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How much is TOO much?

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Keith_Young
Keith_Young Posts: 4
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Hey everyone,
I hit the gym 5 days a week and need to know all of your opinions about over-working muscles. I typically do one muscle group per session but I feel like maybe I'm over-doing it and causing more harm than good. I'll focus on bulking for now and worry about gettin cut around April/May. Any suggestions as to number of sets/reps are appreciated. Thanks.

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  • invictus8
    invictus8 Posts: 258 Member
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    If you think you're over-doing it, then you probably are. I think it's the most common mistake. At the very least I made this mistake!
  • scooterman84
    scooterman84 Posts: 9
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    sometimes it depends on your nutrition and rest. not getting quality sleep and decent intake of quality calories will affect you no matter if you are training often or not
  • baptiste565
    baptiste565 Posts: 590 Member
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    5 days a week is not too bad if ur nutrition is on point. if week 2 week ur getting weaker or losing reps u r probably over reaching and need to scale back alittle.
  • ilovedeadlifts
    ilovedeadlifts Posts: 2,923 Member
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    it depends on your recovery.

    that being said, a beginner probably shouldn't be training 1 muscle group per day.

    Beginners typically respond well to frquency as opposed to volume. Get on a full body routine like 5x5, eat well, and you'll make good progress over the winter.
  • Keith_Young
    Keith_Young Posts: 4
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    Thanks guys. I've been lifting for awhile but am just recently focusing harder on my nutrition/diet to maximize my efforts in the gym. Hence, my new membership on this site. But I'm thinking I need to scale back as you said as far as number of exercises and sets per session, which is hard to do since I recently got on 1MR as my pre-workout lol. But all of that said, I think this winter/spring will show some good developments with my personal tracking on this site and advice from everyone else in the group.
  • sunsnstatheart
    sunsnstatheart Posts: 2,544 Member
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    I'm 40 and lift on a 5 day split and run 3 days a week. To avoid over training I take a week off every 8-12 weeks depending on how my numbers are moving (or not moving). Assuming you have no specific health issues, I'd say you're 24 and with a proper diet there is no reason you can't be doing a 5 day split. There are hundreds of training programs to pick from various places (bodybuilding.com is one I like and has a great exercise video list, but it sells and is very focused on supplements so just maintain some skepticism), so pick one and stick with it for a couple of months and then adjust. I agree with ilovedeadlift above in regard to beginners may have more luck with something else - maybe a 3 day a week total body approach until you build up a bit. In any event, if you're bulking focus on the big compound lifts - deads, squats, bench press, clean and press/jerk. This is one of those areas where you really need to get in there and find out what works for you and then keep finding ways to improve it.
  • Keith_Young
    Keith_Young Posts: 4
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    That's the thing is I've been doing so much reading, talking to trainers and trying new things that I feel like I'm probably trying too much too fast. I need to just go back to basics and stick with it for 6-8 weeks and see how it goes. After that, as you said, I can make adjustments where I think I can make improvements. Sounds good guys, I'll keep it simple for now and just focus on my diet. I read a really good quote that seemed to make a ton of sense to me: "Nutrition is everything. When you boil it down you're only spending an hour (plus or minus) a day hitting the weight room. You have 23 hours (again, plus or minus) that will effect what comes out of that time in the gym. What you do outside the gym is tremendously important in relation to what you're doing in it"

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