Starting to Lift... 5 days a week too much?

[Slider]

My roommate, BillyJex, is on a crazy health kick. It's good because I'd feel like a lazy ass if I didn't go to the gym with him and start to work out again.

I could use an extra 20 lbs as I'm only 6'2 150 right now. We went yesterday, and I'm pretty sore now. When you start lifting again, isn't your recovery time a lot longer?

Does it matter if I go lift like 5 days in a row a week, or should I give my muscles (what little of them I have) time to repair before going back again?

Slider

[PartysOver]

2-3 days a week is good, your muscles need time to repair. When you work out they actually tear. Geting 'ripped' is a lot about the repairs your body makes to the torn muscle. Every time it repairs it adds a little more bulk.

Down time in between excercising is almost as important as the actual excercising.

First starting out, go for every other day or every 3 days... I think the best is to alternate muscle groups and go every other day so each part of your body is getting a lot of 'rest'

[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

[NT!]

i'm not an expert on weightlifting but there are a number of measures you can take to minimize/prevent DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). however when you first start lifting it is basically inevitable. i think most people break it down into different muscle groups so each has a few days to recover. if you do this (shoulders and triceps one day, back and biceps the next, or whatever, i dunno) i think 5 days a week is pretty much fine.

EDIT: when i started lifting for the first time after a year or two of nonathleticism (prior to that i was very athletic my whole life) i was lifting 4-5 days a week, starting small and doing a lot of cardio, managing my diet etc. might not work for everyone, i dunno.

[PartysOver]

In my experiences, protien shakes before and after help a lot

[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

[PokerFox]

The day after you lift is where/when you gain all the muscle (eat lots of protein).

That being said, a 5-day lift schedule is perfect if you do it right. Chest Day 1, Back and Arms Day 2, Legs Day 3, Shoulders Day 4, etc..just break it up how you want. I would do it like this:

Monday: Chest
Tuesday: Arms and Abs
Wednesday: Legs
Thursday: Back and Abs
Friday: Shoulders

Yes, you can devote an entire day to shoulders, legs, chest.

[NT!]

[ QUOTE ]
In my experiences, protien shakes before and after help a lot

[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

i started lifting with a guy who had a routine, it was back/biceps, shoulders/abdomen and chest/triceps IIRC. i have no idea if this was optimal. we'd do them on successive days, take a day or two off, start over. hopefully with some light cardio or basketball or something on the off days.

he wasn't much of a legs guy as you can see

i found whey protein was great for muscle soreness. and it's true that you need to sleep a lot after lifting to give your muscles time to re-knit.

side note, i used to go and try to shoot 100 free throws after back/biceps day, i think that was retarted

[administrator]

I'm not an expert but I've done a fair amount of reading. Diet is very necessary to get in line if you want to add muscle. Don't ignore that or it doesn't matter how often you get into the gym. That said, you have to choose between going the total body workout route or doing a body part split.

If you go with total body, which is often said to work best for beginners, you should keep it to 3 days a week. This is usually something like a 5x5 of squats, deadlifts, bench press, rows, and military press.

With a good body part split, you can probably get in 5 days a week eventually, but 4 is probably best for noobs. There are tons of programs out there, but all are pretty much designed around upper body/lower body splits (upper|lower|upper|lower).

t-nation is a good resource.

[Thremp]

Eat more, work more legs.

[oyesmoreofthis]

whatever you do, dont listen to pokerfox.

[KaiserSose]

Slider: Everything people posted in this thread is correct, however, since its your first week I would take i a little easier. The more you go, the less intense the DOMS will be. The first week is usually the worst. So take it a little easy now, maybe 2-3x a week for the first two weeks.