You just do the program as well as you can. But it will not be optimum.
Member
Training on consecutive days?
I use the gym at work, and live 45 miles away. That restricts my gym to M-F only. Something usually comes up every now and then during the week, for which I work from home (and am gym-less). Dates, wanting to work from home on Friday to get an early start on the weekend, classes/social events/other things I need to be home early for. Sometimes just to save on the gas, time wasted, and miles put on the car. Also, holidays where work is shut down.
Simply put, on average I go to work 3-4 days a week, but it's unpredictable.
Find a gym closer to home you say? Never.
It's actually state of the art - 2 squat racks, 2 power racks, extra olympic barbells and plates, 2 flat benches, 1 incline bench, 4 pullup/dip bar stations, two separate rooms with dumbbells up to 100 lbs, free electronic lockers, free towels, sauna, steam room. Rubber-matted floors. ALL brand new - only a year or two old. And the real kicker? It's only $20/month, auto-deducted from our paycheck.
So what should I do? There may very well be a week where I can only lift M, T, W. Or another week just Monday-Thursday. And so on... This week for example, I am taking off work all Friday to attend this CPR/AED certification class. I lifted Monday and Wed. Should I hit the gym tonight(Thurs) and squat AGAIN, bench (I did shoulder yesterday), and power clean (I did barbell rows and chins yesterday)? Or I'd have to wait till next Monday...
TMPHBITEU
You just do the program as well as you can. But it will not be optimum.
Member
Will there be any harm though, in going immediately the next day? Would only 24 hours rest be enough for me? I'm an engineer that pretty much sits in a cubicle all day coding, and I get around 8-9 hours of sleep every night. I do not play any sports, I don't run or do any form of cardio. I eat a ton and am bulking.
I'm wondering if when you (and everyone else recommending a full-body routine) recommends training on non-consecutive days, you take into account the average person... someone who's probably on their feet everyday, plays some sports, dabbles in other forms of exercise such as running or Crossfit, etc...
Not really worried about injury or overtraining or any nonsense like that. Not sore, not fatigued, feel full of energy. My lifts are going up, and I've been doing full-body for months now. I've just wondering...would I make better gains by resting from say Wed until next Monday, OR, going again on Thursday immediately after
TMPHBITEU
Yes, you're different. For you, 24 hours rest is plenty.
Member
Not yet, at least.Originally Posted by xagent
Member
So, xagent, how old are you, how much do you weigh, and where are your lifts at currently?
Member
Perhaps. If your muscles are not rested/healed to the extent that they can properly perform the lifts and keep your technique in order, you risk injury more than you would on a regular day.
Plus, your lifts will not progress, at least not on consecutive days. You get bigger when you rest, sleep, and eat. I'm no scientist, but I doubt that the damage caused by heavy lifts will heal in 24 hours. Unless you're Wolverine, and if that were the case I doubt you'd be here.
Would you make better gains by resting, eating, and sleeping for five days as opposed to 24 hours? Probably, since doing consecutive days won't allow you to make any gains at all.
Obviously neither option is ideal. Given those two options, I'd go with the longer rests, but then you can't eat like you're doing the program.
If it were me, I would take the time and make the effort to organize my life around the program while I was on it.
Member
1) Look up supercompensation timing. At the start of training, 48 hours is traditionally optimal as the point to 'hit the muscles again'. Workout causes a temporary decline in work ability, for which the body compensates and overshoots, allowing workout stimuli in resonance with the supercompensation cycle to keep pushing you to greater levels of strength, like pushing a swing more and more each time. Don't be casual about timing: if you're way off, it's like pushing the swing while the person is coming at you halfway, or waiting for five iterations of the swing until pushing again. There are good reasons that 48 hours is initially optimal. Note: per Rip's Practical Progamming book, supercompensation timing lengthens as the athlete progresses to advanced/elite status.
