Upping exercise and allowing the body to rest

ErikElgerot

Hi!

Been hanging around MFP for a little over seven months now, initially mainly to lose weight (70lbs down, way too much to go). However, I recently started working out as well, so I'm looking at advice on how much I can work out and how, without overdoing it.

So, a little about me:

My current routine is training HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) three times a week. Each training is two hours of fencing training, including sparring, divided between Rapier (Monday) and German Longsword (Wednesday), and one day (Saturday) which can be either. I started training at once a week (longsword) about a month ago, and stepped up to three times a week two weeks ago, and so far it feels like my body is handling it well enough.

Before starting this I was basically sedentary (and I'm still a very big guy sorely lacking in muscle mass - at 190cm/6'3" I started out at almost 190kg/420lbs and am now down to a little under 160kg/350lbs, with a long-term goal around the 90kg/200lbs mark.

Now, I've been wanting to get some gym time in as well, partially to burn more calories and partially to get better conditioned to be able to get more fit for the HEMA training. However, from what I've read and heard you still need to give your muscles some time to rebuild and so forth, so I'm trying to figure out how much more training (and what kind) I could do without starting to actually hurt myself.

Is training every day automatically a bad idea? What kind of training would be good to intersperse between this? I'm not particularly looking to be able to run marathons, but general fitness and muscle mass is never bad, and the fencing uses pretty much the full body (a lot of legs, core, arms and shoulders) though is more explosive than aerobic.

Looking forward to any advice I could get.
E

jemhh

I would try to work up to adding two strength training days. A simple full body workout would be sufficient. If I added anything else at all, it would just be easy walking a couple times a week. Just 30 minutes through your neighborhood or park can be a good recovery exercise.

A few possible strength programs:

* Lyle McDonald's barbell and machine routines - http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/beginning-weight-training-part-4.html/
* A Workout Routine (beginner) - http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/the-beginner-weight-training-workout-routine/
* Full body dumbbell routine (note: women and men can use the same rep range, if you want to go low do it, if you want to go high do it. I promise that neither will make you gain or lose a Y chromosome.) - https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/dumbbell-only-home-or-gym-fullbody-workout.html