in the 3-6 rep range and maximal strength in the 1-3 rep range.

Hypertrophy refers to the increase in the size of muscle fibers as a result of strength training. When you engage in strength training, your muscles produce 

. The muscle responds to this stimulus, by increasing its size and in some cases the number of muscle fibers. This allows the muscles to handle the demands placed on them. This process of muscle growth is known as hypertrophy.

In most traditional periodizations these attributes are trained in distinct phases or blocks. Usually, a hypertrophy phase leads to a strength phase, which then leads to an absolute strength also known as a peaking phase. The reasoning for this type of periodization is the idea that each phase will potentiate the next one. The added amount of muscle mass from the hypertrophy phase will be taught how to produce force in the strength phase. Then finally in the peaking phase, the skill of singles is practiced and the strength built in the prior phase is displayed.

In this article, we will talk about another type of periodization called concurrent periodization. Noteworthy is that this is the type of periodization or no-periodization used in the conjugate method by the people at 

, though they may call it something different.

The focus of concurrent periodization is to train all the modalities an athlete needs at the same time. In this case, it would be hypertrophy, strength, and maximal strength. The reasoning for this is to never get too far away from sport-specific practice, the singles. While still building other capabilities. What changes might be the amount of each modality in the training phase.

Far for competition, it might be 60% hypertrophy training, 30% strength, and 10% maximal strength. Then as we get closer to the competition we move closer to specific training and finally, we might end with something like 20% hypertrophy, 20% strength, and 60% maximal strength or whatever combination fits the athlete the best.

Training for strength and maximal strength requires most people to train in the 3-6 rep range and 1-3 rep range. The first one mainly focuses on creating new strength adaptations, while the second range mainly focuses on displaying those adaptations and training the skill of lifting heavy weight. That is at least the current paradigm in powerlifting lore.

The thing about building strength is that you have to lift heavy weight to do it. This is due to the SAID (specific adaptation to imposed demand) principle. You get good at what you do. This means that this type of training mainly needs to be above 60-70% of your 1 rep max. Usually, that means the strength training is in the 70-85% range and the maximal strength work is at 85%+.

However, what this also means is that you have to be relatively fresh for your training. You can get stronger with relatively 

. To lift heavy weight you simply have to be adequately rested, both between sets and training sessions. On top of this strength training is a very fatigue-demanding activity.

As it turns out this is also one of the problems with training for strength and hypertrophy at the same time. But we will get back to that later.

Hypertrophy training is training with the main goal of building as much muscle mass as possible. Unlike strength training, this can be achieved efficiently by a broad range of rep ranges 5-30 reps and intensity ranges of 30-85% of your one rep max. The general effort threshold is that a set should be 4-0 reps for failure.

Intensities above 85% also cause a hypertrophy stimulus. But is in general too taxing to cause efficient gains to occur. On top of this strength are movement patterns specific. This means that practicing the squat will make you a strong squatter, but this strength might not efficiently carry over to other movements if they are too different.

Hypertrophy on the other hand is specific to muscles instead of movement patterns and an athlete is free to use whatever movement pattern fits that specific athlete the best. Some never evidence even suggests the different movement patterns might cause specific 

 and an athlete might have to use a wide variety of movements to maximize results.

Can you train for both strength and hypertrophy at the same time?

Concurrent periodization is a very popular way of training. It does carry some benefits. Mainly you never get too far away from the goal. In a linear block periodized program it can sometimes be hard to see the end goal.

When you are 6 months away from a competition doing hypertrophy training, how do you know if your current training is benefitting your end goal? The truth is you don't.

You could test your maxes and go for a heavy single. But not only is it counterproductive, but it also won't give you any useful information. Mainly because your skill at lifting maximally heavyweight has decayed so much.

You will simply have to wait until your next phase to see if your training carries over. This not only takes quite a bit of faith and courage but the feedback loop until you can change anything is also very long.

In a concurrent program, you do not have this problem. Since you always keep some type of competition training in your program or at least similar training. You will always have some work you can use as a metric for progress.

This also means that the feedback loop will be much shorter. While you still might not be able to change training from week to week it will be possible to adapt the training from block to block.

This also means that it is much easier to gather useful personal data about how the athlete responds to training and thus tailor the programming to the individual athlete.


