Push/Pull/Lower Recovery

BloodhoundBoss

I’m new to strength training, only did about the past few months so far.

Let’s say Monday I did Push. Then Tuesday I was supposed to do Pull. If my Monday’s Push muscles feel recovered, should I do another push session (at least a small 20 minute session and mid intensity) and a full pull session, or only a pull session?

I hear that if your body feels recovered, work them again. Until they are recovered, let them rest and prioritize other muscle groups.

Unknown

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nossmf

Your muscles do not grow in the gym, contrary to popular belief. They are actually damaged in the gym, if you push them hard enough. What really happens is this:

Step one: in the gym you push your muscles beyond what they normally experience, which creates micro-tears in the muscle fibers
Step two: after you finish your workout, the body floods the muscles with nutrients and microscopic carpenters who assess the damage and work to repair the tears
Step three: in the gym you push your muscles, creating more micro-tears
Step four: if the damage was a one-off, say an annual company softball game, the body simply repairs the muscles back to original specs. If this starts to become a pattern of repeated damage (aka you maintain an exercise schedule), the body not only repairs the tears but adds structural reinforcement to lessen the chance of future damage, aka builds new muscle

Some people feel sore following a workout, especially people who are either new to working out or experienced exercisers who are trying something new or especially challenging. But soreness is NOT a good indicator of where you are in the process. You could still be busy repairing damage without feeling sore; if you immediately hit the same muscles (say by doing push movements two days in a row) you will not have given the body the time it needs to finish repairs before you cause yet more damage, at best slowing down your progress, at worst setting yourself up for not just micro-tears but actual serious injury as the muscle gets overwhelmed, or the ligaments in the nearest joint try to take up the slack for the muscle but are not meant to do so, or surrounding muscles kick in and try to do work they are not designed for, and on and on.

Does this mean to never work the same muscles two days in a row? No, it can be done, very carefully. Usually the person does a very light workout to encourage the body to send more nutrients to the area to help speed up the recovery process.

<tl/dr>

But unless you are experienced or under the supervision of an expert like a personal trainer, the usual advice is to give yourself at least 48 hours between lifting sessions for the same body part. You may or may not feel sore still, but at least you've let the body set the foundation for its work.

Now, you say you are new to lifting, barely a few months experience. You will likely get far better results if you do two or three full-body sessions per week instead of the intermediate-level PPL routine you are trying to do. Give yourself at least six months practice before you try something more advanced. The full-body routine does several things for you:

One: every body part is hit multiple times per week, which studies show gives better results than once per week as a bro-split or PPL may have
Two: doing the exercises more often helps give lots of practice time to perfect technique while the weights are still light, reducing the chance of injury
Three: in order to keep that 48-hr rule intact, you are forced to take days off from lifting. Beginners need to give their bodies lots of time to adapt to the lifting lifestyle, and days off between helps to lessen the chance of injury or soreness convincing new lifters to forget the whole thing

If you want help setting up a routine, several of us here will gladly give advice. You can begin by reading this article:

how-to-set-up-a-weightlifting-routine

Retroguy2000

BloodhoundBoss wrote: »

Let’s say Monday I did Push. Then Tuesday I was supposed to do Pull. If my Monday’s Push muscles feel recovered, should I do another push session (at least a small 20 minute session and mid intensity) and a full pull session, or only a pull session?

I hear that if your body feels recovered, work them again. Until they are recovered, let them rest and prioritize other muscle groups.

Well, yes and no.

Btw, first of all PPL is quite an advanced split and it's really more suited to more advanced lifters doing 6x per week. Are you doing 6x?

Second, let's say your chest etc. feels OK on Tuesday so you do more volume. OK, maybe that's fine. But then you have a legs day the next day, and presumably three more sessions in the week. That amount of volume might be too much for you to handle, and as a new lifter it's more than you need.

At this stage of your lifting, 10-12 working sets per part per week is enough, ideally in 2-4 sessions. And you can count indirect work during compounds as half sets, e.g. biceps in a row, glutes in a squat, etc. Yes, you'll get more results with more volume, with diminishing returns, but you'll also build up more fatigue.

coryambrose0327160

Rest is so important I try and do active rest days so I’m doing more cardio then anything and trying to keep my heart rate elevated, but don’t push it you’ll injure yourself then be in a bad place.

Hobartlemagne

Be mindful of how your lower back is feeling- leg workouts and also pull workouts can exercise lower back muscles.