Dismali
Registered
Hello,
I've been working out for about 6 months now and while I am significantly stronger than when I was not lifting at all, I feel like I haven't made any real gains in a long time. My routine consists of doing Chest/Triceps on Monday, Back/Biceps on Tuesday, Shoulders/Legs on Wednesday, then Chest/Triceps again on Thursday followed with Back/Biceps again on Friday. On the weekends I frequently run a long distance of somewhere between 20-25 miles on Saturday (I'm a yearly marathon runner). I used to run every day 5-6 miles in addition to the long run but I cutt that out on advice from my local gym "guru" who thought that it inhibited my muscle building, though following his advice hasn't helped me any and I find myself feeling really depressed and having a hard time making it in to the gym. I was thinking about switching routines to one of the examples I've seen on these forums, where it looks like you have a seperate day for back, arms, chest, delts, and legs... but I was wondering if this would work for me. Due to my schedule, I can only access the gym Monday through Friday for about 2 1/2 hours maximum. Six months ago when I was making my current routine with a trainer, he told me that after not using a muscle group for 48 hours it begins to atrophy and break down, so it was important to rotate and train your muscles every 2 days. Is this true? If so, how would the single body part workout give any benefit? Also, given the fact that I would have two rest days in a row (saturday and sunday), would my muscles start to atrophy thereby negating all of my progress from the week? Honestly, I really just don't understand lifting because I read things like "You can maintain your body with just 1 workout a week" out of Men's Health magazine, and then I sit here thinking about all the time I spend in the gym and I can't seem to get any improvement whatsoever. Let me know if I'm missing something, it would be most appreciated.
I've been working out for about 6 months now and while I am significantly stronger than when I was not lifting at all, I feel like I haven't made any real gains in a long time. My routine consists of doing Chest/Triceps on Monday, Back/Biceps on Tuesday, Shoulders/Legs on Wednesday, then Chest/Triceps again on Thursday followed with Back/Biceps again on Friday. On the weekends I frequently run a long distance of somewhere between 20-25 miles on Saturday (I'm a yearly marathon runner). I used to run every day 5-6 miles in addition to the long run but I cutt that out on advice from my local gym "guru" who thought that it inhibited my muscle building, though following his advice hasn't helped me any and I find myself feeling really depressed and having a hard time making it in to the gym. I was thinking about switching routines to one of the examples I've seen on these forums, where it looks like you have a seperate day for back, arms, chest, delts, and legs... but I was wondering if this would work for me. Due to my schedule, I can only access the gym Monday through Friday for about 2 1/2 hours maximum. Six months ago when I was making my current routine with a trainer, he told me that after not using a muscle group for 48 hours it begins to atrophy and break down, so it was important to rotate and train your muscles every 2 days. Is this true? If so, how would the single body part workout give any benefit? Also, given the fact that I would have two rest days in a row (saturday and sunday), would my muscles start to atrophy thereby negating all of my progress from the week? Honestly, I really just don't understand lifting because I read things like "You can maintain your body with just 1 workout a week" out of Men's Health magazine, and then I sit here thinking about all the time I spend in the gym and I can't seem to get any improvement whatsoever. Let me know if I'm missing something, it would be most appreciated.
