Thread: Overworking, not resting enough?

Hey everyone,

Been reading the forum for a while and finally got off my ass and decided to post. I used to be a gym-rat a few years ago but took a lot of time off. Now I'm getting back into lifting again and I had a question or two. This is my current schedule:

Monday: Chest/Shoulders/Tri's/abs
Tuesday: Legs/Lats/Bi's/abs
Wednesday: Chest/Shoulders/Tri's/abs
Thurs: Legs/Lats/Bi's/abs
Friday: Chest/Shoulders/Tri's/abs
sat: off
sun: off

I want to find out if I am giving myself enough time to rest before hitting the same body part again. I noticed that I feel tired when I go to hit chest for the second time that week, or my arms. I was thinking about splitting up my workout and throwing a third day in there and only working out 3 times a week. Something like:

Mon: Chest/shoulders/abs
Wed: Legs/Back/abs
Fri: Bi's/Tri's/abs

I'm in need of some serious fat burning in addition to adding mass. I know there are as many theories out there, but I just wanted to get a feel for the different opinions on resting/over working.

H

You are over training greatly. One of the first rules I learned was to never train your shoulders on the same day as chest or on back to back days it's too much.

If you are only training 3 days a week you are actually overtraining in each session. I know, I was doing this for awhile.
Something like this routine would be much better if you can spare 5 days a week if not you can split your legs apart & do hamstrings on chest day in about 10mins & do your quads on shoulder day in about 15mins.

Here is my current routine:

Monday: Chest 4 exercises 4 sets each about 40mins
Forearms, 2 exercises 4 sets each 10mins
4 sets of calf presses 5mins
15mins treadmill

Tuesday: Back only, 6 exercises 20 sets total. Your back requires a lot of attention in order to grow & get stronger.

Wed: Rest day

Thursday: Arms only. Superset Triceps & Biceps will provide the best growth in size/strength. I do 12 sets 3 exercises 4 sets each for biceps, & 12 sets 3 exercises 4 sets each for triceps totaling 24 sets for arms. I used to do less but my arms weren't growing as well as they are now. Takes about 45mins.
15mins treadmill.

Friday: Shoulders & traps. For shoulders I do 2 pressing exercises 4 sets each, & I do 4 sets of side lateral raises & 4 sets of rear delt flies. For traps I do 2 shrugging exercises 4 sets each totaling 8 sets. Takes about 45mins. 4 sets of donkey calf raises 5mins.
15mins of treadmill.

Saturday: Legs only. I do 4 sets of squats super setting with 4 sets of stiff leg deadlifts for hamstrings, then I do 4 sets of either leg press or hack squats super setting with 4 sets of hamstring curls. Takes about 45mins.
15mins of light treadmill.

Sunday: Rest

This is a more efficient routine that will not cause you to over train which can happen with a 3 day a week program as you have to jam everything into that one session when you shouldn't be in the gym for much more than 1hr15mins if you do cardio as your body's testosterone levels deplete withing 50mins.

I hope this info helps.