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Working out 3 hours a day

Doyouliftbro

Doyouliftbro

New member
Will working out 3 hours a day cause over training? I have a lot of time on my hands and want to devote most of it to the gym any tips?
 
Doyouliftbro said:
Will it seriously hinder my progress ? I'm not on the juice only on basic supps, i just feel like an hour isn't cutting it ya know?
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To add I didn't mean every single day my split is currently 2 days on 1 day off but I want to workout for 3 hours on my workout days
 
Working out that long makes you reach a point of "diminishing returns". Your body will stop progressing over time, and there is some indication that you actually start seeing a LOSS in progression. No studies that I know of prove that to be the case, but there is a lot of anecdotle evidence.
 
Doyouliftbro said:
Will working out 3 hours a day cause over training? I have a lot of time on my hands and want to devote most of it to the gym any tips?
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people seem not to realize it is not like ping pong or cricket where hours spent associates with amelioration
 
Don't see any need for more than an hour training. You could use some of that other time to stretch, foam roll and get some cardio in.
 
3 hours is way overkill. Spend an hour in the gym and go outside to use that muscle doing something else functional.
 
**** 3 hours a day. That's nuts, I use to train for 60-90min and now I train at the very most 60 min. Your body dosent need that long to destroy a muscle if your training hard and hitting failure it should really only be 1 -3 sets per muscle. I know some massive guys that are in and out in 30
 
You better be pounding calories if you're doing 2 a days. I don't believe in the "you must only lift for 45-60 minutes max". If I want to life for 1.5 -2 hours, the. I ****ing will. And I look better than 90% of my gym. Do what you want. Eat a huge surplus if you plan to train for more than 60 minutes.
 
EatMoar said:
You better be pounding calories if you're doing 2 a days. I don't believe in the "you must only lift for 45-60 minutes max". If I want to life for 1.5 -2 hours, the. I ****ing will. And I look better than 90% of my gym. Do what you want. Eat a huge surplus if you plan to train for more than 60 minutes.
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Dude that's what I'm saying, I know some jacked ass guys that workout for 2-3 hours in the gym
 
Olympic lifters (US, so natty) can put in some 18 hours a week during offseason, I've seen successful powerlifters do up to 14 hours a week.
I say try it and see how it works for you. If it doesn't make you happy, stop. If it does, keep doing it. No need to be hypothetical about it.
 
How can anyone (myself included) comment on this question without knowing (and not limited to):

Training experience
Energy intake
Goals
Exercises
Sets
Reps
Rest
Load intensity
Frequency
Periodization/progression
Variation
Planned reduced loading periods
Recovery strategies
Movement quality and postural deviations
Injury history
 
Regardless if it's beneficial to train that long or not....who has time these days to spend 3 hours in the gym?
 
3 hours training can be done. I do it today when I work away from home to burn time. Actually I progressed. I work in the energy field. I work 12 hr shifts, sleep 5-6 hrs and hit the gym. I have many logs to prove it. No I'm not eating a ton of calories and I made crazy gains. In fact, I hit my biggest bench when I trained this way by last November 17, 2013 @ 440 lbs and broke a Masters Bench Record. It got me over a plateau. Yes, all natural, never utilized AAS or Ph's. In fact, my supplements are protein, creating, multivitamins and sometimes fat burners and test boosters. When you have this kind of time, you have to get creative. I overlapped body parts and even benched up to 4 times a week. No I'm not 20 or even 30. In fact, I'm 40. It can be done. I tend to follow people like CT Fletcher and Mike Rashid.
 
IMO anything over an hour is too much. Your body becomes catabolic instead of anabolic. I stick to one body part per day 45-60 mins. Very heavy. Post workout meal right after. Now if you're adding cardio in after I suggest taking post workout after lift and and before cardio to avoid the catabolic state.
 
Just listen to what your body tells you. If you can handle it and are progressing, then go for it. If not, then don't. Pretty simple
 
megatron2222 said:
IMO anything over an hour is too much. Your body becomes catabolic instead of anabolic. I stick to one body part per day 45-60 mins. Very heavy. Post workout meal right after. Now if you're adding cardio in after I suggest taking post workout after lift and and before cardio to avoid the catabolic state.
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That is way too general. Yes, for the type of workout you do by only sticking to one single body part, about 50 min is optimal. But, to say that your body goes catabolic if you workout more than 60 min is just plain wrong.

In any case, if someone is going to go over 60 or so min, then they would likely be consuming BCAAs intra.
 
kisaj said:
That is way too general. Yes, for the type of workout you do by only sticking to one single body part, about 50 min is optimal. But, to say that your body goes catabolic if you workout more than 60 min is just plain wrong. In any case, if someone is going to go over 60 or so min, then they would likely be consuming BCAAs intra.
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True that it's general. I should have been more specific and said that goes for myself. My bad. I know if I do more than 16 working sets I'm doing more harm than good. I go catabolic and break down that muscle too much after an hour.
 
If your question is from less experience with your body and only taking into account, that "more is better", or the more time in the gym will equate to more progress!? No, not really an accurate assessment. Way to many lifters in great elite shape and with great elite strength, spend half that time in the gym.
If on the other hand, you have specific goal(s) that you will need to spend that much time perfecting lifts, body parts etc. etc., then higher time frames may come more into play.
 
megatron2222 said:
True that it's general. I should have been more specific and said that goes for myself. My bad. I know if I do more than 16 working sets I'm doing more harm than good. I go catabolic and break down that muscle too much after an hour.
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How do you know this? Do you have anything to support this or is it something that has become parroted so many times on boards and magazines that you now believe it?

Yes, cortisol starts to rise at ~60mins into a session, but that really has zero influence on catabolism (BTW, cortisol also helps to mobilize free-fatty acids).
 
