Thread: Just how HARD to train

Ok Guys. Been training very hard lately. Amazed by my progress and visual gains. Actually totally thrilled with what I see (almost cannot believe it). But I've seemed to have have reached my limit as far my training intensity goes. I'm recovering too slowly for the frequency at which I want to train my body parts. Just trained chest and arms this morning, and as I finished I thought I need a break for at least 4 days. But I just HATE breaks. Even though I guess it will allow increased recovery which will pay back in terms of performance later. I kind of like a 3-day cycle right now, which looks like this:

1) biceps (preacher-bench and dumbells + standing with ez-curl bar)
triceps (lying tricep extensions + standing narrow cable pulldowns)
chest (decline bench press, reg. bench press, pec deck, flies/or fly mach. -or- cable crossovers

2) shoulders (overhead bb press and/or dumbell shoulder press; lat raises; bent-over flies)
waist (roman chair extended leg raises; machine crunch or reg crunch with added weight)
back (med-wide lat pulldown; cable row; shrugs; hyperextension (but not every time))

3) legs (hack squat; leg curls; adductor & abductor machine)

I put enough weights on to get to the maximum resistance I can handle (sometime go a little higher if some will spot me).

Main Issue: Days 1 and 2 right next to each other are very difficult for my arms; the only way I see to fix this is to make it a 4-day cycle. Or I could do 2 3-days cycle, followed by a day or two or rest, or some other type of exercise.

I'm following a very complete diet. Was eating about 3500 calories up until recently (p25;c38;f38) but was losing a little weight, which I did not want to do, so now I'm doing about 4000 cals. In the past two months, I went from 36 to 34 jeans, losing what seemed like only fat, and losing almost no weight. The diet seems to be working for me. When I have whey prot. shakes, I add a couple tsp creatine (once, sometimes twice a day). Also 250 mg 4-androdiol before morning workout, and 100 mg in the afternoon. Something important is that I want to continue using only supplements I can get and use legally.

I'm 42, weight about 220lbs, with 34" w.

Any ideas on how I could improve my performance, with the objective of gaining mass (and hopefully LOTS of it over time)?

If you have been lifting hard and heavy for 2 months I would recommend either a week off from training, and/or switch to a lighter routine for the next 4-6 weeks, or yes you wll definitely end up in a state of overtraining.

that routine at the ned of this message is okay for a beginner that is not lifting very heavy and intensly, once you advance and lift heavy you really do not want o be training 3 days in a row, nor do you want to train each bodypart twice per week, I like to hit each bp once every 5-7 days.

try one on, one off, two on, two off, some variation like that.