A Fresh Look at Training Frequency For Power-Building

Optimal training frequency is a confusing topic for many. How often should I squat? How often should I deadlift? How often should I bench? The crux of the problem is that there is an absolutely overwhelming amount of anecdotal evidence of great results on both ends of the frequency spectrum.

In my own personal experience I’ve seen some very strong power lifters and Olympic weight lifters who squat anywhere from 3-5 times per week. However, I’ve also seen some insanely strong (and large) bodybuilders, power lifters, and “recreational” gym rats who maybe only squat once per week. I’ve seen some brutally strong guys who only squatted heavy once every other week, often alternated on a weekly basis with heavy deadlifts. Several years ago I had breakfast with Kirk Karwoski and we discussed training frequency. He kinda laughed at the idea of squatting more than once per week.

Hell, one of the strongest squatters I’ve ever trained with, didn’t squat very often at all. He spent the vast majority of his lower body training doing Hack Squats and Leg Presses. As a bodybuilder, he felt like these exercises did a better job of developing his quads than traditional squats did. He was also a 600+ deadlifter who rarely did deadlifts – instead opting to almost exclusively perform stiff leg deadlifts. Now, I’m not necessarily recommending this as a solution for the masses, but it did work for him.

So this kind of leaves us with a problem. The minute that some expert tells you that you have to squat at least 2-3 days per week to make progress, we can point to a guy that only squats heavy every other week and is strong as a bull. The inverse is also true, as soon as an “expert” tells you that you can’t “recover” from squatting multiple times per week, we can find a guy that is brutally strong that squats 3-4 days per week.

So what is the right option for you?

The long and short of it is that I don’t believe there are any blanket recommendations that can be universally applied to all lifters when it comes to frequency.

For novices to strength training, I am certainly an advocate for high frequency training. Obviously the Novice Linear Progression presented in Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training and Practical Programming for Strength Training is my preferred program for most novices.

However, once we get into intermediate/advanced territory then the lines start to get more blurry as to what each individual needs in terms of frequency, per session volume, and intensity.

For the sake of discussion we are going to assume we are talking about drug free lifting. In my opinion the use of anabolics skews the debate too wildly and drugs can often mask the consequences of sub-optimal or even very bad programming.

So my recommendations are going to assume you are training drug free, but looking for progress in both strength and muscle mass.

For the drug free strength trainee I am an advocate for each muscle group to be trained every 48-96 hours for optimal growth and strength development. Notice, I didn’t say that you necessarily need to do every lift every 48-96 hours. Some may benefit from training the same lifts more repetitively, some may not. I have clients that respond differently to how frequency is dosed. For instance if we want to train lower body two times per week, does that mean we need to squat two times per week or can we squat once per week and deadlift once per week?

It varies from person to person based on their experience, age, absolute strength, and also how much volume/intensity they are using at each individual session. In my opinion, the further along on the spectrum you are in these categories the less need you will have to perform very high volume or very high intensity sessions multiple times per week on the same lift. In general you’ll do better on a system where each lift (or each muscle group) is hit hard every 5-7 days with perhaps a lighter workout for that lift or that muscle group in between. That may mean doing the same lift lighter in between very intensive sessions OR using a lighter variation of the lift in between sessions. It could also mean hitting the muscles used in that lift “indirectly” while training other body parts.

So while I believe that each lift / muscle group should be trained every 48-96 hours, I don’t necessarily believe that each lift / muscle group should be annihilated every 48-96 hours. Too frequent high intensity and/or high volume training will lead to overtraining, stagnation, regression, and eventually injury for most lifters.   Instead I think the better approach is to hit each muscle group or lift hard about once every 5-7 days with either high intensity, higher volume, or a combination of both. In the interim each lift should be trained lighter, trained with a lighter variation of the lift, or even just ensuring that each muscle group is touched on “indirectly” to speed up recovery, prevent detraining, and spur growth.

I design a lot of “power-building” programs for my clients, and these are generally programs that are trying to simultaneously build strength on the primary barbell exercises (Squat, Deadlift, Bench, Overhead Press) but also build muscle mass and improve the lifters physique. That entails a whole lot of work to be done and it must be balanced appropriately across a 7-10 day period for the program to be sustainable in the long term. My experience has been that when you try and cram too much into a 5 day window (Monday – Friday) you’ll wind up overtrained and beat up.

