Balancing workouts with resting time

W

willielau

0
Hey guys,

I started walking blindly into the gym about two weeks ago, and I've been blindly walking in about 4-5 consecutive days for each week. Not good. Just over the last weekend i noticed some muscle growth that never took place during weekdays, so I remember hearing about REST that was needed for tissues to repair. Haha yes I was stupid.

So in the past few weeks, I would head over to the gym about 45min a day, pretty much every weekday. Not quite doing full body workouts daily, but close. I've been working on pretty much everything above the hips.

Now that i'm looking for improvement, I read about full body workouts, and how doing lower body workouts helped stimulate overall growth. Can anyone confirm this?

If the above statement is true, or if lower body workouts are highly recommended, I can incorporate that into my workout. For now, I am simply trying to work my abs, pecs, back, arms, shoulders (and burn fat like most noobs).

1) Would cardio days be good enough as rest days for weight training?
2) Which is preferred?

M - weight training (upper/full)
T - cardio
W - weight training (upper/full)
R - cardio
F - weight training (upper/full)

or

M - chest and back
T - triceps and biceps
W - chest and back and abs
R - lower body or cardio?
F - triceps and biceps
(in no particular order, day-of-the-week-wise, but if i were to follow this example, would chest-back have enough time to recover between M-W?)

Weekends would be rest time.
Rephrasing this last question then.
Would it be better to alternate between full body workouts and cardio day to day, or to break up the full body workouts and target specific muscle (groups) each day?

Sorry for so many random questions all bunched into one thread, I hope most of them can be answered.

Thanks in advance =)
 
the first one. But don't do only uppers, do FBWs, unless you do upper on one day and lower on another
 
Well I haven't signed onto this website in over a year but the newsletter had your post as the most recent so I said, Why Not?

First off, you're going to find quite a list of different possibilities to answer your question. I'll start with what I think is the most basic:

Plan 1
Mon: Pulling Muscles - Back, biceps, abs
Tues: cardio
Wed: Pushing Muscles - Chest, Triceps, abs
Thurs: cardio
Fri: Legs, shoulders (I add shoulders because many exercises overlap for me)

Notes: You can swap abs onto the cardio days just to feel like you're hitting the weight room. I find it helps.
Remember to start workouts with bigger muscles so start with back or chest or quads before respectively moving to biceps, triceps and calves.
Try to keep at least two days in between back and legs because certain exercises such as deadlifts activate the lats.

With those few tips you can mix it up when your body gets too used to it.

Plan 2
Mon: back and chest
Tues: cardio, abs
Weds: arms
Thurs: cardio, abs
Fri: legs, shoulders

I find those two plans to be the most basic but keep in mind that splits like these (although popular) are based off of bodybuilding routines. Bodybuilders regulate everything in their lives to perfect their bodies.

In general if you want to do something specific then simply target it. If you wanna burn fat, you can potentially do cardio everyday even just as a warmup. You start to burn fat really effectively after 15 minutes. Just keep your heart rate under 135 bpm. If you really want an upper body and fast, then follow the rule of never working the same body part within (approximately) the same 48 hours or if soreness persists longer. With those rules you can make a routine which really fits your schedule better.

Just remember that your body will tell you when you need a day off. If you're mentally tired (you should know the difference) that's more than usually just laziness.
 
agreed, fullbody is what I always suggest for 'beginners'. you don't need much stimulation as a newcomer to cause tissue damage (this is why newbies always end up in agony for several weeks...too much volume of exercise with too much frequency).

full body is a time efficient way to work every major muscle group, and allows you 3 workouts per week, basically every other day, using lower volume (number of sets per body part, and total sets).

as you progress and develop, you'll start hitting muscles harder, but less often, because it takes more to cause the micro tears that incite repair/growth, and because that causes more micro tears, you need a little more recovery time (this would be your push/pull or push/pull/lower split)

after a few years, you might only hit a body part once every 5-6 days, but you just have to destroy it to get the growth response (see: typical body builder routine from Flex magazine, et al)


as for lower body, your quads are the largest muscle in the body, and between the quads and hams (not to mention calves) you're looking at over 50% of your total muscle mass residing below the belt line.

add to this that research shows those who squat and perform deadlifts actually elevate their levels of testosterone and human growth hormone, naturally and safely...which equals more growth all over (you can't target hormones to only grow the legs).
also, heavy, load bearing exercises like squats and deadlifts cause the body to build up bone density, which can help combat the effects of aging (posture, osteoporosis).

and of course, anyone with a nice upper body, but thin stick-legs looks like an idiot and will be mocked here, and in the after-life ;)
 
even if you dont listed to all that wondrous advice, make sure you're working your legs.

people often focus on upper body, ready for the hollywood muscle. train all body equally, get better results. personally, i underplayed lower body work, but as soon as i did my overall strength and fitness, speed and upper body developed quadrupled.
 
Okay thanks so much for all the replies so far =D
I'll star off alternating between FBW and cardio on weekdays then,
but thanks MadBuddha for your advice nonetheless =)

I haven't considered deadlifts/squats in the past, but I have now learned that it will increase overall growth. One question regarding the growth it enhances. I've mentioned deadlifts/squats to my friend - we're both 17, and trying to gain a few more inches (vertically). We're aware that deadlifts/squats will increase our muscle mass, allowing us to get 'bigger', but wouldn't they stun our vertical growth?
 
Doesn't seem like deadlifts would stun growth as i looked into the movements involved...what about squats?

Anyways, one more question.
Rest days - cardio is allowed.
What about active sports ranging from soccer-karate-boxing?

I've been thinking of rest days as days away from the weights, but I want to ask a few more questions to minimize the chance of stunning muscle growth =) Thanks
 
I read somewhere how doing lower body exercises are better before you start working the upper body because doing lower body workouts first release hormones and testerone going or something
 
ah yes, like malkore stated earlier, doing lower body would help upper body development, but i don't think it necessarily means that lower body workouts should be done before upper body workouts - since it would have to do with releasing HGH, the growing is taking place out of the gym anyways?

Hm and again, these questions are still stuck in my mind =)

willielau said:
Doesn't seem like deadlifts would stun growth as i looked into the movements involved...what about squats?

Anyways, one more question.
Rest days - cardio is allowed.
What about active sports ranging from soccer-karate-boxing?

I've been thinking of rest days as days away from the weights, but I want to ask a few more questions to minimize the chance of stunning muscle growth =) Thanks
Click to expand...
 
I dont miss cardio any day as it is key to reducing weight. So this is what I do

Day 1. Cardio for 60 minutes + Strenth training for Chest and Arms

Day 2. Cardio for 60 minutes + Strength training for Back and Shoulders

Day 3. Cardio for 60 minutes + Strength training for Legs and Tricep

Day 4. Cardio for 0 Minutes + All Ab Exercises

Day 5. Same as day one

and so on

I usually take full break once in 15 days when I go through a hectic physical day


Well I am no expert but the schedule is working for me as I am loosing 2 lbs every week since last 10 weeks since I started wrking out

I have divided muscle training in such a way that every day I do one big and one small muscle group and give the group enough rest before I do them again
 
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