Does anyone else here lift 7 days a week? I have been doing it for quite some time now and love it. I’m a gym junkie so it’s pretty much impossible for me not to lift everyday, it’s an addiction.
I’d like to hear from some of you guys who lift 5 or less days a week, and hopefully a few who train 7 days a week. I’d like to hear your reasons for your method and if it is working for you. I feel like a wierdo because when ever I say I lift 7 days a week people always think that is crazy and I am overdoing it,that my gains would be better, etc. What do you guys think?
I just believe that everyday I’m not training, my competition is, and then I inevitably find myself lifting weights later in the day. I’ve always had good results, but whats your opinion? Will taking maybe the weekend off every week cause me to make some massive gains, or in the end does an off day or two really matter? Whatcha think?!
Looks like this for me:
Monday:Back
Tuesday:Chest
Wednesday:Legs
Thursday:Arms
Friday:Shoulders
Saturday:Back
Sunday:Chest
It never ends! lol. One thing I have noticed from training in this way, is that other than leg or chest day, I rarely get sore. Seems like my body has adapted very well to High Volume, intensity, and frequency.
P.S.-Cardio doesn’t count as a training day in this instance, so if you say you train 7, with 5 weights and 2 cardio, that doesn’t count. Sorry
[quote]VibeAlive wrote:
Do you not find you need at LEAST one day to recover?? Are you making gains/progress??[/quote]
I mean you can check my profile, I’m 262 decently lean. I mentioned in an earlier thread that I might take 1 Saturday off a month. Taking off days just never occured to me. I remember when I first started lifting in high school I had a weight training class 2nd period and football workouts after school. Twice a day weight training for almost an entire year. Surprisingly I made some great gains, although when I hit a plateau I got stuck there for quite a while.
And yah I’ve been continually making progress. I hit new weight PR’s almost every session.
you seem kinda jacked in your avy so it makes it hard to disagree but id rather have at least ONE day of just nothing. sometimes you justt need a day off from the gym especially when youre working and going to school.
I suppose it’s highly individual… I’m JUST starting to wrap my head around that… and that not EVERYONE fits into the conventional mold regarding training and exercise… I’m interested in what others have to say as well…
honestly i would lift 7 days a week but im in college and end up getting destroyed one day out of the week and if i do that i dont like training the day after.
[quote]jck524 wrote:
honestly i would lift 7 days a week but im in college and end up getting destroyed one day out of the week and if i do that i dont like training the day after. [/quote]
haha I hear you. Whenever I drink I try to schedule an arm day for the following workout, it’s always the easiest.
The only thing I would question is actually if you ever feel just “tired” on leg day after 2 serious(back/chest) muscle group workouts. I do 6 days right now and sometimes I really think about the 7th, I just don’t know how I would schedule it so that I’m never using partially fatigued muscles soon after(tris probably the best example, used at least a little bit on chest+shoulder+arm day).
[quote]red04 wrote:
The only thing I would question is actually if you ever feel just “tired” on leg day after 2 serious(back/chest) muscle group workouts. I do 6 days right now and sometimes I really think about the 7th, I just don’t know how I would schedule it so that I’m never using partially fatigued muscles soon after(tris probably the best example, used at least a little bit on chest+shoulder+arm day).[/quote]
I don’t know about you but I don’t count the partial use of a muscle. When I do chest, I may just do an arm workout the next day. I notice no fatigue whatsoever in my triceps from chest or shoulder workouts. Do you?
And yah I do feel fatigued at times, but when that happens I’ll do my 1 day off a month and I’m good for another 3-4 weeks.
My legs don’t get sore from deadlifting so that is never an issue when leg day comes around. I think some guys who take a more conservative approach would benefit from just blasting themselves for a week or so and then de-loading. I’d be interested to hear about the experience.
I may try it out tbh, I’ll never know how I handle it until I give it a shot, plus it would probably help with my food intake because I find it so hard to eat on that day off(I know I obviously burn less calories that day too but I eat so much less, like I need that gym time to get hungry or something).
Edit: I don’t feel any soreness in my tris after a chest day, and I never set my split up that I would know if I’m weaker or not in them the day after, but it’s just something I avoided from reading other peoples’ splits I guess.
I workout 4 - 5 days a week, depending on the week:
Mon - Chest
Tues - Back
Wed - Arms
Thurs - Shoulders/off
Friday - Legs
I like being able to rest on the weekends. When I lift back on tues, it’s usually still slightly sore on friday and when legs are sore sat - mon/tues, I can’t lift back. I don’t always do shoulders (overhead movements) because my shoulders start to get irritated after a month or two doing it consecutively. I also love the off days because I overeat and feel that’s how I can lift more and gain weight a little easier. I may change the order in the future if I feel one bodypart is getting stronger while others are stagnant.
For awhile i was going 6 days a week doing a 3 days split.
