I made a thread a few weeks ago about workout tips but i can't find it so sorry. Just a quick question, I am wanting to gain mass and size. I have been doing a full body work out for 3 times a week for about 2 month now and my friend suggested me to go onto a 4 day split workout routine. which is better, a four day split or a full body workout 3 times a week. I was thinking that a 3x fullbody work out will stimulate the same muscle group more times in a week than a split. Was hoping that someone here could give a some advice. Cheers
Simply put, muscles grow when they get adequate rest after a workout that tore them up. At 3 times a week you're not getting adequate rest because at most you're getting 2 days, and usually only 1. If you feel like it's adequate and you're not tired or sore, then you're probably not tearing up the muscles enough to promote growth... i think one workout a week works, i've had success with that, but you have to really hit the weight hard in that one workout, eat well, and then get enough sleep and rest. You could probably also get away with doing it every 5-6 days, as by then you'll have enough rest also, but doing it weekly is probably easier to keep track of and makes it easier to have a set workout and lifr schedule.
Gaining muscle means you should get atleast 3 days of rest between a HARD workout for whatever body part... Monday=Shoulders Tuesday=Back and Bis Wednesday=Chest and Tris Thursday=Legs Friday=Shoulders Saturday=Back and Bi's Sunday=Chest and Tris I mix in legs Tuesdays and Thurdays usually... etc If you can lift consecutive days of the same muscle, you are not going hard enough. You should NEED the days off...
Are you still doing 10 reps? If so, you need to get that weight up some where you're struggling to do an 8th rep, but still finishing it off with good form. I think 8 reps should be fine for you, you can try the 6rep area, but i think that's for some pretty heavy lifters. The average person just trying to get some mass should do fine at a hard 8 reps.
As a beginner to lifting back in May that started off doing a 4 day split and later switched to a 3 day full body split, I advocate the 3 day full body split. Do Starting Strength . It's the fastest and most efficient way to make noob gains and it covers all the core lifts that'll work your whole body. It's a 3 day split. Covers the Bench Press, Deadlift, Standing Press, Power Cleans, and Squats. Also optional chin-ups for getting bicep definition. Here's my workout log if you're interested. I just started lifting back in May doing a 4 day split here but found that it was too advanced for a beginner like me. My lifts were plateauing and at the time I had no idea what 50% of my 1RM was. My incline BP was plateaued at 110. My flat bench was stuck at 135. Since switching to Starting Strength program all my stats have gone up. Bench Press starting on July 23rd was 145x5x3. My bench press on August 22nd improved to 180x5x3. My standing military press was 105x5x3 on July 25th. My standing military press on August 20th is 135x5x5 and its now a combination of the power clean with a standing press after racking it. My squat went from 145x5x3 on July 23rd to 185x5x3 on August 22. My deadlift went from 210x5x3 on July 23rd to 240x5x3 on August 22nd. All this progress in just a little over a month's time. These aren't big numbers by any means but I'm able to add 5 more pounds to all my lifts after every workout and that's whats most important for me right now. My physique has improved as well. EDIT: I also wanted to add that the guy who wrote Starting Strength teaches this workout program to people of all ages and varying athletic ability. It works for rehab patients as well.
hey thanks Thanks for all the information guys. Really appreciated. i am hoping to stay on the 4 day split for a while and see if the results are good. I think i need the extra days of rest cause i am finding hard on certain days to push my selfish when I was doing 3 full body workouts a week. Again thanks guys.
I think I've maintained being around 195 since starting in May. I'm overweight in that I'm not a ripped guy but I would say I'm in the average healthy range of BMI. I think I've lost fat and put on muscle even though I've read its not possible. My whole body is more defined and all my muscles have gotten bigger but I don't think I'll reach my ideal physique until a year or two from now. That said I like what I'm seeing in the mirror a lot more than before I started lifting. When I start plateauing on my lifts, I'm going to start a Keto diet to cut weight and enjoy my gains and then I'll aim for Madcow 5x5 intermediate routine to break my plateaus. I also use the calorie tracker on Spark People and follow the BMR formula here so I know what my caloric intake should be.