2) As a software engineer, chances are very good that you can afford a barbell, bumper plates, power rack, and bench for your garage. Thus equipped, you can work out at work when schedules permit, and at home as your backup/alternate. From firsthand experience -- unless you particularly need a spotter towering over you yelling "It's all you, bro" as he strains with the barbell -- a properly equipped home gym is priceless. No waiting, no lines, it fits into your telecommute schedule any time you want, AND because you control what plates go on where and in what order, your workout-to-workout micro-weight consistency can be guaranteed. If I recall, and Rip may have covered this in one of his books -- if you're calibrating progress precisely, the last thing you need is using random uncalibrated weights in random order from a gym. You don't want an apparent setback or stall just because you grabbed a set of plates each of which is heavier than spec, i.e. the actual amount you're training with is random and uncontrolled. In a home gym under your control, you can remove this source of process-control variance.
Anyway, best wishes on this!
Member
I'm 24, 5'7", I weigh ~145 pounds, 10.4% bodyfat hydrostatically tested a month and a half ago. I started "lifting" in August 2009 only, after 5 years of too much drinking, college partying, skipping meals and then binging on crap restaurant food. I was 150 pounds back then, no muscle. Did stupid bodybuilding-type stuff for the first few months. Starting doing squats, deads, rows, press, about a year ago but didn't stick to a full body routine. It was a mess of a routine. Went from push/pull for two weeks, to back/bis, chest/tris, legs+deads for the next month, then onto upper/lower split. Pretty much go in, do whatever I felt like or wasn't sore or hadn't worked on last gym session, but at least I made sure I'd hit 2 big compound lifts in each session.
I only actively started doing and sticking to a full-body routine such as Stronglifts 5x5 and starting strength back in June of this year.
My stats for 5 reps, all unaided... no support belt, no straps, etc.. (well I use chalk for deads, cleans, pullups but that's it):
Deadlift: 305
Squat Ass 2 grass: 220 Squat Parallel: 235? haven't done parallel in a while, I always try to have my hammies touch my calves
Bench: 180
Power clean: 155 (I only started doing power cleans regularly about 2 months ago, I think I finally got my form good)
Bent over barbell row: 165
Overhead press: 135
Chinups: I can do about 8 with +35 pounds on a weight belt
Dips: 10 with +10 pounds
I would get my own power rack and plates, but I rent, don't have a garage. Lease is up in 9 months... I definitely want to move into a house w/ a garage I can use to set up some lifting equipment
I live in San Francisco. There's a lack of free-weight gyms. And all too many gay hippy yoga studios, new-age fitness and conditioning gyms (think taking out the barbell work out of Crossfit and making it more appealing to typical snobby San Franciscan's and women), fancy fitness clubs with excessive amenities like courts, racquetball, swimming pools, Zumba core ab classes, massages, and of course all the standard chain gyms like 24 Hour, Gold's, Crunch.
Anyone from the area? What's a good gym in the city or upper peninsula (Daly City, San Bruno, South San Francisco, Millbrae, etc...) that has multiple power racks, lifting friendly, and possibly even has Olympic lifting platforms?
I supposed the extra gas/miles/time wasted going into work just to use the gym, kinda makes the $20 fee comparable to paying double, triple that for a gym closer to home? blah
Member
I know Crossfit Oakland is legit and Planet Granite in SF has a full olympic lifting setup with bumpers and various other things, though PG SF doesn't offer a "fitness only" membership with them (it's a climbing gym-- arguably the best climbing in california) so the price will seem high relative to a gym where you just lift weights.
I lift at Planet Granite in Belmont which has a full iron setup but no bumpers and an uneven floor. I make do but it's frustrating... I haven't found a better alternative yet, but again Planet Granite down in Sunnyvale has a full olympic lifting setup too so I've been tempted to drive down there a few times. There are a couple other crossfit gyms around here with nice setups but you have to take their classes to lift there.
If I were you, I'd check out PG SF in the presidio. It's a really inconvenient location depending on where you are in the city, but if you can get there easily, it's worth a shot; especially if you are interested in climbing.
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