am i overtraining

[leebo73]

I like to work out 2 muscle groups when I go to the gym. For example,
Monday.. biceps and back
Tuesday..chest and triceps
Wednesday ..legs and shoulders
I take two days off and repeat, on my off days I usually go in and do abs and cardio,also I train each muscle with 4 different exercises, 4 sets, heavy weight, low rep. Am I overstraining?? I really like doing 2 muscles a day I have never liked the upper body type workouts it just seems hard to focus on so much in a day, please comment.

[DFRELAT]

Are you constantly loosing weight even though you're not dieting? Are you constantly loosing strenght and stamina. Are you feeling like a girl on the rag? If no, then you probably are not overtraining!

[Jenseno9]

I don't know how you can expect anyone but yourself being able to answer this question bc it depends on the person. Do you have an elevated heart rate? Insomnia? Are your lifts getting heavier each week?

[kelevra]

I like to work out 2 muscle groups when I go to the gym. For example,
Monday.. biceps and back
Tuesday..chest and triceps
Wednesday ..legs and shoulders
I take two days off and repeat, on my off days I usually go in and do abs and cardio,also I train each muscle with 4 different exercises, 4 sets, heavy weight, low rep. Am I overstraining?? I really like doing 2 muscles a day I have never liked the upper body type workouts it just seems hard to focus on so much in a day, please comment.

YES, back and bi's fine, chest tri's fine, reduce sets. 12 sets back, 6 for bi's, 9 for chest, & 6 for tri's. Seperate legs with 10-12 sets. shoulders 9 sets and traps 3-4.

[kalspic]

usually i know i've over trained when i wake up and feel like i got hit by a semi truck

[LatissimusaurousRex]

A real basic rule is 16 sets for larger muscle groups, 12 for smaller ones. As mentioned before only you will really know if you're overtraining. As long as you're continuing to make gains and you're not getting any sort of pain or depleted energy levels, I'd say you're fine. Just keep in mind going as heavy as you can every time, will catch up to you eventually. You may want to look into implementing a deload day if you are not already.

[leebo73]

Thanks for all the advice, I will lower my sets that seems to be the consensus.

[dirtybrd]

A real basic rule is 16 sets for larger muscle groups, 12 for smaller ones. As mentioned before only you will really know if you're overtraining. As long as you're continuing to make gains and you're not getting any sort of pain or depleted energy levels, I'd say you're fine. Just keep in mind going as heavy as you can every time, will catch up to you eventually. You may want to look into implementing a deload day if you are not already.

When you say 16 sets and 12 sets, you mean total sets correct?

[LatissimusaurousRex]

When you say 16 sets and 12 sets, you mean total sets correct?

yes.

[terraj]

A real basic rule is 16 sets for larger muscle groups, 12 for smaller ones. As mentioned before only you will really know if you're overtraining. As long as you're continuing to make gains and you're not getting any sort of pain or depleted energy levels, I'd say you're fine. Just keep in mind going as heavy as you can every time, will catch up to you eventually. You may want to look into implementing a deload day if you are not already.

Lol...broscience right there.

[auslifta]

3 days in a row is too much in my opinion. Why don't you workout EOD?

eg day 1 -chest/shoulders/tri,
day 2- rest,
day 3- legs,
day 4- rest,
day 5 -back/Biceps/forearms,
day 6- rest.

Day 7 either est again or restart.

[LatissimusaurousRex]

Lol...broscience right there.

you were close, I'm not stating it's some sort of "optimal number of sets for hypertrophy" It's just a general rule of thumb so this guy has an idea of how to run his workouts. You may be surprised to find all the people that do too little or too many (more common) sets.