If you’re trying to put on muscle mass and haven’t been successful, don’t fret, exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel has the tips that’ll have you looking beefy in no time. In a recent YouTube video posted on August 27, 2024, Dr. Mike Israetel broke down how many days per week you should train to get maximum gains and shared the most common mistakes people make with frequency.
Let’s face it, adding muscle can be a challenge. Thankfully, physiologist Dr. Mike Israetel has taken the fitness community by storm, dissecting complicated principles and reforming them into easy-to-follow guides. Through social media, where he has amassed over 2.25 million subscribers on just his YouTube channel, Dr. Israetel provides insights on a broad range of topics, including what your daily step count should be to stay healthy and if creatine has negative side effects.
Exercise Scientist Reveals How Many Days to Train Per Week for Optimal Gains, Discusses Common Mistakes With Workout Frequency
In his latest offering on YouTube, Dr. Mike Israetel broke down the logistics of putting on muscle. This included how many times per week you should be training to see maximum gains.
“The fundamental science is this, on training frequency, number of times you train per week, not a single muscle group, just times you show up to the gym. The more times a week you train, the better the gains, period.”
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Dr. Israetel breaks down putting on muscle mass by levels, sharing advice regardless of what stage you are in on your fitness journey. For beginners, he shared that individuals could see amazing gains simply by training two to three times a week.
“There’s people out there hawking programs ultimate gainer plan five days a week for beginners. Yeah, that could work but you can get unreal gains with just two or three times a week. Why not get the easy gains? It’s amazing.”
For those who have been at this a while, three to five times a week should do the trick.
“Intermediates can get amazing gains training anywhere between three and five times a week,” shares Dr. Israetel.
“They can make unbelievable gains, gains that are super worth it from the amount of effort you put it to the result you get out perspective and give you an absolute amount of really awesome muscle size, intermediates can do this between three, four, and five days a week of training.”
Now, for those who are much further in the fitness journey, Dr. Mike Israetel recommends training up to six days a week to see the most growth.
“Advanced folks can usually only get their best gains training four, five, or six days a week.”
Here, you can find a breakdown of Dr. Israetel’s best recommendations for training frequency per week.
- Do ONLY what you can reliably make week-to-week
- Beginners: 2-3 times per week
- Intermediates: 3-5 times per week
- Advanced: 4-6 times per week
*Or whatever keeps the gains coming FOR YOU
Next, Dr. Israetel breaks down the most common mistakes with training frequency and how to fix them.
- Thinking more sessions is always better
- Missing tons of sessions but not reducing the schedule after a while
- Doing 2x sessions per week even though each session is 2 hours now and you have loads of time for 3x or 4x a week
- Thinking that 6x a week will give you revolutionary results compared to 5x a week
Dr. Israetel revealed that one of the most common errors individuals make when trying to gain muscle mass is not incorporating more training days into their schedule.
“Most people refuse to alter their schedule but they’re also not interested in re-architecting their number of training days so they are essentially setting themselves up for failure 100 percent of the time.”
He explained that when working out four to five times a week not only will you maintain the muscle and strength you already have, but you will also make gains consistently.
“In almost all cases, if you go to five days a week training to four days a week training, you will lose zero muscle and strength but it gets better than that. You’ll still gain muscle and strength robustly, consistently, at a very really good pace. Just more slowly than you were gaining at five days a week, by a little bit. That’s the difference.”
Instead of just maintaining the body with two gym days a week, training more frequently will ensure maximum muscle growth.
“In order for you to have to go into a place of true maintenance where you’re not losing strength or muscle but you’re not gaining it, you may have to trade twice a week having been used to been used to training five or four times a week. Twice a week maybe the thing that gets you maintenance and even twice hard might get you really slow gains still, especially if you’re an intermediate.”
Still looking for more tips on how to put on muscle? No problem! This isn’t the first time that Dr. Israetel has shared his secret to being a beefcake. He recently revealed his foolproof formula for making gains, following his 18-week plan that is simple and effective.
Additionally, he shared yet another guide on how to get jacked and build muscle. With a combination of deep stretches and proper techniques, as well as controlling the concentric, you’ll be on your way to looking like five-time Classic Physique Olympia Chris Bumstead in no time.
Exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel combines the knowledge he’s accumulated over the years with his hands-on experience to develop trustworthy and dependable guides on building muscle. If you haven’t been achieving the gains you want, try ramping up the number of training days per week, and let us know if you see a difference!
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