Rest Days

Sunshineandsea93
Sunshineandsea93 Posts: 13 Member
in Fitness and Exercise

So at the moment my workout routine is Push on day 1, pull on day 2, and then I have a 2 day break then legs then a rest day then back to push.

Does it sound like a lot of rest days? I'm not sure if it's worth me dropping a rest day. I don't get super sore the next day after a workout. I force myself to rest so my body doesn't fail on me. But again I feel like I can cut my rest days to 2 instead of 3.

I've been working out consistently for 2 months now with this routine pattern and weekly I'm upping the weights slightly.

Just want to maximise the chance of muscle growth.

Replies

  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 2,018 Member

    What is a typical day there, e.g. push day? What exercises, how many working sets and reps, and how many reps in reserve would you estimate for each exercise?

  • Sunshineandsea93
    Sunshineandsea93 Posts: 13 Member

    So it's about 5 exercises (including core) then it's a 10-15min incline walk after. About 2/3 sets for about 6 reps, I try to do the first set relatively ok with a bit of resistance but then the last rep I'm going much harder. In all fairness, I could probably try and push myself a bit more with the last set for sure but never do. I'd say I reach about 70-80% rep failure on the last set.

  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 2,018 Member

    As a new lifter, you should target about 10-12 working sets per week per muscle group. It sounds like you're maybe a bit short of that, on average. You can still make gains with what you're doing, plus good nutrition and high protein and plenty of sleep and low stress, but more volume means more gains.

    It also sounds like your sets maybe aren't challenging enough. Btw, 2-5 reps is strength/skill/power focused and will add some muscle. The best rep range for muscle building is above that, about 10-15 reps is a good range, and you should be about 1-2 reps from failure. So if you're doing a set of rows and you stop at 6, but you could actually manage 10 before failing to get an 11th, you're stopping too soon. If you know you currently fail to get 11, you should be stopping after about 8-9 reps. Your final few reps should feel much harder than the first few, though still with good form and not necessarily to failure.

    You could probably also remove a rest day. That will automatically increase weekly volume with the same workouts.

  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 13,441 Member

    By removing a rest day, your workouts won't fall on the same day each week. Is that something you can live with?

    If you're only two months into lifting, I recommend switching away from Push-Pull-Legs (an intermediate program) and doing instead full-body (beginner) every time for the first six months of lifting. You can do three workouts per week (keep a rest day between each), hitting every body part multiple times per week, increasing your volume and practice getting good technique.

    Doing this you would pick out one exercise from each of the basic movement categories:

    • Horizontal push
    • Horizontal pull
    • Vertical push
    • Vertical pull
    • Hip hinge
    • Squat*

    Do each exercise for 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps (not counting a warmup set of each movement using half the weight to get the blood flowing). Note the squat doesn't have to be a squat every time (though it can be), but a squat-type of motion, so leg presses, step ups, lunges would also qualify.

  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 2,018 Member

    @nossmf It's already an asynchronous split.

    Push - Pull - Rest - Rest - Legs - Rest

  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 13,441 Member

    I see that now, thought something was off with my math.

  • Sunshineandsea93
    Sunshineandsea93 Posts: 13 Member

    @Retroguy2000 So when you mean 10-12 working sets you mean I'll need to add another 5 workouts to what I'm currently doing each lifting day or add on the amount of sets? Sorry I'm trying to wrap my head around that bit.

    Last year when I was lifting regularly I was doing the 10-15 rep range with the 1-2 sets and was actually fine, I feel like I can do the 10-15 at a much lower weight and not what I'm currently lifting. E.g I can do 6 reps of 8kg bicep curls (each arm) (the 6th being like almost struggling on like the 2nd set...first set I'd be fine but probably struggle by rep 8) if I wanted to reach that 10-15 range I'd have to be lifting like 7-7.5kg but the first few reps would be super easy and I'd feel like nothing is happening. Would that still be fine?

    @nossmf Thanks for the tips too! I didn't really mention that I lifted quite regularly last year and had a PT so I'm not like a proper beginner who is starting from nothing haha... I just had a winter break and just getting back into the groove, so if i did a full body workout would it still help?.

