How often should you work out per week?  The most optimal frequency is determined by the best volume for your goals.

Let’s look at this from the extremes to break it down.

Let’s say that I were to program you one workout per week.  Let’s get beyond your thinking I lost my mind, and you’d be correct, but if I were to get your volume right, that single weekly workout would take you up to 6 hours to complete.  Obviously, this idea won’t work.

Ok, that went bad, let’s go the other way…now I put together a 14x per week program!  The upside, each individual workout would be extremely short and you’ll be able to really go all out on them.  That doesn’t fix the obvious problem of unless you have a home gym and don’t work, driving to the gym 2-3 times per day for a couple of sets isn’t a great use of your day.

The real answer is to look somewhere between these two crazy ideas.  Let’s say that your training volume calls for 16 working sets of squats per week, the idea of only training legs once per week won’t really work.  Five times a week wouldn’t really work either.  In this case, three times a week makes a lot of sense. 

To nail home the point, it’s training volume that drives growth and strength, not how many times you’re in the gym.  Manipulating the frequency to achieve your optional volume is the key.