This can especially be advantageous for athletes whose response to training is outside the norm. While most people respond favorably or even optimally to the traditional hypertrophy-strength-peaking paradigm.

Some people Will be outliers and might not handle high intensities very well. These people will have more to gain than the average trainee from this type of short feedback loop.

How to create a concurrently periodized program

There are many ways one can construct a concurrent training program. For people who come from a hypertrophy perspective some type of body part split is usually the norm. Here a common one could be an upper-lower split.

However, in this part, I will introduce a microcycle template more common to strength training. This model is usually called Heavy Light Medium (HLM). The idea behind this program structure is that there is a heavy workout where training is pushed hard. Usually, this contains the most taxing exercises such as competition deadlifts or squats.

This is followed by a lighter recovery session. This session either has less taxing exercises, a lighter load, or less volume, etc. This is finally followed by a medium session which naturally falls between the two.

For people who can tolerate large about of training or people who like to do less volume per exercise, this template can be extended to 4 days a week. Here we just have a heavy light and medium exercise for each lift instead and of course double for pressing. But one could reasonably change half of the bench volume for pressing rather. If powerlifting isn't the goal.

Now let's talk about what can fit in the different slots.

 these lifts are obvious. This is where you put your competition lift usually you use a belt if you do so in competition. This will be your most taxing training. These slots are relatively and the most fatigue expensive.

The main purpose of these slots should be to put a movement that trains the competition lift. Usually, they focus on the weak point of the movement. This could be squats with pauses at the bottom or deficit deadlifts.

These are lifts that are mainly focused on causing hypertrophy in weak muscles. If your quad strength is the problem in your squat this could be quad focus etc. These movements usually vary more from competition lifts, since they are specific to hypertrophy and not to the movement we are practicing. This both means higher reps, but also more varied exercise selection.

Concurrent periodization is not without problems, however. While keeping sport-specific skills fresh might have its advantages. Training for hypertrophy and strength are both adaptions that can be very fatigue-demanding for the more trained athlete.

Even though the two types of training might look very similar on the surface when it comes down to it they aren't. Strength training requires the athlete to lift heavy weight and thus requires fatigue to be somewhat low.

While training for hypertrophy mainly requires that one exhaust the muscles which can be caused a fatigued state. For stronger lifters doing lower rep sets might also cause excessive fatigue compared to the hypertrophic stimuli they cause. This means that choosing less load-heavy exercises might allow the athlete to do more training with better results.

Due to these differences splitting training up into phases focused on either attribute might also have its advantage. Another possibility is to only do maintenance doses of the training that isn't the focus in the current block.

Strength training is a type of physical exercise that focuses on increasing muscle strength and size, also known as hypertrophy. There are different types of periodization for strength training: traditional linear periodization, which involves distinct phases for hypertrophy, strength, and maximal strength training; and concurrent periodization, which involves training for all three modalities at the same time, with the balance between them adjusting as the competition date approaches.

Strength training typically involves lifting weights in the 3-6 rep range for general strength and 1-3 rep range for maximal strength, at intensities of 70-85% and 85%+ of one's one rep max, respectively. Hypertrophy training involves a wider range of rep ranges and intensities, from 5-30 reps and 30-85% of one's one-rep max, respectively, to reach failure at 4-0 reps per set. To train for both strength and hypertrophy at the same time, it is recommended to focus on strength training first, with hypertrophy training as a secondary goal, and to prioritize recovery to avoid overtraining.

Can you train for strength and hypertrophy

 is a fundamental principle in strength training that refers to the gradual increase of stress placed on the body during exercise to continue making progress and adaptations. This can be achieved by increasing an exercise's load, reps, sets, or volume over time. The goal of progressive overload is to keep the relative stimulus on the body constant to allow it to adapt and improve, whether that be in terms of muscle size, strength, endurance, or other physical qualities.

Progressive overload is essential because the body is constantly seeking homeostasis or a state of balance. When you expose the body to stress through exercise, it will adapt and become more efficient at handling that stress in the future. However, if you do the same workout repeatedly without increasing the challenge, the body will eventually plateau and stop making progress. By gradually increasing the demands of your workouts, you can continue to challenge the body and make progress over time.

