Adequate REST time? WEIGHT TRAINING. Please help!!!

amandavictoria80

Hi.

I just started weight training and am doing a routine for beginners.

I will be alternating days of upper body and lower body and abs.

For example:
Sunday: Upper Body
Monday: Lower Body and Abs
Tuesday: Upper Body
Wednesday: Lower Body and Abs
Thursday: Upper Body

.... and so forth.

I've heard quite a few people say that this is too much and I have to give my body rest time. But I actually thought that's what I am doing by alternating days and not working the same area on consecutive days. Can you clarify this for me?

Thanks!!!

BeautifulKristen

For every work out.. Or whatever you do for your body. The right thing is to do is work 5-6 consecutive days then take a day break. I have been told this so many times...

Jynus

it's 48 hours rest between movements where you are working at an intensity to induce overload to the muscles. So yes, that plan of yours would work.

Just make sure you're doing some strength training along with your weight training. Far too many people seem to think that lifting a weight for 15 reps = strength training for some reason when it's not.

TheLakeBeast

I train all year round for football. The resting time is when you make your gains/get stronger. My college football schedule is legs/back/abs monday shoulders/chest/triceps tuesday running on wednesday legs/abs/biceps thursday and chest/back Friday. The weekend being the days off.

TheLakeBeast

If your working between 65-75 % of your max for 12-15 reps you will definitely help with strength training....

JNick77

Hi.

I just started weight training and am doing a routine for beginners.

I will be alternating days of upper body and lower body and abs.

For example:
Sunday: Upper Body
Monday: Lower Body and Abs
Tuesday: Upper Body
Wednesday: Lower Body and Abs
Thursday: Upper Body

.... and so forth.

I've heard quite a few people say that this is too much and I have to give my body rest time. But I actually thought that's what I am doing by alternating days and not working the same area on consecutive days. Can you clarify this for me?

Thanks!!!

Checkout the link I sent you via MFP mail the other day, it'll answer all your questions.

amandavictoria80

it's 48 hours rest between movements where you are working at an intensity to induce overload to the muscles. So yes, that plan of yours would work.

Just make sure you're doing some strength training along with your weight training. Far too many people seem to think that lifting a weight for 15 reps = strength training for some reason when it's not.

I'm a little confused here. What do you mean by strength? Because I will be doing things such as squats, lunges, etc. which are strength exercises. Can you clarify this? thanks.

amandavictoria80

For every work out.. Or whatever you do for your body. The right thing is to do is work 5-6 consecutive days then take a day break. I have been told this so many times...

I can't work consecutive days with weight training. That I know.

dlwyatt82

Strength training mainly means lifting heavy weights for 5 or fewer reps per set. Lifting lighter weight with higher reps gets different results. For guys, that would be a bodybuilding workout designed to gain more size than strength. Not sure what effect that would have on a woman, since you don't really bulk up the same way.

Topsking2010

I train all year round for football. The resting time is when you make your gains/get stronger. My college football schedule is legs/back/abs monday shoulders/chest/triceps tuesday running on wednesday legs/abs/biceps thursday and chest/back Friday. The weekend being the days off.

Great workout routine!!

debussyschild

I've seen lots of different workout routines, but they all include at least one day of rest. My routine (or the one I'm getting back into) takes two rest days, and one of those falls in the middle of the week. The biggest thing I've learned from resting is that you definitely want to do it before days of heavy lifting. I always rest the day before I have my leg day. After leg day, though, I do cardio to still get a workout, but allow my legs to heal. It's always a good thing not to do the same body groups back to back, unless you're doing full body workouts. Then you should alternate full body workouts with either days of rest or cardio. Point is, your muscles need rest to recover and build muscle and get stronger. Best of luck!

dad106

I do a full body routine and always leave at least a day between.

I mean you could do upper body/lower body, rest, then upper body/lower body.. So in theory it would look like, mon/tues, rest wed, thurs/friday, rest saturday.. then repeat the next week. That way the upper body/ lower body splits are more even and your not strength training everyday.

DavPul

You're getting closer, but IMO you're still doing too much. You've got the right idea in giving your bodyparts 48 hours rest. But your entire body only has some much energy for recuperation. So even though your legs are getting a day off on Tuesdays, you're still taxing your system by working your chest on Tuesday.

I would back it down to Mon/Tues and Thurs/Fri with the weekends off. But I really believe you'd be better doing your strength training 3x per week. My current workout partner started lifting heavy at the beginning of this year. We did the 4 days per week plan that I have been doing for years. By the end of month 2, he stopped gaining strength and was tired all the time. He struggled both in the gym and out. We backed it down to 3x per week back in May and not only is he gaining steadily again, he's feeling better outside of the gym.

Our current routine:

Monday Chest/Triceps
Wednesday Back/Biceps
Friday Legs/Shoulders

This is less work than I'm used to, but it's working fine for me as well, plus let's me do a lot more cardio since I'm focused on losing weight at this stage. It's what I strongly recommend for you as well.

SilkyHotspur

Ok...lets not quibble about Weight Training, vs. Strength Training....they're the same. There are only two things you do when you exercise. Aerobic, and Anaerobic.

Anaerobic exercise = Resistance/Weight/Strength Training

Here is where people make what I feel is a mistake between Weight vs. Strength training. To "exercise" a muscle, you must make it do WORK. Work involves either lifting, pushing, or pulling a weight. The differences is in the weight and either increasing or staying at a particular weight.

Simple example...if you do bicep curls with a 3lb weight, and can easily do 20-30 reps...that is not considered work. If you can take a 10lb weight and do bicep curls in sets of 12-15 only, as its too heavy to lift....then that is work. Eventually the muscle will grow and adapt to the workload....if you want to gain more strength, you need to lift more weight to grow more muscle...if you don't want more strength and more muscle...simply stay at the same weight.

Most men lift weights to grow more muscle...once they reach a comfort level with a particular weight, they increase the weight....then once the muscle adapts and grows....they increase again.

Most women lift weights to be "lean", which is the same thing as men, except women will tend to stay at a certain weight for fear of becoming too large (not very likely with supplements).

As for your plan....I would do Abs 3x per week, with 48hrs between resistance days

hesn92

I think you need more rest than that... You are planning on doing it every single day?? I only do it 3X a week... granted I do full body workouts each time. Let me put it this way, pretty much all of the weight lifting routines I've seen have you do it 3 or 4 days a week.