    The workout plan I've currently got was from my PT that I had last year, It's more of figuring out if its worth dropping that extra rest day and adding in another pull,push or leg day (also which one to prioritise but i guess thats preference) without a complete total burnout or push to an injury. Or maybe its just me over thinking it and I'd actually be fine.

  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 2,018 Member
    edited March 22

    10-12 working sets per week might mean 10 total sets of say squats + leg extensions + leg press in one session per week, or 6 total sets of squats + leg extension done twice per week, or 4 sets of squats done three times per week.

    I agree with noss that PPL is a poor split if that's over 7 days. Better to do full body 3x as he said. PPL is more of an advanced level split done 6x per week. However, you're proposing 3 workouts in 5 days, so that's alright. Another option for you is Day 1 Upper, Day 2 Lower, Day 4 Full, and days 3 and 5 are rest days. There are many options for your split choice. The best split is the one that you can stick to consistently, and then you find a way to divide the target volume for body parts into those days. For example if you want to focus on your arms more, you might target them 4x per week, maybe for 20 working sets total. If you want to focus on glutes more than shoulders, you might target glutes 3x per week with 5 sets per session, and shoulders 2x per week.

    For rep ranges, you'll gain muscle at all of them. You need progression though. I like to target about 12 reps, then in upcoming sessions I'll hopefully do 13 reps then 14 reps, then the session after that increase the weight and go back to 12 reps. The thing is, it's easier to go from 12 to 13 to 14 than from 6 to 7 to 8. You said the first few reps might feel easy. Sure, that's true, but look at the total volume. Check out this calculator below. If you can do 8kg x8 reps, you can probably do 7kg x 12 reps. What is more volume, 8*8, or 7*12? The higher rep range is easier to progress too, so add a rep or two while doing 7kg then go to 7.5kg, repeat.

    You also don't need to do the same reps on every set. If you can do 6/6/6 then as you noted, the first set feels easy. You don't necessarily want to do 8 reps on the first set because if that's close to failure then your later sets will suffer, but maybe you can do 7/7/6, then next week 7/7/7, next week 7/8/7, and so on.

    https://strengthlevel.com/one-rep-max-calculator

  • Sunshineandsea93
    Sunshineandsea93 Posts: 13 Member

    Ok that makes more sense then, thanks for explaining it all! I do get baffled by all of that at times.

    I'll work at a slightly lower weight and do more reps like you said and then work on upping the reps with each session and then weights!

    So knowledgeable!

    Plan is to do legs tomorrow, so I'll count that as the start of the first week were I'll have 2 rest days with the higher rep range and see if that has any improvement.

  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 13,441 Member

    @Retroguy2000 and I put together a little thread for setting up a routine, you can read all about it here:

    how-to-set-up-a-weightlifting-routine

  • Sunshineandsea93
    Sunshineandsea93 Posts: 13 Member

    I've had a read of that, very insightful thank you both so much!

    It's helped and I'll be looking forward to changing some stuff up and getting rid of that extra rest day! :)

  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 2,018 Member
    edited March 23
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48538126#Comment_48538126

    Very generous of you to credit me for what was really a minor contribution, and also all of the initiative was yours :-)

  • Hobartlemagne
    Hobartlemagne Posts: 638 Member

    Im 51 and I dont even rest that much. I do Push, Pull, Legs. I take off monday and friday.
    The biggest improvement to me gaining muscle was changing from the stereotypical 3 sets/12 reps to 6 sets/15 reps. This requires lower weight, which is easier on the joints. Dont bring any ego- try for perfect technique with every lift, and lower the weight back down slowly. Try to raise weight 5lbs each week.

  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,366 Member

    Rest days should be dictated by what is called MRV, maximum recoverable volume. It all depends on how intense your workouts are that will dictate what you rest days need to be.

    Programs almost all compound movements are gonna take a lot more rest days than a program that specializes in isolation focused exercises. You just have to listen to your body. your nutrition? your sleep? There is no real rule on rest days it’s gonna be a very individual Situation.

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