Lifting weights 3 days in a row

michaels

Banned
Nov 30, 2005
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I have started back with pushup's, setup's, but I am wanting to start basic free weight lifting again, and my schedule would best permit Tue-Thurs. I have always heard it's best to lift every other day, but would this schedule be ok?
 

TallBill

Lifer
Apr 29, 2001
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You can lift 47 days in a row without overtraining if you plan it out right. As a rule of thumb, you should give specific muscle groups 48-72 hours of rest before hitting them hard again. But if you have a decent rotation and stagger compound lifts you'll be fine.
 
Mar 11, 2004
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Yeah, that'll work fine, you just need to space it out so that you don't work the same muscles in successive days. Starting out, I find its actually best to split things up (say legs, then arms and back, and then chest and shoulders), hitting each group hard, then wait an entire week to do the same. You can mix things around by starting with what you finished with the week before, or maybe spend a week where you hit the same group twice. There's plenty of ways you can do it, and no real wrong way (working out the same muscles extensively in successive days just doesn't give your body a lot of time to heal, which can be a good thing if you're wanting to mix things up to keep your workout fresh).

It does depend on how you're lifting. If you're going heavy then I would say only once a week, but if you're going light then probably a couple of times a week. For the former use longer rests between sets, and for the latter use less (and possibly cram a bit more by rotating workouts).
 

ManBearPig

Diamond Member
Sep 5, 2000
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you can lift 47 days in a row if you are genetically superhuman or lift like a pussy.

although you can rotate muscle groups and that helps a lot, if you are really intense after a while it gets to you.

you could do three days in a row...it'd be weird but if thats all you can do go for it. you could rotate the groups like people said and that would help. it's not optimal but sometimes youve gotta do what youve gotta do.
 

SludgeFactory

Platinum Member
Sep 14, 2001
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Could be as simple as:

Week 1
Tues - upper body
Wed - lower body
Thur - upper

Week 2
Tues - lower
Wed - upper
Thur - lower

Or use push/pull instead of upper body/lower body split. Or come up with a 3 way split (e.g. chest/shldr/tri's, back/bi's, legs). Whatever.

I don't like to hit the same muscles on successive days. I like a couple days rest in between, but you can make it on one. You don't have to wait a full week between training a specific muscle group. A lot of people would see some rapid improvement if they broke out of that way of thinking.
 

thepd7

Diamond Member
Jan 2, 2005
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I have been doing about 3 days a week and I would say do arms/chest on tues, back/shoulders/abs on wednesday, do legs on thursday. That should keep you busy for 30 minutes to an hour each day if you do it right. Find a work out buddy if you really want to keep going, I know very few people who work out less than 5 times a week alone. It is just too hard to keep going by yourself.
 

TallBill

Lifer
Apr 29, 2001
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Ok, 47 might have been a bit of an exaggeration ;) But there really is no limit. I go 5,6,7 days in a row lifting hard without to much negative effect. Its really all I have to do to waste time right now, so I can't stand to see a day go by without lifting, unless work forces me to.
 

TwoMix

Senior member
Aug 1, 2001
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3 days i would break it up: triceps/bicep, chest/shoulders/back, legs/abs and then mix up the combos week to week.