Posted: 10/17/2004 12:10:36 PM EDT
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I've dropped about 20 pounds in the last year. Did it mostly by cutting sugars, some carbs, and eliminating a 30 year habit of eating late at night. Now I don't eat anything 4-5 fours before I go to bed. Period. Wife got me a Bowflex last year when she found out I was serious about weight loss, and now it's time to get serious about working out. I was told my one person I should work my legs and lower body one day, and work the upper body the next. His idea was that laying off a day would lead to laying off two days, then three, etc. Another person said I should do a whole body workout every other day and rest in between. I'd sure appreciate some opinions on this. |
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Everyone has an opinion on this subject. Here is mine: If you have a motivational problem where if you laid off a day between workouts, it would lessen the chance of you maintaining a workout program, then I would suggest that you workout every day. You don't have to do just upper body one day and lower body the next day. You can change it up. It is what works best for you. There is nothing written in stone on this. What I would suggest that you do, is work up a plan, and write it down. Do it for 6-8 weeks. At the end of that time, Take a look at what is going on. Evaluate your program, and then change it. The exercises that you probably don't like, are the muscle groups that need the most work. Change your program, and write it down. By changing your program every 6-8 weeks, you keep your body from falling into a rut, and stopping your progress. |
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Not sure what you mean by "working out". I would NOT lift weights everyday. If you can do that you are not lifting hard enough. You should be sore the next day or two or three. Avoid overtraining at all costs! You should be recovering for at least 2-3 days before reworking a specific muscle group. You can "workout" everyday, but make some days just cardio, like jogging/walking. Example(my current split): Monday: Chest and biceps/cardio Tuesday: Legs/lower back/ABS Wednesday: Back/Traps Thursday: Shoulders/Triceps/Forearms/ABS Friday: Cardio Sat.:Cardio Sun:Off That is one body part per week, and is plenty for beginners or advanced. Do 9-12 sets per body part for the big ones, i.e. chest, back, legs. Do 4-6 sets for the small ones: biceps, triceps, delts, calves Comprende? |
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Or you could do. Day one Chest Shoulders and triceps Day two Biceps Back and forearms Day 3 Cardio and abs Day 4 day off The start the cycle over. Sometimes its nice to get other people ideas when you cant come up with any on your own. Just dont over train, you will hurt yourself in the long run. |
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Heres my routine. Monday, heavy chest and back Tuesday, Shoulders, abs. Weds, Arms Thurs, light chest, back, abs. Friday, legs. Usually mix it up with different machines, and free weights week to week so your body doesn't get used to a certain motion or machine. You can mix it up but let the group you worked out rest a day. Sometimes I do 6 days a week. Usually about an hour. You can also throw some cardio in. I get good results with this workout. |
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Oh yeah and I usually do 10 reps, and 3 sets. First routine involves a stretch then a warmup lift. Then medium weight, heavy weight, and back down to medium or light weight. Always pushing to full fatigue. On cable pull machines I do 3 sets of 7 on each excersise. |
When do you do legs??? 
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Sorry, have to disagree with that completely. If you are careful to isolate the muscle groups you're working out, you should have no problem working out upper body one day and lower the next. I do chest and biceps on day one, legs day two, shoulders and tris day three and back day four and do heavy weight and definitely lift "hard enough" on every single day. |
You only lift four days a week then? That is fine. Your split is almost EXACTLY like my split above. 6-7 days a week is overtraining any way you slice it, unless you're juicing. Beginners are especially prone to overtraining. |
Sorry, I must have misunderstood your post then. I thought you were saying you shouldn't lift weights on consecutive days even if it was for different muscle groups. My bad. |
Hell, I couldn't even DO the entire upper body in one day. I do chest and my triceps are burned straight out right along with it. |
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Denny, Go check out this website. Lots of info on Upper/Lower body splits and different routines. Use the pull-down menu and select "weight training workouts"...ah I'll just link ya to it as well... http://www.exrx.net/ The weight training page is: http://www.exrx.net/Lists/WorkoutMenu.html FWIW I do a full body workout every other day, but I change up the exercises so I dont wind up doing the same thing twice in a row. |
I would say that lifting 6-7 days a week is overtraining if you lift with any kind of intensitry regardless if you are chemically assisted or not. |