Who Lifts 7 Days a Week?

I’m kind of interested in how you don’t get sore? I’m addicted to that feeling personally and I don’t feel i’ve gotten a good enough workout if i’m not sore the next day. Maybe you should look into changing up your workout a bit if your muscles are used to your schedule?

I’m like you, if i don’t get in the gym all 7 days i feel like crap the one day i’m off.

The schedule that seems to really be gaining for me is:

monday-chest and abs
tuesday-legs
wednesday- back and abs
thursday- shoulders and calves
friday- arms and abs (my favorite day)
saturday- chest and abs
etc…

I try to keep my pushing days separated by pulling days so i can completely kill myself each day and not worry about being sore and it affecting my workout that day or over working the muscles i just used in my prior workout.

Thats what has been working for me, idk, just trying to give some input.

No offense intended, but:

Gear?

I say everybody is different. If it works for you then good. I doubt that many people are able to lift seven days a weak and actually gain muscle. I need rest after lifting not just physically but mentally. I am the opposite and lift only three days a week and make gains from it. When I go back to the gym I am stronger each time. I like brief intense workouts. I get in and get out. This is what works for me and others who try it may not make gains from it. Bodybuilding is an individual thing.

Right now I’m liking

S- biceps
M- legs
T- back (lats)
W- chest
T- deadlift
F- shoulders
S- triceps

I can miss either or both arm workouts if I really need a break, and they aren’t very draining anyway.

When I first stepped into a gym I was 5,7", 100lbs, and after 4 months of 7x a week training (mindless crap, doing 3-4 sets of 10 on all the machines) I got to 150lbs.

I got to 165lbs over the next year using regular 3-4 day a week routines, then got injured & haven’t been able to train my upper body hard until now.

So even though my experience is minor, I just thought i’d chime in since it worked for me.

Not sure i’d do it again after reading everything on T-Nation.

my training goes like this:

back
arms/chest
off
legs
off
repeat

but its not set in stone so like if need to take an extra day off i do. or if i need to switch one day out for another i do that also.

like i said, i work and go to school its hard enough just doing those two but to add in training as well i really dont have a whole ton of time for other stuff so it need a few off days just to be able to get things done and give me more than 15 minutes rest a day. but i will say this, when youre used to being really busy its kinda weird having time off…not saying i dont like it just that theres only so long i can lounge around.

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:

And yah I’ve been continually making progress. I hit new weight PR’s almost every session.[/quote]

Haven’t you answered your own question?

When doing one bodypart a day like the OP is doing, I think it’s very doable. I don’t think recovery becomes an issue so much. It’s not like he’s doing fullbody, upper lower, or push pull everyday, which would lead to overtraining IMO.

[quote]pdub690 wrote:
I’m kind of interested in how you don’t get sore? I’m addicted to that feeling personally and I don’t feel i’ve gotten a good enough workout if i’m not sore the next day. Maybe you should look into changing up your workout a bit if your muscles are used to your schedule?

I’m like you, if i don’t get in the gym all 7 days i feel like crap the one day i’m off.

The schedule that seems to really be gaining for me is:

monday-chest and abs
tuesday-legs
wednesday- back and abs
thursday- shoulders and calves
friday- arms and abs (my favorite day)
saturday- chest and abs
etc…

I try to keep my pushing days separated by pulling days so i can completely kill myself each day and not worry about being sore and it affecting my workout that day or over working the muscles i just used in my prior workout.

Thats what has been working for me, idk, just trying to give some input.[/quote]

You know it’s wierd about my soreness. One thing I have noticed is that my most developed body parts don’t get sore, but my lagging ones do. For instance, my chest and quads lag behind the rest of my body, so whenever I train them I usually have DOMS for 2-3 days. Now for every other muscle group, I can blast them to hell and they don’t get sore. Instead, they just cramp painfully for 2-3 hours post workout. Like if I do biceps one day, and I go to scratch my head, they cramp. It goes on like this for a few hours, then it stops, and no soreness the next day, and they keep growing, strange huh?

And to answer the question about gear: I just recently experimented with it, didn’t touch it until I was 250. So this training method is what I built my base with, and it is even more beneficial with gear since recovery is much faster.

