Is strength training once every two days effective?

It is definitely effective. For most ordinary fitness enthusiasts, this frequency can even be called a very cost-effective choice.

I took a friend who was an Internet operator two years ago. In order to keep up with his fitness progress, he forced himself to practice five times a week. Every time he got off work, he squeezed 40 minutes into the gym. In the middle of the training, he had to reply to client messages from time to time. Ten minutes of rest between sets was not enough. Not to mention the strokes. After practicing for more than half a year, the bench press was still stuck at 55kg. Later, he found it troublesome and simply stopped. I changed to training every two days, finishing my work in advance each time, and practiced steadily for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I focused on compound movements such as squats, bench presses, deadlifts, bent over rows, and standing presses. I did 4 sets of 8 times for each action, plus two sets of cores. In less than three months, my bench press reached 75kg, and I lost 3 points of body fat. The effect was much better than the previous half year.

Of course, I have also heard many veterans who have been training for four or five years say that this frequency is too low and cannot be trained to a large extent. This is actually a disagreement caused by different training logics - those who think the frequency is low mostly practice differentiated training. Today they do chest training and tomorrow they do back legs. The training interval for individual muscle groups is already 2-3 days. If the overall training frequency is changed to every two days Sometimes, it may take four or five days for a single muscle group to take its turn, and the stimulation is certainly not enough; but training every two days corresponds to mostly full-body training mode. Every time you train all the major muscle groups of the whole body, it happens to be stuck in the 48-hour window period of excessive muscle recovery. It is equivalent to stacking buffs on the best state of muscle repair every time, and the efficiency is naturally high.

To be honest, this frequency is very friendly to novices, office workers who are usually busy at work, and bodybuilders who pursue health rather than professional competition. They don’t have to worry about daily training parts, and they don’t have to sacrifice sleep or social interaction to squeeze in time for training. On the day after training, you can also arrange some light aerobics such as jogging and walking, or simply rest at home. The body will not be easily fatigued, and it is difficult to overtrain. The threshold for persistence is extremely low. After all, training that can be sustained for a long time is the training that can really produce results.

But if you have been training for more than two or three years, and the weight of the three major categories has not increased for several months, and the goal is to achieve higher strength results or develop greater muscle latitude, then the capacity of training every two days will indeed be insufficient. After all, the training capacity that can be filled in a single training is limited, and it cannot stimulate individual muscle groups deeply enough. At this time, switching to more frequent upper and lower limb differentiation or push-pull leg differentiation will definitely have better results.

Many newbies have asked me what the optimal training frequency is, and I never give a fixed answer. After all, we ordinary people are not going to compete in professional competitions when exercising, and we cannot make ourselves exhausted just to meet the so-called standard frequency. If you can persist for a long time, feel comfortable after training, and can see your strength or body shape slowly improving, then this frequency is the most effective for you.