working out 5+ days a week whats really wrong with it

[jumpshot903]

Alright forget what your used to doing forget what works for you im asking strictly from a progress, overall health, fitness standpoint whats the downside to working out 5+ days a week. Generally a bodybuilding routine has it set around 3-4 days a week working on compound lifts am i correct? But considering im not going for a bodybuilding physique just pure overall health and sports funcionality if i were to go the gym for say 6 days a week and take a week off every once in a while will i really notice anything different?

Ive been toying with the idea of doing 4 day straight of my normal lifs the same as the people who do 4 days in a 7 day time span im doing 4 in a 5 day timespan if my body is already fully recovered after those 4 days why wait another 2? Football players practice every day often twice and last time i checked you dont mess with most of them.

So a normal week would look something like this

Monday- Workout A
Tuesday- Workout B
Wednesday- Workout C
Thursday- Workout D
Friday- Rest
Saturday- Workout A
Sunday- Workout B

And so on and so fourth i always see people saying dont workout 6 times a week dont do this dont do that but why? As long as you know your body and can tell if your overtraining i dont get the point why its not bad to workout more then 5 times a week.

Alright so look at it from my standpoint im not looking to be huge not competing in any shows im looking to become a better athlete is there any proven scientific results that say working 6 times a week is bad?

[David Dunn]

It is entirely dependent upon your training. Moderate intensity, moderate volume, moderate cardio and sufficient rest will allow you to become a well rounded well conditioned athletic individual. An imbalance of overreaching in one area or another will require you to reduce an other aspect, rest more or suffer shortcoming in recovery, performance and or achievement in an other.

A well rounded fitness, diet and sleep routine can be implemented perpetually if so desired.

[jumpshot903]

Well said sir, i get 8-10 hours of sleep a night and keep a steady balance of cardio, lifting, stretching i even do yoga 1-2 times a week (no homo yogas the shiz)

[David Dunn]

Balance is the key to your longevity, which for some, is the definition of success.

Bodybuilding, in most cases, much of what you will find here, is a condition of obsessive compulsiveness, which is unhealthy and usually results in compulsive rebounds in the opposite direction with equal obsessiveness.

Yoga is my aspiration - meaning, one day I aspire to find what it has to offer and implement it in my life.

Good luck!

[ZiR RED]

There's a difference between a football practice, and a weight training session. In practice, much of the time is devoted to developing skills and movements, and working on plays. The volume of high intensity work is not as high as you would think. 2 hours are not being devoted strictly to conditioning.

There is, however, nothing wrong with training 5-6 days a week. We share similar goals, and this summer I have been running 6-9 training sessions per week. Mon, wed, and fri are weight training days, centered around olympic lifts and power development. Tues and thursday are speed days. I have two conditioning sessions, usually on monday and friday, and saturday is a low impact aerobic day.

The need to deload when training like this, though, becomes very important. Deload weeks are programmed right when over reaching has occured, and returning from a deload week is never right back to 100% intensity, but rather around 90 and working up to 100 right before the next deload.

Br

[CopyCat]

As these guys already pointed out there is nothing wrong with working out 6 days a week. It all depends on your goals and type of training along with proper rest and nutrition. I usually work out 6 days a week. Lift weights 3-4 days, run 3 days, play 2 hrs of sand volley ball 3 days, and cycle or spin 1 day. Now of course, I am not completely tearing myself down in each event. Some people follow more strict guidelines like Zir and some like me wing it a bit more. Meaning, I'll up my carbs or take a rest day if I get too lethargic or feel I'm over doing it. Such was the cas with my running for awhile and had to tailor my miles back, but am on track again with longer runs.

[kingk0ng]

There is, however, nothing wrong with training 5-6 days a week.

Doesn't 5-6 days of resistance training affect the endocrine system response? Isn't there high cortisol and low testosterone 24 hours after a training session?

[ZiR RED]

Doesn't 5-6 days of resistance training affect the endocrine system response? Isn't there high cortisol and low testosterone 24 hours after a training session?

Good question. I'm not sure off the top of my head, to be honest, it would definetly warrant some looking into. There are so many factors, however, that need to be taken into consideration. Volume, intensity, CNS debilitating techniques (negatives, going to failure, forced reps), and of course, the fitness level of the individual will impact what occurs post exercise and for how long.

Br

[kingk0ng]

Good question. I'm not sure off the top of my head, to be honest, it would definetly warrant some looking into. There are so many factors, however, that need to be taken into consideration. Volume, intensity, CNS debilitating techniques (negatives, going to failure, forced reps), and of course, the fitness level of the individual will impact what occurs post exercise and for how long.

Br

Thanks. Good points on the variables. I can't remember where exactly I read that at, but I believe it said back to back training sessions were found to elevate cortisol.

