Overtraining?

[garrett]

Hey guys, I work out 2 body parts per day.

Legs, shoulders
Back, biceps
Chest, triceps

For legs, back, and chest I do 4 exercises for each and 4 sets for each exercise. For shoulders, tris, and bis I do 3 exercises for each and 3 sets for each exercise. I usually go 3 days on and then 1 off.....then repeat. Every now and then I end up taking more days off here and there if I can't make it. Does this sound good or do you guys think it's overtraining?

 

[jminis]

Hey guys, I work out 2 body parts per day.

Legs, shoulders
Back, biceps
Chest, triceps

For legs, back, and chest I do 4 exercises for each and 4 sets for each exercise. For shoulders, tris, and bis I do 3 exercises for each and 3 sets for each exercise. I usually go 3 days on and then 1 off.....then repeat. Every now and then I end up taking more days off here and there if I can't make it. Does this sound good or do you guys think it's overtraining?

Hard to say, everyone is different. Really there's only one question to ask yourself here, Are you continually going up in lifts and or reps each week? Are you progressing? If not, overtraining might be an issue, if you are keep on truckin. :cheers:

 

[pumpinfina]

i once did a cycle of drol, and Deca and worked chest everyday for 4 weeks straight when i used drol, and made progress?

 

[glenihan]

Hey guys, I work out 2 body parts per day.

Legs, shoulders
Back, biceps
Chest, triceps

For legs, back, and chest I do 4 exercises for each and 4 sets for each exercise. For shoulders, tris, and bis I do 3 exercises for each and 3 sets for each exercise. I usually go 3 days on and then 1 off.....then repeat. Every now and then I end up taking more days off here and there if I can't make it. Does this sound good or do you guys think it's overtraining?

it sounds like you may be as 16 sets is a lot, for example for chest i only do 7 sets total

with that said you're 18 and less likely to be overtrained than you will be as you get older

like was said, are your lifts going up each week (or just about each week) ... do you constantly feel slightly tired and fatigued? do you always kinda feel like you can use a nap? are you not that hungry that often?

 

[DR.D]

It was easier for me to overtrain as a kid (14-18) It got better as I aged with improved muscle maturity and used periodization techniques. But by then, I didn't have the drive to train 4hrs a day anymore! So like the other fellas said, do it if it works, but if you start losing weight, size and strength or your gains have stopped, you are probably overtraining. Then go back to heavy weights and less frequent training in most cases.

 

[garrett]

reply

Let's see.....I have a pretty big appetite and I don't usually feel the need for a nap...unless I don't get enough sleep one night. I don't feel constantly fatigued either. I usually get sore a lot of the time from working major body parts.....usually if you're overtraining it's unlikely to get sore, right? Umm...I don't always go up every week....it just depends. Some body parts go up some stay the same. Overall I make progress, but it feels slow. I mean this summer at the end of july i could about 135 for 4 sets of 10 on bench and 4 sets of 10 at 225 for squats. my working weight with stuff like shoulder dumbbell presses was with 40 lb dumbells. Now i can do 155 4 sets of 10 on bench press, 4 sets of 10 at 275 on squat, and 50 lb dumbell shoulder presses. Is good or average or what? I seemed to gain faster than people in my weight lifting class but stuff....thanks

 

[glenihan]

well why not switch it up and see what happens ... you really don't have much to lose if i could recommend something it would be do no more than 6-9 sets per body part and only 3 exercises do only 4-6 reps and use the heaviest weight you possibly can* do this for 8 weeks and see where you stand ... i think its worth a shot


* for legs i would recommend a rep ranger of 8-12 reps and for bis and tris i would recommend only 4-6 sets with 2 exercises

 

[garrett]

well why not switch it up and see what happens ... you really don't have much to lose if i could recommend something it would be do no more than 6-9 sets per body part and only 3 exercises do only 4-6 reps and use the heaviest weight you possibly can* do this for 8 weeks and see where you stand ... i think its worth a shot


* for legs i would recommend a rep ranger of 8-12 reps and for bis and tris i would recommend only 4-6 sets with 2 exercises

Alright cool I'll give it a try and see what happens. Should I just continue to cycle through everything twice a week?

