Waiting a week before exercising certain muscle groups again?

[LiLesah]

Hello :) I recently joined a gym, and got to talk with a personal trainer for joining. Everything went great. However, he wants me to work specific muscle groups (legs, arms, chest, back...etc.) once every week. I know you're supposed to give your muscles time to recuperate after strenuous exercise - but I've always thought it was a day or two before working them again... so that just seems a little strange to me. Just looking for some feedback on this advice.

As of now, my plan is to do: Thur.= legs, Fri.=arms, Sat.=back, Sun.=chest, Mon-Wed.=Cardio (walking 30-40min)

On days I'm working muscle groups, I will warm up with 10min of walking - & if I have energy after, cool down with 10min of walking. Is this a good plan?

[LaDonnaF]

I think this sounds fine. If you are working with a trainer that is great because after you've gone through the training week you will see how you feel and, if it is too much (or not enough) you can scale it up or scale it down.

It is a good practice to isolate body parts (muscle groups) when strength training but you should work in exercises that work several groups (maybe do a conditioning class; can learn new moves and many gyms have these classes free with membership)

Good luck!

[gymdandee]

Your question of the best weight training frequency. To answer your question
what routine is best? They are all good Now let me explain!
You can effectively train each body part once, twice or three times per week and still get good results. You just need to understand that your workout volume must I repeat MUST match your selected training frequency.You can either train a lot, but less often, or train a little, but more often. If you nail this concept perfectly, you’ll get results from whatever training frequency you choose. If you don’t you won’t. Let me explain
Here’s an example of a common once-per-week workout routine:
Monday: chest Tuesday: back Wednesday: off  Thursday: legs
Friday: shoulders/biceps/triceps Saturday: off  Sunday: off
Then you repeat the routine.
Each muscle group gets trained just once per week with 6 days of rest in between each workout for the same muscle.
if you are only going to train each muscle group once per week with a split like this (or any similar split), you need to ensure that you provide enough of a training stimulus during that 1 weekly workout to actually warrant not training each muscle again for an entire week.
If you don't do this correctly, what will happen is the muscle will recover long before it is time to train it again. And then, during all of that wasted time between when the muscle recovered and the next time you train that muscle, the muscle will actually begin to detrain and regress as if virtually no progress was made during that previous workout.
What has ended up happening is that you are undertraining. So, if you decided to train each muscle group just once per week, you need to ensure that you provide a large enough stimulus during that 1 weekly workout to warrant that entire week of rest you are about to give each body part and therefore avoid that wasted period of detraining/regression.
At the same time, you must also keep in mind that if you provide TOO much of a stress to the point where your body hasn’t properly recovered in time for that next weekly workout, it would be equally bad. The stress provided needs to be both large enough to warrant a full week of rest, but still small enough to not exceed that.
Here’s an example of a common 3 times-per-week workout routine:
Monday: full body  Tuesday: off  Wednesday: full body
Thursday: off  Friday: full body  Saturday: off  Sunday off
Then you repeat the routine.
You can see, every muscle group gets trained 3 times per week, with just 1-2 days of rest in between.
When training each muscle group with a frequency as high as 3 times per week, you need to ensure the opposite of what you needed to ensure when training each muscle just once per week. Meaning, you need to create a very small stress on each muscle during those 3 weekly workouts so that your body can recover quickly enough to be ready for the next workout.
Without enough recovery time, your body will not only NOT progress, but it will begin to regress as well. What has essentially ended up happening in a scenario like this is that you are overtraining. So, if you decided to train each muscle group 3 times per week, you need to ensure that you provide a small enough stress to allow your body to properly recover in time for the following workout.
However, at the same time, you need to make sure that while the stress is small enough to recover in time for a training frequency this high, it still needs to be big enough to actually get your body to accomplish the goal you are working at in the first place (increasing muscle, strength, etc.).

I could go on  about working each Muscle Group 2 Times Per Week
but my suggestion is if you're going to be working with a trainer all the time then follow his routine. If you're not going to be working with him then I suggest 3 times per week as
Now that you understand that they can all work, you’re probably wondering if one is better or worse than the others. And the answer is yes! The thing is, which is best for you depends on various factors specific to you… especially your experience level.
Beginners: If you are a beginner to weight lifting (meaning anyone who has been training for LESS than 6-8 months consistently and correctly), then all research, expert recommendations, and real world experience point towards a training frequency of 3 times per week as being ideal for you. The example split I gave above (3 full body workouts) is the perfect and most often recommended choice for beginners.