Muscle recovery time

[Braxley]

How long typically does it take for a set of muscle to recover from a workout? The reason I am asking is because I want to go the gym every day this week and keep the same routine pretty much every day, full body work over, situps every day,etc
I have plenty of protein and I am eating the right foods, but i'm wondering if this will potentially just slow down my progress rather than say giving them a day to recover in between,etc

Any ideas?

[Lackeos]

How long typically does it take for a set of muscle to recover from a workout? The reason I am asking is because I want to go the gym every day this week and keep the same routine pretty much every day, full body work over, situps every day,etc
I have plenty of protein and I am eating the right foods, but i'm wondering if this will potentially just slow down my progress rather than say giving them a day to recover in between,etc

Any ideas?

2-5 days. A full-body routine every day would not be optimal. Just go every other day.

[razorj]

How long typically does it take for a set of muscle to recover from a workout? The reason I am asking is because I want to go the gym every day this week and keep the same routine pretty much every day, full body work over, situps every day,etc
I have plenty of protein and I am eating the right foods, but i'm wondering if this will potentially just slow down my progress rather than say giving them a day to recover in between,etc

Any ideas?

I am just a newbie but I agree with the first reply. I do a full body routine also, and I give myself 1-2 days rest in between. I just kinda "listen" to what my body is telling me. If after 1 day of rest I do not feel any soreness or aching then I will work out, but if after that first day I feel any soreness or aching then I give it an extra day, and after those 2 days I am back into the gym.

Again though, I'm just a newbie so my advice won't "hold much weight". lol

[Braxley]

Your opinion still counts dude, thanks both of your for the reply. I just. have this obsession with wanting to work out like every day, its such an addiction..making up for lost time

[razorj]

I know what you mean...I'm not quite to that point yet, but I can tell you that I'm very restless on my off days (like today), just itching to get back into the gym lol

[paulieserafini]

it depends on a lot of things like your volume and what kind of poundage you are doing.


i keep this basic rule = for each muscle about 12-15 sets weekly

this means if i hit my chest 3 times a week each workout will only have about 3-5 working sets
or if i hit my chest twice a week(i found this is a better aproach sorry for all you SS kids) each chest workout would have 6 sets


your best bet for the kind of frequency you are looking for would be to have an upper and lower split hitting each twice a week every other (4 workout days)

[Dale1988]

48 hours is typical. However everyone is different and some people may be able to either recover fast than that or even slower (shouldnt be a huge difference though). If someone is using "cell tech" it gets reduced to 24 hours or less.

Full body routines are only good for toning BTW.

[paulieserafini]

If someone is using "cell tech" it gets reduced to 24 hours or less.

.

Don't listen to this crap.

[PromKing]

It depends on how hard you exert yourself. If you stop 2-3 reps short of muscular failure then you could realistically lift the same muscle group again within 5 hours. Your CNS is what takes longer to recover. If you are stimulating the muscle without causing complete muscle failure and damage, while also not running your CNS to the ground you could lift indefinitely.

Now before anyone jumps on my ass and goes OMG! What! 72 hour brah! you need to realize I said you are stopping with reps in the tank and not crushing yourself with maximal lifts so there is little CNS training going on. Look at gymnasts, elite level athletes, sprinters, yada yada and see what I mean for a more real world example on what type of physical level I am speaking of.

[pumplikecuming]

48-72 hours, but your nervous system can take longer.

[Orlando1234977]

How long typically does it take for a set of muscle to recover from a workout? The reason I am asking is because I want to go the gym every day this week and keep the same routine pretty much every day, full body work over, situps every day,etc
I have plenty of protein and I am eating the right foods, but i'm wondering if this will potentially just slow down my progress rather than say giving them a day to recover in between,etc

Any ideas?

Are you adding weight consistently on exercises such as Deadlift, Barbell Squat, Bench Press, Overhead Press etc?

If you are, you'll have your answer pretty soon.

[Richard99]

Research indicates that the range of rate of recovery is 1-11 days. The average is about 4-5 days but it can happen as quickly as 1 day or take up to about 11 days, depending on your genetics, training status, nutrition, etc. There is no single answer. People have vastly different genetic talents so each person has to determine for themselves how fast they personally recover.

