How Many Strength Training Workouts Per Week

If you are looking for the ideal number of how many strength training workouts per week you should do, make sure you take the following points into consideration, otherwise, you might end up training more than you need to, and even worse you might harm your progress.

This article discusses the questions:

• How many strength training sessions for maximum strength
• How many strength training sessions for muscular hypertrophy
• How many strength training sessions for power development
• How many strength training sessions for strength endurance
• How many strength training sessions for skill development

How many strength training workouts per week you will need depends on the desired outcome, as well as other factors. It is important to know that more is not always better in strength training, there is an optimum.

It is important to know that more is not always better in strength training, there is an optimum.

It doesn’t mean that the more strength training workouts per week you do, the more results you have. Adding strength training workouts per week can become counterproductive at some point, it’s better to aim for an optimum session number per week.

Your training goal defines how many strength training workouts per week you need to do.

When asking how many strength training workouts per week you need, it’s important to begin with.

What does that mean?

To begin with the end in mind means to think backward and determine what is your desired goal.

What is our training goal?

Is it to get stronger, is it to become bigger, and is it to be more powerful, or do we just want to be able to endure longer?

How many strength training workouts per week do you need if you want to become stronger?

If you want to become stronger, you are probably better off with two to three strength training sessions per week.

The idea behind this is, that if you do a training that is geared towards becoming stronger, you need to work with high intensities, which is 85% of your 1RM and above.

This form of strength training, also referred to as maximum strength training has an effect on the nervous system and requires a lot of time for the nervous system to recover. Available information and evidence state that you need 48 to 96 hours between these kinds of training sessions to recover.

Though this is not always practicable; however, it gives an idea that you need longer rest so as to recover from these sessions. If you want to know how many strength training workouts per week is needed to increase your strength, it is important you do two to three training session per week with a minimum interval of one day rest in between the strength training sessions.

Bottom line:

The ideal number of strength training workouts to develop maximum strength is between 2 – 4 strength training sessions per week.

The ideal number of strength training workouts to develop maximum strength is between 2 – 4 strength training sessions per week.

How many strength training workouts per week do you need if you want to gain muscle mass?

If you are interested in hypertrophy; there are basically two mechanisms,  functional hypertrophy, and non-functional hypertrophy.

Functional hypertrophy, also termed myofibrillar hypertrophy, leads to the growth of active contractile tissue, which means the muscle tissue is growing.

Non-functional hypertrophy, also termed sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, leads to increased energy storage in the muscle combined with more water being stored in the muscle and resulting in bigger muscles.

If you are working on functional hypertrophy, the intensity is higher, usually about 75% to 85% of the 1RM for fewer repetitions (4 to 8 repetitions). The necessary training volume is achieved by additional sets, for example 8 sets of 4 repetitions @ 85% 1RM or 6 sets of 5 repetitions @ 80% 1RM.

Non-functional hypertrophy is best trained using the more traditional bodybuilding type of training with 60% / 65% 1RM to 75% / 80% 1RM and higher repetitions (8 – 12 repetitions). Generally speaking, the total amount of sets is a bit lower, than for the non-functional hypertrophy training, for example, 4 sets of 8 repetitions @ 75% 1RM or 3 sets of 12 repetitions @ 65% 1RM.

Please note, that the set and rep scheme provided is just a guideline, the number of repetitions you can do varies from individual to individual (also referred to inter-individual differences), as well as it varies between different muscle groups (also referred to as intra-individual differences).

More information on inter-individual differences and intra-individual differences read the small article Inter- and Intra-individual Differences in Problem Solving Across the Lifespan a bit of a heavier read, but explains the difference pretty well.

Due to the lower training intensity compared to maximum strength training, hypertrophy training (functional hypertrophy as well as non-functional hypertrophy) don’t have such a strong effect on the central nervous system and needs less time to recover.

