Overtraining question...

[ChiLLiando]

after a nice 7 month layoff :guilty: ... i plucked my lazy arse off the couch and got back in the gym the past 3 days...

Monday- squats, legs...

Tuesday- Back, biceps

Wednesday- chest, tris..(lil bit of shoulders)..


needless to say.. i'm sore as a FUKK right now... it's good tho cuz i know it's gonna pass.. each day i was only in there for about 45-1hr... am i overtraining? will i be able to keep a 3 on, 1 or 2 day off...3 on schedule like this? or is that too much?

[Big H]

Your doing just fine if your getting back into a routine. 45 minutes to an hour is good time, don't push it past 90 minutes cuz then your just wasting time. I usually go for an hour and 15 minutes tops.

Using a 3-day routine like that, its best to train each muscle group once a week to avoid over-training. For example you only do Chest on Mondays, Shoulders on Wednesday, etc.

I notice you did Shoulders with Chest; if this is the case make sure your making Shoulders a major emphasis in your routine. Triceps can be worked with Chest and also on days when you do Biceps, don't devote too much time to training them. Split the work between your Chest and Bicep/Back days and you'll be fine.

The other alternative is to move Shoulders to a separate day and pair with another muscle group like Legs. I do extensive Shoulder work so I typically devote an entire workout to Shoulders/Traps.

In order to hit all three heads of the Shoulder effectively you need at least three different exercises, this requires that you put major emphasis on Shoulder days.

[Sdotpoet]

after a nice 7 month layoff :guilty: ... i plucked my lazy arse off the couch and got back in the gym the past 3 days...
Monday- squats, legs...
Tuesday- Back, biceps
Wednesday- chest, tris..(lil bit of shoulders)..
needless to say.. i'm sore as a FUKK right now... it's good tho cuz i know it's gonna pass.. each day i was only in there for about 45-1hr... am i overtraining? will i be able to keep a 3 on, 1 or 2 day off...3 on schedule like this? or is that too much?

Space your workouts a little better. Try Monday Wednesday Friday with a cardio Saturday or Suday. If you are not active for four straight days your gonna end up losing whatever gains you made during the week.

[ChiLLiando]

Your doing just fine if your getting back into a routine. 45 minutes to an hour is good time, don't push it past 90 minutes cuz then your just wasting time. I usually go for an hour and 15 minutes tops.
Using a 3-day routine like that, its best to train each muscle group once a week to avoid over-training. For example you only do Chest on Mondays, Shoulders on Wednesday, etc.
I notice you did Shoulders with Chest; if this is the case make sure your making Shoulders a major emphasis in your routine. Triceps can be worked with Chest and also on days when you do Biceps, don't devote too much time to training them. Split the work between your Chest and Bicep/Back days and you'll be fine.
The other alternative is to move Shoulders to a separate day and pair with another muscle group like Legs. I do extensive Shoulder work so I typically devote an entire workout to Shoulders/Traps.
In order to hit all three heads of the Shoulder effectively you need at least three different exercises, this requires that you put major emphasis on Shoulder days.

good looks mah dude... my shoulder routine ain't that serious... what should i add on...typically goes like this..

1. military press (barbell)

2. dips

3. pullups
fin!

lol.. i'm assuming just like with benching..i can do military press with the dumbells as well... what other exercises are good to throw in there so i can make that a seperate day?

[ChiLLiando]

Space your workouts a little better. Try Monday Wednesday Friday with a cardio Saturday or Suday. If you are not active for four straight days your gonna end up losing whatever gains you made during the week.

yeah... i need to work on my cardio something serious... smokers lungs got me not looking forward to that at all... :-/

soon enough tho.... gonna attempt to play ball again this summer... only went 3 days in a row cuz i got that lil initial workout high.. u know? go back..feels great.. u just wanna go back ASAP!.. i ain't go yesterday.. upper body still sore today.. think i'ma take today off for rest... back doing squats and legs tomorrow (depending on what other shoulder shyts i find *looking BIG H way..ahem* lol...) i'll throw some shoulders in tomorrow as well....

[Big H]

good looks mah dude... my shoulder routine ain't that serious... what should i add on...typically goes like this..
1. military press (barbell)
2. dips
3. pullups
fin!
lol.. i'm assuming just like with benching..i can do military press with the dumbells as well... what other exercises are good to throw in there so i can make that a seperate day?

Yea you can definitely add more to that.

My routine typically goes something like this:

1. Dumbbell Shoulder Press
2. Arnold Press
3. Superset: Front Raises and Side Laterals with dumbbells or cables, alternate week to week.
4. Upright Rows

I then go straight to Traps...

Barbell Shrugs
Behind-The-Back Barbell Shrugs
Dumbbell Shrugs
Finish it off with four Dumbbell Strolls, roughly 1 minute a piece.

As for reps, it depends on what your aiming for. I like to Pyramid my reps on every exercise; 10,8,6,4 rep scheme descending or ascending. I increase the weight every set if I'm doing it descending and conversely decrease the weight if I'm doing it ascending. You can apply this same logic and add more weight every two weeks, this scheme works best for strength/mass gains at a balanced rate.

Those are the basic and best Shoulder exercises in a nutshell. Military Press is very effective but I never found it too good for Mass gains. If your aiming for strength over mass, then Military Press is good. You can continue with the pull -ups but I'd save those for my Back day; drop the Dips on Shoulder days.

[Mr.Rominati]

If you've been out the gym that long you might want to stick to a "warm up" rountine. They usually take about 3-4 months. But after that if you do it right you'll be able to see some serious results. Go buy some bodybuilding mags for the specific rountine,eating habits,stretching, everything you want is there.

[King of the Cats]

I started working out again seriously about a month and a half ago, and the results are showing already.

I usually work on Shoulders and Chest on the same day but I find it harder and harder to complete my workout after I finish my chest routine to then go onto my shoulder. Particularly after doing some Incline dumbell Flyes. The burn onto my shoulders makes it hard to complete my shoulder routine. So i've decided to go ahead with Chest and back one day, then arms and shoulders the next.

Anyone here avoid doing tricep workouts? I neglect doing focused workout on my triceps since I use them in a bunch of other workouts involving Chest and back exercises.

[khalid a.k.a Genocide]

For your triceps try and do one or two mass building exercises and one "definition" exercise. For example:

Close grip bench press
skull crush

and finish it off with rope pulldowns (definition type tri exercises)

As far as rep/set scheme, I just stick with 3 sets and 6 to 12 reps for triceps. pyramiding, 12, 8, 6. And don't do much for triceps besides three or two tricep exercises. Since I do them with chest, and I do alot of sets already for chest. Usually my chest routine looks like this:

Incline Bench Press, 8 sets, rep ranges from 4 to 12, pyramiding 12, 12, 10, 8,6,4,4,10. 2 warm up sets, 5 working sets and 1 burnout set.

flat DB bench press, 4 sets, 6-10 reps.

flat or incline DB fly, 3 sets, 8-12 reps.

I already use alot of triceps on my chest routine. Thats why I basically just do two tricep exercises afterwards, sometimes I do just one. but then again, it all depends on your goals.