There are many ways to implement progressive overload in your training program. One common approach is to increase the load, or weight, on an exercise over time. For example, if you are bench pressing with 100 pounds and can perform the exercise with good form for 8 reps, you might aim to increase the weight to 105 pounds and aim for 6 reps on your next workout. Another approach is to increase the number of sets and reps you perform or the volume of the exercise. For example, you might start by doing 3 sets of 8 reps on an exercise, and then aim to increase that to 4 sets of 10 reps over time.

How often should you increase the weight?

How often should you increase the load in training? The answer is a with so many other things in training it depends. The simplest answer to this question is when you get stronger. But there can also be many other reasons for increasing load that depends more on your training strategy.

Long-term your adaptions to training and the principle of progressive overload will necessitate that you increase the load. But in the short term, things such as training programming and strategy or a change of focus can also result in a load increase.

Usually, from week to week, you can choose to increase either reps or load just due to natural progress in training ability. But the choice to increase 

Another reason to increase the load can be due to the cyclic nature of strength training. When one transition form focuses on hypertrophy to strength or from strength to maximal strength. The load will have to go up. Mainly due to the principle of specificity. The training that is most ideal for hypertrophy/muscle gain isn't likely to also maximize general or maximal strength.

Factors that determine the frequency of weight increases

Several factors may influence how often you can and should increase the load in training. They include:

Training age: The longer you have been training, the less frequently you will be able to increase the load. As your body has adapted more to the demands of training it will also take more for it to adapt to larger imposed demands.

Training volume: The amount of volume (total number of hard sets) you are performing can also affect the frequency of load increases. Too much or too little training will affect how you can progress in training.

Programming: Making the right plan is important to your progress in the gym. We all respond differently to training and intelligent exercise, rep and load selection can make a big difference in the results we get out of training.

Recovery: It's important to allow your body sufficient time to recover between training sessions. How much stress you impose both inside and outside the gym plays an important factor in your ability to adapt to training. More relaxation and sleep outside the gym may allow you to progress faster in training.

Individual differences: Everyone is different and will respond differently to training. Some people will adapt more and faster to training. While others need to fight for all the gains they can get. Most of us luckily lie in between.

Intelligent progress in training is important. Rapid increases may lead to overreaching or even overtraining. While slow increases will leave gains on the table.

What is the role of individual differences in determining the rate of progression in training

Individual differences can play a significant role in determining the rate at which a person progresses in their training. Some factors that may influence an individual's rate of progression include their genetics, their initial skill level, the intensity and frequency of their training, their nutrition and overall health, their motivation and commitment to the training, and any external stressors or distractions they may be facing.

Genetics can influence an individual's natural aptitude for a particular skill or activity, which may affect the rate at which they progress in training. For example, some people may have a natural predisposition to building muscle mass, getting stronger, or even with superior motor-learning abilities.

Initial skill level is also a significant factor in determining the rate of progression in training. Someone who is already skilled in a particular area may progress more quickly in their training than someone who is starting from scratch, as they will have a foundation of knowledge and skills to build upon.

This goes for people returning with prior experience from lifting weights. But general physical ability might help improve in the long run. There is some merit to the idea that one should have a 

The intensity and frequency of training also affect an individual's rate of progression. Commitment and effort will go a long way toward getting results. However, doing 

 may result in a quick accumulation of fatigue.

Proper nutrition and overall health are also important factors in determining the rate of progression in training. Eating a balanced diet, getting 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, getting enough calories, and getting enough rest and sleep can help support the body's recovery and adaptation to training, which can lead to more rapid progress.

Motivation and commitment to the training can also play a role in an individual's rate of progression. Someone highly motivated and dedicated to their training is more likely to put in the necessary effort and make consistent progress over time.

Finally, external stressors or distractions can affect an individual's rate of progression in training. If a person is facing significant stress or other distractions in their personal life, it may be more difficult for them to focus on their training and make progress.


Tips for tracking progress and determining the appropriate rate of weight increase

Tracking training can be both enlightening and useful. With enough data and a keen eye, you can find patterns in your training that will both allow for more gains and maybe also a better experience.