However, it has a stronger effect on the muscle tissue leading to more muscle damage. This is the reason why people that are interested in gaining and maximizing muscle size tend to split up the training they do for the different muscle groups (also referred to as split training or split-routines). So that they don’t work the same muscle groups in consecutive strength training sessions and each muscle group gets more rest before it is trained again (more than 72 – 96 hours).

For instance, a simple split could be in the first training session, we do upper body; second training session, we do lower body. You can increase the frequency per week, the implication of this is that you can do more sessions, but if you take a look at a single muscle group you still don’t train more than once or twice a week. There are various different split routines and even more different philosophies on split routines, covering all those would go far beyond the scope of this article.

Bottom line:

The ideal number of strength training workouts for functional hypertrophy and non-functional hypertrophy is between 3 – 6 strength training sessions per week.

The ideal number of strength training workouts for functional hypertrophy and non-functional hypertrophy is between 3 – 6 strength training sessions per week.

How many strength training workouts per week do you need if you want to become more powerful?

If you are an athlete and compete in a sport, you will probably be interested to become more powerful at any point in your season.

Power can be trained with a broad variety of intensities, depending on your training goal and the adaptation you want to see. You can see an outline of the different intensities Power Training workouts in the articles

• 3 Steps to Develop your own Power Training Method
• The Importance Weight Training Has On Power
• The 101 of Power Training for Beginners

For power development, you tend to have lesser frequency per week because it also has a very strong influence on the central nervous system. Which means you need a longer time to recover from training sessions that target the power development, similar to the development of maximum strength.

Bottom line:

The ideal number of strength training workouts to develop Power is between 2 – 3 strength training sessions per week.

The ideal number of strength training workouts to develop Power is between 2 – 3 strength training sessions per week.

How many strength training workouts per week do you need if you want to endure longer?

If you are training and competing in endurance events, you are probably interested in training your capacity to endure longer.

Strength endurance is trained with lower intensities (less than 60% 1RM) and higher repetitions (more than 15 repetitions)

Because the intensity is lower strength endurance training workouts aren’t that taxing for the nervous system as maximum strength training workouts or power training workouts, neither do they result in the same muscle damage as hypertrophy training sessions. However the metabolic cost is quite high due to the high accumulation of lactic acid.

Bottom line:

The ideal number of strength training workouts to develop and train strength endurance is between 2 – 3 strength training sessions per week.

The ideal number of strength training workouts to develop and train strength endurance is between 2 – 3 strength training sessions per week.

How many strength training workouts per week do you need if you want to improve technique and skills?

Sessions that are aimed at learning and acquiring new techniques, as well as consolidating the acquired techniques are also very important. They are vital to complex exercises, such as the Olympics lifts (Power Clean, Power Snatch, Split Jerks, etc.) These exercises are technical and skilful, they therefore, require a longer period of practicing the technique before they can be loaded.

These exercises are technical and skillful, they, therefore, require a longer period of practicing the technique before they can be loaded.

Since these sessions don’t produce a lot of fatigue, we can do them more frequently in a week. This means you can do about 4 to 5 strength training sessions a week to work on the technical aspects of certain lifts.

The ideal number of strength training workouts to improve technical proficiency is 4 – 5 strength training sessions per week.

Concluding how many strength training workouts per week should you do

The total amount of strength training sessions per week depends on your goal and desired adaptation you want to see. The strength training sessions designed for the different adaptations (maximum strength, muscular hypertrophy, power development, and strength endurance) have different recovery times depending on their demand on the nervous system, muscular system, or energy system.

The strength training sessions designed for the different adaptations (maximum strength, muscular hypertrophy, power development, and strength endurance) have different recovery times depending on their demand on the nervous system, muscular system, or energy system.

A good understanding of the demands of these strength training sessions and the resulting recovery times will help you improve your training programming.

More information on Strength Training

The Holy Grail of Strength Training – Sets and Reps

Why Is Strength Training Important For Athletes

Accommodating Resistance Training – Bands and Chains