So... finally hitting the gym again...

[FrustratedUser]

One year after beginning and then stopping going to the gym I'm making another try.

A year ago I weighed in at 261lbs. Since then I've done NO excercise whatsoever and only cut out soda and eating a bit less or at least better. Less pizza and fast food but it's not cut out all together. Still drink beer as before.

By doing just this I've dropped to 239lbs and it's time to hit the gym on a regular basis 2 or 3 times a week. Only doing light weights but more reps. I'm done in 40 mins.

Basic question:
When the muscles are soar and hurting a bit. Is it best to work on other parts and let them rest or is it OK to continue a few days later?

 

[NuclearNed]

Here is a good rule of thumb: give a muscle group 48 hours to rest before specifically working that group again. Generally, I work each muscle group only once a week (with the exception of abs, which I work 3 times a week).

 

[SonicIce]

wtf once a week? how can you even gain anything?

 

[SVT Cobra]

72 hours between major exercises (bench, squat, etc) is enough.

Soreness does not necessarily mean overtraining as long as you are giving your muscles enough time to recover. You have to be the judge. Are you hitting the weights with the same force and intensity? Are you overly sore where it really hurts to do a lift, or is it just a soreness that goes away when you start warming up? When in doubt of overtraining, always assume you are, you can seriously impede your gains otherwise.

EDIT: Also, (can't believe this slipped my mind) you generally want to ignore soreness when just starting up again or working or shocking a new muscle group. This goes for new lifters or experienced ones who have not loaded their muscles to failure in a while. Your body will acclimate and the soreness you are feeling now will go away in a 2 weeks or so.

 

[sash1]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
wtf once a week? how can you even gain anything?

http://www.ast-ss.com/

Max-OT

yup, one muscle group every 5-7 days

 

[Deleted member 4644]

Nice job dude. I am going to try to follow in your footsteps.

 

[FrustratedUser]

Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
72 hours between major exercises (bench, squat, etc) is enough.

Soreness does not necessarily mean overtraining as long as you are giving your muscles enough time to recover. You have to be the judge. Are you hitting the weights with the same force and intensity? Are you overly sore where it really hurts to do a lift, or is it just a soreness that goes away when you start warming up? When in doubt of overtraining, always assume you are, you can seriously impede your gains otherwise.

It's the usual soreness you get after not working out for a long time. Not painful, just the feeling of 'freshly worked out muscle' if you know what I mean.
Should I wait until it's completely gone or is it OK to wait 2,3 days and hit the same group again?

 

[krunchykrome]

Originally posted by: FrustratedUser
One year after beginning and then stopping going to the gym I'm making another try.

A year ago I weighed in at 261lbs. Since then I've done NO excercise whatsoever and only cut out soda and eating a bit less or at least better. Less pizza and fast food but it's not cut out all together. Still drink beer as before.

By doing just this I've dropped to 239lbs and it's time to hit the gym on a regular basis 2 or 3 times a week. Only doing light weights but more reps. I'm done in 40 mins.

Basic question:
When the muscles are soar and hurting a bit. Is it best to work on other parts and let them rest or is it OK to continue a few days later?

Just curious, how tall are you? What you should do is split workouts. This means you should workout certain bodyparts one day and certain body parts on other days. This allows you to continue working out different muscles, while your other muscles recuperate. For example, most people work out their chest, and their triceps on the same day. This is because when working out your chest, your triceps are your secondary muscles that are exercised due to the nature of the chest exercises. Say you do that on Monday, on Tuesday your chest and triceps will be sore, so you can workout your back and biceps. Again, doing back exercises, your biceps will be exercised as well due to the physical nature of the back exercises, so it makes sense to workout both muscle groups. On another day, you can workout your shoulders (traps and deltoids), and another day you might do legs.

Remember, only workout a muscle group once per week, or else you might risk over training. You want to avoid this because of several reasons: 1) Your muscles can't grow, 2) You become very fatigued physically, and mentally, and 3) it could possibly affect your sex drive.

You might have known some of that already or all of it, but I hope that helped a bit. You can PM me if you have any other questions, and I'll be glad to help you out.

Good luck!