[SRS2000]

Any nervous system or endocrine response to training is dictated largely by the overall training load, not necessarily how many day a week you do it.
I think the reason most people don't recommend training 6 days a week is that about 99% of the time the question is from an overzealous young trainee who has borderline OCD about training (most of us have been there at one point or another). Most of these people don't want to train 6 days a week because they have a well thought out plan to regulate volume and intensity over time as they slowly build a base of strength and conditioning. Often they just go in an try to induce vomiting, severe DOMS, or muscular fatigue that results in near death every time they train. This is why most people recommend not training 6 days a week. Some people can do it, but you really have to know what you are doing to optimize your training on this sort of schedule.
For the OP here, if you want to train 6 days a week because you like to train that's fine. It's unlikely to be the best way to optimize your gains unless you've really put alot of time and effort into exercise selection, volume, and intensity. Just because you can train that often doesn't mean you should.

[CopyCat]

We also need to remember that he isn't just going to be lifting for 6 days. He's going to be mixing in other forms of training as well. He didn't specify what, but I'm assuming he may be looking at running, cycling, swimming, boxing, who knows. Some I would assume may be low volume, others high intensity, etc. That does make for a difference.

[sportsk91]

Alright forget what your used to doing forget what works for you im asking strictly from a progress, overall health, fitness standpoint whats the downside to working out 5+ days a week. Generally a bodybuilding routine has it set around 3-4 days a week working on compound lifts am i correct? But considering im not going for a bodybuilding physique just pure overall health and sports funcionality if i were to go the gym for say 6 days a week and take a week off every once in a while will i really notice anything different?

Ive been toying with the idea of doing 4 day straight of my normal lifs the same as the people who do 4 days in a 7 day time span im doing 4 in a 5 day timespan if my body is already fully recovered after those 4 days why wait another 2? Football players practice every day often twice and last time i checked you dont mess with most of them.

So a normal week would look something like this

Monday- Workout A
Tuesday- Workout B
Wednesday- Workout C
Thursday- Workout D
Friday- Rest
Saturday- Workout A
Sunday- Workout B

And so on and so fourth i always see people saying dont workout 6 times a week dont do this dont do that but why? As long as you know your body and can tell if your overtraining i dont get the point why its not bad to workout more then 5 times a week.

Alright so look at it from my standpoint im not looking to be huge not competing in any shows im looking to become a better athlete is there any proven scientific results that say working 6 times a week is bad?

i train 6 days a week dis is my routine
monday - chest 16 sets
tues - quads 12 sets
wed - arms 9 each
thurs - hams/calves 12/9 sets
friday - shoulders 12 sets
sat - back 16 sets
and i do cardio in the evenings
i stick to 1 weight throughout the exericse nt to heavy not to light n i train just to keep myself in shape, and i feel so good, i dnt feel like im overtraining at all. so yeah stick to what u fink is rite 4 u

[jiberish]

Before I did 2 days on 1 day off. Now I am doing layne norton's routine which is 5 days a week. I like it. If look at interviews with guys on simplyshredded they workout a lot too. If I do any less than 4 I feel soft and don't look as good in the mirror. Just my opinion.

[MongoSS]

It depends on how intense your lifting is and how much overlap there is in your training. For your muscular system you can definitely adapt to 5+ days of weight training as long as you adaquatly break up your body parts. Now for absolute strength and athletic function you can run into problems if you are lifting at high intensity for 5+ days, your nervous system will deteriorate. For example have you ever tried maxing on the same lift more than two weeks in a row? by the third or fourth week your max strength will drop. This is because the nervous system is over taxed. I dont have details to what lifts you are doing at what intensities, so it is hard to tell you if you are doing too much. I would refer you to


Prilipins table to check your intensity levels on compound lifts.

Read some of the westside barbell articles


You have to evaluate both your tonnage and intensity level to set parameters for recovery time.

I used to lift 6 days when I was into bodybuilding, I recovered ok, and grew a considerable amount of muscle. I did break up my workouts a lot though.

day 1 legs

day 2 back

day 3 chest

day 4 shoulders, calves

day 5 Bis and tris

day 6 Abs, Hams Or any weak muscle group.

I had modest strength gains during the period that I lifted this way. I had a good base though.

I now train 4 days. 2 on -1 off- 2 on. per week. And I am the strongest I have ever been and have made the best strength gains, training 4 days.

It all depends on your goals, how strong do you want to be? how much muscle do you want to maintain? What athletic qualities are you trying to acheive?

Also, recovery depends on these factors:

Sleep

Nutrition

supplementation (illegal or legal)

[kingdong]

Personally, I hink that if your trying to get big naturally, doing what most people consider overtraining and forceing your body to adapt is the way to go. Worked for me. It's only when your big that you really have to worry about tearing your body down long term. Remeber to consume plenty of nutrients and enough calories.

You said you didn't whant a bodybuilder phasyque though, so you may whant to throw what I said out the window.