Discussion About Rest Days/Recuperation/Overtraining

[M.J.H.]

I wanted to have a discussion about rest days, and recuperation. Because it seems that anymore people are pushing rest days so much it's almost ridiculous, and rest days just seem so overrated.

Also the entire overtraining concept. How easily people seem to think that they're overtraining also is getting out of hand. IMO it takes so much more to actually overtrain than most people think.

How do you feel about rest days? How do you feel about training a bodypart that may still be a little sore? How do you feel about overtraining?

 

[atherjen]

I think over training is over rated to a degree- look back thousands of years ago at the hard labour that people did daily just to survive- from hunting, gathering, building, work on farms, etc. our bodys can handle the load IMO.
if one does not feel burnt out, over exerted and has the energy then I see no reason not to train. Mind you I do feel one day of rest at least per week is need. but even on "rest" days Im a firm believer in ACTIVE rest- walking, swimming, playing sports, etc.

 

[Big Smoothy]

I was hitting my muscle-part once per week, with very high intensity. Now I changed to doing a muscle part (i.e., shoulders) 3 x per week, 4 sets, 12-15 reps M-W-F....for shoulders, 5 exercises right now: Military Press (smith), standing lats, upright rows, shrugs, and an Arnold Press. I hope this will help build more mass.

I don't know I really am doing things the optimum way, most of the time. There is so much about lifting when it comes to WO, rest, diet, when and how to eat.....confused rookie, who lifted on-and-off for 12 years....

 

[bullkion]

I know for myself when a group or a body part is alittle sore or to sore to work. If I rested at a little soreness I would'nt exersize at all. I comute to work 12 miles a day when not rainning, lift in the evenings 45-90 min mon-fri. My so called rest days would be the weekend where I get a hernia just packing around my wifes honey dew list.

 

[M.J.H.]

I definitely agree and you made some solid points Jen. I think to overtrain one must have an extremely high stress level, an extremely poor diet, lack of sleep, etc. All these factors must be taking place for one to completely get into an overtrained state. Right now I am hitting each musclegroup right around 2x per week or so I would say, maybe a tad more, and I am feeling great. I feel like I am making much better progress than hitting each bodypart once a week, and taking 2-3 rest days a week. I take around 1 rest day a week, right now.

 

[atherjen]

I completly agree with you Mike..some thing do need to be taken into consideration as you mentioned.
let me put it this way as well- I began lifting when I was 15..I was training SEVEN days a week... 4-5 lifting, sprinting in the morning at least 3 days and basketball games/practices 5-6 days week. ...personally I think that I made great progress(to me), wether that is considered "overtraining" to one or not.

 

[camarosuper6]

There is science in both directions, but I feel the past couple of years have shown us that different levels of intensity, along with different levels of volume work well. AKA changing your volume according to your intensity.

I do each bp 3 times per week and see great results, but I dont always workout at all-out intensity either.

 

[Saturday Fever]

There are two kinds of overtraining. Overtraining of your body and overtraining of your CNS (Central Nervous System).

It is very easy to overtrain your CNS, a bit harder to overtrain your body. This is why people who stick with the same routine, day in day out, for weeks on end, eventually stall out while the people using variety (even very small degrees) are always progressing.

 

[CowPimp]

You're still very young Monstar. I think the overtraining threshold for people in our age group is much higher than that of a 40 year old. Many people in high school/college weight train and play one or even two sports at the same time and progress greatly in terms of physical ability.

However, you must take into account joint and ligament repair. Joints and ligaments take longer to heal than muscles. That is one of the reasons people advocate rest so highly. As well, the central nervous system needs a break.

I'm about to go back into a 7 day exercise program: 4 days of lifting and 3 days of jogging. I want to get a little more cut up now that summer is coming. I'm hoping to get stronger and cut fat at the same time (Who isn't?). I'm still young, I might as well take advantage of my ability to recover quickly as much as possible.

Also, I have lifted and exercised body parts that are sore many times. I really don't pay attention to soreness. It has never caused me problems.

 

[Phred]

Since early Feb I have been working out 7 days a week. Back on Mondays, chest on Tues, legs on Wed, shoulders on Thurs, biceps on Fri, Tris on Sat and Deadlifts on Sun. I do cardio 4-6 times a week in the AM. I focus (read as intense) for 45-60 minutes on each body part. I am 46 years old. Every 6 weeks or so, I change up my exercises to keep the mucles challenged. My bench has gone up from 205 to 245, and deadlifts up from 255 to 345 over this time period. These are for reps. I honestly have not tried to figure out my 1RM as it is not that important to me. Not significant gains, however it is much more than I was lifting in high school.

Taking a day off here and there would prolly be good. But I do not feel I am overtraining and there is good variety in my WO that I am not bored. I WO in my garage. So about 1-2 hours after dinner has settled in I go and excercise. Being an introvert, this is how I recharge my batteries and after I exercise, I reflect on the day.

I average about 7 hours sleep a nite and am eating much cleaner diet since Jan as well.

 

[Saturday Fever]

Another Sacramentan? We are invading IM!

