72-hour rule
Train each muscle you want to grow at least every 72 hours
A frequency floor for building muscle: load a given muscle group at least once every three days. The reasoning is that the signaling response to a hard session fades over roughly that window, so a muscle trained once a week does nothing for most of the week. Sets, exercises and load stay open. That is the point. Lifters use it to sanity-check a training split rather than as a program, and plenty of workable programs break it.
Who backs it
Sorted by strength of stance
- Andy GalpinRecommends
Exercise physiologist · Perform podcast
Put a stimulus on any muscle you want to grow at least every 72 hours. He calls it dumbing the idea down on purpose, and says some protocols break the rule, which he would rather come back to once the rule itself is understood.
Source: Perform: The Fundamentals of Training for Muscle, Strength & Longevity“I will dumb this down sometimes to what I call the 72-hour rule, meaning every 72 hours or so, try to put a stimulus on the muscle you want to grow.”
Perform: The Fundamentals of Training for Muscle, Strength & Longevity (opens in a new tab) · 22 Jul 2026
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