Mon:Legs
Tues:Chest/shoulders/tris
Wends:Back/bis
Thrus: Off
Friday: Legs
Sat:Chest/shoulders/ tris B
Sun:Back/bis B
I did this for about 3 months up until last week when i went and talked to the guy that’s currently helping me out with my diet/workout. Google Jim Reyes if you feel like it, I feel lucky as hell having a guy like him around to help me out. he upped the number of sets im doing for each body part and gave me a few new exercisesand he thought it was best for me to take a bit more time off to recover.
so right now im doing a four day split that looks like
Mon: Legs
Tues: Chest/bis
Wens: off
Thrus: Back/tris
Fri: Shoulders
Sat: off
Sun: off
I feel so far that this way is shaping up to be much better for me for the week and a half that i’ve been doing it i’ve really enjoyed having sat/sun off considering im working full time and going to college it’s nice to have days that are just a break from everything.
[quote]red04 wrote:
I may try it out tbh, I’ll never know how I handle it until I give it a shot, plus it would probably help with my food intake because I find it so hard to eat on that day off(I know I obviously burn less calories that day too but I eat so much less, like I need that gym time to get hungry or something).
Edit: I don’t feel any soreness in my tris after a chest day, and I never set my split up that I would know if I’m weaker or not in them the day after, but it’s just something I avoided from reading other peoples’ splits I guess.[/quote]
You should try it, I don’t find it to have any negative effects. I think it’s just one of those ideas that was created with all the overtraining hype.
Thanks everyone for contributed, interesting seeing how frequent you guys train, and what is working for you.
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know of any genetic factors that would cause their to be differing levels of DOMS for people or is it all just about the body adapting to cope with the stress?
I believe most people would train 7 days a week if they felt like they could handle it.
I was training 6 days a week for a little while, maybe 2-3 months. I think there were maybe 1 or 2 7+ days in a row sessions. These workout sessions were also typically about 1.5 sometimes 2 hours.
Apart from my legs, I very rarely got sore either.
Some people simply can’t handle the volume. I made some pretty good gains, although I think it caught up to me now which is why I’ve lifted once in the last week. Hurt my shoulder benching, getting pains in my lat, triceps and forearms which I’m putting to overuse. I also started sleeping for like 11 hours opposed to my usual 8. The thing is, I think I might be growing even though I’m not doing anything minus eating.
To be honest I think it was too much for me. High volume and high frequency but the reason I tried it was just to experiment. I don’t bind myself to the rules of keeping workouts under an hour and shit. I’m done when I’m done. Sometimes it might be 45mins.
When you train like this, its important to listen to your body more then anything imo. You can’t argue with results so if your getting them, you keep doing what your doing regardless of what the ‘experts’ say. I learn alot about my body in this time which is just as important as gains too.
Still, its hard to maintain 6-7 days/week from a social point as well. I don’t work which is why I decided to train more, but going out for a day can really make it hard to fit a session in.
5 days a week is probably ideal for me. Trial and error is whats its all about, especially if your doing it for the long term.
waylanderxx, you must have some awesome genetics! Or a hefty stack of gear! More power to you if that regiment gets you where you want to be going!
Through experience, I know that I can’t make progress without recovery days. There was a 3 week period about a year ago where I lifted every day, and just ended up over-training. All my joints were constantly sore and the weights I was moving actually decreased.
I have found that my body responds the best to a staggered 5 day split, mainly due to the fact that I train each body part with enough intensity that I’m always sore the next day. In fact, my legs and back are typically sore for at least 2 days after each respective session. Because of this, I have to stagger my recovery days and if i don’t, my soreness prevents me from moving the weight I’m accustomed when I’m working other body parts. The good news is that my strength and size gains have been coming along the best they ever have since I started working out.
I’ve been on this split since last May (8.5 months) and I’ve had great results with it (also haven’t missed a workout). My dead has gone from 365x6 to 445x6 and my squat has gone from 355x5 to 435x5 (New PR last tuesday!) and I’ve added 10 pounds of body weight. Here’s my week:
Monday: Chest
Tuesday: Legs
Wednesday: Arms
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Back
Saturday: Shoulders
Sunday: Rest
[quote]hardgnr wrote:
To be honest I think it was too much for me. High volume and high frequency but the reason I tried it was just to experiment. I don’t bind myself to the rules of keeping workouts under an hour and shit. I’m done when I’m done. Sometimes it might be 45mins.
When you train like this, its important to listen to your body more then anything imo. You can’t argue with results so if your getting them, you keep doing what your doing regardless of what the ‘experts’ say. I learn alot about my body in this time which is just as important as gains too.
[/quote]
I agree and share the same mindset. I realized very early on that everyone is different in regards to training styles and results. I think the best way to figure out what works for you is to give new ideas and theories a try in the gym and monitor the results. I spent the first year and half or so searching for the most efficient way to force my body to grow. I know I’m on the right track, and besides a minor tweak or substitution every couple months, I’m sticking with my routine until I plateau.
Listening to your body is a skill that I’ve acquired over the years and is the main reason that I have yet to suffer a major injury (knock on wood). I agree that it is a monumentally important component of training.
