How often do I need to rest my body?

PlayBall5

I am looking for some help. I lost a ton of weight in January and February. During the month of January I went to the gym twice a day and since the first of February I started only going once and I have not missed a day in the gym except for sundays since. I lost a total of 26 lbs during those two months and I am now wanting to stay at my current weight and start bulking up. My question is, am I doing too much? The last couple of days my body has really been hurting. I feel like I have shin splints on every bone in my body. Every muscle I have is sore. Ibuprofin is not helping. I dont want to lose what I have worked so hard to accomplish. I am wondering if my body is going into defense mode and saying slow down, enough is enough. I am looking for some advice from those of you who have either expericened this same thing or if resting or slowing down is the answer. Please add me as I am looking for some friends who are in the maintaining weight stage and can be a good support for me.

bradXdale

Resting will not make you lose all of your progress. I wouldn't slow down but maybe find a good workout split, try finding a 4 or 5 day split from BodyBuilding.com. Basically you work out 4 or 5 days with planned rest days.

A typical 5 day split looks like this:

Day 1: Legs/Abs
Day 2: Chest
Day 3: Back/Abs*
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Shoulder/Abs*
Day 6: Arms
Day 7: Rest

When you get more serious into it (if you ever do) every month & a half you can "deload" which is where you do the same workouts with lighter weight / less reps that way you're still actively working your muscles but it gives them time to repair & get ready to load more weight on the bar.

You can also take an active rest day where you go out hiking, walking, swimming, something physical but not intense exercise.

mlc8908

Absolutely your body is trying to tell you to rest. I was a college athlete and I had shin splints and "body break down" multiple times, ice and rest were all I could do to help them. You will know when your body feels good enough to start back up again, and once you start back remember you were in recovery so don't go right back into what you were doing. Take it slow and build up. If you start to get sore, take a day (one day will not hurt, I promise , I had difficulties with that multiple times). That one day of rest will wind up leading to not having to take extended breaks when your body breaks down. I hope this helped!

cpusmc

Congrats on 26lbs in 2 months.

you had a question of "am i doing too much", i would think your body is saying yes at the moment. maybe take a few days off and reduce the schedule a bit and see how that works for you.

once a quarter i take a week off, completely from all exercise. over the years 25+ i have found that my body grows and recovers better if it gets a needed break once in a while. and the week off has never caused me to "lose" anything significant but allows both the body and the mind to recover and rejuvenate. as posted in earlier response, let your body tell you when its ready to return.

PlayBall5

Thanks for the advice. I am thinking it is mostly the treadmill that is doing it to me. For those two months I was running on the treadmill at high intensity intervals. Also I have always hated lifting weights because of always being little and no self esteme. I was embarrased to do it. I dont care anymore. Thats how I lost all this weight so quickly. I am totally convinced lifting and high intensity running is what helped me achieve this. Also the competition between me and my brothers helped. Now my body is growning muscles that I have never had before. I guess the old saying "No pain No gain" is correct. Thanks again!

gclauson

50 pounds ago, i used to lift 5 days a week (for a long time prior also) and play on 3 softball teams. Your body will tell you when you need rest. I know it sounds over simplified, but its true. As you have probably been able to tell during your weight loss, our bodies are pretty freaking amazing at telling us what we are doing, as to if its wrong or right. I am now doing cardio everyday but sunday (30-40 mins) and light circuit lifting 3 times a week for like 20 minutes. I wold say if you are sore, or abnormally tired, take the day off, or do a quick 10 minute stretch or core workout, or, just go for a walk!

dym123

Try adding some yoga or a long stretching routine into your workout. I workout everyday, but one day is devoted to 50-60 minutes of yoga, also I do 10 minutes of stretching when I finish my cardio/strength workout. I've been doing this since my knee surgery in 2012. Knee healed, no other injuries, no muscle soreness either.

TFaustino67

Age is a factor as well; how old are you?

The following applies to myself and my wife:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sisco14.htm

PlayBall5

Age is a factor as well; how old are you?

The following applies to myself and my wife:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sisco14.htm

I am 46.

cwolfman13

Couple of things going on to consider...

1 - age...I'm pushing 40 and I don't recover as readily as I did in my 20s...to boot, nutrient timing and quality are more important to my recovery now than they ever were when I was younger. I always take at least 1 but usually 2 "active" rest days per week. I say "active" because I still do walking and do some yoga or play golf or whatever with the boys. I'm just not out there training and pushing and otherwise vigorously exerting myself.

2 - You said you want to bulk...bulking is going to require some intense sessions in the weight room followed by quite a bit of rest. Rest is where that magic happens. Most people I know who do a true bulk, a) eat, eat, eat; b) hit the weight room hard a good 4x weekly with a solid hypertrophy program; and c) don't do much in the way of cardiovascular training while they are bulking.

Most people I know who do this will at most, do some walking or really lite work on the stair stepper or just do some recreational kind of stuff...they don't actively train their cardiovascular systems during their bulk. The reason being that for one thing, it requires you to eat even more...and in a bulk you're already eating quite a bit and that can be difficult to do day in and day out. Secondly, intense cardio training is going to interfere with your rest and thus your gains.

PlayBall5

Thanks for all the advice and especially the article (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sisco14.htm). The one thing that I havent been doing is stretching. I have started on the ellyptical before my workout because it seemed to get everything moving and my heartrate up but this couldnt be considered stretching. I wil also try to be smarter and listen to my body more. Since the contest I was in finished and I dont have to worry so much about weight loss, I will be able to focus more on my weight training and not excercise myself into the ground.