Thread: muscle recovery

I think 48 - 72 hours of rest between a workouts that hit the same muscle group is ample time. I do a 3 day split such as: M- Chest/Tri T- Legs/Shoulders W- Back/Bi T- Rest F- Chest/Tri and so on.

First, that guy stinks at reading scientific research and correctly using it to defend his points.

Second, I disagree with his conclusions. Sure, muscle strength is going to be diminished after intense exercise. All of his studies assert this point. But I did not read a single study he cited that stated that 7-14 days is necessary for full recovery. And I certainly did not see a study that stated that full recovery is necessary for gains in strength and muscle mass.

Not to mention, the subjects of these studies are generally untrained or reasonably trained, but they are not adapted to the type of loading that the study requires. I think there is a lot of adaptation that goes on within the body. We eventually become accustomed to a program and recovery becomes easier.

Pretty much every athlete all over the world is "training inefficiently" if what this article advocates is true.

was just seeing what others thought, i have read a few different scientists say similar things but then a lot also say differently. I seem to find that if i train with heavy weights ie 5-8 reps and do it to near failure i need a long time to recover, more than 3 days. i think its probably different for every person with genetics and weight used and how close to failure you go, from what ive read the actual muscle can indeed repair quite quickly within 72 hours but the CNS takes longer

Of course, the neuromuscular recovery was the focus of a lot of those studies. I don't think anyone will disagree that going through a training program for a long period of time is going to build up CNS fatigue.

The thing is, the notion of "fatigue masks fitness" is vital to most training programs. Most athletes train intensely for part of their season in preparation for a few events and "taper" for these events. You can't constantly take a break from training for the sake of recovery, because even training with a fatigued CNS is going to improve your athletic performance.

Hell, the guys at Westside max every week. They do a small taper before their competitions and they usually blow everyone out of the water.

but u cant activate all your motor neurons with a sub rested CNS, and this is thought to be one of the methods of becoming stronger/bigger, you need to exhaust as many motor neurons as possible, hence why compound exercises are encouraged as they require most motor units, so you want them to have rested, recovered and supercompensated which all takes time but obviously it varies person to person and obviously if your on gear it probably isnt an issue. before activating them all again, otherwise people would lift weights every day.

The question is this: how much value is added by those extra recovery days and how much is lost by not training?

If you recover to 70% of full capacity in 2 days but only to 80% by 3 days, is it worth it to wait the extra day to not train? I'd imagine that recovery decays exponentially by day, so you recover quickly in the first few days after training but much more slowly after that. In that case, is it really worth it to give up days of training just to gain back a small percentage of CNS recovery? I don't think so. Few athletes fully recover between workouts, but you don't need to fully recover to get a benefit from your training.

but if you only recover 70% and you went all out to get x amount of reps last time and muscle growth is build fundamentally on progressive overload how can you overload it by getting more if you haven't recovered? no progressive overload no muscle/strength growth?

This is basically the same split I use. I find most people are overtraining and don't allow enough time to recover.

But 1 day a week might not be enough workload to get your whole body to grow - It seems like that would be too much of a gab between workouts and slow down your progress.

Originally Posted by ceazur

I think 48 - 72 hours of rest between a workouts that hit the same muscle group is ample time. I do a 3 day split such as: M- Chest/Tri T- Legs/Shoulders W- Back/Bi T- Rest F- Chest/Tri and so on.

everyone is different i guess, lots of people make progress off both ways i guess, there are lots of natural people who gain from doing a push/pull/legs type split.

Guys, since everyone's motor is running on this topic I have a question for you... Let's say at the start of your routine, for example, Monday being chest.. and you go to do your workout and you are still very sore from the previous week's workout, would you continue to do a complete chest workout that day or would you wait a day or two to recover.. your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. thank you!

by previous weeks routine, do you mean it's been a week since your last chest workout? its pretty rare to be sore a whole 7 days later. do you do chest on its own for a whole workout?

Originally Posted by themaze619

Guys, since everyone's motor is running on this topic I have a question for you... Let's say at the start of your routine, for example, Monday being chest.. and you go to do your workout and you are still very sore from the previous week's workout, would you continue to do a complete chest workout that day or would you wait a day or two to recover.. your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. thank you!

So, if I'm not mistaken, what you're saying is:

(1.) You devote an entire session to "chest";

(2.) You want to perform this session again the next day or otherwise ASAP.

Why are you doing so much chest work? It doesn't need this much. This is absolute overkill.

Actually what I mean is... I do Chest on Monday... then the following Monday.. I go to do it again and it feels as sore as if I had just done that body part the day before.. This is the only body part that I have that kind of trouble with. I was training each body part twice a week, but for the last 12 weeks have been doing a body part a day.... and still can't shake the soreness of the chest. I was hoping for some insight. Any help is definitely appreciated.

Yes Iron, I dedicate a workout to chest. I do throw in maybe 3 or 4 sets of tris... but Tris/arms have their own day.

Originally Posted by themaze619

Actually what I mean is... I do Chest on Monday... then the following Monday.. I go to do it again and it feels as sore as if I had just done that body part the day before.. This is the only body part that I have that kind of trouble with. I was training each body part twice a week, but for the last 12 weeks have been doing a body part a day.... and still can't shake the soreness of the chest. I was hoping for some insight. Any help is definitely appreciated.

Are you doing a workout saturday or sunday, and if so what are you doing/training?

thats crazy your still sore 7 days later, you sure you havent actually torn a muscle or done some proper damage to your chest muscle, maybe take 2 weeks totally off doing any chest and see if it gets better?

I like to slightly overtrain for a month then take a full week off... Noticed the biggest gains doing this..

I have found that when I go 90%+ of my 1RM every workout that after about 3 weeks I begin to experience fatigue quicker and feel I am not recovering. But max lifting every workout is something required in the powerlifting world, not really the bodybuilding world. I have found that by changing my tempo, reps and the % of 1RM each week provided the best gains for me and I dont get that feeling of fatigue.

week 1 - 90% - 3 sets of 3-4 reps per exercise (no more than 3 exercise per body part)
week 2 - 80% - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
week 3 - 70% - 4-5 sets of 10-15 reps (usually supersets)

When I get back on the 4th week to heavy weights I seem to have better results consistent throughout the full workout.

Originally Posted by tonymybrick

Use proper supplements at right time..

I hate spam!

I am actually taking Saturday and Sunday off.

ok, don't shoot me for not reading the articles in the first post, but im at work and wanna be fast haha.

PERSONALLY, and this is from someone who isn't a pro, but has been in the gym a LOT with sports, personal fitness n such... I have to be REALLY careful NOT to overtrain.

If im still sore 7 days later.. then something is wrong! actually.. if I've been training a few weeks strait and I'm sore the NEXT day... something is off.

I don't understand why people can't stop associating pain with muscle growth. what the heck? I think the problem that MOST ppl have, that don't see muscle growth, is 1- diet and 2- OVERTRAINING.

Its fairly simple. You EAT. You LIFT (personally all I have is an hour a day for workout). You REST. You REPEAT.

The LIFTING shouldn't HURT, or drive you to failure, ... if you ascribe to the whole concept of your nervous system dictating how much you can lift on the NEXT set following a failure for protection (a whole different thread I guess). Grab 6-8 reps for 3 about 3 sets and go home. Make it about 6 or 8 moves and call it a day.

REST and do it again tomorrow.

Maybe I'm just making it too simple. If so, I mean no offense to anyone of course.

Originally Posted by SnowManSnow

ok, don't shoot me for not reading the articles in the first post, but im at work and wanna be fast haha.

PERSONALLY, and this is from someone who isn't a pro, but has been in the gym a LOT with sports, personal fitness n such... I have to be REALLY careful NOT to overtrain.

If im still sore 7 days later.. then something is wrong! actually.. if I've been training a few weeks strait and I'm sore the NEXT day... something is off.

I don't understand why people can't stop associating pain with muscle growth. what the heck? I think the problem that MOST ppl have, that don't see muscle growth, is 1- diet and 2- OVERTRAINING.

Its fairly simple. You EAT. You LIFT (personally all I have is an hour a day for workout). You REST. You REPEAT.

The LIFTING shouldn't HURT, or drive you to failure, ... if you ascribe to the whole concept of your nervous system dictating how much you can lift on the NEXT set following a failure for protection (a whole different thread I guess). Grab 6-8 reps for 3 about 3 sets and go home. Make it about 6 or 8 moves and call it a day.

REST and do it again tomorrow.

Maybe I'm just making it too simple. If so, I mean no offense to anyone of course.

I think most people who understand lifting, will tell you that lifting to failure is BAD. Altering your sets, reps and tempo and combining that with amount of weight you do for those sets/reps is the key to stimulating the muscles. Taking the required time off to rest the CNS should be done after 8-12 weeks of training.

Most BBuilders I spoke with on this site probably dont know how much then can bench, curl or squat because that 1RM is not, and should not be your goal. Again, I said BBuilders, so this is different for PowerLifters. My lowest set/rep is 5x3 at 90% or what I estimated was my max months ago. My goals since then are to increase each 3 week cycle by 2.5 - 5lbs still maintaining 3 reps. The next week would be 75-80% and the sets go down to 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps and then the following week is 65-70% doing 2 sets of 12-15 reps and then repeat.

I for one will throw in some variations on certain muscle groups. For instance I do not do DB step ups every leg workout. But I can tell you that if I have not done them in 3 weeks, when I get 3 sets of 8 in after Squating and Deadlifts, my legs are a bit sore. Its not because I went to heavy, or because I'm injured. Its because I trained an infrequently worked muscle group and expect to be a bit sore.

I would bet that you cannot find more than a handful of guys/girls on this forum that are not working through some aches and pains daily. I for one have tendinitis in both elbows and a sore shoulder. I do my best to properly warm them up before I begin lifting and take Advil. And I disagree with your statement about being sore the next day. If your not sore the next day after working that body part, your either not working it right or not working it hard enough. Maybe assisted you can recover in 24 hours, but sure as hell not natural. This is why I was taught to build a workout that targets the same muscle group every 5th day. I'm not talking about compound exercises that indirectly target the same muscles like hitting chest when doing tri's.

thanks for your information...........

Originally Posted by fruit

thanks for your information...........

So your handle is fruit?
Somehow i'm surprised that was available

My rule of thumb that I go by, is 48hrs rest. That 48hrs starts at midnight the day of that inparticular "core" lift.

If I'm sore I dont work that part of my body if Im not sore I do....

I have found that 3-5 days rest for a muscle group is plenty. I believe waiting 7+ days is too long and counter productive