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: FrustratedUser

Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
72 hours between major exercises (bench, squat, etc) is enough.

Soreness does not necessarily mean overtraining as long as you are giving your muscles enough time to recover. You have to be the judge. Are you hitting the weights with the same force and intensity? Are you overly sore where it really hurts to do a lift, or is it just a soreness that goes away when you start warming up? When in doubt of overtraining, always assume you are, you can seriously impede your gains otherwise.

It's the usual soreness you get after not working out for a long time. Not painful, just the feeling of 'freshly worked out muscle' if you know what I mean.
Should I wait until it's completely gone or is it OK to wait 2,3 days and hit the same group again?

"yup, one muscle group every 5-7 days"

Don't get too eager, don't want to damage anything.

 

[SVT Cobra]

Originally posted by: FrustratedUser

Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
72 hours between major exercises (bench, squat, etc) is enough.

Soreness does not necessarily mean overtraining as long as you are giving your muscles enough time to recover. You have to be the judge. Are you hitting the weights with the same force and intensity? Are you overly sore where it really hurts to do a lift, or is it just a soreness that goes away when you start warming up? When in doubt of overtraining, always assume you are, you can seriously impede your gains otherwise.

It's the usual soreness you get after not working out for a long time. Not painful, just the feeling of 'freshly worked out muscle' if you know what I mean.
Should I wait until it's completely gone or is it OK to wait 2,3 days and hit the same group again?

Your good, 2 days is enough. Ideally you want to hit 3 days a week.

Since you are still new again you should not do a split as someone suggested. Focus on compound exercises (bench, squat, deadlift, olympic lifts), because you need to get your CNS trained up again, get all your muscles to it again (i.e. soreness), and you are doing the right thing with light weight and high reps, form first.

 

[EmperorIQ]

Originally posted by: NuclearNed
Here is a good rule of thumb: give a muscle group 48 hours to rest before specifically working that group again. Generally, I work each muscle group only once a week (with the exception of abs, which I work 3 times a week).

i would say give each muscle group 4-7 days of rest, depending on how you feel.

 

[DainBramaged]

Keep it up man! So worth it. I'm down to 217 from 248. Never felt better about myself.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Ive been going to the gym again also after a 3 month break.

I usually go everyday so there imposes a problem on what muscle groups to work out. I want to get bigger and avoid anything that involves pushing with my legs (scared of stunting growth).

Any tips? lately ive been doing arms one day, chest, back, shoulders, but i end up doing a bit of everything by the end.

 

[Sukhoi]

Originally posted by: AznAnarchy99
Ive been going to the gym again also after a 3 month break.

I usually go everyday so there imposes a problem on what muscle groups to work out. I want to get bigger and avoid anything that involves pushing with my legs (scared of stunting growth).

Any tips? lately ive been doing arms one day, chest, back, shoulders, but i end up doing a bit of everything by the end.

You need to work your legs if you want good gains. Don't become a pyramid man.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Originally posted by: Sukhoi

Originally posted by: AznAnarchy99
Ive been going to the gym again also after a 3 month break.

I usually go everyday so there imposes a problem on what muscle groups to work out. I want to get bigger and avoid anything that involves pushing with my legs (scared of stunting growth).

Any tips? lately ive been doing arms one day, chest, back, shoulders, but i end up doing a bit of everything by the end.

You need to work your legs if you want good gains. Don't become a pyramid man.

LoL I just dont want to be one of those like 5 ft 1in guys thats all buff at the gym.

Kicking excercises are ok if i want to try to avoid stunting my growth right?

 

[FrustratedUser]

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

Originally posted by: FrustratedUser
One year after beginning and then stopping going to the gym I'm making another try.

A year ago I weighed in at 261lbs. Since then I've done NO excercise whatsoever and only cut out soda and eating a bit less or at least better. Less pizza and fast food but it's not cut out all together. Still drink beer as before.

By doing just this I've dropped to 239lbs and it's time to hit the gym on a regular basis 2 or 3 times a week. Only doing light weights but more reps. I'm done in 40 mins.

Basic question:
When the muscles are soar and hurting a bit. Is it best to work on other parts and let them rest or is it OK to continue a few days later?

