Sufficient rest time?

**mazika** · 10-06-2010, 12:10 PM

First off im not on anything at all.

I work out really hard every other day, really tear it up.

in a 4 workout cycle:

day 1: Legs/Bi's
day 2: rest
Day 3: Shoulders/Tri's
Day 4: rest
Day 5: Back/Bi's
Day 6: rest
Day 7: Chest/Tri's
Day 8: rest
repeatm, repeat, repeat..

Is that sufficient rest time to prevent myself from over-training?

**UberSteroids** · 10-06-2010, 02:24 PM

Is it sufficient? Hehe, you tell us!

How do you feel each time you workout? How do you feel overall?

No one can tell you what a sufficient rest time is, only you can.

For example, this is my routine:
Day1: Back/Biceps/Traps
Day2: OFF
Day3: Chest/Triceps/Shoulders
Day4: OFF
Day5: Legs/Calf
Day6: OFF
Day7: OFF
Day8: OFF

I also sleep 9-10 hours everyday and consume 3200 calories a day.

This is sufficient for me... but might not be for you. The way I tell if I have enough rest is by the overall feeling. The feeling of internal fatique. Your nervous system also has to recover, just because your muscles are not sore anymore, that does not mean you are fully recovered.

You should be feeling great and well rested each time you go to the gym in order to give your maximum every time. If you feel like this then you know the rest time is sufficient enough.

**MACHINE5150** · 10-06-2010, 02:27 PM

yes.. i would say 192 hours between major muscle groups is sufficiet.. haha.. and YES it is okay to do bi's/tri's every 96 hours as they recover faster than larger muscle groups

**MACHINE5150** · 10-06-2010, 02:28 PM

Originally Posted by UberSteroids

Is it sufficient? Hehe, you tell us!

How do you feel each time you workout? How do you feel overall?

No one can tell you what a sufficient rest time is, only you can.

For example, this is my routine:
Day1: Back/Biceps/Traps
Day2: OFF
Day3: Chest/Triceps/Shoulders
Day4: OFF
Day5: Legs/Calf
Day6: OFF
Day7: OFF
Day8: OFF

I also sleep 9-10 hours everyday and consume 3200 calories a day.

This is sufficient for me... but might not be for you. The way I tell if I have enough rest is by the overall feeling. The feeling of internal fatique. Your nervous system also has to recover, just because your muscles are not sore anymore, that does not mean you are fully recovered.

You should be feeling great and well rested each time you go to the gym in order to give your maximum every time. If you feel like this then you know the rest time is sufficient enough.

UBER.. you really work out less than 3 times a week?? or is that extra day off on day 8 in there by accident'?

**bodybuilder** · 10-06-2010, 02:36 PM

Yah uber thats crazy i give myself one to two days a week off tops.

**UberSteroids** · 10-06-2010, 04:39 PM

Hehe, no accidents in that post. This is my exact routine. The Day 8:OFF varies, depening on how I feel that day.
Don't be afraid to give your body some good rest time guys!

**tbody66** · 10-06-2010, 10:41 PM

Depends on if you are getting the proper nutrients, for one. Your age also has bearing. Muscles can recover between 48 - 96 hours, as a general rule, depending on the size of the muscle group. If your goal is to grow as much as possible, safely, in the shortest amount of time you are under-training. Based upon your current program it could take you a year to acheive 4 months worth of results.

**bodybuilder** · 10-07-2010, 12:58 AM

^^^^^agree

**mazika** · 10-07-2010, 08:19 AM

seriousley?

Id like to pack some on so what would you suggest? Could you re-arrange my plan as you would see optimum for putting on more mass?

**tbody66** · 10-07-2010, 12:29 PM

Absolutely, here to help. Post your stats, and understand your diet will affect your progress, your body does not grow during training, muscle tissue is traumatized during training to allow for the regrowth to change to size, shape and power. That being said, I will tell you exactly what and how to lift to maximize your mass building endeavor, but you must eat and rest properly for the conditions for growth to exist. Tell me age/height/weight/bodyfat%

**mazika** · 10-07-2010, 12:46 PM

Ok.

I am 70kg, 173cm, 26y/o, bodyfat, got no idea. I dont have a cut 6pack but u can see that they are there. So whatever a low % would be but not so low that I am shredded. By using google image search I would say 10%bf

I just started with weights again 3 months ago. Been doing a hardcore home-workout routine for the past 4 years. That was super high rep's..Like day 1: 2,500 pushups over 3 hours, 700 situps over 1 hour, 800 bodyweight squats and a 3 mile run, day 2: 600 pullups in a variation of grips over 2 hrs, the ab excercise and run like usual.