 

[kvyd]

like if i know im gonna be away from weights in advance ...ill train ridiculously hard for like a week straight then not lift for like 4 days then back to my normal split....but as it seems when i do this I get notocable gains quickly when i rest for 2-5 days and im stronger when i hit the weights again.

 

[Arnold]

Originally posted by Saturday Fever
There are two kinds of overtraining. Overtraining of your body and overtraining of your CNS (Central Nervous System).

It is very easy to overtrain your CNS, a bit harder to overtrain your body. This is why people who stick with the same routine, day in day out, for weeks on end, eventually stall out while the people using variety (even very small degrees) are always progressing.

 

[CowPimp]

Originally posted by Saturday Fever
There are two kinds of overtraining. Overtraining of your body and overtraining of your CNS (Central Nervous System).

It is very easy to overtrain your CNS, a bit harder to overtrain your body. This is why people who stick with the same routine, day in day out, for weeks on end, eventually stall out while the people using variety (even very small degrees) are always progressing.

Agreed. I recently made some small tweaks to my training program to ensure than no two weeks are exactly the same. Although I keep the same lifts for 12 weeks before I totally change them, I do various other things to alter my training program.

For two weeks I do 3-6 ranges focused on strength. The next two weeks I shoot for 8-12 repititions. As well, when I'm doing strength I do about a 2 second negative and an explosive positive. When I do higher repititons I focus more on TUT and use a 3-3 or 4-2 tempo. Also, I rotate the order of my lifts every week.

In addition, I'm also going to start rotating the order of the muscles I work. One week I'll do quads first, then hams first the next week. I just started doing this and like the results. I'm going to do the same for chest/shoulders, back/lats, and tris/bis.

All of these minor changes have helped me finally break past my benchpress plateau of 250. I hit 260 the other day and came ever so close to 265; I needed a two finger spot.

 

[Vieope]

Overtraining is a "subjective" concept. You need to know your limits and work with them.

 

[kbm8795]

I've had to learn a lot about that concept - for the first couple of years, I was training each bodypart twice a week, and of course, being an older rookie, managed to get a few injuries. I had to learn to mix up and change workout routines a lot more frequently, especially since I hit two "stall" points that took me awhile to move past.

One of my veteran bodybuilder buds at the gym (he's turning 50 this year too) told me that he thinks your own body will generally tell you when you are overtraining. That makes some sense to me - I've had a few days when I've gone to the gym out of habit, and after about 10 minutes or so, realize that it just isn't going to be the right kind of day for that. It's only happened a few times, though.

I've cut back some this semester - but still do some kind of cardio three days a week and try to get four days of weight training in...and try to get quality sleep at night. Seems to me that if your "rest days" are filled with physical chores, they can't be too restful.

I think one thread on here really helped me - I can't remember which one it was, but I think Prince made a simple statement on one that you don't have to push to failure every time you workout...I know it seems basic, but as a rookie I kept beating myself up if I didn't try to do that every time.

 

[JerseyDevil]

Great idea for a thread Mike. I have always advocated more then once a week bodypart training, and prefer lower volume twice a week. I must say that as I get older, and possibly because I'm using more weight, I'm starting to go with training a bodypart every 4-5 days, with one day of rest in between.

When I started training, the norm was each bodypart 2-3 times a week. Then we started to hear about HIT, which I think is a viable training alternative. A couple of success stories and then people go overboard with it. Some will tell you to train one set every couple of weeks per bodypart. Yeah right.

As Jen alluded to, think about world class male gymnasts. Ever see the upper body and arm development on those guys? What about the legs on ballet dancers, or the arms of dock workers? These people work for hours a day continually pounding away at those muscles, and their development is extraordinary. Imagine if they told their coaches or bosses. "I need rest. I'm overtraining".

 

[JoeR.]

I hear all of you, but when I first started lifting seriously following arnolds plan of a 3 day split twice a week after 6 weeks of that I was burnt out. I switched to a 4 day split, done 5 days a week(1 repeated day varying) and uped my intensity a lot(supersets,drop sets, just more sets) and I feel great. After a workout that particular muscle is unusable for the next few days. But that works for me...

 

[Rich46yo]

I lift a 4 day split, Mon/Tues-Thurs/Fri. On lift days I do 30 mins of low impact arobics. On one or two non lift days I do 60 mins low impact arobics. I stretch every day, and take one or two days a week to do nothing but stretch. I alternate heavy and light lifting days.

It took me about 20 years of overtraining to learn to take 1 or 2 days off completely, due to being an exersize addict. I think overtraining is the worst enemy weightlifters/athletes have because its almost invisable. The mental effects of overtraining are even worse then the physical ones. Ive known lifters that have litteraly driven everyone away from themselves due to their constant,pissed off, attitude. It even got me on occasion.

I think it would be a serious mistake for anyone here to underestimate the term "overtraining". Im no expert but like some here I have a few years on this earth and this was one lesson I learned the hard way. And I hope you younger guys and gals dont make the same mistakes. Life is wonderful and certainly worth taking a few days off a week to enjoy, and to let your body rest.................take care.................Rich