No Days Off?

[quote]bigmac73nh wrote:

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
Doable, but totally unecessary[/quote]

Why?

Assuming recovery is good, why train any less than you can physically manage?[/quote]

You can get huge on programs like Doggcrap and Westside, training 3/4 days a week.

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:

[quote]bigmac73nh wrote:

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
Doable, but totally unecessary[/quote]

Why?

Assuming recovery is good, why train any less than you can physically manage?[/quote]

You can get huge on programs like Doggcrap and Westside, training 3/4 days a week.
[/quote]

You can also get huge on other programs. If someone enjoys lifting weights, why would they limit themselves to fewer days of participating in the activity if they don’t need to?

I never get enough calories when I take off days. Two finibars pre training…massive peri-workout shake and a PW shake is a large chunk of my daily calorie intake. I find when I take days off (very rare) I have a hard time making up those calories that I’m missing out on. For that reason, I find my recovery is actually better by just lifting every single day.

[quote]jreynolds_4 wrote:
I never get enough calories when I take off days. Two finibars pre training…massive peri-workout shake and a PW shake is a large chunk of my daily calorie intake. I find when I take days off (very rare) I have a hard time making up those calories that I’m missing out on. For that reason, I find my recovery is actually better by just lifting every single day.
[/quote]

The assumption is when you take days off, not getting the same amount of calories as when you train is problematic for you.

Because you eat more on training days than non training days, its better not to take days off.

From this i infer that you hold that calories are more important than rest is for muscle growth.

we know that just calories alone will not produce muscle growth. Could be that one is putting on fat because one is getting too many calories and calories are not sufficient to cause muscle growth. Calories are necessay no doubt, but not sufficient.

THe moral of the story is with sufficient rest you may give your body what it needs to make some muscle gains.

[quote]silee wrote:

[quote]jreynolds_4 wrote:
I never get enough calories when I take off days. Two finibars pre training…massive peri-workout shake and a PW shake is a large chunk of my daily calorie intake. I find when I take days off (very rare) I have a hard time making up those calories that I’m missing out on. For that reason, I find my recovery is actually better by just lifting every single day.
[/quote]

The assumption is when you take days off, not getting the same amount of calories as when you train is problematic for you.

Because you eat more on training days than non training days, its better not to take days off.

From this i infer that you hold that calories are more important than rest is for muscle growth.

we know that just calories alone will not produce muscle growth. Could be that one is putting on fat because one is getting too many calories and calories are not sufficient to cause muscle growth. Calories are necessay no doubt, but not sufficient.

THe moral of the story is with sufficient rest you may give your body what it needs to make some muscle gains. [/quote]
??

If you are growing and getting stronger, you are getting sufficient rest.

Sorry guys, the idea of less always equaling more doesn’t apply to building huge muscles.

Your results dictate your actions.

[quote]SSC wrote:

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:

[quote]bigmac73nh wrote:

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
Doable, but totally unecessary[/quote]

Why?

Assuming recovery is good, why train any less than you can physically manage?[/quote]

You can get huge on programs like Doggcrap and Westside, training 3/4 days a week.
[/quote]

You can also get huge on other programs. If someone enjoys lifting weights, why would they limit themselves to fewer days of participating in the activity if they don’t need to?[/quote]

x2. There are a variety of good programs to choose from, and I definitely agree that finding one that lets you train as often as you want to is a plus.

I do think that switching up the frequency of training sessions is a great way to stimulate more growth though.

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
You can make anything work. You just need to see how your body recovers and make adjustments from there.

You can tailor your training to fit any schedule. Training with higher frequency you need to be careful with how often you train to failure, use forced reps, intensity techniques etc., because you have less time to recover between workouts.

