Weekly periodization rules for resistance training

Most of you already know that after the first few months of practice, anybody who is serious about resistance training should work on different muscle groups on each session instead of working out the whole body every time.

What is less well-known is that there are additional rules for combining muscle group workouts between 2 successive sessions.



MATURE ATHLETES NEED LONGER RECOVERY TIME
These rules are especially important for mature athletes because it takes significantly more time for their muscles to recuperate from a given workout than young athletes' (keep in mind that the very principle of resistance training involves tearing up muscle fibers).

As a result if you don't heed the compatibility rules that I enunciate below your may run a much greater risk of overtraining or simply getting injured (typically muscle or ligament tears).

Younger athletes and/or those taking performance-enhancing drugs (which I do not advocate) may get away with ignoring most of these rules, but let's not forget that this blog does not address this crowd.

According to Wikipedia "Overtraining is a physical, behavioral and emotional condition that occurs when the volume and intensity of an individual's exercise exceeds their recovery capacity. They cease making progress, and can even begin to lose strength and fitness..."
I would add a psychological risk to this list, which may lead to a loss of motivation and eventual abandonment of resistance training, which is in and by itself a demanding and at time thankless activity.

SECONDARY MUSCLE GROUPS SHOULD NOT BEEN OVERSEEN
To understand "muscle groups incompatibility rules" it is important to keep in mind that when any given muscle goup is worked out, a secondary or third muscle group is solicited. A typical example for that are the triceps when you work out the pecs. Because most pecs exercises involve pushing away from the body, triceps are necessarily involved.

Bearing that principle in mind , here are the rules of thumb that I have adopted for my own workouts after years of trial-and-error:

WEEKLY PERIODIZATION RULES

1. Don't work out the same muscle group two days in a row, even if these are not consecutive calendar days.
2. Don't work out a muscle group that has been recruited secondarily on the preceding workout day, even if these are not consecutive calendar days. To use the example above, if you worked out the pecs on Monday don't work out the triceps on your next workout the following Wednesday. You could probably have gotten away with this rule in your 20's or 30's and I have, but with age because recovery takes longer this should be avoided.
3. Don't workout a muscle group more than twice a week. This rule may be redundant since most of us hardly have enough time to work a muscle even twice a week. The reason I mentioned it is that some of you may want to concentrate on a particular muscle group for a while, which is a valid option. Let's say you want to boost your deltoids. You may be tempted to work them out every time you go to the gym. Interestingly enough, for most of us (those who play by the rules, i.e. don't take performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids) less may be more. I mean by that that most studies have found that the optimal frequency for gaining muscle mass is bi-weekly and no more.
4. Don't work out two large muscle groups on the same day (legs, back, pecs)

MY WEEKLY WORKOUT ROUTINE
Because those rules may be a bit confusing for beginners, I will take the example of my own weekly routine to illustrate them

Workout 1
pecs+abs

Workout 2
legs

Workout 3
back+abs

Workout 4
shoulders+biceps

Workout 5
triceps+abs

ABS MAY BE THE EXCEPTION TO THE WEEKLY PERIODIZATION RULE
You may have noticed that there is a slight violation of rules 1/ and 3/ concerning the abs.
My own experience has shown that abs may be exercised more frequently (and occasionally on 2 consecutive days) than other muscle groups without running the risk of overtraining. Don't overdo it though. I believe that 3x per week is the maximum possible frequency for the abs muscle group. Once again "More" would probably be "less".

Those of you who have a 3-day or 4-day per week workout routine may send me an email so that i can help them with these periodization rules.