The research, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, suggests that frequency, not volume, is what produces the best results in exercise. “People think they have to do a long resistance workout in the gym, but that’s not the case,” said Ken Nosaka, a professor of exercise and sports science at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, who was involved in the study. Press release. “Just slowly lower a heavy dumbbell once or six times a day.” The study, done in collaboration with Niigata University and Nishi Kyushu University in Japan, looked at changes in muscle strength and thickness – the latter used as an indicator of muscle size – in three groups of participants over four weeks. Participants performed an eccentric biceps contraction on a machine that measures muscle strength. The exercise is similar to lowering a heavy dumbbell in a biceps curl, the researchers said. Two groups did 30 contractions a week, with one performing six contractions a day for five days and the other doing all 30 on one day once a week. A third group did six contractions one day a week. After four weeks, researchers said the group that did six contractions five days a week saw a “significant” increase in muscle strength of more than 10 percent, as well as an increase in muscle thickness. The group that performed 30 contractions in one day did not show an increase in muscle strength, but the researchers say that muscle thickness increased by 5.8%, which was similar to the first group. The third group that did six contractions once a week, meanwhile, showed no changes in muscle strength or thickness. “We only used the biceps curl exercise in this study, but we believe this would also apply to other muscles, at least to some extent,” Nosaka said. He said the results may be due to how often the brain is asked to make a muscle perform in a certain way. At the same time, he emphasized the importance of rest in an exercise program. “Muscles need rest to improve their strength and muscle mass, but muscles seem to like to be stimulated more often,” Nosaka said. He concluded that going to the gym once a week is not as effective as doing a little exercise every day at home. “We need to know that every muscle contraction counts and it’s how regularly you perform them that counts,” Nosaka said.
