Workout Frequency: listening to your body

I've pretty much  experimented with all workout frequencies.  Each has its pros and cons.


1. Three times a week with forty eight hours rest in between and a longer duration 72 hour rest at the end of the week.

Pros:  More muscle growth.  The more you're beating up your muscles means more muscle growth.  You workout to break your muscle fibers down and then you rest to rehabilitate your muscles with significant protein intake. 

It's simple logic.  When you workout three times a week, you're forcing your body to heal itself three times.  It's a numbers game.  More breakdown and recovery patterns means more chances for the body to heal itself and gain more muscle. 


Cons:  Central nervous system fatigue.   Your central nervous system will start to go haywire if you continue to bang on your muscles three times a week.  Everyday movements like walking or reaching out with your hand in addition to the movements you perform in your second and third workouts will become jerky and lack fluidity. 

Joint soreness and lactic acid buildup. Three times in a row workouts will lead to joint stiffness, and lactic acid burning sensations around the joints and in the muscles.

Overall sense of gloominess and negativity that infuses itself into your daily life and in your workouts.  All the joint soreness and muscles pains might make you start hating life and resent your strength training workouts. 



2.  Two workouts in a row with forty eight hours rest in between with a longer duration rest 72 hour rest at the end.  

Pros:  Again more chances to gain muscle through a stimulus training and recovery pattern.  The forty eight hours rest between workouts lends itself to muscle development, and the 72 hour rest after the two workouts in a row gives your central nervous system ample time to recover and hopefully allow you to bang out a personal best record in your lifts for your next workout.

Cons: Again joint stiffness, central nervous system fatigue and lactic acid buildup.  You're going to be sore if you workout again after forty eight hours rest. 



3. Workout and then rest for seventy two hours and then workout again.

Pros:  With 72 hours rest between each workout, lactic acid burning sensations, joint stiffness and joint pains tend to burn themselves out and leave you fully recovered for your next workout. 

Since the 72 hours rest between workouts allows you to fully recover and bleed out all the soreness, it might also make you take on a happier disposition and overall outlook on life. 

I've also found I consistently gain on my deadlifts after 72 hours rest.

Cons:  Upper body strength tends to suffer after constantly taking 72 hours rest more so in the accessory movements rather than in the lift I'm trying to gain in.  My military presses, bicep curls and pec flyes get weaker after multiple 72 hour rest and workout patterns.  In my bench press the lift I'm trying to grow stronger, my strength tends to vacillate and lack thorough consistency and progression.

Probably the best time for you to schedule your workouts is to use yourself as the barometer rather than reading and following some rigid workout workout schedule.  If you feel especially sore and miserable, just don't workout and give yourself that extra day to rest.  Maybe you'll feel better about beating your muscles up for your next training session.
 
As a side note, I've tried working out with twenty four hours rest between workouts and it went terribly.  I was achy and weak and quit after ten minutes.