One of the most common questions we get from potential clients is: How often should I train per week? 

Our first answer will be thrice a week. However, that recommendation may change as we find out more about the potential client during the course of our conversation. The ideal training frequency is a balance between on how much time can you commit to training, your goals, and the minimum effective dose needed to achieve your goals. During the conversation, we also advise the potential client on what’s realistic – for example, training just once a week won’t be enough to build significant strength or make sustained progress over the long term.

The Starting Strength program: a proven approach

We put every new lifter through the Starting Strength Novice Linear Progression (NLP). This tried-and-true method has you training three times per week, on alternate days, with a two-day rest after each third session (e.g., Monday, Wednesday, Friday).

Even after progressing past the NLP phase, training three times per week will work for most lifters, as it allows for adequate training stress application and recovery for the lifter to make consistent progress over the long term.  

The basis of a properly thought out training program, like Starting Strength’s NLP, is the stress-recovery-adaptation (SRA) cycle. When we train, we go through three phases. First is the stress phase, where you apply a training stress to your body that’s above its current level of adaptation. Next is the recovery phase, during which your body recovers from the training stress it’s been subjected to. Finally, in the adaptation phase, your body adapts to the increased demand by improving your baseline performance level. 

The SRA cycle is your body’s natural response to a stressor. By repeating this cycle while gradually increasing the training stress, you progressively get stronger. However, you can’t just keep adding training stress willy nilly and expect to make progress. It is important to note that there needs to be a balance between stress and recovery. Too much stress with insufficient recovery or not enough stress (for purposes of this article, one example is too long between each training session) and your progress comes to a halt.

With that being said, the most important consideration for your training frequency will be your availability, because the best program or what we recommend is useless if you can’t adhere to it. If you cannot carve out time to train three times a week, don’t worry—you can still see results with less frequent sessions. Let’s start from the bare minimum and work our way up.

Once a week: limited progress, but better than none

We understand that not everyone can make the time to commit to three sessions per week. Life happens—busy work schedules, frequent business trips, and family commitments limit your bandwidth to training once a week.

If you find yourself in this situation, you may be wondering: Does it make sense to train only once a week? Maybe I should put it off, until I know I can commit to training more frequently. 

Our answer is: you should train anyway. 

It’s crucial to acknowledge that training once a week imposes limitations. Training once a week will allow you to gain some amount of strength. Probably more than you think, actually. However, your technique and strength gains will progress more slowly, and the ceiling on how strong you can get will be much lower due to the limited training stress you can apply in a single weekly session.

But one session a week is better than none. Over the course of a year, you’ll still get 52 workouts. While it may not be the most efficient path to progress, it’s way better than sitting on your butt and not training.

Twice a week: the minimum for meaningful gains

Over the years that we’ve been coaching, we found that training twice a week is the bare minimum to see good progress over the long term. While still relatively low frequency, it’s a huge improvement over training once a week and allows for faster improvement in technique and strength gains.

That said, your recommended training frequency will also depend on your goals, age, and training advancement. If you’re training for a sport that doesn’t heavily rely on strength or power (e.g., endurance sports), twice a week is sufficient. Or even just once a week, during the competitive season or when you’re ramping up for a race. For strength or power-dependent sports, however, you’ll need to train more frequently – perhaps three to four sessions per week during the off-season and backing off to once or twice a week leading up to and during the in-season.

If barbell training is the only physical activity that you do, and your only goal is to get as strong as you can, you can start with twice weekly sessions but will find yourself needing to increase your training frequency as you get more advanced.

For older lifters on the other hand, twice a week might be all they need throughout their entire lifting career.

Three times a week: sufficient for most lifters

For most lifters, training three times a week is the sweet spot. This is the frequency we recommend to most clients if their schedule allows. 

Three training sessions a week gives good balance of being able apply sufficient training stress, while allowing for adequate recovery.

Four times a week: for advanced or time-crunched lifters

We recommend a four day training week for lifters in two situations. The first situation is for advanced lifters.

As you get stronger, more training stress is required to continue increasing your strength. Spreading the necessary increase in training stress over a four day training week will make each session more manageable. Each session will be less fatiguing, won’t take as long to complete but the overall increase in training stress still ensures progress.

The second situation whereby we recommend a four day training week is when the lifter can train more frequently but have to keep each session short. The four day training week isn’t only for advanced lifters. The NLP can be modified to a four day week if your schedule requires it.

>Four times a week: typically unnecessary

Training more than four times a week is typically unnecessary for most lifters, unless your personal preference or schedule requires it.

Balancing your training frequency with your goals and schedule

Everyone’s schedule is different. Some can manage the ideal three sessions weekly, while others can only squeeze in one.

The key to success is finding a training frequency that you can consistently stick to, and being realistic about what that amount of commitment can achieve.  

In summary, four times a week when needed and three times a week is great. If that’s not possible, twice a week can still lead to meaningful progress, while training once a week is better than no training at all. 

Regardless of how often you’re training per week, consistency is the most important factor for making long-term gains. Train consistently and get as strong as you can with the time that you have.