Strength training off days?

fightingdissonance

Popular wisdom for strength training is to only train a muscle group every other day to give the muscles time to rebuild, and I've been told by a trainer at my old gym before that if you train 2+ days in a row, it has no additional benefit and is equal to what the 1 day of training would have been. I'm skeptical of that but have always followed it nonetheless. But now, I've been noticing it's difficult to only train every other day and still hit the 3-4 times weekly I'm aiming for, as I'm a full time student and work part time with a strange and irregular schedule, but if I worked out consecutive days I could easily be training my muscles 3-4 times a week.

Logic tells me that more days of exercise, whether consecutive or nonconsecutive = better if the alternative is less days of working out and less strength training, but as for everyone in the world, time is valuable, and if I'm just wasting my time and energy training muscles on consecutive days, there's a whole lot of school to get done that time would be better spent on. Can anyone dispel this myth or confirm that it is indeed best, given what I've described, to strength train on nonconsecutive days only?

1FITmamaofTWINS

hes right.... you cant do the same muscle groups twice in a row.. so how many days a week are you able to strength train and how many times do you want to work a body part a week?

Panda86

Yes, this is true, and its a good idea to follow this advice. Your muscles get microscopic tears when they are worked, and if not given adequate rest, they just break down instead of building up and getting stronger. It may seem inconvenient, but you are better off doing it right if you want results.

sarasotatim

Hi! My two cents

I don't subscribe to the theory that working out two days in a row is detrimental to the point to where it equates what you would have done in one day....any additional resistance training is going to be beneficial regardless...however, giving yourself a day in between strength programs WILL give the lactic acid time to do its work on your muscles...so I'd say you get MORE benefit by leaving a day in between, but still benefitting from doing 2 days in a row.

I usually do strength Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday...with Cardio on Wednesday (but sometimes exchanging my Monday lift session for an additional cardio day), it's worked out great for me

Ben2118

Your trainer is right, it is sometimes good to have 2 or 3 days off and you will find you will be able to workout longer and better. You are making little tears in your muscles and during the rebuilding process if you work that muscle hard again, its almost like it has to start back at the beginning again.

The pain you get the day after a workout (delayed onset muscle soreness) is you muscles repairing themselves (and getting bigger in the process). It is always best to rest these muscles whilst feeling this pain and then hit it hard again once the pain has gone.

When I used to train for Rugby we did

Mon - Upper body // Tues - Lower Body // Weds - Cardio // Thurs - Upper Body // Friday - Lower Body and then the weekend to rest.

That is what I will be going back to as I know it gets results (we did 20 mins of cardio before any strength training too)

Hope this helps.

Ben

myofibril

Yes, this is true, and its a good idea to follow this advice. Your muscles get microscopic tears when they are worked, and if not given adequate rest, they just break down instead of building up and getting stronger. It may seem inconvenient, but you are better off doing it right if you want results.

What you've essentially described is muscular hypertrophy and you are indeed correct. Strength training causes microtrauma in muscle fibres. In essence what you do in the gym actually breaks down your muscles. Your body then sets about repairing them when at rest and causes them to grow to ensure that they can manage the expected load they will experience at your next workout session.

This process needs an anabolic (a growth) environment and the process of healing / repair takes about 48 hours to complete optimally. This is very important as if you work the same muscle group the next day in the gym you will simply continue to break down your existing muscle without giving it a full opportunity to repair themselves and get bigger. In other words, it's largely pointless. Your muscles grow at rest, not in the gym.

Training the same muscle group everyday increases anti-hypertrophy factors and myostatin levels. 48 hours in between sessions provides a steady anabolic environment. Serum testosterone levels, the free androgen index, Androgen receptor mRNA and protein levels are significantly increased in that time.

dave4d

Your greatest benefit to your muscles is when you let them repair themselves. If you want to strength train daily, you could split body parts into different days.
MONDAY- chest
TUESDAY- back
WEDNESDAY- shoulders
THURSDAY- legs
FRIDAY- arms
SATURDAY-abs

Something like this would still give your muscles repair time, but you would have a daily workout.

BackwoodsMom

This is exactly why I don't do Shred two days in a row. By alternating cardio (BFBM) with Shred, I think my muscles are getting the rest they need.

pyro13g

You can dump your split routine and do full body 2-3 times a week. Keep it circuit based. 8-12 exercises, one set each with enough weight to experience muscle failure in 8-12 reps, or it you want more tone than bulk a weight you can do 15-20. Don't think most women will bulk by doing 8-12 reps so that's where I'd suggest keeping it. As a student I'm sure you could benefit from your weight training only taking an hour of actual workout time. Each workout should be 20 minutes or less. You will know you're doing it correctly because your heart rate will be sky high like cardio and you'll be huffin and puffin pretty good.

Your muscles need rest. Lot's of it. This becomes more and more important as you progress in weight training. I lift 3 times in 14 days and will drop to 1 in 10 in a few months. If you only want to maintain current muscle, a full body once a week is plenty.

Here's the workouts, adjust your calories accordingly. http://drdarden.com/readTopic.do?id=415445

ShrinkinMel

This is exactly why I don't do Shred two days in a row. By alternating cardio (BFBM) with Shred, I think my muscles are getting the rest they need.

Do you be sure to lay off weights completely if they call for it in your cardio on off days. I do Walk Away the Pounds a lot on my alternating days of 30 Day Shred and they use weights though you don't have to. I usually grab them because it doesn't really do much that works the same muscles I did the day before. The only one I can really feel worked good is the lateral raises they do and I don't do all of them just keep the legs going. The biceps I don't really feel worked on either 30 Day shred or Walk Away the Pounds. I've always needed more weight to feel a bicep curl even working. I'm very tempted to do my triceps extra.

fightingdissonance

Wow, thanks for all the advice everyone! Was hoping I could do arms with light weights and ab/core work with equipment at home, for example, on consecutive days in between more intense and higher weight workouts at the gym with all muscle groups, but giving muscles the extra day of rest to rebuild for best results makes a lot of sense. Given this information now, what I'm wanting to do is strength train all muscle groups at least three days through the week with minimum 30 minutes cardio on an elliptical each time with as much cardio in between those three workouts as I can pack in. Luckily we have a great gym at school so since I'm there anyway most days, I will just have to make it happen three times a week every other day Thanks again for all the very helpful information!