There is no doubt that chest training is one of the most important workouts for most people.
Nevertheless, knowing how often you should train your chest to build muscles and improve your upper body is crucial before starting.
The process can be confusing, most especially if you’re not getting the expected results.
You should know that chest training can be done differently: once, twice, or thrice a week. But which is the best?
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How Often You Should Perform Chest Training
Personally, these routines work well, but it varies depending on your body aims and goals.
Before you start your chess training routine, you may need to ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you desire to build or develop a bigger chest?
- Do you want to define those muscles?
- Are you a beginner, or are you familiar with bodybuilding?
- Do you use only free weights or bodyweight exercises?
These are fundamental questions you need to answer before setting the frequency of your chest training weekly.
Besides, our muscles need time to recover. According to an article, workouts are physically-demanding activities; thus, it is important that your body needs a complete recovery to gain maximum strength.
The approximate recovery time your body needs is about 48 to 72 hours.
However, this depends on how hard your workouts are. Likewise, consider your workouts’ sets and reps.
Take note that your body needs to maintain a healthy lifestyle and diet, which influences your muscle’s recovery time.
The rule is, if you have a long and hard chest workout, you should not over train to provide the muscles’ proper amount of time to recover.
If your session is not that complicated, you can have workouts more frequently since the muscles can recover in a shorter time.
Both frequencies work; you need to tweak your workouts to get optimal results. Hence, it is important to rest.
Related: The Best 13 Chest Workout Routines for All Levels
Once a Week
If you’re planning to have a chest training routine done once a week, you need to have a complete, extreme workout. This implies that the movements involved should work all parts of the chest.
Aside from activities, you need to implement more sets and reps and use heavier weights.
By getting chess training done once a week, make sure to avoid under-training. You should not overstress yourself as well.
Furthermore, once-a-week chest training helps you build and develop muscle mass effectively.
Twice a Week
If you are afraid of overstressing yourself with the once-a-week chest training, you can split those workouts effectively.
Implementing chest training workouts twice a week produces several benefits to your body. For instance, you can have more time and power to work all part of the pecs.
You can also enhance your lower, middle, and upper chest since you have two sessions per week.
Twice-a-week chest training sessions stimulate your muscles more.
Thrice a Week
Last but not least, you can do chest training three times a week.
Several body programs recommend dividing workouts into three different days; this method works all the muscles successfully.
Following the same rule for muscle recovery, you can have full-body workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (this routine is recommended for beginners).
Note: Incorporating chess training thrice a week should be observed but do not over-train your chest muscles as they need time to recover.
If you continue to workout without allowing your chest muscles to recoup, they will not develop properly.
Conclusion
All of these chest training sessions work well; I personally do 12 to 14 sets weekly.
To develop muscle mass, you may need to add resistance. You can add dumbbells, barbells, and weights.
So, which is the best?
Chest training done twice a week worked the best, especially when done with 6 to 7 sets per workout. This type of technique develops your mass and strength simultaneously.
Related: Your Guide to Bodyweight Chest Workout
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Thank you very much for the guidance sir but how many reps in each set for twice a week?
You can find many chest workout routines for all levels here https://fitbodybuzz.com/chest-workout-routines/
Do how many you can manage. Go to maximum.
when you say you did 6-7 sets per workout what exactly do you mean?
For example, I made 4 sets of bench press and 3 sets of dumbbells flys on one day and on another I made 4 sets of incline dumbbells press and 3 sets of dips.
How much time do you rest between sets when training twice a week?
2-3 days.
I’ve been lifting consistent for about a year. I do 8 sets of 8-10 reps for db bench and 8 sets of 8 reps of db flys, I finish with 8 sets of 8 reps of cable flys. Total sets is 24 for chest. Ive been doing this twice per week. Im not seeing much mass so I’m thinking of cutting back to omce per week for chest. Thoughts?
Have you tried lifting heavier weights with less reps for bench press, under 6?
Hi james, thank you for sharing tour experience with us, but i’m confused now, i started a home workout for a larger chest without weights, just about five varieties of Push-Ups ( Decline push-U / Diamond push-U / Wide push-U / Side push-U / Staggered push-U ) They have all 2 sets of 10 repetitions. It’s not very hard to me to do them, so should i workout every day or 3 times per week ?
You can try to increase the reps and sets. Also, nutrition is important, take in more protein. And, finally, you can add extra resistance to your workout for example by using a weight vest.