“How many days per week do I need to lift weights in order to build muscle?”

“How many days per week do I need to lift weights in order to build muscle?” 

I want you to think less in terms of how many “days per week” and more in terms of “total VOLUME per week.” 

Volume needed for muscle growth: ~8-20 sets/per muscle/week

Volume needed for muscle maintenance: ~3-5/per muscle/week

This means that depending on how many sets you do within each workout will dictate how many days per week you need to train. 

If you want to work out just 2 or 3 days per week, your workouts might need to be a bit longer in order to cover the amount of volume needed for growth. 

That said, there is such a thing as TOO much volume within a single workout. Why? Because, research shows that after about 6-8 sets of work on one muscle, it tends to get so fatigued that subsequent volume is usually low quality. 

If you do my Strong with J Training program, you know that I program 4 days per week and I calculate volume to ensure we’re getting enough for optimal muscle growth.

If you do my programming, here is a quick guide you can refer to depending on your goals:

Muscle growth: 3 full days per week

Optimal muscle growth (especially if you are no longer a newbie to lifting): 4 full days per week

Muscle Maintenance: 2 full days per week (1 upper body and 1 lower body) or 3-4 Turbo workouts/week

*** “Waiiiiit, so you can MAINTAIN muscle mass with JUST 3-5 sets per/muscle/week?” YEP, as long as you’re pushing close to failure in all of your sets, you can absolutely maintain at a very low amount of volume. I hope this encourages you when you’re in extra busy seasons of life and just can’t put in as much time, that you can AT LEAST maintain muscle during this time!

Hope this helps!

Xx jordan