Over Training?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

Sup
I’ve been wondering if I am over training. I work in construction and do heavy lifting all day and I put in 5-6 days a week in the gym. I’m 6’2" 170 lbs. I’m gaining steadily on my weight and also the weights in the gym. BUT could I be gaining more if I stopped over training, if that’s case?

My schedule:
M-F I wake up at 5:30 get to work at 7 and get out at 4. I go home and sleep for an hour and hit the gym at around 5 or 6. In bed by 9 pm.

My diet is in another thread if your interested in it. To sum it up though, I eat enough and I eat enough of all the correct foods.

My workout:

Monday/Thursday
Chest- flat, incline, and decline bench
triceps- overhead tricep extension(cable), tricep pushdown(cable)
shoulders- lateral raise(cable), front shoulder raise(cable), shoulder raise

Tuesday/Friday
Bicep- Preacher curls, Hammer curls (I do a lot of bicep lifting while at work so I keep it limited int he gym. Bad???)
Back- Deadlift, Front pullups or Front lat pulldowns(switch it up alot), and back extensions

Wednesday/Saturday
Legs- Squats, Lunges, calf raises, lying leg curls, and leg extensions

After the warm up set, all of my workouts consists up 6-7 reps of heavy weight, well heavy for me. For legs, the reps are 15 to …until it hurts really bad.

If it is necessary for you to know the weight, sets and reps then I will post. I thought it may be un-necessary so I left it out.

Is this too much time in the gym? My goal right now is to bulk up.

I may of left some info out. Just let me know if I did.

2

I forgot one thing. I also do cable flys or dumbell flys,whichever i’m in the mood for, on monday/thursday.

3

Billaj,

I would say yes you are that is allot of lifting if your not on jucie, I was doing this type of thing about 2 year back, same type of job all ways lifting at work I to work in construction then I started to loose my drive a bit, I started training with top aussy body builder who taught me a lot, what I did was cut it back to 3 times a week maybe 4, just like my pro mate was doing, just listening to my body i went hard when i felt good, but crazy training sessions I have never felt so good, I was eating shit loads and training so perfect and resting heaps, and remember you don’t grow in the gym.

Just give it a go, but remember to train very hard still, well hard for me is not about the heaviest weight, it�??s about good form and lots of blood in that muscles, good luck.

4

No. That’s not overtraining, I don’t care if he isn’t “on jucie [sic],” it’s still not.

The biggest mistake you could make, jpositive, is immitate somebody else’s workout just because they’re allegedly pro, or you training perfect (whatever that is).

Over-training is a word more reserved for the advanced lifter, as your average Joe Lifter uses it as an excuse to be lazy.

5

Thanks man. I thought 5-6 might be too much.

So If I am going to workout 3-4 times a week should I just increase the amount of sets I do per workout? Like maybe add 1 or 2 more sets per workout?

6

[quote]billaJ wrote:
Thanks man. I thought 5-6 might be too much.

So If I am going to workout 3-4 times a week should I just increase the amount of sets I do per workout? Like maybe add 1 or 2 more sets per workout?[/quote]

billaJ,

Its up to you,i train to get loads of blood in my muscel so doing hight reps is a must,

Put like my mate does and now has got me lifting this way is, train so hard and intense i find it hard to drive my car out of the car park, and at night all i want is food and sleep, mate if you want to bulk up train heavy and really hard push your self the limit and eat alot of good food, if you do it right you will grow really well, just ask your self em i training hard enough.?

7

Muscle is built after the workout. Start eating more. I know you said you eat lots but is that true?

You need recovery to build muscle. Take a day off for each day of training. Do about 20-25 total sets per workout. If you stild with large exercises, squats, deadlifts, presses and pulls you can work more efficiently. Drop the reps till it hurts idea. That’s not helping.

I was your height and weight until I was 30. I was strong and ripped but could never gain weight. It wasn’t until I slowed down and ate more that I gained weight but it wasn’t pretty. You need to build it while you are active.

You need to eat lots of nutritious food and proper recovery.

8

[quote]billaJ wrote:
Sup
I’ve been wondering if I am over training. I work in construction and do heavy lifting all day and I put in 5-6 days a week in the gym. I’m 6’2" 170 lbs. I’m gaining steadily on my weight and also the weights in the gym. BUT could I be gaining more if I stopped over training, if that’s case?
[/quote]

If you’re still gaining steadily on your body weight and training weights then no, you’re not overtraining. Whether you could be gaining more if you trained less is up for debate.

[quote]
My schedule:
M-F I wake up at 5:30 get to work at 7 and get out at 4. I go home and sleep for an hour and hit the gym at around 5 or 6. In bed by 9 pm.

My diet is in another thread if your interested in it. To sum it up though, I eat enough and I eat enough of all the correct foods.

My workout:

Monday/Thursday
Chest- flat, incline, and decline bench
triceps- overhead tricep extension(cable), tricep pushdown(cable)
shoulders- lateral raise(cable), front shoulder raise(cable), shoulder raise

Tuesday/Friday
Bicep- Preacher curls, Hammer curls (I do a lot of bicep lifting while at work so I keep it limited int he gym. Bad???)
Back- Deadlift, Front pullups or Front lat pulldowns(switch it up alot), and back extensions

Wednesday/Saturday
Legs- Squats, Lunges, calf raises, lying leg curls, and leg extensions

After the warm up set, all of my workouts consists up 6-7 reps of heavy weight, well heavy for me. For legs, the reps are 15 to …until it hurts really bad.

