How much do you rest?

kingkong123
kingkong123 Posts: 184 Member
edited September 25 in Fitness and Exercise
I pretty much have 3 days of lifting. Chest/Back, Arms, Shoulders. I mix in various forms of cardio and quick workouts throughout the week.

Lately, I've been wanting to get in the gym more. Does anyone work out 3 days in a row?

I'm thinking about lifting 3 days, resting 1 day, then back to lifting 3 days. Does this have any negative effects? Anyone have success lifting so much every week?

I'd like to hear personal success/failure stories. Keep in mind, I'd like to get stronger, but my main goal is to lose weight/fat and get into good shape. Thanks

Replies

  • FlashBang
    FlashBang Posts: 136
    I rest every night, get your sleep. I also take at least one whole day off. Lifting weights you should work different muscles consecutive days. Give a group 48 hours between sets.
  • audjrey
    audjrey Posts: 360 Member
    I pretty much work out with weights every day and intermittently do cardio. The trick for me is not to work muscles that are extremely sore two days in a row or use light weights. For example, if I've gone super heavy on my chest one day (ie:30 lb chest press) and the next day it's still sore, then I'll only do 10 lb chest press the next day, or I won't work chest at all but instead do back or another body part.

    Too, on the days I work heavy with weights, I up my protein intake to 1.5 grams per pound of body weight. On lighter days I keep it around 0.8-1 gram per pound of body weight.

    Hope this helps!
  • losermomof3
    losermomof3 Posts: 386 Member
    I just started about a month ago. I try to go to the gym 5 days a week. Twice a week I do the Leslie 2 mile walking video. I do light lifting at the gym after my workout. Saturdays are my resting day. Hope this helps.
  • teasha43
    teasha43 Posts: 101
    Arms and Legs one day, chest and back another. From all I have read, you should have a rest between a chest day and a chest day or an arm/leg and arm leg. The reason is, is that you are tearing small muscle fibers to gain muscle. The scarring leads to the building of the muscle. They need a day to repair. I guess this would depend on amount of weight lifted and reps....but this is what I go with. If you are lifting vigorously, I also reccomend upped protein. Helps muscle:) Hope this helps....
  • teasha43
    teasha43 Posts: 101
    PS... also when doing arms...bicep- two muscles. This means you should do 4 exercises for those and tricep six. Lift your triceps first bc they are a larger muscle. If you do biceps first, they may be too tired to assist the triceps after:) There are alot of good sites for lifting....
  • Mayor_West
    Mayor_West Posts: 246 Member
    I typically lift 5-6 days a week, although I'm a more advanced lifter, so I'm not necessarily recommending you do the same.

    As for your routine, I don't see much in terms of lower body or ab work- all of your work is centered around your upper body. Keep in mind that exercises for your chest and back, particularly compound movements, also work your arms and shoulders to a lesser degree. Based on this, it's very possible your upper body is being over-trained.

    A great routine that anyone, especially novice to intermediate lifters can work with is a simple Push/Pull/Legs split. You'll hit all the major muscle groups, and just as importantly, give them adequate rest between workouts.

    Here's a sample of exercises for each day:

    Push:
    Bench Press
    Incline Press
    Dips
    Shoulder Press
    Flyes
    Triceps Extensions

    Pull:
    Deadlifts
    Rows
    Pullups
    Lateral Raises
    Front Raises
    Curls

    Legs:
    Squat
    Lunges
    Leg Press
    Leg Curl
    Leg Extension
    Calf Raises


    You can also do cardio and ab work on your "off" days. I'd also suggest working within the 8-12 rep range, with about 60 seconds of rest between sets.
  • kingkong123
    kingkong123 Posts: 184 Member
    All great posts. Thanks!
  • BobbyDaniel
    BobbyDaniel Posts: 1,459 Member
    I had to abandon a run on Tuesday night, a rarity for me, and I realized at that point I had done some sort of workout every day for the last couple of weeks...kind of out of guilt, thinking I "needed" to do something. I took Wednesday off and hit the road yesterday morning and had a great run. So, apparently one day of rest a week is needed, especially in light of the fact that God created us that way. The whole Sabbath idea was His!
  • kingkong123
    kingkong123 Posts: 184 Member
    I typically lift 5-6 days a week, although I'm a more advanced lifter, so I'm not necessarily recommending you do the same.

    As for your routine, I don't see much in terms of lower body or ab work- all of your work is centered around your upper body. Keep in mind that exercises for your chest and back, particularly compound movements, also work your arms and shoulders to a lesser degree. Based on this, it's very possible your upper body is being over-trained.

    A great routine that anyone, especially novice to intermediate lifters can work with is a simple Push/Pull/Legs split. You'll hit all the major muscle groups, and just as importantly, give them adequate rest between workouts.

    Here's a sample of exercises for each day:

    Push:
    Bench Press
    Incline Press
    Dips
    Shoulder Press
    Flyes
    Triceps Extensions

    Pull:
    Deadlifts
    Rows
    Pullups
    Lateral Raises
    Front Raises
    Curls

    Legs:
    Squat
    Lunges
    Leg Press
    Leg Curl
    Leg Extension
    Calf Raises


    You can also do cardio and ab work on your "off" days. I'd also suggest working within the 8-12 rep range, with about 60 seconds of rest between sets.

