I know conventional wisdom holds that after you weight train you are supposed to rest a few days before training again. But here’s the thing… I had a hearty workout yesterday, and then this morning I did the exact same workout and was able to keep the same pace (I work until muscle fatigue.) There was no change in my program. Surely my muscles haven’t recovered that quickly, so what gives? Why was I able to do my entire program over again?
Oh, and less you ask, there was absolutely no reason why I redid my program. It was a spur of the moment decision. I guess I just wanted to see if I could do it.
Muscle fatigue is different from muscle failure. If you work to fatigue, then sure, you can do that every day (although it might be wise not to). But if you work to failure, then you won’t be able to do the same thing the next day, unless you’re “genetically gifted”.
If you work to the point that you destroy enough slow twitch muslce fiber through strength training, you need time to rebuild muscle fiber. Hard to say how intense your workout was. Based on your description, you worked out like a girly man.
Also, you might get away with it short-term, but long term would return negative results. Short term, you could do almost anything challenging, recover and make gains quickly. Over time, you’ll hit walls that will have searching for answers and following traditional advice.
48 hours is min needed for full recovery, but chances are most people should take 72 hours between body parts, provided that those body parts are thoroughly beaten down.
A true bicep workout will have you struggling to bend you arms for about the whole next day.
When you hit legs, you should be walking in some discomfort the next day.
When you hit shoulders, you won’t be able to lift your arms the next day.
So, there is your reference for what an exhausting muscle destroying workout is, and then you can appreciate the 72 hours rest the body part needs. When you reach those levels, your training is intense enough.
You worked out the same parts two days in a row? You didn’t work out nearly hard enough. If you did, you’d want ice packs and ibuprofen.
And that’s how you know you pushed your body parts to failure. The advice about rest is completely warranted.
Ok, here’s my program.
I start with a light warm up, approx. 50% of my max for one set of 10. Then I do 8-12 reps at 80% of my max (or however many I can squeeze out.) I progressively lower the weight until I can only do between 10-20% of my max. So for example, using bench press I start with 135 lbs for 10. Then I do 210 lbs for 8-12 (about 80%) then 190 lbs for 8-12, 175 for 8-12 …etc until I’m down to about 100 lbs and 8-12 reps. It’s a very thorough workout and generally the next day my muscles are tight (I’m well past the soreness phase.) I only do large muscle groups and I try to do two different exercises per body part- bench and flys for example using the same method. If that’s being a girly man, fine sobeit.
But I’ve done this program for about 8 weeks (next week I plan on switching it up and going back through another round of low volume hight intensity workouts) and up until yesterday I hadn’t considered doubling up on the same workout ( I do upper body on day 1, lower on day 2, pure cardio on day 3, upper body on day 4, and lower on day 5 followed by 2 days of complete rest.) I’m not a genetic freak nor am I on Steriods. What gives? Should I workout twice a day? Was this an anomaly?
Oh, and when I said fatigue I meant muscle failure. I generally workout until I can’t lift any more. Usually this means that for the given weight I’m on I do between 8-12 reps, but if I can do more then I do more. If I can only do 6 (or whatever) I generally stop and reduce the weight. Occassionally I rest for a minute and then retry the same weight.
But for whatever reason the following day I felt well enough to do my entire program over so I did. The only thing I could think of was that (and I’m no pro so discount the terms I’m about to use) for some reason my muscles fill up with lactic acids (or whatever) too soon so that it “feels” like I can only do 12 reps, but in reality I could do much more (to reach a state closer to muscular failure.) If this is indeed the case is there anyway to delay the onset of this build up? I do use breathing techniques so I doubt it’s lack of oxygen…
Your body might be able to keep up with it, but eventually it will catch up to you. Gains can turn into negative results before you know it. If your strength training a couple times a week per body part is ok (if you do it properly that is), but if you are looking for muscle gains (I.E bodybuilding) particularly, you need to let the muscle heal, otherwise growth will not occur.
Swimming, I was just peppering in some humor to get you to come out.
I think the issue is this: You can get away with it short term. Once in a while, just about anything different will help. Even working out without sufficient rest. However, it is not GENERALLY recommended as part of a regular routine.
The body can make great strides when pushed unusually hard…like two workouts on same parts in two days. Is this optimal long term? No.
Take soldiers in combat. Fighting for their lives, they might walk 20 miles through rough terrain on little sleep…eat nothing…sleep little and fight the elements. They nap and wake up with muscles sore…but they go on. Short term, they can do it. Long term: No. Even soldiers fighting for their lives will need rest to be their best. Eventually, unecessary damage becomes stress…increasing chances of INJURY. And, I don’t think you are considering that. “Feel” is important…but it has it’s deceptive side.
Injury risks go up with unrested muscles.
Even pro-athletes need rest and proper nutrition, despite being able to do almost anything short term.
Think of your other body parts, too. How much nutrition and recoup power do you want you body to dedicate to just one body part? Maybe it’s an overall setback.
Can you dabble with ‘no rest’? Sure. And, you could do 100 reps and exceed every recommended rep count and set count. But you won’t benefit long term.
When you work out a muscle group thoroughly, you will tear some fibers. This is normal and part of the strengthening process, as the fibers will be regenerated stronger. (“Eustress:” stress that is good for your body; as long as you are able to overcome the stress, you benefit. If the stress is too great “distress” you suffer the consequences.) If, however, you do not allow the fibers to regenerate, they will never get stronger, and eventually you may reach “distress.” So give the muscle fibers at least 36 hours to recover. Sure you can work out the same muscles more frequently at the same work out – for a time, but they will never get stronger.
Thanks all, I appreciate it. Is there away to lessen the lactic acid buildup (or whatever causes the muscle to feel “full”)?
Lactic acid is not a problem. Your body metabolizes it in short order: a couple of hours, at most. Stiff or painful muscles the day after a work-out is called “DOMS,” which stands for delayed muscle soreness, and it is caused by minuscle microtears of the muscle fibers. People blame lactic acid for everything, but the only things it causes are: (1) in a race, it will cause one to slow down; and (2) it contributes to the “burn.” Runners training for races learn to adapt to lactic acid build-up by doing appropriate speed work, which is another topic. They thus build up a lactic acid tolerance. BTW, more than just lactic acid is involved in the burn. There is a whole cascade of metabolic events.
I did mean the burn and slow down during the weight training. I understand the soreness, but as an example consider that if I did 50 pushups I would get this tightness (or pump) that prevents me from doing any more push ups. But if I’m weight training I could do more weight at a higher rep without hitting failure.
Also, what is Whey protein?
This is the first hit in Google. It is one of the proteins in milk: whey and curds.