When I started training in earnest on November I went to the gym every day for an hours session; no days of rest. I was advised by the more experienced members of this forum to take at least 1 days rest a week so commenced to do so. Certainly I found that beneficial. However last week I took Friday off and since we have visitors at home on Sunday I took that day off also. Well!, On the Saturdays gym session I went like a train. I've never felt so energetic since I first started. Two cycles of 30 minutes cardio, bicep curls, chest presses. I exceeded my previous bests. The same occurred on Monday (today) after resting Sunday. This time 2 cycles of 30 minutes cardio, biceps curls and leg presses, and wide grip rowing. Totals using the pyramid technique on all 3 exercises of each cycle were :- wide grip row 5 sets, 36 reps with a max weight of 80 kgs totaling 2,275kgs biceps = 10 sets and 89 reps with a max weight of 25kgs total of 1,710kgs Leg presses 6 sets and 250 reps pushing a max of 175 kgs. total of 42,249kgs
This was better than Ive ever done since I started. Todays session lasted 2 hours and I could have gone on. Now the interesting question..... as I seem to excel after one days rest, do I then continue to have one day at the gym and then a days rest. OR do I go back to one day off a week? Your views are most welcome.
Hi Tank, I certainly made mistakes and I'm sure I;ll make more as I go along but as you know, I'm happy to seek and act on advice. Regards the chest exerices, I use a machine very much like this one.
we dont have any free standing barbells.
leg press is
and for the biceps I use the preacher. The "wide grip row" is similar to the "chest press" machine but instead of pushing the handles you pull them.
Hmm.. you mentioned your gym is quite far away? is there no better gym's closer? any chance you could take a few sly shots of inside the gym ? see what choices you got.
Machines are alright.. always best to do most exerices with dumbells.
Also remember when on weights..for preacher for example..its not about lifting heavy,its about lifting 10-15 reps while squezing the muscle at the top for 1 second rather then straight up/down lift movments if that makes sense. gives the muscle alot more burn
Fine Tank, yes that make a lot of sense. And I'll take fotos when I go tomorrow. No Problems there. Actually my gym is ony about half a mile away. The next one is about 30!
Ouch so deff stick to the close gym then lol Ill take a look at the machines when you post them. I think if you changed a few things like not always going to failure you will have alot more energy. i never acutally train to failure my self. only in abs,, deff burn out if i did!
Tank, been 3 days WOs now and have been performing WAY above my previous best. I find that 50 minutes cardio throughout the session is easy; before I was gasping at 20. You guys were right to stop me doing 7 days non-stop! Also as advised I now do different muscle groups on alternate days so they get at least 24 hours rest. Got a great diet regime from PJ, as you might have guessed. Still got a lot of fat to get rid of though!
Thursday. Took today as a rest day. Legs were knackered after 250 leg presses at 175kgs amongst other exercises. The rest did me good as can be seen from the cardio results taken from the gym computer Time calories 5/3/2008 0:50:40 310 4/3/2008 Life Fitness 93T Series Treadmill 0:54:36 329 3/3/2008 Life Fitness 93T Series Treadmill 0:50:02 319 1/3/2008 Life Fitness 93T Series Treadmill 0:50:07 305 TOTALS 3:25:26 1,263 calories
i have often wondered how these machines work out how many calories you have used by just putting your bodyweight and age etc into them!!! ie fat sally 17 stone vs me 17st i would obviously burn more calories having more muscle on me
erm lady instructor aint bad jon, see why your there everyday now....!
I train mon / tues / thurs / fri........ I rest Sat / Sun / Wed
Your body develops during the rest period, so to gain the most frm your training you shouldn't train a muscle group until it as completely recovered from the previous training session. Thats why people usually only train lets say chest once a week because if you "tear" the muscle properly it will take the next 6 days to rebuild and be ready for the next session.... If your doing light cardio you can train pretty regulary, but if your running hard, sprinting etc or doing interval on the rowing machine or bike then again you will need several days of rest before repeating.....
Quite a few people make the mistake of over training, you should feel whens good to go again, but if in doubt have days rest again, it will be more beneficial or you........
Thanks Andy, I've realised that the extensive training I was doing before, such as 7 days on the trott was mostly wasted. I'm taking 2 days off now, Thuresday and Sunday and selecting groups of muscles to train on separate days. I find that I can do more hours training over the 5 days now that I have rests than I did over the seven [previously.
Kez, I know that the calory count is only an estimate, but its an encouragement as well.
Ive been reading up on fat loss and found this of interest.
Quoted Text
Performing lighter weight with more repetitions (15-20 reps, 20-30 reps, or 20-50 reps) does not burn more fat or tone (simultaneous decrease of fat and increase muscle) better than a heaver weight with moderate repetitions (8-12 reps). Weight training utilizes carbohydrates after the initial ATP and CP stores have been exhausted after the first few seconds of intense muscular contraction. Typically a set's duration is 20 to 30 seconds. For the average fit person, it requires 20 to 30 minutes of continuous aerobic activity with large muscle groups (e.g. Gluteus Maximus and Quadriceps) to burn even 50% fat; fat requires oxygen to burn. Performing a few extra repetitions on a weight training exercise is not significant enough to burn extra fat and may in effect burn less fat.
Basically it states that increased reps is not going to do anything but increasing weight for the same reps will.
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