Am I working out too little?

M

Mico

0
Currently I'm working out each muscle group once a week. I try to hit each muscle group pretty hard with a total of about 9 sets per muscle group. Last time I weight trained was Wednesday, for chest and triceps, and today I'm still feeling it a lot. Today I'm doing shoulders and legs... should I be working each muscle group more than once? I know the 48 hours thing, but I'm feeling that with the number of sets I do per muscle group, 48hours might not be enough, as I'm still feeling it after 48. Please give me some imput! thanks, :D
 
You would probably get better gains if you changed to a full body routine 3x per week, or a full body split 4x a week. Focus on mainly compound moves, and use isolation exercises as a suppliment. The more muscle fibers you stimulate at a time, the greater your gains will be. If you have trouble coming up with a suitible full body routine, try something pre-made... like HGM, New Rules of Lifting, or anything by Waterbury.
 
exactly how long have you been lifting? the 'once a week, high load' formula is for veteran body builders with 3+ years under their belts.

if a newbie does this routine, they destroy too much muscle and get squat for gains.
 
When you say full body workout, do you mean decrease sets, for each muscle, so the whole workout should take about an hour?
 
Yep. Here's something similarto to what I do. It's a full body split...

Upper day - day 1
Flat bench - 5x5
Pullups - 4x8
Military press - 5x5
EZ curls - 3x10
Tricep extension - 3x10

Lower body - day 2
Conventional deadlift
Bulgarian Split squat
Seated and standing calf raise

Rest - day 3

upper day - day 4
Incline DB bench - 5x5
Bent over row - 5x5
Hang cleans - 5x5
Hammer curls - 3x10
Tricep kickbacks - 3x10

Lower day - day 5
Straight leg deads - 3x8
Full squats - 5x5
Rotational calf press - 3x12

Rest - day 6 and 7.

This way, you hit each body part at least 2 times a week. You get the same amount of volume, but with more frequency. Splits usually run me around 60 minutes per session, full body 60 - 90 minutes.
 
I see what you mean. I was doing something like that for a while, but I wasn't feeling it enough in any of my muscles. Nothing would be sore the next day. With working each muscle once a week but hitting it hard I'm feeling it a lot more. My chest/triceps will be sore for a while afterwards. Heh, seems I can hardly do anything to get my biceps that sore though. I know sore isn't always good, but it's one of the ways I know I'm really working the muscle.
 
The more you workout, the more your body adapts to it. After a while, you shouldn't feel sore unless you try something new. The best way to guage if you had a good workout is if it was better than your last one. More weight, more reps, less rest between sets, etc...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top