So basically for a Power-Building program I’ll set up 5 main workouts and depending on who I’m working with we’ll spread those 5 workouts across a week or ten day period.

Generally, we’ll have two heavy lower body days in the rotation. The first lower body day is very squat focused. We do either a lot of volume in the 75-85% range or some very high intensity work in the 90-95% range with some back off sets to follow. We may follow that with a deadlift variation that brings a lot of quad into the movement such as deficit deadlifts or snatch grip deadlifts. Then we may finish with a moderate volume of more bodybuilding or GPP style lower body work depending on the client.

The second lower body day in the cycle is more deadlift focused. Generally either regular conventional deadlifts, rack pulls, and then back off work with things like stiff leg deadlifts or RDLs. So this is more of a “posterior chain” focused day. Lots of hamstring and low back stuff. I generally have clients squat again on this day, before or after deadlifts, with either some lighter squats or a variation such as a paused box squat. We’ll finish with lighter high volume posterior chain work with easier exercises like 45 degree back extensions, glute ham raises, reverse hypers, etc. On either day I might allow for them to squeeze in some cosmetic work for the abs and calves if they want. If there is going to be some time elapsed between these sessions, then they have the option to do a third lower body day, but this day might be limited to something like dragging a sled or pushing a prowler. This is a great lower body workout and allows for some active recovery from the more stressful barbell work.

Upper body will generally be divided into 2-3 sessions spread across the week. One session is generally Overhead Press-focused and we do either a very high volume or high intensity workout for the Overhead Press (or a combo of both) and then follow that with assistance work for the delts and triceps. In general, one of our tricep exercises will be something like weighted dips, close grip bench press, or floor presses. I make sure to get something in that stimulates the pecs or serves as a light variation of the bench press (whether you think in terms of “muscles” or “movements” doesn’t matter much to me. After all, the muscles are what produce the movements).

Later in the week we will hit a heavy Bench Press workout along with a few supplemental exercises (ex: Bench Press, Incline Bench Press, Dips). This will obviously work the chest but also get plenty of indirect stimulation of the delts and triceps. Most of the time, after our chest workout I’ll plug in a few sets for biceps since they are still relatively fresh.

For some trainees, I’ll also assign a day strictly relegated to training the back with exercises like chins/pull ups, rows, and shrugs. Or we can just sprinkle these exercises in amongst the other 4 training days if we don’t have the time to add in a 5^th session.  We already hit back once during the week with our heavy deadlift session, but a second day focused on chins, rows, shrugs, etc can really kick in some good growth for the lats, traps, and rest of the upper back musculature.

All in all, the complete “training week” will look something like this:

Monday – Heavy Bench

• High Volume and/or High Intensity Bench Press work
• Assistance for Chest & Biceps
• Indirect work for delts/triceps via bench, incline, dips, etc

Tuesday – Heavy Legs

• Heavy Deadlift focus (conventional or rack pull)
• Precede or follow with lighter squats or squat variation
• Assistance work focus on hamstrings, low back

Thursday – Heavy Press

• High Volume and/or High Intensity Press work
• Assistance focus on delts/triceps
• Indirect chest / lighter bench press work with close grips, floor press, or dips

Friday – Supplemental Back

• Focus on chins, rows, etc
• Indirect bicep

Saturday – Heavy Legs (Squat focus)

• High volume and/or high intensity Squat
• Usually include lighter deadlift variant such as deficit deadlift or snatch grip deadlift, etc.

Generally a template like this achieves the goals of increasing strength and muscle mass without leaving the lifter beat up and overtrained with too much exposure to the same series of exercises over and over again during the week.

I’ve also used this same template spread out over a 3 day week like this:

Monday – Bench + Chest/Biceps

Wednesday – Heavy Lower (Deadlift focus + Light Squat)

Friday – Press + Delt/Triceps

Monday – Supplemental Back

Wednesday – Heavy Lower (Squat focus)

Friday – Repeat 5 day cycle.

If this type of programming sounds like it might be right for you then I’d encourage you to give the KSC Method for Power Building a try.

If you want a little bit more hands on coaching and programming on an ongoing basis, then I generally follow this same or similar “power building” template in the Baker Barbell Club (online coaching program).