[/quote]

+1

[quote]silee wrote:
THe moral of the story is with sufficient rest you may give your body what it needs to make some muscle gains. [/quote]

MAY

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]silee wrote:

[quote]jreynolds_4 wrote:
I never get enough calories when I take off days. Two finibars pre training…massive peri-workout shake and a PW shake is a large chunk of my daily calorie intake. I find when I take days off (very rare) I have a hard time making up those calories that I’m missing out on. For that reason, I find my recovery is actually better by just lifting every single day.
[/quote]

The assumption is when you take days off, not getting the same amount of calories as when you train is problematic for you.

Because you eat more on training days than non training days, its better not to take days off.

From this i infer that you hold that calories are more important than rest is for muscle growth.

we know that just calories alone will not produce muscle growth. Could be that one is putting on fat because one is getting too many calories and calories are not sufficient to cause muscle growth. Calories are necessay no doubt, but not sufficient.

THe moral of the story is with sufficient rest you may give your body what it needs to make some muscle gains. [/quote]

??
[/quote]

x2 wut?

I’ve been training full body at least 5 days a week, sometimes 7 for a while now (around 6 months) and have been making my best gains ever. I increased my PLing total by 110 lbs in less than 4 months, and somehow lost 10 lbs in the process. My diet/supplementation/rest were all in line and I did something most would say is a tough task (adding strength while losing weight).

I’ll note that I did not mean to loose the weight, and didn’t realize I wasn’t eating enough :frowning: but I still got a heck of a lot stronger.

Ehh fuck it rest when u want. When u are tired sleep. Just so whenever you are in the gym u are killing it.

[quote]Tankman4411 wrote:
Ehh fuck it rest when u want. When u are tired sleep. Just so whenever you are in the gym u are killing it.[/quote]

not sure why its so hard to listen to ones body.

[quote]Tankman4411 wrote:
Ehh fuck it rest when u want. When u are tired sleep. Just so whenever you are in the gym u are killing it.[/quote]
this. i’d rather get a couple days rest going to make sure I don’t burn out and that whenever I actually go to the gym I kill it. That being said I might go everyday if the desire is there and i know im gonna push myself

[quote]myself1992 wrote:

[quote]Tankman4411 wrote:
Ehh fuck it rest when u want. When u are tired sleep. Just so whenever you are in the gym u are killing it.[/quote]
this. i’d rather get a couple days rest going to make sure I don’t burn out and that whenever I actually go to the gym I kill it. That being said I might go everyday if the desire is there and i know im gonna push myself[/quote]

I won’t be taking a couple of days off unless it is needed. I can feel when it is needed. I won’t be taking time off “just in case” or “to make sure I don’t burn out”. Part of pushing those physical development limits to their boundaries is also training your own body to accept and deal with more and more stress.

This can’t happen if days off are being added “to make sure”.

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:

[quote]bigmac73nh wrote:

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
Doable, but totally unecessary[/quote]

Why?

Assuming recovery is good, why train any less than you can physically manage?[/quote]

You can get huge on programs like Doggcrap and Westside, training 3/4 days a week.
[/quote]

At least with DC, I think that the concept is that people strong enough to warrant doing DC are doing such a substantial amount of muscle damage to themselves while lifting that they only need 3x/week.

The idea, at least as I understand it, seems straightforward: someone moving weights like, e.g., synergy is creating a sh**ton of muscle trauma. The human body can only rebuild damaged tissue so quickly, so it would take longer to recover than it would for, say, me.

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]myself1992 wrote:

[quote]Tankman4411 wrote:
Ehh fuck it rest when u want. When u are tired sleep. Just so whenever you are in the gym u are killing it.[/quote]
this. i’d rather get a couple days rest going to make sure I don’t burn out and that whenever I actually go to the gym I kill it. That being said I might go everyday if the desire is there and i know im gonna push myself[/quote]

I won’t be taking a couple of days off unless it is needed. I can feel when it is needed. I won’t be taking time off “just in case” or “to make sure I don’t burn out”. Part of pushing those physical development limits to their boundaries is also training your own body to accept and deal with more and more stress.

