How often should I work each muscle group?

[eclipse]

Okay, so let's clear things all up. I'm wondering how often I need to train each muscle group? Here's my routine:

Monday- biceps, back

Wednesday- chest, shoulders, triceps

Friday- legs

I want to start cardio but I hear I may not gain muscle due to my body eating away at what muscle I may be gaining, and I take in about 125g of protein and I weigh about 180 5'8" tall. I really want to know if I should work each group more than once a week. Any comments will help. Thanks all.

[Symzie]

What you're doing looks just right, you might want to up the protein to I - 1.5g per Ib of LBM

[rookie]

thats a nice routine, you might want to try

mon-chest/bi
tue-cardio/abs
wed-legs/shoulders
thur-cardio/abs
fri-back/tri

gives you a chance to isolate every muscle, and yea up your protein to at least 180 grams per day.

[ChrisH]

How often you train is really up to you. Some people train their muscles just once per week, while others train two and even three times per week.

The trick to working the muscles more than once a week is to divide up the volume, as so you do not overtrain your muscles.

For example. Say for a specific muscle group, like chest, you lifted once per week, and did about 70 reps for the chest. If you decide to work chest twice per week, then drop it down to 35 total reps for the chest on each day. You would not want to go with 70 each time.

I don't remember the name of the post, but there was an article, I believe (Steve) posted on here, regarding a bodybuilder/personal trainer, who advocated working the muscles more than once per week. He said that is led to better gains, apparently double in a year what you would gain if you worked muscles just once per week. There is of course controversy over whether it is true, but the article's author swore by his and his clients results. The trick was to lift high intensity, but low volume, as I mentioned in my above paragraph, about reducing volume each day.