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The Dr. Shannon Show

#214: How often should you work a muscle each week?

The Dr. Shannon Show

Dr. Shannon Ritchey, PT, DPT

Fitness, Education, Health & Fitness, Self-improvement

4.91K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How many days/week should you work each muscle? And how many sets are needed in each workout? Shannon breaks down the current science on frequency and volume. She suggests a protocol that is both realistic and effective. 0:00: Introduction 1:40: Optimal volume for muscle growth 6:15: How frequently should you work a muscle group? 9:10: How many days per week should you strength train? 11:15: The bottom line To take our free 35-minute Upper Body Build class ...

Transcript

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0:00.0

If you are loving what you're learning in the podcast and you want to start applying it to your

0:04.8

fitness routine, you can try one of our free classes. No credit card required, just drop your

0:10.1

email to get access. This is a upper body build class taught by myself to take the class,

0:15.8

visit portal.evilfitness.com. I'm Dr. Shannon Ritchie. I'm a doctor of physical therapy, fitness trainer, and founder

0:24.8

of Ethelof Fitness. In the Dr. Shannon show, you'll learn applicable tools to improve your

0:30.3

health based on science. Welcome to the show.

0:41.9

How many days a week should you strength train?

0:44.5

Can you lift twice a week and see muscle growth?

0:48.3

Or do you need to train six times a week and see muscle growth and strength?

0:53.0

To address this question, we have to address both volume and frequency.

0:55.9

So today I'll present the research on volume and frequency and leave you with practical takeaways on how often and how much to train each muscle group.

1:02.7

So first of all, the literature is very contradictory when it comes to volume and frequency.

1:08.9

Some literature shows that as little as one set per week will build

1:12.6

muscle, whereas other studies show that you need 10 plus sets per week to optimize muscle growth.

1:18.0

The studies on frequency are also inconsistent. Some studies show that frequency doesn't matter

1:22.9

as long as volume is equated, whereas other studies show that frequency matters more than volume. So there's a lot

1:30.0

of mixed opinions on this. I want to discuss some literature, and I'll leave you with my opinion on what is

1:36.7

best for the modern woman. So first, let's talk about volume. Volume is how many working sets or hard sets per muscle group per week. A hard set is taking

1:48.7

an exercise a few reps shy of failure or two failure in under 30 repetitions. If you were doing

1:56.3

more than 30 repetitions in a single set, that is not a set that will be very effective for muscle growth.

2:02.7

Here is what some of the literature suggests about volume. We'll start by discussing a study that

2:07.7

showed that minimal volume can produce significant gains. The participants had one year of training

...

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