If it is necessary for you to know the weight, sets and reps then I will post. I thought it may be un-necessary so I left it out.

Is this too much time in the gym? My goal right now is to bulk up.

I may of left some info out. Just let me know if I did.[/quote]

You’re in the gym 6 days out of 7, that’s probably not ideal for gaining mass. I’m all for training the muscles with as much frequency as possible , but there is a point of diminishing returns. Remember that you don’t grow in the gym, you grow out of the gym.

9

[quote]stuward wrote:
Muscle is built after the workout. Start eating more. I know you said you eat lots but is that true?

You need recovery to build muscle. Take a day off for each day of training. Do about 20-25 total sets per workout. If you stild with large exercises, squats, deadlifts, presses and pulls you can work more efficiently. Drop the reps till it hurts idea. That’s not helping.

I was your height and weight until I was 30. I was strong and ripped but could never gain weight. It wasn’t until I slowed down and ate more that I gained weight but it wasn’t pretty. You need to build it while you are active.

You need to eat lots of nutritious food and proper recovery.[/quote]

As for the food, here is a write up on my diet. I don’t let more than 1.5 hours go by where I don’t eat something.

I am going to try 3-4 days a week for 2-3 weeks to see how I like it, see how the gains are. I’m not juicing. Only thing I take is whey.

Right now I gain .5-1 pound a week. If I don’t gain that much working out 3-4 times a week then I’ll go back 5-6 times.

Thx for everyones input. I’m still open ears!

10

I know you need recovery to build muscle. But which kind of recovery? Total body recovery or just that certain muscle recovery? When i did 5-6 times a week I gave each muscle group 72 hours of recovery. Now with this 3-4 days a week I will give 144-168 hours of recovery per a muscle group. Seems too long, or no?

11

Either do whole body or an upper/lower or push/pull split. You’re right, a week between working body parts is too long. A lot of people do it though.

12

What would my workout in my original post be considered? Is that a good routine? (talking about the order in which I do the workouts)

13

You can’t really just look at someone’s routine and tell whether or not it is overtraining. It may be doing more work than is needed but overtraining is not a clear thing you can just look at a routine and see. It really depends on genetics, diet, and tons of other stuff. Do a search for the signs of overtraining and if you have several symptoms it is probably time to cut back a little.

14

[quote]Contrl wrote:
No. That’s not overtraining, I don’t care if he isn’t “on jucie [sic],” it’s still not.

The biggest mistake you could make, jpositive, is immitate somebody else’s workout just because they’re allegedly pro, or you training perfect (whatever that is).

Over-training is a word more reserved for the advanced lifter, as your average Joe Lifter uses it as an excuse to be lazy.[/quote]

Contrl,

Mate your a bit of a wanker aren’t you lol, come on get a grip bloke the guy gets up at 5:30 am every morning works his c$nt out at work in construction then trains 5 maybe 6 times a week, he is not on juice, and you say.

No. That’s not overtraining, I don’t care if he isn’t “on juice [sic],” it’s still not.

I don’t care who you are Ronnie c, Jay c, or Steve Erkal you need rest, and he aint with that kind of life style.

Champ I�??m far from pro I never said I was even close, but I guess you are with your mentality.

15

[quote]billaJ wrote:
What would my workout in my original post be considered? Is that a good routine? (talking about the order in which I do the workouts)[/quote]

You actually have a good routine if you worked at a desk job. It’s just a lot on top of your construction work to allow recovery time. You could take the time saved and sleep more. That said, if you are making steady gains then what your doing is working. Deloading once in a while is always a good thing. Why don’t you try reducing volume for a while and see what happens?

Stu

16

[quote]jpositive wrote:
Contrl wrote:
No. That’s not overtraining, I don’t care if he isn’t “on jucie [sic],” it’s still not.

The biggest mistake you could make, jpositive, is immitate somebody else’s workout just because they’re allegedly pro, or you training perfect (whatever that is).

Over-training is a word more reserved for the advanced lifter, as your average Joe Lifter uses it as an excuse to be lazy.

Contrl,

Mate your a bit of a wanker aren’t you lol, come on get a grip bloke the guy gets up at 5:30 am every morning works his c$nt out at work in construction then trains 5 maybe 6 times a week, he is not on juice, and you say.

No. That’s not overtraining, I don’t care if he isn’t “on juice [sic],” it’s still not.

I don’t care who you are Ronnie c, Jay c, or Steve Erkal you need rest, and he aint with that kind of life style.

Champ I�??m far from pro I never said I was even close, but I guess you are with your mentality.

[/quote]

I’ve lifted 4 times a week while working a summer construction job in Atlanta (hot as fock). I didn’t overtrain.

Just listen to your body and if you start seeing signs of overtraining cut back

17

Thx for all the advice everyone. I am going to cut it down to 3-4 times a week and try it out. I was getting tired here and there but I was pushing through it. This past monday I couldn’t get my full workout in. I got 3/4 the way into it and my body said NO MORE.