Lifters: how do you portion out your rest & recovery periods?
Do you lift for a number of weeks, then take a week off to recover?
Or do you lift for a number of days, then take a day or two off?
Or do you use some other recovery schedule?
Or do you simply lift year-round?
WWW,
Good questions there, so here’s a less than satisfying answer:
It depends.
The schedule you lift by, the type of lifts you do, the weight you lift and the reps you lift them all depend on the goal you have for lifting. I have lifted specifically for sports like football and collegiate power-lifting, and am now working around a general/combat fitness goal for my line of work. Different goals call for different schedules.
I’ll spare you a specific breakdown of how each design would go unless you want it. Instead, as a general rule of thumb: the heavier/higher intensity you are lifting, the less frequent you will be able to do it. As of now, I do each major muscle group once a week year round. When I was power-lifting, on the other hand, I might only be able to squat every other week or less, and my work-ups went in cycles that lasted months before resetting.
Again, not a great answer but I hope it helps.
At 44 yrs old, I find that I cannot lift as heavy or as frequent as when I was 35 or 25. I have a job and a family to attend to. My body is beaten from years of lifting and heavy labor. I cannot tell you how many times this question is raised and how many times an answer is given just to have one. It really depends on you, your physical fitness status, your age, your rest quality, your diet, your workout design and quality… I lift 4 days a week using the proven compound movements such as squat, deadlifts, chest press, military press, power cleans, and Pendlay rows. Each type takes me 30 to 40 minutes each depending on what intensity level I want to take it to that week. I have a hard week then I take a light week. I only lift up to 10% less than my 5 rep maximum. I only do 5 sets of five repetions and increasing weight 5 lbs each time up to my 5RM. On light weeks, I do 3 sets of 5 repetions for up to 10lbs less than my hard workout. You have to listen to your body and rest accordingly. I don’t pump iron, I lift weights. I rest a day, sometimes 2 days, and maybe 3 days if I feel weak or tired. Every 8-10 weeks I normally would rest up one full week. During this time, I get hydrated and well rested. Sticking to a set rest and workout schedule is not at all realistic and causes most people to give up working out. They get sick, tired, and injured. Too much time, too much money, too much work, NOT ENOUGH GAINS. I forgot to add that I have tendonitis in both elbows, shoulder impingement in both shoulders, and compressed vertebrae L4 and L5. I had to drop 100- 150 lbs from all my lifts to accomodate my beaten body. I get 8 solid sleep hours each night. I also suggest to get in a hard workout if you know you have the weekend to rest up!
Some info here:
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=27309
Should be some others found in the “Will Brink Posting” section above regarding programming for optimal results and avoiding OTS/injury
I lift 3 or 4 days a week, 2 days rest before setting heavy PRs, I have a 3 day split that looks like this, A= push, B=pull, C=legs, x=rest
ABxCxxA
xBCxxAx
BCxxAxB
and so on
If I stall first thing I adjust is diet, then assistance exercises, then deload for a week and try again, and if all else fails take a few days off and rethink the program. I do all the big compounds in 3x5 or less and assistance 3x8, no more than 5 lifts per day. It’s easy to go to the gym too often and lift too heavy for me, I go stir crazy if I don’t do something, but you won’t progress without proper rest, so make yourself do it.
Will Brink hit it right on with his link to the cookie cutter approach. Do A then B then C and rest one day and then… you get the idea. Over training and injury is a very common problem. You just cannot put a definite timeline on how much rest is needed after a strength workout at 3 rep max for squats to a 3 rep max for bench press. Or even a 15 mile run versus a 5 mile run. Most programs I see people using in the gym are from some magazine they read. I also see guys that lift the same exact poundage week after week, month after month with little to no gains. Do not overtrain. You can never get too much rest.
In an earlier posting I listed several of my injuries which when I reread the post, leads one to think it was lifting related. My physical ailments are from car accidents, hard labor( concrete busting and laying), and from hunting accidents( 25 ft fall from elevated stand).
I have never received injury from training. After a 6 year layoff due to the back injury, I am already in the High Intermediate level of strength training. I am not here to brag or sway anyone to lift this way or that way, only to emphasize the importance of proper rest periods and deemphasize the need for a cookie cutter program.
I currently use a modified version of Dante Trudel’s Dogg Crapp Training (intensemuscle.com). Upper body is alternated M/W/F between push/pull. Lower body is done Saturdays and I jog Tues/Thurs. For the weights I blast for 6-10 weeks and then take 1-2 weeks of easy, reduced frequecy/volume/intensity to recharge. Running is adjusted as needed at any time. I have come so far so fast that I am usually very close to my limits of recovery.
