Am I not giving myself time to heal?

C

chili125

0
I work out 3x a week. 4 sets of 10 reps of the following exercises.

1. Standing Chest Fly
2. High Row
3. Upright Row
4. Chin Ups
5. Barbell Curl
6. Tricept Extensions
7. Seated Crunch 90lb resistance
8. Sled Shrugs
9. Incline Bench Press
10. Squats
11. Calf Extensions
12. Tricept Cable Pushdowns
13. Cable Straight Arm Pulldowns

I do this in supersets 3x a week m/w/fr, but have read in other threads that you should only be doing for example around 45-60 reps a week on any given body part and I am doing 120 for each body part. Is this destructive? I have only been working out for about 6 months, but can tell a huge difference in my body already. I have lost 25 lbs of fat and gained a good ammount of muscle mass. If I could get faster results by doing fewer reps I will do it, but I don't really feel like I am pushing myself too hard. What do you think?
 
Way too much volume. Its time for a change dude. That's like 52sets a workout. That's insane lol

Strange you haven't overtrained, do you go to failure often?
 
I don't think reps per workout is really a good way to measure. It is a question of time under tention. If you are woring a muscle for 30-60 seconds than it is a good thing. then take 30 sec to a min and a half rest.

Now that you are in shape it is time to really focus on your individual muscles and work one or two a day. meaning 12-24 sets per bodypart. Though your routine is pretty intense so I am guessing you are ready for 24 sets.
for example chest day could look like this

Flys 6 sets of x
bench press 6 sets of x
incline bench press 6 sets of x
dips 6 sets of x

or somthing like that. the actual number of reps are not so important. Obviously you do not need to do six sets of everything 2 sets of one exercise and 4 on another is fine. If your tris are exhausted from the bench you can do cable crosses or do flys last to get that stretch.
Then next day you can do back and then legs or whatever and your chest will be all rested up and ready for action again by the time its turn comes up. If you only want to push yourself three times a week than perhaps you will want to train two bodyparts a day. I reccommend training one big one and one little one like this
Chest + tris
Back + bis
Shoulders + delts
Legs + calves

Never forget this though. Muscle is built in the recovery not in the workout. Let your bodyparts rest.
 
"Muscle is built in the recovery not in the workout" (-----------

That is exactly what I am worried about. It is just that I am so used to working my whole body out 3x a week and I will feel like I am not getting anything acomplished if I don't do it that way. Does anyOne have an example of a 3x a week workout that has been acceptable for muscle and strength growth? Maybe I should just commit to more times a week? I could always work 3 body parts a day, but doing this one of the 3 body parts would only get worked out one time on a given week. (I am still a novice when it comes to weight training education.) Is working out a body part 1x a week acceptable for growth? My common sense tells me no, but maybe I am just ignorent to what it takes. OK I will stop my ranting now. Any suggestions for this or my original question would still be greatly appriciated.

One more thing, NEWF said he was surprised i haven't overtrained. What does that mean? I swear I am not being smart ass would my body let me know if this was happening?
 
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I think it takes 20 minutes minimum to hit a muscle just right. More likely 45 minutes to an hour for a large badypart. You might be working all these muscle but nothing is really being put to the max. The reason pros train only one bodypart a day is not because they are pussies who can't hack two or three a day. It is because they get the job done right and then give the muscle lots of recovery. I used to be huge on FBWs just like you and the results were very depressing. It is great for losing weight, especially in cardio. It is terrible for strength training especially for muscle growth.
An exception I suppose would be wrestling or jujitsu. I have seen some people get huge on wrestling but it requires you to have multiple partners who take it very seriously on a fixed schedule. Most of them also bodybuild traditionally on the side.
 
Here is how i split mine up:
Mon- Chest/Biceps
Wed- Back/Triceps
Fri- Legs/Shoulders
*I hope this is acceptable for growth since thats what im going for. Im sure one of the experts will be able to say if once a week is enough.
 
