What's the frequency? (page 3 of 3)

Now we have Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday available.

3. Schedule your heavier movements first. In our case, we're going to use German Volume Training (GVT) which is extremely high volume. So we'll start on Monday with squats and dead-lifts. Because this will be so difficult to recover from, we're going to push our upper body with bench press, military press, and rows to Wednesday.

4. Fill in the gaps with lighter training. So on Tuesday we'll do our abs, upper arms, forearms, and calves with just a typical 3x12 (3 sets, 12 reps). On Thursday, we'll do lower back (better on Thursday than Tuesday due to the heavy squats and dead-lifts on Monday), then use some leg extensions and leg curls for active recovery from Monday's workout.

5. This creates a nice weekly schedule for an intermediate to advanced trainee. If you find that you are having trouble recovering from this style of workout, however, you might also alternate weeks of heavy and light. Instead of repeating the split on week 2, you might do a traditional 3x12 workout with the same exercises on Monday and Friday, then go back to the GVT on week 3.

As you can see, there are many possible combinations. While this article provides a general guideline for piecing together the workout frequency, you'll have to learn how your body responds and make the appropriate adjustments for you. This is why it is a great idea to keep a detailed journal. I can look back on previous years of training and determine exactly what frequencies produced the best results. The more information you keep available, the better you'll be at dialing into your optimal frequency of training.