How much rest do I need?

RKL3rd

New member
Can anyone help me with this question. I have been working out for about 4 months now and have seen pretty good results. I would work my chest one day a week and my Bicepts and Tricepts another day a week and Back and shoulders another day but I would never work the same muscles more than once a week. I was at the gym last night and was talking to some guys that were pretty big guys and they were telling me to do all my upper body in one day Chest, Bicepts, Tricepts, Shoulders, and Back. Then they said do it two more times this week. Isnt this a little much? I mean are my muscles healed enough to work them every other day? I mean these guys are big but I just dont know if this is the way to do it. Any advice?
 
The body tends to adapt to a given stimulus given enough time and support. If you give your body a week to recover, it will tend to be "lazy". If you make it recover in 2 days, it will recover faster assuming you give it time and support to adapt. Muscles can recover pretty quickly.

However I have to emphasize your given work tolerance and gradually increasing volume and frequency in order to give your body the chance to adapt. If you jump into full body 4 times a week from once a week, you may likely get trashed and overtrain. However do it gradually over months and you should be okay given proper nutrition, rest, and lifestyle.
 
The best way to figure out how something is going to work for you is to experiment with it. I've tried the full body splits before and they don't work for me as well as a 4 or 5 day split does.
 
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