How to choose between single set or double set?

Question

I am doing a single set in my gym that is only bicep a single day,tricep other day like this.

My Weekly routine:

• Monday:bicep
• tuesday Tricep
• Wednesday Chest
• thurday Back
• Friday shoulder
• Saturday Weight losing exercise I am thinking for(cardio).

So i am doing exercise of only 1 muscles(eg bicep) in a week so is it good to give rest to for eg bicep for a such long 5 to 6 days.

Another thing i want to ask that is this my routine correct or should i go for double set?

Answer 1

First of let's get the terminology out of the way. When you write "set", do you actually mean "number of muscles trained"?

What one set really mean is that you lift and put down the weight repeatedly until you can't anymore and have to rest. That's one set and if that's all you do per muscle in a week, you're not doing nearly enough work.

Or do you mean "exercise"? Like for biceps you could do barbell curls or for triceps kickbacks.

With the bodybuilding kind of setup you have here, normally you would do more than just one exercise per workout session. Even doing the crazy German Volume Training program (10 sets of 10 reps) you do a handful of exercises.

Now to your questions.

[…] is it good to give rest to for eg bicep for a such long 5 to 6 days

No. You're leaving a lot on the table with this schedule. Train it more often and it'll grow more and you'll become stronger faster.

[…] is this my routine correct or should i go for double set?

It's suboptimal. I would definitely add more exercises/sets to your workout.

I very much recommend picking a ready made program like StrongLifts (personal favorite) or Starting Strength and do that till you can squat twice your body weight.

Failing that, at least try to do more compound exercises to target more muscles at once over multiple joints. And hit every muscle more often than just once a week – they can take it and you will see better results.

Answer 2

Working out a muscle once per week is actually common, but you need to put a large volume of training on it. 9 sets of 10 per muscle per week is a rule of thumb I've read, and it applies to both a 3-split and whole-body.

Answer 3

There is no such thing as a 'correct' routine. Workout plans should be made according to targets, and knowledge of how to hit those targets. The problem is that many different people will suggest different plans to hit those targets. This is because there is some disagreement whether any approach is sure to work for all people. For this reason there are some slightly different approaches, but for the most part they still work by making sure to push the muscle to its limit whilst giving it time to recover.

Your question is specifically about how many times a week one should workout a muscle. I have come across 3 main ways of doing this:

• Target each muscle once a week. This is the classic example of targeting different groups of muscles on different days (eg back and biceps Monday, chest and triceps Wednesday, etc etc). This combines big compoound movements with lots of isolation exercises in order to really push all the muscles and give them a whole week to recover. This is the kind of workout you get recommended from mainly bodybuilder types.
• Target each muscle around twice a week (around every 4/5 days), by utilising more compound exercises (eg deadlifts, pull ups) and functional movements (timed sprints and other moves). This will involve fewer isolation exercises, and more big total body workouts. Most muscles are small and so may be pushed too much by being used for isolation exercises twice a week. But by being used as part of compound exercises can give them a workout about every few days. This kind of workout is recommended by Jason Ferrugia and others and is becoming much more popular, as you can see by the rise of Youtube channels and blogs pushing these more functional approaches.
• Target the smaller muscles once, bigger (eg legs, lats) twice a week. I have heard of people at the gym doing the bigger muscles twice a week. This is an alternative approach which is reasoned by virtue of the bigger muscles recovering more quickly. But I don't know if that is true, its just another approach. I think the Buff Dudes on Youtube use this approach.

The fact is that each of the approaches can work, if you push yourself. The reason is that you will notice that each of them take advantage of the body's mechanics and rehabilitation time. So the once a week approaches will use more isolation exercises, because there is an awareness that the muscle needs a bit more time to rest. The more functional approach uses more muscles at the same time, so the smaller muscles are tired but not pushed to their absolute max.

The most important thing is that as long as you have a balanced approach, working every muscle, and pushing them at least once a week, you should be OK.