JOONDALUP, Australia — Could the answer to getting builder muscles be quantity over quality? A new study finds just a little bit of exercise each day is better for the body than one intense workout session.
Researchers from Australia and Japan have found that just doing a handful of bicep curls each day, five days a week actually improves muscle strength more than continuously doing dozens of curls in a longer exercise routine once a week. Moreover, they found people don’t even have to work out at full intensity to achieve these results.
During their study, the team had two groups of volunteers perform “maximal voluntary eccentric bicep contractions” for four weeks while they measured each person’s muscle strength and muscle thickness. An eccentric contraction is when the muscle lengthens. In the case of a bicep curl, a person lengthens the muscle by lowering a heavy dumbbell.
One group did this six times a day for five days a week (6×5). The other group completed all 30 contractions in a single day once a week (30×1). Researchers also had a third group do six contractions once a week as a control.
Results show the 30×1 group did not see any increase in their muscle strength over the four weeks. However, they did see their muscle thickness (an indicator of muscle size) grow by 5.8 percent. The control group doing six contractions a week did not see any change in muscle strength or muscle thickness.
The 6×5 group, on the other hand, saw their muscle strength increase by more than 10 percent, as well as experiencing similar growth in muscle thickness as the 30×1 group.
3 seconds of exercise is still enough for bigger muscles
Interestingly, the team found that the 6×5 group saw similar results to a previous study where participants increased their muscle strength through a single three-second bicep curl each day.
Edith Cowan University’s Professor Ken Nosaka says these studies show that it only takes a very manageable amount of exercise on a regular basis to produce noticeable improvements in strength. “People think they have to do a lengthy session of resistance training in the gym, but that’s not the case,” Nosaka says in a university release. “Just lowering a heavy dumbbell slowly once or six times a day is enough.”
Additionally, Nosaka reports that the latest study finds it doesn’t take people working out at maximum effort to achieve these results.
“We only used the bicep curl exercise in this study, but we believe this would be the case for other muscles also, at least to some extent,” the researcher adds. “Muscle strength is important to our health. This could help prevent a decrease in muscle mass and strength with aging. A decrease in muscle mass is a cause of many chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, dementia, plus musculoskeletal problems such as osteoporosis.”
Days off are still good
Although the new study finds exercising on a regular basis is a good thing, study authors say taking breaks is just as important to building muscle.
“In this study, the 6×5 group had two days off per week,” Prof. Nosaka explains. “Muscle adaptions occur when we are resting; if someone was able to somehow train 24 hours a day, there would actually be no improvement at all. Muscles need rest to improve their strength and their muscle mass, but muscles appear to like to be stimulated more frequently.”
The team also found that people should not try to “catch up” on their exercise if they’ve been away from the gym for a bit. Longer sessions won’t achieve the results people are looking for. “If someone’s sick and can’t exercise for a week, that’s fine, but it is better to just return to regular exercise routine when you’re feeling better,” Nosaka recommends.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week. However, Nosaka’s team contends that it’s more important to prioritize daily physical activity rather than targeting a specific minute mark.
“If you’re just going to the gym once a week, it’s not as effective as doing a bit of exercise every day at home,” Nosaka concludes. “This research, together with our previous study, suggests the importance of accumulating a small amount of exercise a week, than just spending hours exercising once a week. We need to know that every muscle contraction counts, and it’s how regularly you perform them that counts.”
The findings are published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.
6 reps a day may be beneficial for an absolute beginner but I promise you there are hundreds of guys at the gym who hit their biceps daily and they have plateaued for months or years.
Getting consistent results beyond the beginner phase requires a plan where you progress your workouts over time… Something this study and article do not address at all. Honestly this information is useless for anyone interested in bodybuilding
Bodybuilding is a “sport” based on an insane concept of what a human should look like, and has absolutely nothing to do with health. This is why studies show bodybuilders’ mortality isn’t any better than the average American.
As just one example, this study clearly shows professional athletes — whose diet and exercise are focused on capability and not vanity — have far better mortality rates than professional bodybuilders. Meanwhile bodybuilders have a mortality rate more closely related to the average American male, who is very likely to be obese and have other health issues.
https://www.thebarbell.com/do-pro-bodybuilders-die-younger-than-average/
PRO BODYBUILDER MORTALITY RATE: 9.3%
AMERICAN MALE MORTALITY RATE: 10.8%
NFL PLAYER MORTALITY RATE: 5.3%
MLB PLAYER MORTALITY RATE: 3.8%
“MLB PLAYER MORTALITY RATE: 3.8%”
… can we assume juice has a preservative-like effect ;o)
saying should look like is your flawed interpretation.
Yea a lot of holes in the write up.
This is going to mislead a lot of people.
The body grows best as a whole.
If they did this exactly the same but one group also did compound movements along with the curls. 3 times a week. I bet that group biceps would resound better.
While you can grow one muscle into complete imbalance with it’s antagonist you would still be better of to do the tris with the bis
This was simply a study on the effects of reps and times. It did not advocate only performing one exercise a week—that was merely the study’s design. These critiques are stupid and miss the point.