[quote]Regular Gonzalez wrote:
drummerofgod89 wrote:
Regular Gonzalez wrote:
OP, maybe part of the problem is that your bench day was the day after shoulders. Personally I would not be able to give 100 percent on bench the day after doing two different overhead press movements.
While I think risk of overtraining is often overstated, I agree with thunderbolt that there is no need to be lifting seven days per week.
I think that the sample splits in the latest Poliquin article would be a better way to split up your training than either of the splits you posted.
If you’re planning on deadlifting on back day, I would pick split #2
http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=2098269
Split #1:
Day 1: Chest and Back
Day 2: Anything from the bellybutton down (lower body)
Day 3: Off
Day 4: Shoulders and Arms
Day 5: Off
Day 6: Repeat the cycle
Split #2:
Day 1: Chest and Biceps
Day 2: Anything from the bellybutton down (lower body)
Day 3: Off
Day 4: Back and Triceps
Day 5: Off
Day 6: Repeat the cycle
Chest every 6 days? That’s less frequent than I am doing it now. Same with triceps and there doesn’t seem to be a shoulder-specific workout. As for my 7-day split with no rest days, I agree that it could lead to overtraining, but if you look at it, each muscle gets a fair amount of rest. Let me show you what I mean.
Day 1: Legs (that way I can get more sets in)
Day 2: Shoulders and Triceps
Day 3: Back and Biceps
Day 4: Chest and Triceps
Day 5: Traps and Calves
Day 6: Biceps and Triceps
Day 7: Chest and Shoulder pressing movements (no tricep isolation)
- Legs get a full week of rest. They are used a little bit on back day from deads, but that’s it.
- Shoulders get hit hard on day 2, then rest for 48 hours and get moderately on day 4, then rest 72 hours and get hit moderately on day 7, then rest 48 hours to repeat the cycle.
*Back gets a full week of rest. No problems there.
- Chest gets worked hard on day 4, then rests 72 hours and is hit hard on day 7, then resting 96 hours.
*Traps and Calves get a full week of rest. Traps get used a slight bit during deads, but nothing to worry about.
*Triceps get worked pretty hard on day 2, then rest 48 hours, then get hit pretty hard on day 4, then rest 48 hours, then get hit really hard on day 7, then rest 72 hours to get hit again on day 2.
*Biceps get hit pretty hard on day 3, then rest 72 hours, then get hit really hard on day 6, then rest 96 hours.
As you can see, every single muscle group has at least one period during the week where it rests 72 hours, allowing it to fully recover. Most muscles can recover in 48 hours. No muscle group ever works any more often than 48 hours between workouts, and some muscles have a 4 day rest period or even a week. If overtraining begins to set in, a few days rest will solve the problem. Then back at it. It’s not like my triceps or chest or whatever won’t be recovering during another day just because I’m working out with exercises that don’t even hit those muscles. I’m basically considering my days where I DON’T work a given muscle as a rest day for that specific muscle. I want to not only get my bench up, but increase my other lifts as well at the same time. Hey, if I need to take 2 - 3 days off every several weeks to let my body catch up, that’s fine. I hope some can see my logic.
Forgot to mention that I’ve been through Chad Waterbury’s High Frequency Training program where you go in 2x a day and do full-body workouts. I managed to do that for 5 months straight without skipping a workout. If I managed that, then I think I can most likely manage the workout I listed.
Honestly, I don’t really see the logic in the split you have posted. If you are including dips or close grip bench on arm day, that adds up to four days with upper body pressing exercises.
I doubt I would be able to make good strength gains on that routine. With that being said, your squat and dead are both a fair way ahead of mine, so I probably don’t have any business to be telling you how to set up your routine.
Good luck with whatever you do.
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Everyone’s different. I remember better strength gains on my chest when I trained it 3+ times a week. I was making great strength gains for a while when I squatted and deadlifted for high sets twice a week each. I dropped down to 3 sets of each every 5 days and found that those two lifts were still making just as good of strength gains. Obviously the same didn’t happen for bench.
I have good recovery ability, and creatine is a wonderful tool. I can include dips and close-grip bench on my chest days and do all isolation work on arms day for the tris, that way I don’t destroy my chest. Overtraining sessions, however, do have their place. Every several months, they can be useful for a quick boost to strength and size.
Don’t get me wrong, the programs are good ones, but I don’t see how even less frequency and volume for my lacking muscles is going to help them out and adding a reasonable amount of frequency and volume wouldn’t help.