Just curious, how tall are you? What you should do is split workouts. This means you should workout certain bodyparts one day and certain body parts on other days. This allows you to continue working out different muscles, while your other muscles recuperate. For example, most people work out their chest, and their triceps on the same day. This is because when working out your chest, your triceps are your secondary muscles that are exercised due to the nature of the chest exercises. Say you do that on Monday, on Tuesday your chest and triceps will be sore, so you can workout your back and biceps. Again, doing back exercises, your biceps will be exercised as well due to the physical nature of the back exercises, so it makes sense to workout both muscle groups. On another day, you can workout your shoulders (traps and deltoids), and another day you might do legs.

Remember, only workout a muscle group once per week, or else you might risk over training. You want to avoid this because of several reasons: 1) Your muscles can't grow, 2) You become very fatigued physically, and mentally, and 3) it could possibly affect your sex drive.

You might have known some of that already or all of it, but I hope that helped a bit. You can PM me if you have any other questions, and I'll be glad to help you out.

Good luck!

I'm 6'3" so my weight doesn't show that much but it's clearly too much. Long term goal of 200lbs or so.

Thanks for all replies. I'll just keep at it. Light weights + more reps.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
wtf once a week? how can you even gain anything?

Ii sounds like you've never stuck with a program for long enough. Once a week works well if your diet is good.

 

[D22]

Nothing beats running for losing weight. Learn to run and enjoy it.

 

[Special K]

.

 

[FrustratedUser]

Originally posted by: D22
Nothing beats running for losing weight. Learn to run and enjoy it.

It's boring and my legs hurt. I should get on the bike again instead.

 

[Maximilian]

Good stuff dude. Im healed (sort of) and ready to hit the gym again tomorrow. Ive done very little excercise the past 3 months, but im still pretty strong although not as strong as i used to be. I get tired before i get sore most of the time, i need to get my ass back on that treadmill!

 

[Turin39789]

Jumping in for a hijack. I'm in a similar situation, but it was a longer time since I last exercised. I was about 220 when I started and I'm down to 200 now. 5'11" . I'd like to get down to 180 or so, still have some flab around the middle. I usually exercise monday to thursday after class, sometime skipping if the schedule is too tight. I got to where I was running about 4 miles , on my best days keeping them at about 8 minute miles for all 4, but varying between 8-10 minutes. I'm kinda clueless on adding to the upper body, I have a nice frame so I've never looked scrawny, but I dont have a good partner(girlfriend is usually there too, but is slim) for buddy exercises. I've mostly been just doing curls while standing, 30 lbs in each hand 3 sets of 10 and then jumping on to a random machine. I've got access to the university gym so I have just about every machine imaginable, but I remember that free weights are the best.

Lately in my running I've been doing a probably oversimplified version of HIIT. I run for 4 minutes, then sprint all out for 30 seconds, then jog for 30 seconds. I do four of those cycles then jog for another 4 minutes, stretching before and after.

What are good stretches to do, and what is a decent standard routine for lifting etc? I usually keep my workout at about an hour or less but on mondays and thursdays tend to go longer as I wait for my girlfriend to finish and she shows up an hour after I do due to classes.

 

[Whisper]

The advice I've heard/read generally seems to say that if the muscle is sore to the touch, you probably should hold off on working it again. But if it's only mildly uncomfortable, you should be ok.

 

[Whisper]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: SonicIce
wtf once a week? how can you even gain anything?

Ii sounds like you've never stuck with a program for long enough. Once a week works well if your diet is good.

Yep. I work out five days a week (or at least try to...seems to have been turning into four lately), a different muscle group each day, and I do quite well at keeping what I have. After working out for the past 7 years or so, I'm not really looking to make many more gains.

 

[Rogodin2]

Good thread I'm looking to start back up again as well. I'm a similar build to Frus. I'm 6'6" 240. I'm about 20 lbs over what I want to be. I do pushups/triceps/curls every other day and have some decent muscle. My Achilles heel is beer-though otherwise my diet is good.

I want to cut but I want to gain alot of muscle.

Thanks fellas

Rogo