I almost always lift heavy and to failure. Heavy power movements for a given muscle group, followed by light-to-medium weight med-high rep burnout sets. I’ll do this for a couple of months, and then take a couple of weeks off if I feel overtraining setting in (fatigue, loss of motivation, excessive soreness). I put about a hundred pounds onto my deadlift in six months doing this while training for an informal competition (and I was not a newbie making beginner gains). Not sure that it’s the optimal route for everyone, but it has worked for me. I think a huge part of gaining progress with weight training is, over the years, finding the lifts, rep/set/weight schemes, and schedules that work best for your particular body. While you gain that experience, listen to guys like Will who know their shit.
Heres a really simple good rule- Dont train any muscle group again if its still sore from the previous workout. Just simply doing that will greatly reduce your risk of injury and overtraining.
There are so many factors that influence recovery its impossible to moniter and manage them effectively.
The easiest way l’ve found is to just generally do your best to eat well, sleep enough and dont freak out about a workout schedule, listen to your body and if all your major muscle groups are sore dont train that muscle group again until it doesnt have that sore feeling.
If you still wanna workout on days you cant lift go for an easy jog/swim/bike or whatever.
As a power lifter, my current routine goes
M-Chest
T-Back
W-Shoulders
R-Arms
F-Legs
S-a little of everything to keep tight
S-Rest
Every 5th week is a deload where I lift light. Enough sleep is extremely important because your body is in its most anabolic state if it has fuel.
What do you mean by “high intermediate level”?
I do the same with a rest on Friday instead of Sunday. I’ve been fortunate with an even work routine recently keeping my gym time available. I have found this way has kept me free from aches and pains and added some good gains.
Could you break that down by lifts? And how long you spend each day lifting?
What does sleep have to do with fuel?
I switch it up a lot, but here is a rough outline to give you an idea
Chest-
Flat barbell or dumbbell bench
incline barbell or dumbbell bench
decline barbell bench or weighted dips
dumbbell fly’s or cable fly’s
Back-
deadlifts
bent over barbell rows
cable rows
weighted pull ups or lat pulldowns
Shoulders-
seated dumbbell shoulder press or barbell press
front raises
lateral raises
reverse fly’s
barbell shrugs
Arms-
standing dumbbell curls
close-grip flat bench
incline seated dumbbell curls
skull-crushers
cable curls
tricep extensions
Legs-
squats
legpress
quad extensions
hamstring curls
Each day takes about 1 1/2 -2 hours depending on the day
As for the sleep/fuel thing, your muscles repair (anabolic state) themselves the most while you sleep. However, you need fuel while you sleep. In other words, you need to eat before you go to bed so your body has nutrients to repair your muscle with. Eating before bed is important because when you sleep, your body goes on an ~8hr fast. During this time your body will either eat itself (catabolic state) or the food in your stomach. So make sure your body has something to use at night or else it will eat itself.
There are 2 things that will help your body recover more than any other without the use of steroids: Food and sleep
Let me know if anything needs clarification.
I’m with Wiggity both on routine and diet.
The one thing I find a lot of proteins mixes to be lacking in is amino acids. So check the label or get separate pills of AA to supplement your protein.
Hell I dont take any supplements except creatine, I just eat a lot. I used to take a bunch of supps but then I stopped in college for money reasons. The funny thing is, I actually got bigger when I stopped taking supps and started eating more.
I’m 6’ 215lbs at ~10% bodyfat
How many calories are you eating, Wiggity?
See, I’m 5’8, 190 lbs, and 22% bodyfat. So, I’m more focused on losing weight than building right now, but all the same, I don’t want to lose any muscle mass.
probably about 4k per day. I’m trying to maintain and not put on mass at the moment.
If you’re focused on losing some of that weight, I’d suggest a 2k calorie diet that is low in fats/sugars and high in protein/complex carbs. The key to losing that fat and gaining muscle is going to be eating CLEAN, not your lifting routine.
Cardio is always good at getting at fat too, get on the stair stepper for a hour every other day along with a clean diet and it will disappear in no time.
That makes no sense. Proteins are made of amino acids. Do you mean mixed with non protein nutrients? AA pills = waste of money. Eat some freakin’ chicken or use a good whey isolate, which is 90%+ protein consisting most of the AAs one wants: 30% BCAA and so forth. 
I was told the crappy stuff I had before wasn’t high enough in BCAAs. It actually didn’t have it on the label…so I figured the person telling me was right. Was also told the good, and usually more expensive, proteins do have it in there. Who knows, I have a nurse for a mom and a health freak for a wife…my diets great. So beyond that I don’t focus as much on supps as maybe I should.
I like the idea of getting rid of them altogether. That’s been my plan, after I get through the damn 10lb bag I ordered.