[Manbody]

Research indicates that the range of rate of recovery is 1-11 days. The average is about 4-5 days but it can happen as quickly as 1 day or take up to about 11 days, depending on your genetics, training status, nutrition, etc. There is no single answer. People have vastly different genetic talents so each person has to determine for themselves how fast they personally recover.

I know my recovery period is quite long. After doing some research, the average recovery time in 48 hours. But each person is different and I think my recovery period is longer than the average person. And the more frequently I work out, the longer my muscles will take to recover. When I started working out a few years ago, I would work out every other day and no matter how hard I’d work, I could never lift more than 15 lbs. Pathetic, I know. Anything heavier than that would overstress me. I then got lazy and didn’t go to the gym for a couple of weeks. So, a couple of weeks later when I returned to the gym, I was able to lift 20 lbs with ease. I was shocked because I thought my short hiatus from the gym would make me weaker, but it actually made me stronger.

So, based on my experience and from what I’m reading, each person’s recovery time varies. If you’re noticing that you can’t increase your weights, it could be a sign that you’re not allowing enough time for your muscles to recover.

Sadly, I quit working out shortly after that, but I’ve started again a couple of weeks ago. I notice that I haven’t gotten weaker. I can actually lift 25 lbs now, which is 5 lbs more than I was able to lift a few years ago. My body works in mysterious ways, I tell ya! But I think giving your muscles enough recovery time is the key to success. Let’s hope I can dedicate myself this time and stick with it!!

[Richard99]

I know my recovery period is quite long. After doing some research, the average recovery time in 48 hours. But each person is different and I think my recovery period is longer than the average person.

I discovered the same thing about myself. As a beginner I started with a full-body, 3 times per week program, based on the advice I was reading in bodybuilding magazines and books at that time. I discovered that 3x per week was too much for me so I decreased it to 2x per week per muscle group. That worked a lot better. Then I discovered that 1x per week per muscle group worked even better for me and I've stuck with that since.

[segment]

It is extremely variable. Although you may feel that your muscle group has recovered, your strength may just not be there yet and you may not be able to push yourself hard enough on your next workout.

The best thing to do is experiment and find out what works for you. You should have a goal of increasing the weight or reps every session of that muscle group. If you are able to do that, then you're doing it right. If not, you have to change the time between your muscle group sessions. If a two day rest doesn't work for your chest group, try three days between it. If three doesn't work, try four. People recover at different rates and there a lot of variables such as amount of sleep, types of food consumed, etc.

[dohste]

Agree with all the previous comments stating that it depends on yourself and also on the workout volume etc etc...

That said the HST guys referenced some studies showing recovery time to be about 36hours for a standard full body routine. To be honest considering all the variable I don't know how accurate it can be to go down to the hour like that, but suppose it would indicate that in general every second day should be more than enough, but every day might be pushing it.

[jmangini]

Try one of these splits.

Do a 2 day split something along these lines. Arnold used this type of split.

Day 1
Chest
Back
Hamstrings
Calves
Weighted ab work

Day 2
Shoulders
Arms
Quads
Non weighted ab work
Calves

Or if you are trying to get ripped, try this routine.

Day 1
Full body workout done as intervals 5 sets.

Day 2
Heavey ab and cardio work

Rest is important, so make sure you take at least 2 day a week off and every so often take several days off. Signs of overtraining are tiredness, irritable, weak and looking smooth and flat. When you show these signs, take a few days off and start hard again. You muscles actually grow when they heal so you must give them time to heal.

[SouthsideLifter]

I think it's tough to give any single reply regarding recovery times. Everyone is different! If you feel ready to go everyday do it, however I'd recommend at least a few rest days per week.

[ILoveMoonpig]

It depends on quite a few things. Generally, you'll find you can hit most muscles again in 48 hours.

However, it would take longer to recover if you don't eat we'll, absolutely pulverised the muscle, don't sleep enough, don't rest well or if you drink a large volume of alcohol.

And it can recover quickly if you apply heat and cold appropriately, rest well, eat well and have high testosterone levels.

The blokes that got me into lifting, got me on their plan, which goes along these lines:
- 1st year: full body workout every 2nd day
- 2nd year: push-pull-legs, twice a week
- 3rd year and beyond: 4/5 day split, once a week

Hope there's something useful in what I've written for you. Good luck.

Ps. Glad to see you're local. Reading FC fan, I hope?