[quote]saroachman wrote:
Right now I’m liking

S- biceps
M- legs
T- back (lats)
W- chest
T- deadlift
F- shoulders
S- triceps

I can miss either or both arm workouts if I really need a break, and they aren’t very draining anyway.[/quote]

Yay a 7 dayer haha. So are you noticing added benefits from this way of training as opposed to what you were doing previously?

I’m a lot smaller than you OP (just hit the 200 mark), but I love 6-day workouts. 4.8k kcals per day (just increased that from 4.5k) and I’ve been making gains every week.

Su - Chest
Mo - Back
Tu - Squat + Quads + Calves
We - Delts / Traps
Th - Arms
Fr - Deadlift + Hams + Calves
Sa - Off

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
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]

If it works for you, do it. You’re body must be able to handle it. Bad analogy but I know a millionaire that never takes time off…he’s always building his business to keep ahead of the competition. I don’t think you can build greatness on the couch.

[quote]machiajelly wrote:
I’m a lot smaller than you OP (just hit the 200 mark), but I love 6-day workouts. 4.8k kcals per day (just increased that from 4.5k) and I’ve been making gains every week.

Su - Chest
Mo - Back
Tu - Squat + Quads + Calves
We - Delts / Traps
Th - Arms
Fr - Deadlift + Hams + Calves
Sa - Off[/quote]

Good stuff man. I really think 5-6 days is the magic number for bodybuilding purposes. Seems like anything less just isn’t enough. No offense to you fellas who lift <5 its just my opinion.

[quote]slimthugger wrote:
Bad analogy but I know a millionaire that never takes time off…he’s always building his business to keep ahead of the competition. I don’t think you can build greatness on the couch. [/quote]

I actually like that. . . makes a shit ton of sense. Thanks for chiming in Slim.

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
slimthugger wrote:
Bad analogy but I know a millionaire that never takes time off…he’s always building his business to keep ahead of the competition. I don’t think you can build greatness on the couch.

I actually like that. . . makes a shit ton of sense. Thanks for chiming in Slim.[/quote]

One more thing. The people that say not to do something usually are the ones that haven’t made it to the top. You’ll never hear a champ talk about days off. All I heard about phelps is that he trains and eats like a maniac.

I used to until I began lifting like the big boys. I take Sunday off. I find that I actually need the rest. It also helps me hit shoulders on Monday with everything I’ve got.

I lift with a retired bodybuilder from st. louis that is now 58 and looks like he’s about 30. Whenever someone asks him when his last day off from the gym was his response is… “i think i had one back in 1983”

If 7 days is what works for you and you keep seeing results, keep doing it. I know I’m in the same boat with you on the no days off. I don’t think it’s until you hit a plateau that you need to rethink your workout plan and even then it may simply be a switch of which days you work which muscles, or how you work each muscle, not even that you need to take a day off.

[quote]pdub690 wrote:
I lift with a retired bodybuilder from st. louis that is now 58 and looks like he’s about 30. Whenever someone asks him when his last day off from the gym was his response is… “i think i had one back in 1983”

If 7 days is what works for you and you keep seeing results, keep doing it. I know I’m in the same boat with you on the no days off. I don’t think it’s until you hit a plateau that you need to rethink your workout plan and even then it may simply be a switch of which days you work which muscles, or how you work each muscle, not even that you need to take a day off.

[/quote]

Agreed. In school, I took rest days as needed. There were several weeks that went by where there were none. This is completely individual and not far fetched at all especially if someone is only training one body part a day and in and out of the gym in under an hour.

My workouts used to end in under 40-45min though.

I take more regular rest days now because I work longer hours.

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:

Yay a 7 dayer haha. So are you noticing added benefits from this way of training as opposed to what you were doing previously?[/quote]

I’ve only just started a week ago. We’ll see.

I found going to the gym 5 times a week is better. I used to go Mondays and do chest/back, Wednesdays was legs, and Fridays do shoulders/arms. The problem was that I was there at least an hour and a half and it didn’t fit my schedule very well.

Now my workout last at most an hour by going Mondays’ through Fridays and including doing some extra work for some lagging body parts i.e. calves. Gains are also coming along very well.