Rodja said:
How do you know this? Do you have anything to support this or is it something that has become parroted so many times on boards and magazines that you now believe it? Yes, cortisol starts to rise at ~60mins into a session, but that really has zero influence on catabolism (BTW, cortisol also helps to mobilize free-fatty acids).
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From my own experience this holds true. I train one body part per day. I've learned that anything over 16 working sets results in over training. I know this because I used to train for 2.5hrs a day when I didn't know what was best for my body. I actually started losing gains made years prior. For myself I want to keep cortisol as low as possible. Again this is what I've found that works best for myself from my own experience. I'm a bodybuilder and all of my goals are geared towards that.
 
megatron2222 said:
From my own experience this holds true. I train one body part per day. I've learned that anything over 16 working sets results in over training. I know this because I used to train for 2.5hrs a day when I didn't know what was best for my body. I actually started losing gains made years prior. For myself I want to keep cortisol as low as possible. Again this is what I've found that works best for myself from my own experience. I'm a bodybuilder and all of my goals are geared towards that.
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You should look further into the positive role of spiking cortisol from training. What you experienced is not overtraining; overtraining is a CNS issue.
 
Rodja said:
You should look further into the positive role of spiking cortisol from training. What you experienced is not overtraining; overtraining is a CNS issue.
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Right and I know when my CNS is fatigued. You can physically feel the effects. I'm very intuitive when it comes to my body and my training. As far as spiking cortisol I will look into it.
 
megatron2222 said:
True that it's general. I should have been more specific and said that goes for myself. My bad. I know if I do more than 16 working sets I'm doing more harm than good. I go catabolic and break down that muscle too much after an hour.
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I appreciate that you are subjectively aware and listen to your body. Many people do not, or push through, and end up injured.

With regards to cortisol, catabolism, and muscle break down much of what you have read on boards and "muscle magazines" is incorrect and not scientifically founded. It is true that cortisol increases with both the duration and the metabolic load of the training. (A 45 minute bodybuilding type program would increase cortisol greater than 1.5 hour powerlifitng program). Protein catabolism is going to occur during any intense training, however, it requires a LOT of work for that protein catabolism to shift from breaking down plasma proteins (such as albumin in the blood) to muscle proteins. Moreover, any training will result in some muscle protein breakdown, especially when muscle damage occurs (such as DOMS) and gains are only made when protein anabolism (during recovery) exceeds that of protein catabolism (during training).

The best, and easiest way to look at cortisol is this. Cortisol released during training is not a negative. In fact, it is a necessity to performance and adaption. Cortisol released as a response to cognitive and emotional stress (i.e.: at rest) is a negative, and will lead to reduced glucose uptake and possibly muscle breakdown.

Here is a good article showing that a positive relationship exists between cortisol release during training and muscle growth.
Invalid Link Removed
 
ZiR RED said:
The best, and easiest way to look at cortisol is this. Cortisol released during training is not a negative. In fact, it is a necessity to performance and adaption. Cortisol released as a response to cognitive and emotional stress (i.e.: at rest) is a negative, and will lead to reduced glucose uptake and possibly muscle breakdown.
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Isn't that because when it is related to mental and emotional stress, it is usually long standing and over a period of time- which is really what is making it bad? My understanding was that it is really the duration of time that cortisol is elevated.

Is this wrong?
 
kisaj said:
Isn't that because when it is related to mental and emotional stress, it is usually long standing and over a period of time- which is really what is making it bad? My understanding was that it is really the duration of time that cortisol is elevated.

Is this wrong?
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no you're not wrong kisaj
 
Doyouliftbro said:
Will it seriously hinder my progress ? I'm not on the juice only on basic supps, i just feel like an hour isn't cutting it ya know?
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Then do 2 hours, but 3 is way too much. I used to overtrain a lot. Got me no where. As soon as I increased calories and lowered workout time my body changed for the better.
 
kisaj said:
Isn't that because when it is related to mental and emotional stress, it is usually long standing and over a period of time- which is really what is making it bad? My understanding was that it is really the duration of time that cortisol is elevated.

Is this wrong?
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That is part of it. And the internal environmental differences occurring with exercise (increased glucose uptake by tissues irrespective of low insulin and increased lipolysis) vs. at rest where cortisol causes most tissues to become insulin insensitive and decreases glucose uptake.
 
megatron2222 said:
True that it's general. I should have been more specific and said that goes for myself. My bad. I know if I do more than 16 working sets I'm doing more harm than good. I go catabolic and break down that muscle too much after an hour.
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describe catabolic. youre muscles have enough glycogen stored and you will use that before you break down muscle protein. you dont break down protein from your muscles to make energy until youve been on an island (island optional) and starving for weeks. You have plenty of glycogen stored up my friend, use it :)

also dont be the guy who trains 7 days in a row, trust me, ive done it. when i started to do 2-3 days in a row max, is when i llooked my hardest, largest, and sexiest.
 
i also have loads of free time and i only train with weights 3, 4 times max per week, each sesh shouldnt take you anymore than an hour. anything over an hour is definetly overkill, you will counterproduct(get smaller/weaker). i would recommend 3 to 4 seshons a wk, each sesh last upto 1 hour. aim for 15-20 sets per muscle group
 
stuart craig said:
i also have loads of free time and i only train with weights 3, 4 times max per week, each sesh shouldnt take you anymore than an hour. anything over an hour is definetly overkill, you will counterproduct(get smaller/weaker). i would recommend 3 to 4 seshons a wk, each sesh last upto 1 hour. aim for 15-20 sets per muscle group
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Jesus, a full post of nonsense. Not bad for your first one.
 
It's sad how many people still think anything over an hour is immediately counterproductive and will make you weaker and smaller.
 
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