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Specificity (Principles of Weight Training) | Fitness and Exercise Glossary

Specificity is one of the four principles of weight training.  Specificity means that you train your muscles and choose your exercises, weight, reps and sets with a specific goal in mind.

These goals typically fall into one of four groups:

1. strength
2. size (hypertrophy)
3. endurance
4. power

Depending on the goal, the nature of the exercise you choose, the weight, the amount of reps and sets, and the pace at which you perform them will vary.

For example, training for strength typically involves using a heavier weight that causes the muscle to fail at between one and four reps, while endurance training uses a lighter weight that causes failure at 15 to 20 reps.

Also see: principles of weight training

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How Often Should I Workout? | Fitness Tips

Workout frequency is highly individual. Learn how to find your perfect schedule and avoid over training.

How often you should work out is really a matter of your current fitness level, the types of exercises you are performing, the intensity of your workouts, and how much time you actually have available to spend in the gym.

Current Fitness Level

Your current fitness level is one of the primary factors used to determine workout frequency.

Beginners will typically need more recovery time between workouts than more advanced trainees, bodybuilders or well-conditioned athletes or runners.  Nearly everyone has experienced one of those workouts where you “over did” it and couldn’t move for three days. While this can happen at all levels of fitness, it’s more common among beginners who are still gauging their strength, stamina and recovery ability.

The body also makes certain adaptations with training over time that may shorten the required recovery time. So while some people can go heavy in the gym every day, others may need to take a break every-other-day.  

As a general rule of thumb, a good training frequency for someone who is new to the gym, or returning after a lengthy break, is three resistance workouts a week lasting between 45 and 60 minutes. This will allow you to work each major muscle group with at least one exercise and give yourself 48 hours for recovery between workouts.

This full-body workout is ideal because it helps build a solid foundation for later, more advanced training; encourages overall core development; discourages the development of muscle imbalances that can accompany “split routines”; and may burn more calories after training.

And by the way, this is actually also an excellent workout for an advanced trainee. The difference is they will work with heavier weights and may do more total sets for each exercise than a person who is less-experienced in the gym.

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