Masheen

Planning a week

Frequency

Also called training frequency, workout frequency

Frequency is how often you train in a week: either how many sessions you do, or how many times each muscle gets trained.

PushMonPullTueLegsWedThuPushFriPullSatLegsSun
Sunday: Legs. 6 training days so far. Push, pull, legs, rest, push, pull, legs: six sessions a week, legs trained twice.

In plain words

The word has two readings, and they give different numbers for the same week. Count the sessions, and a six-day week is six. Count how often one muscle gets trained, and that same week gives each muscle two. A 2016 meta-analysis by Schoenfeld and colleagues says frequency can mean either. With volume matched, it found training a muscle twice a week grew more muscle than once a week; whether three times beats two, it says, remains to be determined. A 2024 meta-analysis of 14 studies and 392 people found split and full-body routines gave similar gains at equal volume. Frequency is a way to fit your sets into a week.

An example

Push, pull, legs, rest, push, pull, legs. That is six sessions a week. Legs come up on Wednesday and Sunday, so the legs have a frequency of two. The ACSM's 2009 position stand recommends 2–3 days a week for novices, 3–4 for intermediate lifters and 4–5 for advanced ones. Its 2026 stand found strength was better with two or more sessions a week.

Often confused with

Volume Volume is how many sets you do; frequency is how many days you spread them over.
Split A split is the way a training week is divided up: which muscles or movements you train on which day.
Volume Volume is how much training you do, counted either as the number of hard sets for a muscle in a week or as weight × reps added up across sets.
Full body workout A full body workout trains every major muscle group in one session: at the least the legs, a push and a pull.
Upper lower split An upper lower split divides training into two kinds of day: upper-body days and lower-body days, taking turns through the week.
Push pull legs Push pull legs is a split with three kinds of day: one for the muscles that push, one for the ones that pull, and one for the legs.

Go deeper

Beginner strength programs compared Starting Strength, StrongLifts 5×5, GZCLP and 5/3/1 for Beginners in one table. Days, lifts, sets and reps, how the weight goes up, and what to do on a miss. Updated

Sources

  1. Schoenfeld, Ogborn, Krieger 2016. Effects of resistance training frequency on measures of muscle hypertrophy. Sports Med 46(11):1689–1697 Read
  2. ACSM 2009. Position stand: Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc 41(3):687–708 Read
  3. Currier et al. 2026. ACSM Position Stand: Resistance Training Prescription for Muscle Function, Hypertrophy, and Physical Performance in Healthy Adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc 58(4):851–872 Read
  4. Ramos-Campo et al. 2024. Efficacy of split versus full-body resistance training on strength and muscle growth. J Strength Cond Res 38(7):1330–1340 Read

Updated . How these pages are researched and corrected: editorial policy. Every term in the glossary.