What happens to the body if you workout using the same muscle groups each day or everyother day?
From what I’ve read the muscles should rest 48 hours between workouts. The endorphin rush I get from the upperbody workouts is addicting and I find it impossible to stay away for 48 hours.
BTW, I’m 58, (retired early) and I know very little about lifting but I sure am having fun. David
If you’ve just began resistance training, you should be fine with 24h rest between lifting sessions.
As soon as your gains slow down significantly or stop completely, and/or you don’t feel recovered (e.g. lack of energy/motivation, strong DOMS etc), you should give your body more time to recover.
As a beginner, it’s almost impossible to really push yourself to the physical limits, because you are not used to the movements yet, the more advanced you become, you can/will get closer to your true physical barrier, thus making the workout much more intense but also having need for longer rest periods.
btw, if you really feel like it, you could make one “push” day (chest, triceps, front delts etc) and one “pull” day (lats, biceps etc) thus allowing for 48h+ rest and still working upper body frequently 
It’s simple.
One day do upper body, second Day do lower body.
Now you have 48 hours in between your upper body workouts and your not neglecting the other 50% of your body.
You can also go upper / lower / Day off /Upper / Lower.
I guess the smarter thing to do is split the upper and lower workouts by a day. Is the full day off every 3rd day that important or could I just keep repeating the process and take 1 day off a week?
The cardio stuff like treadmill, stair climbers, bicycle, is sooooo boring compared to the lifting I can’t stand doing it.
Check out the stuff by Chad Waterbury it will help you a lot on this topic. His high frequency training articles
Phill
Intersesting read.Im having the same concerns.Im 48 years old,been back to the gym about 4 months now,and am not getting near the pump i once was.Im still happy with the look in the mirror,but my arms,chest,shoulders arent near as hard as they were during my earlier workouts.
Now im having a hell of a time figuring out how many days per week to hit the gym,3 on 2 off,1 on 1 off,etc.I took 6 days off last week after i screwed up my elbow tendons doing upright rows.I figured that would recharge me and my pump would come back,but got just an average pump yesterday.Any input? Thanks.
[quote]gaining wrote:
Intersesting read.Im having the same concerns.Im 48 years old,been back to the gym about 4 months now,and am not getting near the pump i once was.Im still happy with the look in the mirror,but my arms,chest,shoulders arent near as hard as they were during my earlier workouts.
Now im having a hell of a time figuring out how many days per week to hit the gym,3 on 2 off,1 on 1 off,etc.I took 6 days off last week after i screwed up my elbow tendons doing upright rows.I figured that would recharge me and my pump would come back,but got just an average pump yesterday.Any input? Thanks.[/quote]
don’t base workouts on your “pump”
[quote]smallmike wrote:
gaining wrote:
Intersesting read.Im having the same concerns.Im 48 years old,been back to the gym about 4 months now,and am not getting near the pump i once was.Im still happy with the look in the mirror,but my arms,chest,shoulders arent near as hard as they were during my earlier workouts.
Now im having a hell of a time figuring out how many days per week to hit the gym,3 on 2 off,1 on 1 off,etc.I took 6 days off last week after i screwed up my elbow tendons doing upright rows.I figured that would recharge me and my pump would come back,but got just an average pump yesterday.Any input? Thanks.
don’t base workouts on your “pump”[/quote]
Why do you say that? It seems quality of pump would corralate with quality of workout and the bodys reaction to it.A small pump would seem to indicate that the muscles need to fooled with new/different lifts? Comments? Thanks.
[quote]gaining wrote:
don’t base workouts on your “pump”
Why do you say that? It seems quality of pump would corralate with quality of workout and the bodys reaction to it.A small pump would seem to indicate that the muscles need to fooled with new/different lifts? Comments? Thanks.
[/quote]
A pump indicates simply that you have done a lot of volume in a short time - either a high rep set or a number of medium rep sets with short rest periods. It does not correlate directly with the stimulus a muscle needs to grow.
It is possible to grow large and strong muscles without ever getting a pump, simply by doing heavy low rep lifting. The heavy weight is plenty enough growth stimulus.
[quote]Phill wrote:
Check out the stuff by Chad Waterbury it will help you a lot on this topic. His high frequency training articles
Phill[/quote]
Be careful with this advice! Waterbury states clearly that his high frequency training is only for experienced lifters (I think he suggests having at least 2 years of serious lifting under your belt)
However, Phill is correct in suggesting you look up Waterbury’s writings, since they are almost exclusively for people who want to put on a good amount of muscle throughout their whole body (as opposed to people who may be looking for specialization programs to bring up lagging muscles, etc).
As for the pump, don’t let it guide your workouts. If you want a pump, do a bunch of reps with a light weight, but if you want to get bigger and stronger, you better lift heavy and manage your fatigue. You won’t get a typical bodybuilding-type pump from doing, say, heavy deadlift triples, but I’ll be damned if it won’t help you get big and strong.