fitness novice

[Nguruwe]

Hey all, I'm just barely getting started with taking fitness seriously and doing my research.

I'm not sure where else to post this, but I have a question about muscle training. I'm fairly new to calculated muscle training, but I have read/heard a couple of things... One is

The only way to get improve your muscle size and muscle strength is to allow adequate recovery time between performing exercises with the same muscle groups. Without adequate recovery of calcium balance, muscle energy, and muscle protein content, your muscle force will be lower with each subsequent workout, thereby reducing the quality of the workout in terms of the weight lifted. This is certainly not the way to get stronger. In addition, unless you wait until full structural recovery occurs, you will simply be destroying the new muscle tissue being formed to replace the damaged tissue. And this is no way to get bigger.
So how long should one wait between weight lifting bouts using the same body part? Well, based on the recovery data discussed above as well as the detraining data discussed in sidebar #1, it appears that when doing intense weight lifting workouts and letting nature take it's course, a period of 7 or more days may be a good starting point. However each individual may be different. In addition, as discussed in sidebar #2, certain recovery techniques may speed up healing.

1) Be sure that muscle soreness is completely gone.
2) Be sure that your range of motion has returned.
3) Be sure that your muscle strength is better than it was during the previous workout.
4) For those of you who like to quantify things, you can measure your relaxed muscle circumference before your training session and wait until the swelling has gone down.

At first I found this helpful. I was totally training on my own time, so it worked out pretty well. My Aikido instructor always told me to do push-ups every day, but I found this to be frustrating because I'd just be much weaker the next day or three... then I'd wonder why I wasn't getting stronger and be demotivated to do any more. But over the summer I trained a lot at the dojo, 3-6 times a week for six weeks. One thing I really noticed was how my thighs got much stronger, and after about three-four weeks they suddenly seemed very strong. I only trained Aikido once during the rest of summer. My first 2-3 times training Aikido after I started up again left my thighs exhausted, but after that I felt very strong again in this area. So it seems that training so often over the summer had a long-lasting effect, even though I was completely exhausted after the first couple of times returning to practice. Why is that?

Anyway... I talked to someone else about this, and he suggested that training the same muscles day after day is best for endurance training. So I decided yesterday to start training push-ups as often as possible and daily instead of waiting a long period for muscle recovery. I liked this idea better because I'm no longer doing push-ups only on my own time - I train Aikido thrice a week, and we usually do 10-20 push-ups per session. Therefore, I cannot choose how long to wait for muscle recovery. Currently, I can't actually do a complete push-up. So what do you think is best and why?

Your help would be much appreciated! Thanks.
Nguruwe

 

[JohnnySolo]

I say, work your push-ups on the same day as class (after class) and rest (your push-ups) on the off days.

Work wall push-ups, counter top push-ups or in a stair well or from your knees. Go for 3 sets of 10 the first week and see how you feel. You can then add more reps, make the push-ups harder or both.

Why: you have a weak chest and it needs to recover. Your legs aren’t weak and the training works well for them. Down the road your chest can be strong and handle daily push-ups, but not to frailer every day.