strength training

[othie]

Hi guys,

This has probably been asked, but I can't find it, if you have a link to another thread on the same topic that would be great.

A little background. My gym is about 45mins away, by the college I'm going to, so I usually don't go unless I have something else to do in town. I go into town tue, wed, and thrus. Of these days I go to the gym on tues and thrus, and as of to today I'm adding sat to that list. As you can guess I do strength training at the gym. On my off days I'm going for a walk with the dog (its not a long walk, but atleast its something).

Anyways, my question is, Should I go after class on wed to? I always thought that you had to rest a day between strength training, but yesterday my brother told me that I could go everyday as long as I change the order that I do the machines in. Is this true?

Another question, though not nearly as important. I hate getting in a swim suit in public, but my gym has two great pools and a couple hot tubs. I haven't been swimming in over 7 years but I used to love it...Does anyone have any suggestions to help me feel more comfortable? I know this might not be possible, but maybe someone else has had this problem and something worked for them...

 

[KaraCooks]

I always thought that you had to rest a day between strength training, but yesterday my brother told me that I could go everyday as long as I change the order that I do the machines in. Is this true?

You're both kind of right.

When you strength train, what you're doing is making microscopic tears, stretches, and damage to your muscles. After you stress your muscles in this way, they work overtime to rebuild and strengthen that damage. THAT is what builds strength and muscle - it's not just the work, it's the recovery period after the work that is very important.

So, yes, you MUST allow time for your muscles to recover after you work them. Most reliable sources recommend a minimum of 24 hours and even better 48 hours between sessions.

But many people want to be able to work out every day - or at least every other day. So the way they work around the recovery time is to work muscles in groups. So for example, on Day 1, you work your upper body, back, arms, and shoulders. Then on Day 2 you work your lower body, core, legs and butt. That means that although you're working out on Day 2, you're still giving your Day 1 muscles the rest and recovery they need.

It's not just changing the order of the machines, it's actually making sure you work out DIFFERENT MUSCLE GROUPS on alternating days.

Since so much of my weight lifting workout is full body and since I do both lower and upper body in the same workout, I prefer to skip days. As of right now what I'm doing is strength/weight training on Mondays and Thursdays and training for my 5k on the other days of the week. (I take Sundays off entirely.)

 

[Jynus]

also, minor quibble, but i would recommend dropping the machines and doing their free weight equivalents. there is a lot more that goes on when doing a free weight movement.

don't get me wrong, machines have there place. rehab, complete and utter newness, and elite level bodybuilding to completely isolate a muscle group. but other than that, you get way more milage out of free weights once you learn to use them.

Using squats as an example. squats are one of the best core workouts you can do. the amount of force and core activation you need to output in order to stabilize the bar to keep you from falling over forward is immense. A heavy weight squat is in a lot of ways a full and complete body workout that stresses and balances everything in the body. amazing exercise. however, if you do squats on a smith machine, all those benefits are lost. no stabilization needed, no core activated, no upper body tightened to support the load, only the isolation of the quads to do the work. it's not near as effective, even at higher weights.

you can lose a lot of the benefits of working out when you use a machine. the body is designed to be used as one kinetic chain to do work a lot of the time. I find it best to do exercises that take advantage of this. while most machines can restrict this principle.

edit:
also, to answer original question, the body needs rest. a muscle worked should have 48 hours rest minimum. more if it's been really stressed if you're working out at an advanced level. so doing a different order of machines doesn't solve the problem if you're working the same muscles again.

Thats why it's recommended you don't do full body workout more than 2-3 days a week. So you have that proper time to rest. But if you're like me and want to resistance train more than that, then thats where splits become your friend. A simple one for any new person is upper and lower body split. then you can weight train 2 days back to back and its fine because different muscles in the body are being fully worked.

 

[othie]

thanks guys

Honestly I'm alittle worried about moving away from the machines my trainer (the one that came with the membership). For the same reasons I don't feel comfortable with the free weights, I would be worried I was doing it wrong. But I should be ready to do more soon, so then I might be able to split it between days.