 

[glenihan]

ohh i completely missed that .. you're working each muscle group twice a week? i thought it was a MWF schedule

what i do is
monday - chest bis
tues - legs
wed- off
thurs - shoulder tris
fri - back
sat and sun off

i would NOT recommend working each muscle group 2x a week at all

 

[GottaMakeIt]

ohh i completely missed that .. you're working each muscle group twice a week? i thought it was a MWF schedule

what i do is
monday - chest bis
tues - legs
wed- off
thurs - shoulder tris
fri - back
sat and sun off

i would NOT recommend working each muscle group 2x a week at all

why not

 

[glenihan]

your muscles need time to recover, this can easily take up to a week to 10 days especially for larger muscles like back and legs

3 days between working muscle groups is not enough, unless you have the world's greatest genetics like arnold

if you work the same muscle group two times inside of a week, you will just continually break down the muscle, never giving it a chance to repair itself and grow (remember you don't grow in the gym, you grown when you're out of the gym)

anyone working out the same muscle groups 2x a week, take a week off to let your body recover then cut it back to 1x a week and in a few weeks you will see a world of difference

 

[GottaMakeIt]

your muscles need time to recover, this can easily take up to a week to 10 days especially for larger muscles like back and legs

3 days between working muscle groups is not enough, unless you have the world's greatest genetics like arnold

if you work the same muscle group two times inside of a week, you will just continually break down the muscle, never giving it a chance to repair itself and grow (remember you don't grow in the gym, you grown when you're out of the gym)

anyone working out the same muscle groups 2x a week, take a week off to let your body recover then cut it back to 1x a week and in a few weeks you will see a world of difference

I think you can work the same muscle group more than once a week, provided that (1) you do not hit the muscles to failure and (2) you keep the volume low.
I subscribe to Bryan Haycock's view that human body was meant to adapt to what it perceives as "environmental conditions." So, which of the two following scenarios do you think your body would perceive it as "environment"? ( 1 ) super heavy workout once per week or ( 2 ) working a muscle twice or thrice a week(at least smaller ones like biceps shoulders etc) being careful to keep the average weekly volume manageable.
If you read much written by Tudor Bompa, he recommends a very high frequency of training for those engaged in pure bodybuilding activity. The metabolic stress and glycogen replenishment requires very little time, something like 24-48 hours. It's the neural stress that really impacts recovery and takes forever to recovery from but if you're training with shorter rest intervals and higher reps you won't be draining the nervous system to such a large extent.

 

[glenihan]

i couldn't disagree any more with what you're saying Gottamakeit, and no disrespect at all meant, i just don't believe that you can possible have your muscles fully recover within that short of a time frame

plus i don't want to work my muscles twice a week and go light, if you go so light that you can recover in 2 days, you aren't really breaking down your muscles enough to allow them to build themselves up into something spectacular

i'd rather beat the everloving **** outta my muscles once a week and let them spend the rest of the time recovering and GROWING .. like i said before you don't grow in the gym, you grown while resting out of the gym ... i would strongly urge anyone working out a muscle group 2x a week to give what i recommend a try for 8 weeks and tell me you don't see a whole slew of new gains

and i do agree that training with higher reps with less weight will not impact the nervous system as much, but it also won't impact your muscles as much and doesn't facilitate growth like heavy heavy lifting does

btw this isn't my theory, its the theories of people like mike mentzer, iron addict, and dante (doggcrap) and the max-ot philosphy ... i've taken aspects from all of them and put together my workout based off of it and its worked wonders for me

 

[exnihilo]

Watch out, the HST nazis are gonna come and take you away :rofl:

 

[DR.D]

Glenihan is right for the most part, but I can honestly say that I have seen new gains throwing in a month of 1.5 to 2x/wk HIT training about every other month just to mix it up. I recover slowly, so I know it's the high # of sets that does it. Lifting very heavy to failure with low reps and only 2 or 3 sets max per group.