Chest + tris- Mon
Back + bis- Wed
Shoulders + delts- Friday
Legs + calves- Friday

In the example you gave me earlier, do you think that this (mon wed fri schedule) would be ok for muscle growth.
 
chili125 said:
"Muscle is built in the recovery not in the workout" (-----------

That is exactly what I am worried about. It is just that I am so used to working my whole body out 3x a week and I will feel like I am not getting anything acomplished if I don't do it that way. Does anyOne have an example of a 3x a week workout that has been acceptable for muscle and strength growth? Maybe I should just commit to more times a week? I could always work 3 body parts a day, but doing this one of the 3 body parts would only get worked out one time on a given week. (I am still a novice when it comes to weight training education.) Is working out a body part 1x a week acceptable for growth? My common sense tells me no, but maybe I am just ignorent to what it takes. OK I will stop my ranting now. Any suggestions for this or my original question would still be greatly appriciated.

One more thing, NEWF said he was surprised i haven't overtrained. What does that mean? I swear I am not being smart ass would my body let me know if this was happening?
Click to expand...

Search for Chad Waterbury's Total Body Tranining its on this forum somewhere. You will work the same muscel groups 3x/wk.

If your over tranied you will be very tried, get sick often, not want to train, strength gains would stop etc. If this never happen i believe you might need to increase the intensity of your workouts.
 
my strength is on about a 10 lb every 2-3 week increase, i have much more energy than i ever had before and am pretty much addicted to working out so even when my body says i am tired my brain tells me that i shouldn't be worthless and i should go. i have not missed a single workout since i started my regiment. i had to work up to this routine. i got my first workout from a muscle and fitness for beginners article. it used supersets so i have stuck with them and they seem to help me with my endurance. i am about to do a search for Chad Waterbury's Total Body Tranining right now so thanks for the tip.
 
Compton82 said:
Here is how i split mine up:
Mon- Chest/Biceps
Wed- Back/Triceps
Fri- Legs/Shoulders
*I hope this is acceptable for growth since thats what im going for. Im sure one of the experts will be able to say if once a week is enough.
Click to expand...

I would reccommend a slight difference.
Your triceps are worked on chest day with all the pressing movments. Why not just finish them of right after chest while they are already wormed. otherwise they are worked twice in a row. same with bis. Legs are two bodyparts already (quads and hams) and they are huge. Personally I have to think that if you have anything left over after legs that you are not pushing your legs hard enough
 
OK I asked one of the trainers at the gym I goto and he suggested this.

Chest - Tricepts - Shoulders Monday

Back - Bicepts - Core Wednesday

Legs - Friday

He also suggested I start with the largest muscle group and work my way to the smaller. I used this schematic yesterday and I realy feel it today. He explained basicallt that my mon and wed were a trade off of push monday pull wednesday. It seems to make sense. Any imput?
 
You are not really working shoulders delt or calves but I guess the soulders will get plenty of indirect work later on- just keep in mind that you are neglecting them.
and delts and calves can be considdered negligible or as an afterthought if you so choose.
So for where you are in your experience I would say right on! just don't neglect those areas forever. You will look funny after a few years.
 
no i am working my shoulders on the same day as my chest and tricepts,
and on my third day I will work legs and calves... do you really think one time a week for a muscle group will yield results for me?
 
Seems to work for everyone else.
My only concern is how much yo will have to cram into each workout. It is easier if you can break it into more workouts because ideally you will be in and out in less than an hour. An hour twenty on a hardest day (typically by accident or because you are falling behind somewhere). Short rests and intese sets yeild fast results. I am more worried about you getting burned out than undertrained. I would suggest that one of these days when you are running late try to dedicate one whole workout to only one bodypart just to say that you tried it. I understand that you cannot build a full routine like this with your schedule but i believe that experience is the best education for designing your workouts. Mine have Been greatly improved by all the times when I was rushed into short breaks or fewer exercises. I used to work out two to three hours a day six days a week just becuase I thought that more is better. No. And I would not believe anyone until I was forced to try it for myself.
For more ideas check out the routines of your favorite pros. There is always lots of great bodybuilder info in Muscular Development Magazine or whichever publication you fancy. I think what you are doing is extreme but will yeild great results until you can split it up more and see even more from it.

And just so you don't make my old mistake, work one bodypart at a time- meaning fry your chest out first and then when it is nice and cooked go for shoulders and do not do anything for chest for the rest of the day. If you have energy left over finish off your tris which will probably only be able to make it through a few sets provided you did the rest of your workout the right way.
When you get further you can give priority to the bodyparts that you see lagging- otherwise biggest to smallest. Let me know how this works out.
You are a monster.
 
Thanks for all of your help, it is greatly appriciated. I will update this thread in a few weeks to let you know how it's going.
 
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