    The only reason I consider just those my lifting days is because those are the ones when I get in the gym and hit the weights hard. I try to do abs several times a week. Same for cardio. I get them in after my lifting or on off-days. As far as legs, truthfully I'm less worried about them. Could be dumb. I'd like some thoughts. I do the Spartacus workout a couple times a week, which has squats, lunges, mountain climbers, etc. and gets a good burn. I haven't set aside to just to legs though.
  • kingkong123
    kingkong123 Posts: 184 Member
    "Those" meaning my three lifting workouts.
  • kingkong123
    kingkong123 Posts: 184 Member
    I had to abandon a run on Tuesday night, a rarity for me, and I realized at that point I had done some sort of workout every day for the last couple of weeks...kind of out of guilt, thinking I "needed" to do something. I took Wednesday off and hit the road yesterday morning and had a great run. So, apparently one day of rest a week is needed, especially in light of the fact that God created us that way. The whole Sabbath idea was His!

    Haha. Good point. But, yea, that's how I've been feeling recently. If I'm not doing anything, I feel like it's a wasted day. I get antsy. Some guilt I suppose. More so, I could be doing something right now that would make me healthier/get me in better shape/burn calories
  • MoonShadow_1au
    MoonShadow_1au Posts: 149 Member
    ... But, yea, that's how I've been feeling recently. If I'm not doing anything, I feel like it's a wasted day. I get antsy. Some guilt I suppose. More so, I could be doing something right now that would make me healthier/get me in better shape/burn calories

    Hi kingkong, been doing lots of different workouts with varying results over the past 20 years or so. I too hate the days I miss out, but I really need to MAKE myself miss at least 2 days a week. In my prime I was hitting the gym 9 times a week (not to gain or loose weight) I was just obsessed. You need to make sure you have the energy (read good calories) and rest (enough sleep) but as long as you watch these increasing to 3, 4, 5 ... 7 days a week can be done. Years ago when I first started at a gym I was doing 5 to 8 sessions a week and not eating properly, after 2 months I ended up collapsing during an aqua aerobics class (lucky to get myself out of the pool).

    What I truly believe now is that every month you need to change your program around. Had a gym do this as part of the membership fees and had a blast (that was the 9 times a week period). For my sessions if I do 2 on 1 off 2 on I work half the muscles one day and the others the next. If I am on 3 days a week I do all muscles all 3 days.

    If you ave time to burn try TWFH http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/sipb/user/yandros/doc/TWFH.html and you will not have any trouble taking a few days off each week. I did this for 2 months but it was taking up to 3 hours out of my days. Nasty.
  • MoonShadow_1au
    MoonShadow_1au Posts: 149 Member
    ...
    I'd like to hear personal success/failure stories. Keep in mind, I'd like to get stronger, but my main goal is to lose weight/fat and get into good shape. Thanks

    RE: My last post. If you are hitting the gym to lift weights do not plan on losing weight. Muscle > Fat and if you are working out hard and losing weight you will end up collapsing like I did. You should see your Fat levels drop (if you can measure them) just steer clear of carbs and you should be pleased with the results.
  • MyNameIsNotBob
    MyNameIsNotBob Posts: 565 Member
    I've read that you should take a day off after weights / strength. I guess if you did one group on day A and another group on day B, you could go without skipping days.
  • JohnnyNull
    JohnnyNull Posts: 294 Member
    I'm afraid the real answer is "it depends". There are people that can lift five or six days a week, some respond very well to training very hard once a week.

    Try different things, see what works for you.
  • kingkong123
    kingkong123 Posts: 184 Member
    ... But, yea, that's how I've been feeling recently. If I'm not doing anything, I feel like it's a wasted day. I get antsy. Some guilt I suppose. More so, I could be doing something right now that would make me healthier/get me in better shape/burn calories

    Hi kingkong, been doing lots of different workouts with varying results over the past 20 years or so. I too hate the days I miss out, but I really need to MAKE myself miss at least 2 days a week. In my prime I was hitting the gym 9 times a week (not to gain or loose weight) I was just obsessed. You need to make sure you have the energy (read good calories) and rest (enough sleep) but as long as you watch these increasing to 3, 4, 5 ... 7 days a week can be done. Years ago when I first started at a gym I was doing 5 to 8 sessions a week and not eating properly, after 2 months I ended up collapsing during an aqua aerobics class (lucky to get myself out of the pool).

    What I truly believe now is that every month you need to change your program around. Had a gym do this as part of the membership fees and had a blast (that was the 9 times a week period). For my sessions if I do 2 on 1 off 2 on I work half the muscles one day and the others the next. If I am on 3 days a week I do all muscles all 3 days.

    If you ave time to burn try TWFH http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/sipb/user/yandros/doc/TWFH.html and you will not have any trouble taking a few days off each week. I did this for 2 months but it was taking up to 3 hours out of my days. Nasty.

    Thanks for all the info. I'm definitely getting better calories/the right amount of calories. I'm not really doing two-a-days, which I can imagine is intense. Trying to work in both cardio or circuit training and weight lifting on certain days though. Definitely lookign to increase the amount of days I'm in the gym, so I will do it gradually as you suggested and make sure I'm progressing successfully. I think I burned out last week, my second day of chest was weak.

    Haven't read TWFH yet, but I'm going to check it out today.
  • kingkong123
    kingkong123 Posts: 184 Member
    I'm afraid the real answer is "it depends". There are people that can lift five or six days a week, some respond very well to training very hard once a week.

    Try different things, see what works for you.

    This is true. If I find I'm getting negative results, i.e., bad workouts or injury I'll definitely slow it down. Just wanted to get an idea of what some people have experienced in the past.
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