I just pulled another great question out my mailbag:

Question: “How often to workout each muscle group?”

This is honestly one of the main workout questions I get from guys.This question shows me that most guys don't have a clue about the role workouts play in building muscle.

Before giving you the answer, lets go over why do your muscles grow because this can help you later on down the road to avoid overtraining your muscles. (Which is a very bad thing)

Muscle Building 101: Why Do Your Muscles Grow?

Your muscles grow to handle / adapt to the stress that you're putting on it.

Think of your muscles like your house. Now imagine having the roof of your house getting blown off after a snow storm.

The first thing you’re going to do once you realize how much damage that storm did say: “Wow, I better build a bigger, stronger roof just in case a storm like that happens again it won’t do as much damage”

Because if you don’t you put your survival in jeopardy because odds are you won’t last too long with a tore up roof in a snow storm. Well your body does the same exact thing.

Now I want you to keep that in mind while we go over the role of your workout.

Your Workouts Are Supposed to Wear And Tear Your Muscle Fibers

So your body says “Wow, I better build a bigger, stronger muscle just in case we are exposed to that kind of stress again it won’t do as much damage”

Now if you want to see muscle gains here’s the kicker.

You have to wait for your muscle to fully recover before working it out so hard again. if you don't it's like a tornado constantly weakening your roof before you had a chance to fix it and make it stronger, it’s just going to wear and tear on it until there's nothing left.

So now that you know why your muscles grow and what you need to do to see muscle gains. Let's answer the question:

“How often to work each muscle group?”

Now I wish I to give you an exact answer, but the truth is, everyone is different. But putting that aside, from my experience it really depends on how hard you workout that body part.

Answer: If you just blasted a muscle group you should wait AT LEAST 72 hours (3 days) before you do any heavy weight training with it.

General Guidelines to Build Muscle Fast

• If that muscle group is still sore or really tight, that means it hasn't fully recovered and it needs more rest, you'll do more harm than good if you train heavy while that muscle group is in such a weakened state.
• NEVER workout the same muscle group two days in a row ESPECIALLY when you're lifting to build muscle
  remember in order to see muscle gains you have to wait for your muscles to fully recover before working out so hard again

Which is why adequate rest and recovery is so important, is during your rest and recovery. When your muscles are actually growing bigger and stronger.

So remember Never lift heavy with a muscle group that is still sore or real tight and never workout the same muscle group 2 days in a row.

Train hard,
Rich