Hey boys, I’ve been doing the trypical 3 or 4 workouts per week for several years now. But on every one of my “off” days I feel like crap. I can’t do a workout of just running that day. It doesn’t make me feel any better. I need to feel hungry and anabolic all the time. So that’s why I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for 6 day per week training. That way I feel good every day. But I don’t want to overtrain doing it. Any suggestions?
Hey, there, boogafish. I can tell you’re highly motivated and more than willing to work for what you want. You’re probably young (just a guess on my part), and if that’s the case, overtraining is likely to be less of an issue for you.
I would recommend that you start testing some of the programs here on T-Mag. They are well-designed programs, and some of them are quite intense and demanding. In particular, look at some of CT’s and Coach Davies’ programs. Another EXCELLENT program is EDT.
The other thing you should do is take some of your spare time to look at, analyze and dial in your diet. Whether you want to drop BF or put on some LBM, getting your diet dialed in is the single most important factor in achieving your goals.
Read, read, read everything here on the site, and use the search engine, too, to search the forum and the articles for things that will help you achieve your goals. The key(s) to achieving the body of your dreams lies in one of the archived articles here on T-Mag.
I’d even be willing to betcha a virtual protein shake on it. (wink)
I agree with everything TT said but I would also reccomend you take a look at The Creation Continues By John Berardi
He has put together the periodization for a 6 day week training program that’s pretty amazing. I am doing it right now and it is awsome.
I trained on a six day per week schedule for brief periods of time.
I found that if I did so for three to four weeks it was beneficial. When I pushed it to six weeks it seemed to end in injury.
If you are after long term gains, like most of us, stick to a good three or four day per week routine. On the off days when you are feeling like you want to train,log onto T-Mag and increase your knowledge base!
there are 2 issues that i’m confused about when it comes to your training regimen. the first is, what do you mean by feeling like ‘crap’ on your off days? crap as in you’re tired, as in you aren’t as sharp mentally compared to lifting days, as in you’re not motivated to do anything? i don’t know what you consider a ‘typical’ workout, but those off days are a large a part of training as the days you go to the gym. not that i’m doubting your abilities with lifting, but are you really pushing hard to induce muscle and neuromuscular hypertrophy, or does a large part of your workout feel as though you are just going through the motions? although i think you can increase the frequency going to the gym up to your 6 workouts per week goal, have you considered tweaking the volume or intensity of your workouts so you can appreciate your off days? increasing the frequency of going to the gym will affect these parameters so you may want to rethink what your ‘typical’ workout really means.
secondly, what are your training goals? are you looking to gain strength, to gain mass, to lose fat, to maintain your current fitness or work on an aspect of functional strength for athletic purposes? again, your goals will influence the number of times you go to the gym and the number of times you want to work a given muscle group per week.
i’m not too keen on cardio, but you may want to consider doing something active outside of the gym so that your body can recover from your bouts with the iron.
I’m not a newcomer, really. In fact, I’ve been a regular reader since the days of CP. Just not much of a poster. I guess, really, my goals have changed. For the longest time I was only concerned about mass, now I still care about that, but I want to feel good. Like have a good appetite, and feel like I have done something to earn my food. Food just tastes better when you’ve been lifting. I’d lift intensly on MWF’s and cardio on TThS, but never felt good on cardio days. I guess what I’m trying to find is a creative routine out there. Like a one body part per day type thing, or something. Well, thanks for the article by JB. I’ll do a search. Thanks everyone. Any more ideas will be greatly apprecated.
Yeah, just checked the link to JMBs article. Yeah, man, that workout sounds awesome. Can’t wait to try it for a while.
Also, changing your cardio might help alleviate that boredness.
If you have a heavy bag in your gym, use that on your “off days.” For some reason, it feels just as good as lifting. I find the same with swimming (very short, hard intervals in Tabata fashion (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, 4 minutes total) and skipping rope.
Arnold’s 6 day routines in Education of a Bodybuilder aren’t as bad as people make them out to be, actually.
You didn’t give any details of your routine, like how long your sessions last. I found that I used to do marathon sessions of 2 hours and had to cut it to 1 1/2 hours through exhaustion. Led to overtraining, noticed first as lack of motivation and general fatigue.
Then I did some reading and my sessions never go beyond 45-50mins tops. This kept me feeling fresh all the time.
I actually do 6 sessions a week. I do a modified Westside routine. 3 days ME, 3 days DE. Squat, Bench, Back.
On back day I don’t do deads I leave that for squat day but some sort of high pull or oly lift and some row or chin for upper back plus biceps, rear delts e.t.c. At most 5 exercises per session, more often 4 (including assistance movements). Check out Eight Keys by Dave Tate on T-mag for more detail.
Don’t need to do deads that often anyway with Westside cos tends to go up with my squats.
I also Box 90 mins twice a week and do 20-30 mins low intensity (80% max HR) cardio 3-4 days a week, plus Vale Tudo (grappling) 2 hours but still have motivation to train and if I do feel a bit more tired than normal I can drop one of the cardio sessions.
Cool,
Glad I could help.