Most people respond to training in a fairly predictable way. But we all have small individual differences in how we respond to different stimuli. Some of us might even be 

 and diverge from what is normally a strength training convention.

Rigorous tracking of training will allow us to find out kinks in our response to training, gain knowledge about how much training we can endure, and find at which intensities, rep ranges, and exercises give us the best gains.

The best way to start tracking training is the old-school way. Start by writing sets, reps, and weight down in a small book, and maybe even add RPE to describe how hard the sets were. Over time this will leak information for the analytical observer.

For the slightly more nerdy or diligent athlete, I recommend trying some of the free tools provided by 

Common pitfalls to avoid when progressing in training

Increasing absolute effort over time is important to keep making gains in training. However, progression is not without pitfalls that may lead to poorer long-term results.

The most common problem when adding weight or reps to an exercise is simply greed or ego. Sadly enough wishing for something to happen isn't always enough to make it happen.

Anyone with experience in the gym knows the feeling when you want that new PR or when you want to add those 2.5 kgs to your bench press.


This is a problem most prevalent in beginners, though some people never outgrow it. It is adding weight to the bar at the cost of the technique. If I just squat a little higher I can put just a little more on the bar.

However, this is a bad idea. We know that range of motion is 

 to hypertrophy and in the long term that means our results in the gym.

A much better strategy is to leave a few reps in the tank, at least for most sets, and practice perfect technique. Not only will doing full RoM make you a morally superior human being. But in the long run, ingrained practice will make you both stronger, and more efficient in the lifts and even allow you to train efficiently closer to failure.

In conclusion, progressive overload is a key principle in strength training that involves gradually increasing the stress placed on the body through exercise to continue making progress and adaptations.


It is essential to avoid plateaus and allow the body to continue adapting to new challenges. Progressive overload can be achieved by increasing the load, reps, sets, or volume of an exercise, and can be influenced by factors such as training age, volume, programming, recovery, and individual differences.


It is important to pay attention to these factors and make appropriate adjustments to effectively implement progressive overload and continue making progress in strength training.

How often should I increase the load?

You’ve just started this new incredible program. Everything is great! People on the internet say it's the best program ever and you are ready to become the strongest person alive. The first week was great/ok/bad and you get to week two. But your favorite internet person just released the best program since 

. Damn! Should you stick with your current program or change to this new workout routine that will make you stronger than Hercules himself?

This article will explore when you should change your workout routine or change to a different program altogether.

In all training studies, some people do well and get a lot of gains. At the same time, others are 

 to the program and don't improve or even regress. However, we know that all humans can adapt to training.

The reason that some people don't respond is usually that the dose of training is either too small or too large. Sometimes it's even that it's the wrong type of training altogether.


This combined with what has been coined noob gains gives you almost religious wars on the internet over which program is great and which program sucks.


One guy (me) did starting strength and his lifts shot up, while another guy got burned out by the monotony or didn't respond well to the intensity. Another guy did one of the millions of variations of 5/3/1 and got great results and so on.


In reality, none of these programs are probably very well thought out or very good. But they are popular and they might work for you. So if you want to try and find out. Give it a shot.

How long should you do a program before changing it up?

You are running a program and you for some reason find the urge to change to a new program. There can be many reasons for this urge.

No or slower than the desired rate of gain

When running a new block of training or a new program progress might not come as fast as one expects. This can be for many reasons, and one of course also has to be realistic. A good rule of thumb is that you can have 1-2 bad weeks. But if at least 3-4 weeks happen without a change in performance, something probably has to change.

Progress can be absent for many reasons. Maybe there is too little work, too much work, or the programming simply doesn't resonate with you. This leads to the second point.


Over time the same program may become stale. You no longer feel excited to work out or you are no longer getting the same pump.


This can also be a sign that you aren't responding well to the training anymore and maybe it's time to change things up.


It's best to not change things too often. Because we want to spend time doing hard training and get good at the movements we are doing.


, we also become more resistant to the same stimuli over time.

Again it's likely best to have at least 3-4 uninterrupted weeks of training before changing things or if the programming is periodized changing things when a block of training finishes is a great time.


In the last case, what do we do if the total training load is too large? There are multiple stages of this. Maybe we started just a little over our current capacity to train, and the best solution is to change nothing. In a few weeks, we will be able to tolerate the work.


