Find out if going to the gym every day will maximize your muscle gain and strength gains. All athletes want to achieve results quickly, and this requires training. However, everyone knows about overtraining, which leads to a logical question - is it possible to train every day in the gym?
Recovery between workouts
To answer this question, it is necessary to understand the process of recovery of the body after training. To do this, it is necessary to eliminate all micro-damage to tissues, replenish the reserves of energy sources, and conduct a supercompensation phase. The recovery time is influenced by a large number of factors. These include the intensity of the exercise, the body's susceptibility to stress, working weights, etc.
It is now believed that it takes at least a day to recover. This is the minimum period of time during which the body can prepare for new loads. This is more true for beginners who train less than three months, the elderly and athletes who do not use high intensity training.
There is also a maximum recovery period of three days. This is how much an athlete will need after intense training with large weights. However, you should not accept all these numbers as the only correct ones.
How often should you work on each muscle group in the gym?
It is now widely believed that each large muscle group should train once during the week, and you can even work on the same abs every day. But at the same time, they do not remember that each person's recovery capabilities are different, and you must find out them and only after that make a decision. There are several principles that you will need to consider when designing a training program.
Larger groups need more rest
The more massive the muscle, the longer it will take for the body to recover. This is primarily due to the fact that they need to be trained more intensively. Large muscle groups include the back, legs and chest, and in turn, the calves and arms are small groups.
Many split programs combine training for a large group and a small, say, legs can be trained in conjunction with the shoulder girdle. This is not entirely good, as the leg muscles are almost half of all body musculature. The best option is to allocate a separate day of exercise for the legs. You should understand that your legs will take significantly longer to recover than your arms or shoulder girdle.
Beginners can rest less
Beginners simply cannot work at high intensity. By the way, the word "beginners" should be understood as athletes whose training experience does not exceed one year. Since the intensity of their training in comparison with experienced bodybuilders is less, then not so much damage to the tissues is inflicted. After training large muscles, they most often need a maximum of two days to recover.
Experienced athletes should rest more
Since they train intensively, they should rest more. Compared to beginners, after their training, the muscles receive more serious damage, which takes a long time to recover. They need to rest within two to three days.
The number of approaches and duration of classes
You must remember that your muscles must work for 40 or 45 minutes. This is pure training time, which is primarily influenced by the number of approaches and reps. There is a rule you should know:
- Large muscles - 4-6 sets.
- Small muscles - 1-3 sets.
We have already said above that many are convinced of the need for frequent training of the abdominal muscles. It is not clear why this decision was made, because the press is an ordinary muscle and the same principles apply to it as to other groups. To work out the abs with high quality, you just need to train it a couple of times throughout the week. The same can be said for the number of repetitions. Sometimes you can find information about the need to perform 100 repetitions at once. Don't listen to anyone and do 20 to 25 reps. This will be more than enough.
Why do pro athletes train often?
For many, it is no secret that the same Arnie practically did not leave the hall. Grueling training almost every day in those days was a must, and bodybuilders trained a lot.
But Arnie once started training, like you, 2 or 3 times a week. Gradually, the bodies of pro-athletes adapt to the stress, and they have to exercise more and more often. At the same time, do not forget that at a certain point professionals begin to earn money by bodybuilding and they have to rebuild their training programs.
There is a lot to be said today about neuro-muscular connections. Some beginners may consider this a fiction, but the same Arnie, thanks to a well-developed connection between the brain and muscles, could pump the target muscle qualitatively with the help of a relatively low weight.
For six or seven days, pro athletes start training before the start of important tournaments. And, of course, they have enough experience to see impending overtraining and can quickly restructure the training plan if necessary.
Examples of training schemes in bodybuilding
Here's a rough exercise plan for working on each muscle once a week:
- Mon. - breast.
- Tue - back.
- Wed - recreation.
- NS. - legs.
- Fri. - shoulders, triceps, biceps.
- Sat. - recreation.
- Sun. - recreation.
When using this pattern, you need to make sure that you are using sufficient training volume for all muscles. If the load is insufficient, then you will miss the moment of supercompensation and there will be no progress. However, you should not overload your muscles either. When working with this pattern, you should do 8-12 sets in each movement, each of which will have 6 to 12 repetitions.
Here's an example of training each muscle three times a week:
- Mon. - whole body.
- Tue - recreation.
- Wed - whole body.
- NS. - recreation.
- Fri. - whole body.
- Sat. - recreation.
- Sun. - recreation.
In this case, you should create relatively little stress for each muscle, since training is carried out often. Apply 3-4 sets for each group.
The final example today will be a program of work on each group twice a week:
- Mon. - the upper body.
- Tue - the lower part of the body.
- Wed - recreation.
- NS. - the upper body.
- Fri. - the lower part of the body.
- Sat. - recreation.
- Sun. - recreation.
In this case, the number of approaches will be 5 or 6 for each group. For beginners, the best choice is to train the muscles three times a week. When you gain experience, it is worth switching to training each muscle group twice a day.
For information on whether it is possible to train daily, see this video:
