How Long Between Workouts Should You Wait to Build Muscle?
Other People Are Reading
-
Give Yourself Time
-
The act of lifting weights causes tiny tears in the muscle fibers. These tears require a minimum of 48 hours downtime to repair. During the healing process, the fibers--and therefore the muscle--become thicker and stronger. Working the same muscles, without proper down time, keeps the tears from healing properly.
Focus on Other Muscle Groups
-
While you do need to wait at least 48 hours to work the same muscle group, you can focus on other muscles. For example, a person can work his arms on Monday, then work his legs on Tuesday while his arms recover. By Wednesday, the arms are ready again.
-
Bottom Line
-
To build muscle, the body needs an appropriate amount of downtime, but the workouts don't have to stop. By assigning a day to each area of the body, a person can lift weights every day and still meet the minimum recovery requirements.
-