In some cases, we did way too much, usually indicated by severe soreness, and we will have to pull back training. Usually, 10-20% will be enough.

Finally, there is the problem when we have accumulated too much fatigue and 

 is masked. Usually in this case performance falls drastically from prior weeks, at least 10% or more.

At this point, it is likely time to do a deload. If this happened before we intended it to, this is also a time to reevaluate our training.

As an athlete matures in development an auto-regulated approach to training block length can be employed. This is what 

 would call time to peak, in his emerging strategies framework.

The idea is that from when you start a training block there is an individual number of exposures to that training stimulus that will happen before the athlete is in a peak training condition.


That is a point where performance is maximized. After that peak performance tapers off and eventually the condition of the athlete degrades.


In this approach, we would want to do the same training as many times as it takes us to reach this peak condition and then transition into different kinds of training.


When it comes to deciding whether to change your workout routine or stick with your current program, it's important to consider whether you are a non-responder to the program. In some cases, the program may not be the right fit for your body and its ability to adapt to training.

It's also important to consider how long you have been doing the program and whether it has become stale or unenjoyable. In general, it's best to give a program at least 3-4 uninterrupted weeks before making any changes. If you have been doing the program for a longer period and have experienced a significant drop in performance, it may be time to consider a deload or a change in the program.

For more advanced athletes, an auto-regulated approach to training block length can be employed.

how long should you stick to a workout routine

If you want to get stronger or build muscle mass, improving is the most important thing. This is due to the principle of 

. Over time the absolute amount of training we do needs to increase. We need to do more reps, lift more weight, do more sets or make things harder. But when should you progress, and how do you do it for the best results?


The main goal of this article will be to suggest a better way to load, rep, and set progression. The method I suggest is inspired by Dr. Mike Israetel. It has the advantage of autoregulation

and personalization. Instead of a traditional static bro program, it also has the advantage of emerging around the lifter's current ability to perform and recover.


I think that progression for hypertrophy training is way more open-ended than if the goal is strength. The goal when training for hypertrophy is to produce 

Progression can be done in many different ways. But as long as we mainly train with weights we will usually have to add reps, weight, and sets.


A popular way to progress in training is what some would call dynamic double progression

It is a strategy I mainly deem useful for novices, but effective nonetheless.

In this type of progression, you pick a rep range for the lifts, let's say 8-12 reps. You then choose a starting weight that falls in that range. Every time you can complete a set at the end of the range, in this case, 12+ reps, you increase the weight next week.

This type of programming can be great for novices. But for stronger and more advanced lifters it may introduce some problems.

Not Increasing sets and leaving gains on the table

No autoregulation may cause excessive fatigue

No periodization or fatigue management may slow or halt progress


Let's talk about how I think we can remedy these problems.


 that training 0-3 reps away from failure might not give worse results than training to failure. For this reason, introducing a way to measure how hard we train is useful. I suggest using autoregulate either in the form of 

Training at lower intensity may allow us to do more training. Which, may lead to better results. Since there is a 

However, hypertrophy science is limited at best, and we might not have the full picture. For this reason, we will also sometimes train closer to RPE 9-10. We will talk more about this when we get to the periodization.


We know gains are correlated with total training volume. That is the number of hard sets between 5-30 reps. On top of this our ability to recover from volume also increases pretty fast.

This means that in week one we might be able to tolerate and adapt to 3 sets of an exercise. While in week 2 we can handle 4 sets. By week 3 the 3 sets might even be too little to elicit a great stimulus.

To solve this problem we should add sets from week to week as we get better at tolerating volume. We keep doing this until we are no longer able to recover and improve from the amount of training we are doing. We should then deload and start again with a lower volume.

A good starting place is to find a number of sets where the muscle we are training gets a pump and feels some amount of disruption.

We can then add a set next week if the muscle is recovered the next time it is trained. If the muscle isn't recovered and is still sore, don't add a set or even remove one if the DOMS are bad.

We are now ready to bring it all together in a periodized fashion. That is, we are going to plan our progression through a mesocycle. At the start of a mesocycle, we are fresh out of a deload. Our systemic fatigue is low, and at the same time, we are very sensitive to training stimuli.

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