My workout now is like this: (sorry for not knowing the names in english in alot of em)

Back:
Deadlifts
Tbar
row machine
pulldown wire wide grips behind head
pulldown wire near grip to chest
manual dumbell rows

Try to get in 4 sets on each at aobut 6-8 reps (this goes for all of my workouts). Always am soo torn up I can barely pull a door open after back day

Chest:

Bench
Incl Bench
Dumbell bench
Flyes
Crossover with the wires

Shoulders:
Press with dumbells
raising weight straight ahead to eye level then back down
curved arms and weight straight out to the left/right side of body
crouched over with wieghts under my legs and opening my arms so like a opposite of the pec workout flyes
holding a bar in the center and raising it from infront of my groun to my eye level and down again
cables extending for example right arm from lower left to high right of my body in a motion
finish em off with the press machine to get the last fibres ruined

legs:

Squats
presses
curls
calf raises
then finish it off with the machine with the squat like excercise but you are on your back at a angle brining the weight down to you and pushing back up

**mazika** · 10-09-2010, 09:48 AM

bumpity, bumpity, bumb-bumb-bump

**mazika** · 10-14-2010, 10:17 AM

What do you all think about working out over 1 hour per session when all natural?

I feel that as long as you can push out power it's not a problem..but got these asses at the gym tellin me how im just wasting my workouts..

I am usually there 1.5-2 hrs hitting it HARD. Do my main muscle, secondairy, and some abs.

**tjax03** · 10-14-2010, 10:46 AM

You really have to go by how you feel. Lifting routines are very dependent on one's specific physiology and recovery ability. Are your energy levels sufficient? Do you feel good, or are you run down and tired? If you feel good and are making steady progress, then you are not overtraining. People have mentioned that you may not be doing enough. The proper frequency is highly individual. You may try incorporating fewer rest days and a slightly different workout schedule and just see how your body handles it. If you still feel good and are making more frequent gains then keep it up, if not then cut it back down. Also, as others have mentioned, this all assumes that you are getting adequate amounts of rest and have proper nutrition. I know that personally I make my best gains by following a DC style training program which has me working out 3 days per week. I used to do higher volume, but I felt run down and I wasn't making progress with my muscle size and strength. Also please omit the use of derogatory terms like "faggot". I'm sure the many gay members of this board will not appreciate it.

**mazika** · 10-14-2010, 11:08 AM

thx for the response, and U are right on the term just edited my post.. Did not mean it agains gay people just a word I throw around when im pissed.

**bigslick7878** · 10-14-2010, 03:43 PM

Originally Posted by mazika

What do you all think about working out over 1 hour per session when all natural?

I feel that as long as you can push out power it's not a problem..but got these asses at the gym tellin me how im just wasting my workouts..

I am usually there 1.5-2 hrs hitting it HARD. Do my main muscle, secondairy, and some abs.

No reason to workout 1.5-2 hours especially not on anything. Go look up "cortisol" and do some reading. There is no way the splits you listed should be taking that long to complete and if you were training with the proper intensity you would never make it that long. How long are your breaks in between sets?? That could be a reason too. I used to do every other minute, now I do a set a minute. I can get a shoulder workout with 25 sets done in about 35 min, and add a minor muscle on the back end for a total of about 50 min with about 35 sets total.

It should be 45min to an hour MAX. I like your schedule though.

**tjax03** · 10-15-2010, 05:21 AM

Originally Posted by mazika

thx for the response, and U are right on the term just edited my post.. Did not mean it agains gay people just a word I throw around when im pissed.

No worries man, just looking out for you.

**mazika** · 10-18-2010, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by bigslick7878;53***27

No reason to workout 1.5-2 hours especially not on anything. Go look up "cortisol" and do some reading. There is no way the splits you listed should be taking that long to complete and if you were training with the proper intensity you would never make it that long. How long are your breaks in between sets?? That could be a reason too. I used to do every other minute, now I do a set a minute. I can get a shoulder workout with 25 sets done in about 35 min, and add a minor muscle on the back end for a total of about 50 min with about 35 sets total.

It should be 45min to an hour MAX. I like your schedule though.

Well just the main muscle is probably beat in an hour, but then i concentrate on the second hand muscle, like the biceps on back days to really ruin the bicep and abs.

**sleggio** · 10-22-2010, 07:12 PM

My belief is that you cannot overtrain - only under-recuperate. The idea is to constantly progress. Can you add a rep to several of your sets each week? Maybe add 5-10lbs to some of the compound excercises several times a year? If you can, you are probably recuperating enough. The trick is to find the balance that is optimal for you. I know folks who train each body part 1/wk and some 2/wk and are satisfied with their respective achievements. It took me quite a while to figure out a routine that really works for me and I'm still tweaking it. Good luck.