Dr. Lauren Colenso-Semple

options depending on your personal goals.

And so if we're thinking about muscle growth for overall health, then maybe we're not doing as many exercises like accessory type exercises.

But if we're thinking about changing the physique with resistance training, then we might tailor the program to your goals and preferences and work a little bit more on those muscle groups that are important to you.

It's an option to do either.

I think there's an element of personal preference.

If you're working on improving squat strength, then you probably do want to squat more than once per week because practicing the movement is important.

But if we're talking about muscle growth, then we have a lot of options.

And so you can do barbell work, you can do machine work, you can do dumbbells, and we can break it up if you wanted more variety by saying, okay, Monday, your lower body exercises are going to be

a squat and on Wednesday we'll do a good morning and we'll work more of the posterior chain or Friday maybe we'll do more of a glute dominant exercise and we'll do some hip thrusts and so I think it depends how many exercises you're doing in a session and then

how long the workout's going to be before we decide how we're going to split that up and so you could do this a more quad dominant movement like a squat a lunge a leg press a step up and also do more of a glute hamstring dominant movement like a good morning or a syphilic deadlift

and do both in the same session, or you could split those up and have more of a quad dominant day and a more hamstring-glute dominant day.

At least two.

I prefer three.

You could do four.

Beyond that is probably overkill.

With the understanding that many exercises work more than one muscle group.

So if I'm doing a leg extension, then I know I'm specifically working the quads, right?

But if I'm doing a leg press or a squat, then yes, I'm working the quads, but I'm also working the glutes.

And you can...

kind of say, well, is that a half a set for the glutes?