So... I had always heard about the 3-days-on, one-day-off plan where you do back & biceps, then chest & triceps, then abs and legs... .. and I had some problems with that plain: (1) If I workout my back & biceps on Monday, they don't get worked out again until Friday (2) It requires me to workout on a weekend. That doesn't work for me. (3) It doesn't work well in a 7-day week. On your first monday, you'll do back& biceps, but on the next monday, you're doing abs & legs. etc. So, I'm considering doing 2-days-on, one-day-off. It would go like this: Monday: Chest, Triceps, shoulders, upper legs Tuesday: Back, Biceps, glutes, lower legs Wednesday: off repeat It fits the week better and is easier to deal with if I miss a workout. What do y'all think?
Yeah technically it's not possible to turn fat into muscle, but you could lose some fat and increase muscle size separately... but the reason i was asking is, when you start a training program you'll usually see a significant improvement in strength, but it's not really due to an increase in muscle size. When you start the new movements the nervous system needs time to adapt to it and become efficient at moving the muscles that way. As you keep going it learns the movement more and more and becomes progressively more efficient, which means you become "stronger" during this time, but it's not due to increase muscle size. I think that's the stage you're in now and havent really gained a lot of strength due to actual muscle increase, but you're probably close to getting past this and that's when any new strength will come from muscle gains. Now i'm not saying this program will stop working, but it's something to keep in mind, especially if you stop seeing gains. You may find that after all the adaptation you may need to change your routine to keep improving, possibly needing more rest between workouts and tweaking the sets/reps.
Are you saying 3 days rest is too much for you? That's actually the minimum you'd want if you're training to gain muscle. You'd be switching to only 2 days rest, which i think would be pushing it...that may be fine if you're just doing light weight and just looking for general fitness and not muscle size. Also, you can't really separate upper and lower legs like that as muscles tend to work in chains, so you may still be working out the lower part when you do upper and vice versa. You also tend to use leg muscles when you work out glutes, so again it'll interfere here. I think you'd have to go with something like: Mon- biceps/back Wed- legs(glutes)/shoulders Fri- chest/tris Otherwise you'd have to work out during the weekend or risk not getting enough rest.
Well, in truth, what you're talking about is four days rest, not three. See, the way I figure it, if I finish working out chest/tri's at 3:00 pm on Monday and then start them again at 2:00 pm on Thursday... well, that's 71 hours (really, about three days) which sounds good to me. also, I figure if it's okay to separate your arm exercises (triceps on one day, biceps on another) it's okay to separate your leg exercises, too (calf and shin exercises on one day and upper leg on another). I've also heard that the calves and shins are different than other leg muscles and that it's almost impossible to over-work them. You're right about the glutes, though - When I do lunges for my upper-legs, that works out my glutes quite a bit and it wouldn't be good to work them out again the next day with the lower legs.
Oh I know that. The program is for novice lifters whose whole body is weak. There's really no point in specializing in specific muscle group exercises until I've got an all around good amount of strength. Eventually I'm going to switch into a 4 or 5 day split but not until I can pump out a good amount of weight on each exercise. Eventually my strength gains will plateau but for novices that usually takes between 3 to 9 months on the program. Then I'll try and cut weight with a Keto diet, then switch to Madcows 5x5 which is another 3 day split that's geared more towards intermediate lifters to help get them past their plateaus. Then I'll switch to a more specialized workout that's a 4 or 5 day split and aim for 8 to 12 rep range for hypertrophy. My goal's for the end of the year are a 225x5x3 bench press, 300x5x3 deadlift, 300x5x3 squat, and 175x5x3 Power Clean & Press.
I dont know if i'd count the hours straight that way...usually that split would be seen as 3 days rest, not 4 and your new routine would be 2 days rest really. Muscles dont exactly start recovering the second you stop your workout, so I'd count full days to be on the safe side. The difference in splitting upper and lower leg is that you're splitting the top and bottom, not back and front, like with arms. You're talking about doing lower legs (calves and shins) and then upper legs (hams and quads), rather than the posterior chain (calves/hams) and then the anterior chain (shin/quads), so technically you'd be working both chains on both days, instead of one on each day. i think the thing with the lower leg muscles is that they're constantly working to keep the foot moving or stabalized, so they don't tire very easily, but that doesnt mean you can't strain them with extra work or loads. If you're doing very specific quad exercises like the leg extension, without flexing the shin, then i guess separate shin work is fine...same goes for calves/hams...but if you're doing things like squats and lunges for your upper legs, then you're still hitting the calves and shins, so it may just be pointless and stressful to do separate work for them.
