How many days to lift per week
 

How many days of the week does everyone work out? Right now i'm working out Monday-Thursday. The following was my old routine:

m-back
t-chest
w-shoulders
t-arms & legs

After receiving advice on here i've switched it up and i'm doing tri's with chest on tuesday and bi's with back on monday and just doing legs thursday.

I usually try and do pushups, pullups, and situps on saturday just to keep routine. Do you guys think i'm allowing enough time to recover?

3 days...m/w/f...

with yours i would at least put a day in between two days of working out just for rest....no need for pullups on saturday...put them in your routine...and enjoy the weekend off.

so you're saying maybe take tuesday off and switch it to friday?

Right now I am able to hit the gym 4 days per week. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Plenty of work in the gym along with a decent diet and rest means I am continuing to grow and am stronger than ever. I love it.

If you're going to do a split like you mentioned, then do this:
Mon - legs
Wed - back
Fri - chest/shoulders

Or this:
Mon - legs
Wed chest/shoulders
Fri - back

For a split I would suggest upper/lower body.

Monday - Upper 1 - Flat Bench
Tuesday - Lower 1 - Squats
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - Upper 2 - M. Press
Friday - Lower 2 - Deads

I'm going to start something like that very soon. The exercises I lifted are the priority exercises for that day. So you'd hit those ones first with really high intensity.

On bench day I might do dynamic work on M.Press and vice versa.

There is obviously other accessory work to be done but thats more up to you.

Thats what I think works out nice because each main lift gets one day to be in the spotlight and you're still hitting all the muscle groups at least 2x per week.

If you're a begginner I would just suggest a simple 3x a week full body to begin with. You can probably accomplish the same goals with either but I think the 3x full body would get there faster.

My 2 cents,


IronWorker

LIFT EVERYDAY!!!!! lol just kidding. everyone here posted some good stuff. so my advice is to look at what eveyrone posted, try it out and see what works for you

Ok thanks for all the help!! I think i might try what widdoes is doing so I can stick with the 4 day routine but rest on wednesday. I do have a fairly healthy diet and get lots of rest during the week since i work early.

iron worker - what would you classify a beginner as?

A beginner is one who while training seems to gain strength by just looking at the weights no matter what they do (I miss beginner gains......).

do you do any of the major lifts now? deadlift...squat...flat bench...military press...and rows? or do you do lots of little isolations that probably aren't doing you any good? :)

do you progress with weight or reps or anything?

I can't do flat bench because our gym doesn't have one so that's why I use the dumbbells. I do squat, military press, and rows. I also use the leg press machine they have although i'm sure that's worthless since i'm doing squats.

do you progress on any of them? and is that a no on deadlifts?

and yes I have progressed immensely in the last 4 months. I began on my flat bench with 45 lb dumbbells....i'm now using the 100's for 4-6 reps and doing 3 sets. My incline was about the same when I began. I'm also now inclining 100's even better than I'm flat benching. When I started I could barely get 5 pullups. Now i'm strapping a bookbag with a 50 lb weight inside it to myself and doing 6-7 pullups for 3 sets. lat pulls i was using something like a 30, now i'm up to 85. My gains have been incredible. I started off at a sloppy 210 lbs at 6'2''. Now i'm a lean and cut 185. I've never been so pleased with myself and my lifestyle. I've got my eating down to a science as I use to eat junk food all the time. Girls are commenting like crazy. I feel alive and energenic. My chest has definitely progressed but out of all my muscles it was the least improvement that;'s why im taking all advice on it.

thanks again

why are you avoiding the deadlift question :)

always a good idea to work two very important muscles...erector spinae and the hamstrings.

if you want to count cardio... 5-6.

I only workout three days a week. For my body type... it is just perfect.

I now train each body part once per week in a 3 day split.

Monday - Shoulders ,Chest , Triceps.

Wednesday - Legs and abbs.

Friday - Back, Biceps and some cardio.

i second this question.

this is probably the least optimal thing to do for most people.

since someone is going to ask me why, allow me to post some links below:

Why aren't you growing

The Death of Modern Bodybuilding

cheers everyone :)

deadlifts are your bestfriends use it wisely and you'll get huge...

Good stuff Wolf

I love these threads, interesting to see all the different splits everyone does.

Current Routine:
M- Chest/Bis
T- Legs
W - Cardio Only
Th- Shoulders/Triceps/Abs
F- Back/Biceps

Cardio: 45 mins light intensity cardio on Mon, Tues, Wed, and Friday.