How much training is too much?

[jsmaltz]

Starting next week I'll have about 2 months where I'm not working, still getting paid, and with a lot of time on my hands. I figure the best way to kill some time is to train. I've been lifting for the better part of 18 months with the occasional cardio, though I'm no where near fat. 6'2" 212 16-18%

My question is, should I train for 2 or 3 hours a day? Or is that detrimental? If so, better to break it up into 2 sessions or 1 long block? Separate the cardio and lifting? You get the idea.



PS I already know that lifting sessions shouldn't exceed 50-60 min...



Thanks to respondants

 

[nkira]

You answered your own question there,

Yes, separate the cardio and weights.

Starting next week I'll have about 2 months where I'm not working, still getting paid, and with a lot of time on my hands. I figure the best way to kill some time is to train. I've been lifting for the better part of 18 months with the occasional cardio, though I'm no where near fat. 6'2" 212 16-18%

My question is, should I train for 2 or 3 hours a day? Or is that detrimental? If so, better to break it up into 2 sessions or 1 long block? Separate the cardio and lifting? You get the idea.



PS I already know that lifting sessions shouldn't exceed 50-60 min...



Thanks to respondants

 

[Gazhole]

The real question is what do you stand to gain from working out for two or three times longer than usual? What do you hope to achieve from this?

 

[jsmaltz]

Stand to gain more than I would with what I'm doing now. Pro fighters, boxers, football players, etc, train all day and look at them.
If I have the time and motivation I'll do it providing it isn't countereffective.

 

[gtbmed]

Most professional athletes are also genetically gifted and have developed a tolerance to that amount of training over their entire lives. They also have the benefit of having good dieticians, trainers, doctors, physical therapists, etc.

You don't start training like a professional athlete just because you luck into some extra free time.

 

[Gazhole]

Stand to gain more than I would with what I'm doing now. Pro fighters, boxers, football players, etc, train all day and look at them.
If I have the time and motivation I'll do it providing it isn't countereffective.

Fighters, boxers and football players certainly don't train all day by any means. Your body only has limited recovery abilities, and more training means more damage, less recovery, and superfluous work that doesn't give you extra results but creates a larger recovery debt.

Training more doesn't equal better results, training better equals better results.

Use your free time to research training methods, come up with something that meets your goals, and utilize the extra time you have for recovery. The best part about not working is you have more time to rest and recover, and without the stresses of a 9-5 you can put a lot more focus and effort into your workouts.

 

[Kevsworld]

I'm not sure there would be any value in training that long.

You can hit a muscle about once every five days, so lift about four days a week--upper body and lower body twice a week. Anything over that is overkill (in my opinion).

 

[Merkaba]

I can't really name a reason to workout that much. OH yea, unless youre on biggest loser and you have a doctor on standby. I agree with Gaz. Why? A decent workout and take the extra time to track your intake and read some good authors(and probably read more about reasons not to workout for hours)and you'll reach your goal....what is your goal? You're not gonna get stronger or bigger and get ripped while doing it.

 

[danzik17]

Stand to gain more than I would with what I'm doing now. Pro fighters, boxers, football players, etc, train all day and look at them.
If I have the time and motivation I'll do it providing it isn't countereffective.

Those athletes also have a team of masseuses, doctors, dieticians, physical therapists, and coaches to watch over their health and tweak their routines as needed. Training is also their JOB - they don't have outside stresses from working some random desk job 8 hours a day.

 

[jsmaltz]

I didn't intend to train for hours, more like 100 min of cardio in the morning and 100 min of lifting at night with 2 rest days a week. I've heard so much about how less is more that I wasn't sure. Sounds like everyone agrees my idea won't produce better results. I just hate the whole bulking OR cutting shit. Thought this might be like back in the days of daily doubles when 3 weeks of a lot of everything knocks you up to that next level of strength and fitness.

 

[Gazhole]

I didn't intend to train for hours, more like 100 min of cardio in the morning and 100 min of lifting at night with 2 rest days a week. I've heard so much about how less is more that I wasn't sure. Sounds like everyone agrees my idea won't produce better results. I just hate the whole bulking OR cutting shit. Thought this might be like back in the days of daily doubles when 3 weeks of a lot of everything knocks you up to that next level of strength and fitness.

Well thats just the way it works. To put on weight you need to eat more calories than you need to maintain, and to lose weight you need to eat less calories than you need to maintain. Its impossible to eat less and more calories at the same time.

You can't train to improve everything at the same time. If you put speed work, strength work, hypertrophy work, and try to cut at the same time you will excel at none of them.

200 Minutes training is over 3 hours a day with only 2 days rest! I train about 3 hours a week with 3-5 days rest and thats only just enough sometimes, lol. Less isn't more necessarily more though, it depends on the quality of that training.

Get a good program focused on one specific goal and train more intensely and rest more completely than you could possibly do when you're working. I guarantee this will work a lot better than training for hours a day.

If you look at it this way, once you do enough to stimulate growth any extra sets you do aren't going to stimulate more growth, they will actually eat into your ability to grow at all. Especially when you consider the fact that the rate of muscle synthesis is finite - more training doesn't make this faster.

Its like digging a hole - when you train you dig the hole deeper, the more training the deeper the hole. When you rest the hole is filled in, but we don't just want the hole filled in as it was before - we want a mountain built on top of it. If you dig the hole too deep in the first place it's going to take longer for you to fill it in and get to building the mountain.

Basically, if you train too long without enough rest you're under-cutting your body's recovery ability so it becomes more concerned with repairing itself than it is about growing.

 

[rantorcha]

I'll put it this way...if you are "natural" (even if you aren't actually), there is no reason on god's green earth to train that long. Even if you wanted to, I don't think you could physically do that for too many weeks anyway. And, if you have any desire whatsoever to gain any muscle, your idea is not a good one. Train as hard as you can for about an hour (maybe a smidge longer on leg day) and get out of the gym so you could refeed and recover from the hard work you've done!

There....my 2 cents. lol

 

[jsmaltz]

I will take everyone's advice and not go so crazy. How about 60 min of cardio in the morning and 50 of lifting at night. 3 on 1 off. That sound better?

PS Sweet Opeth tat Gazhole. I've thought a lot about getting the "O" on my elbow but couldn't quite pull the trigger.

 

[Stewart14]

In my opinion, the thing you need to worry about is the time or volume per session vs how many sessions you do per week. If you want to train often, use low volume workouts at each session, and train more sessions.

I personally feel that you can train daily so long as your volume and intensity is kept in check each session, and you're not doing the same exercises every day, but in order to do so, you ideally should have lots of free time, good nutrition, and good sleep habits for recovery purposes.

 

[Merkaba]

I will take everyone's advice and not go so crazy. How about 60 min of cardio in the morning and 50 of lifting at night. 3 on 1 off. That sound better?

PS Sweet Opeth tat Gazhole. I've thought a lot about getting the "O" on my elbow but couldn't quite pull the trigger.

What are your goals?