Weight Training

[pEn0s]

I have been working out with weights for about a year now and i seen great results...I do full body work out 3 times a week, m/w/f

 

 

I noticed that many of the guys who are huge and have been training for a long time dont do full body work outs, instead they do legs one day, chest another etc...

 

I was wondering if i should continue doing full body work outs or different parts of the body on different days?

[Tony T]

Ryan is our bodybuilding expert here and he should be along later to help you with this.

 

I would hope you would pose this question to one of the trainers at your gym. You could get this answered real fast that way.

 

Of all the people I know who do weight training, most of them concentrate on certain areas each time. But that doesn't mean you should. In my opinion, weight training or any other body building activity is an individual thing and its course should be uniquely designed by an expert for each person.

 

I am not an expert, though. Stand by.....

[Ryan]

Whew....glad Tony emailed me to get in here. Life sometimes gobbles up all of one's time very easily.

 

I'd like to clarify that I am not a bodybuilder. I am a lifter. I am not concerned with aesthetics. My research and goals are based on improving health and fitness.

 

 

That being said, there is NOTHING wrong with full body training. The most valuable weight training movements are those that incorporate large amounts of muscle mass. Do not necessarily trust all the actions of the "big men" around you as solid paths to take. You would be amazed at how widespread steroid/anabolic/androgenic use is, even amongst those who are not competitive bodybuilders or athletes. The best way to develop a sound program is to start with science and logic.

 

The problem with splitting up the body into "parts" is that this idea is great in theory...but your body has no idea what theory you may have. The human muscular system is very intertwined and difficult to truly isolate it. For example, there are NO movements for the chest or back that do not involve the shoulders. Almost all chest and back movements involve the arms to a significant degree. Yet, you will see people have separate "arm" and "shoulder" days. The cardiovascular, nervous, and endocrine systems in the body also have no notion of "parts," yet they must recover as well.

 

That being said, there can be some advantage to dividing one's training by major movement rather than part. There are essentially 3 possible movements: upper body push, upper body pull, and compound hip/thigh. Some people have difficulty generating the intensity required to train all in one session. Therefore, it is advantageous for them to do upper body one day and lower body another....or perhaps divide into push/pull/leg at 3 different sessions. The key is to not INCREASE your volume by doing so. The goal is to increase your INTENSITY.

 

As for me personally, I started out at 3x per week full body. After about a month, I switched to 2x per week full body. A year after that, I went to once every 5 days, still full body. I train at that frequency currently and have done so for a bit over 2 years.

 

 

Feel free to fire away if you have more questions.

[Dragonflys]

I personally feel very tired if I go all out on the same part of my body 3 times a week.

 

I like to break it down into chest 1 day - shoulders/back another day and biceps/legs/light chest on the third day. Ideally, doing one heavy and one light workout on each part of your body per week is the best I think.

 

If you have the time, maybe its good for you to go 5x a week, and do shorter workouts..many say that more than 30-40 mins of intense workout results in diminishing returns.

 

You can try things, but above all LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. If someting hurts, stop, or look for better ways.

 

Best of luck!

 

Oliver

[Ryan]

I, too, would become quickly overtrained if I attempted to train 3x per week.

 

Most people cannot train at that frequency and make progress, which is great because it is far from necessary. I question the notion of having a "light" training day. The purpose of exercise is to inroad the body and stimulate adaptation. One must facilitate that adaptation by providing rest and nutrition. Purposely training at a minor level will not add anything meaningful to the stimulation, but it can very well impede the recovery process.

 

 

 

5x per week at 30-40 minutes per session is still too much time spent in the gym. We want to find out how much exercise we need, not how much we can withstand.