This can’t happen if days off are being added “to make sure”.[/quote]

You put it better than I did, that’s what I meant to say. Right now im on a 4 way split and training every day. That being said if I feel like crap a certain day I’d rather take the day off and train the next day with more intensity than I would have. Also, scheduling days off isn’t really necessary because things always come up that don’t let you go to the gym some days

The whole concept sounds pretty silly to me as you don’t grow muscle working out, you tear it down only to be grown while resting

“Putting all your effort into working out but ignoring recuperation is like investing your time and money destroying the building you own but then forgetting to clear away the rubble and begin reconstruction. Instead you live in ruins” - Frank Zane

[quote]ElevenMag wrote:
The whole concept sounds pretty silly to me as you don’t grow muscle working out, you tear it down only to be grown while resting

“Putting all your effort into working out but ignoring recuperation is like investing your time and money destroying the building you own but then forgetting to clear away the rubble and begin reconstruction. Instead you live in ruins” - Frank Zane
[/quote]

Protip: You can train the some bodyparts while letting others rest.

Also, implying that by not having planned off days you’re ignoring recuperation is retarded.

[quote]Anus Bleach wrote:

[quote]ElevenMag wrote:
The whole concept sounds pretty silly to me as you don’t grow muscle working out, you tear it down only to be grown while resting

“Putting all your effort into working out but ignoring recuperation is like investing your time and money destroying the building you own but then forgetting to clear away the rubble and begin reconstruction. Instead you live in ruins” - Frank Zane
[/quote]

Protip: You can train the some bodyparts while letting others rest.

Also, implying that by not having planned off days you’re ignoring recuperation is retarded.[/quote]

Your putting words into my mouth. I never implied your ignoring recuperation by not having days off. I simply quoted Frank Zane and said it seems silly to me based on the fact that you grow outside of the gym, not from the gym. Why would you work out everyday? In order to get better and/or faster results…

So if we know that the muscle is grown outside of the gym, why would we never take a day off in order to stimulate maximum growth. Regardless of how you split your workouts up, everyone has their own unique amount of maximum physical stress they can recuperate from. Committing to intense physical stress where you purposely break down your muscle tissues everyday in the name of better/faster results over a program where you schedule a rest day seems silly if you think about it. The only two exceptions might be a teenager with naturally raging hormones or the lifter with ‘assistance’. Even then you can’t change the law that you grow outside of the gym.

I’m gonna side with Zane’s experience on this one. Logic also plays a part.

Again it really comes down to learning your body and recovery. At the end of the day it’s really hard to overtrain.

Here is a video from Mark Bell, someone who lifts heavy a lot, squats over a grand talking about how its so hard to overtrain, kinda just shits on the idea.

[quote]ElevenMag wrote:
Why would you work out everyday? In order to get better and/or faster results…[/quote]
Agreed.

[quote]ElevenMag wrote:
So if we know that the muscle is grown outside of the gym, why would we never take a day off in order to stimulate maximum growth. Regardless of how you split your workouts up, everyone has their own unique amount of maximum physical stress they can recuperate from. Committing to intense physical stress where you purposely break down your muscle tissues everyday in the name of better/faster results over a program where you schedule a rest day seems silly if you think about it. The only two exceptions might be a teenager with naturally raging hormones or the lifter with ‘assistance’. Even then you can’t change the law that you grow outside of the gym.[/quote]
If someone can recover and make faster progress WITHOUT taking a day off then why would they do otherwise?

Teens and roid users are not the only ones who can recover from training everyday. Anyone with a smart split and enough food and sleep can do too. IMO, the only time you should take a rest day is when not a single one of your bodyparts has recovered enough to train. And I dont think that happens very often.

You spend plenty of time outside the gym even if you dont take days off.

[quote]ElevenMag wrote:
I’m gonna side with Zane’s experience on this one. Logic also plays a part.[/quote]
Show me where Zane said you HAVE to take days off to make optimal progress. I also dont see the logic in taking an off-day if I DONT NEED ONE.