Is working out 5 times a week healthy ??

[TKD]

How many of you workout 5 times a week?

I find that if I break it up into 5 days I can get more done.
Forearms and Calfs are a must for me

If I would only workout three times a week, I would feel that I wouldn't get time to really work the whole body properly.

Here is what I do......

Biceps - 5-6 sets
Triceps - 6 sets
Forearms - 4 sets
Chest - 5-6 sets
Back - 6 sets
Abs - 5-6 sets
Hammies - 4 sets
Quads - 4-5 sets
Calves - 4 sets
Shoulders - 5-6 sets
Traps - 4 sets

I take 2 minutes rest inbetween sets as i feel this works best for me.
My rep range is currently 8-10.
I workout for roughly 50-55 minutes.

I often read about people doing a 3 day split, but often find myself wondering how they have time to do the whole body while doing 45-60 mins per workout!

Any suggestions on how I could cut this down to 3 or maybe 4 days would be great!!

[Vancha]

Here's a routine I've used in the past and it has seemed to work well for me. I'm not sure if there's enough leg work there for you but my legs have responded better to less volume and more intensity so that's why there's only 3 exercises for them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday - Chest & Abs (+ Stomach Vacuums)

3 x 8 Incline Neutral-Grip Bench Presses
3 x 8 Flat/Decline Neutral-Grip Bench Presses
3 x 8 Flat/Decline Chest Flyes

3 x 8 Weighted Crunches
3 x 8 Weighted Hanging Leg Raises

Tuesday - Back & Traps

3 x 8 Weighted Pull-Ups

3 x 8 Bent Over Barbell Rows
3 x 8 Dumbbell Rows

3 x 8 Deadlifts
3 x 8 Good Mornings

3 x 8 Close-Grip Shrugs

Wednesday - Off (+ Stomach Vacuums)

Thursday - Legs & Shoulders

3 x 8 Barbell Full Squats

3 x 8 Straight-Legged Barbell Deadlifts

3 x 8 Standing Calf Raises

3 x 8 Seated Military Presses
3 x 8 Side Lateral Raises
3 x 8 Bent Over Rear Delt Raises

Friday - Biceps, Triceps & Forearms (+ Stomach Vacuums)

3 x 8 Barbell Curls
3 x 8 Dumbbell Curls

3 x 8 Flat Close-Grip Bench Presses
3 x 8 Weighted Tricep Dips

3 x 8 Barbell Reverse Curls
3 x 8 Wrist Curls

Saturday - Off
Sunday - Off

[MusclesMalone]

i work out 5 days a week. and i can assure you im quite healthy.

[sword_]

As long as your routine prevents you from overtraining, you are fine.

[tiny.t]

If you can handle it do it,if you can't don't.It's not as general as saying everybody has to do such and such.

[2_GuNz_Up]

Yeah it's fine and as for over training thats a mith, you feel over trained eat and sleep more!

[the_byrds_son]

I workout out everyday and i havent felt the slightest soreness to the point where i thought i couldnt go in a good while usually i rotate workout days since i havent been trying to bulk mainly just cut although i might start bulking soon.

[TKD]

I workout out everyday and i havent felt the slightest soreness to the point where i thought i couldnt go in a good while usually i rotate workout days since i havent been trying to bulk mainly just cut although i might start bulking soon.

Bloody hell mate ! That was a long sentence

[TKD]

i work out 5 days a week. and i can assure you im quite healthy.

When I say healthy I mean advisable in terms of overtraining

[porcupinetree]

I think the overtraining myth is just an excuse to train like a wimp.
I work out six days a week. I actually try to overtrain. I'm pushing myself to do things that I didn't think were possible. When I get to a point of overtraining, I back off a bit, but not in training frequency. I still train six days a week and allow my body to rebound. It's working very well.

[hairy ape]

Here's a routine I've used in the past and it has seemed to work well for me. I'm not sure if there's enough leg work there for you but my legs have responded better to less volume and more intensity so that's why there's only 3 exercises for them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday - Chest & Abs (+ Stomach Vacuums)

3 x 8 Incline Neutral-Grip Bench Presses
3 x 8 Flat/Decline Neutral-Grip Bench Presses
3 x 8 Flat/Decline Chest Flyes

3 x 8 Weighted Crunches
3 x 8 Weighted Hanging Leg Raises

Tuesday - Back & Traps

3 x 8 Weighted Pull-Ups

3 x 8 Bent Over Barbell Rows
3 x 8 Dumbbell Rows

3 x 8 Deadlifts
3 x 8 Good Mornings

3 x 8 Close-Grip Shrugs

Wednesday - Off (+ Stomach Vacuums)

Thursday - Legs & Shoulders

3 x 8 Barbell Full Squats

3 x 8 Straight-Legged Barbell Deadlifts

3 x 8 Standing Calf Raises

3 x 8 Seated Military Presses
3 x 8 Side Lateral Raises
3 x 8 Bent Over Rear Delt Raises

Friday - Biceps, Triceps & Forearms (+ Stomach Vacuums)

3 x 8 Barbell Curls
3 x 8 Dumbbell Curls

3 x 8 Flat Close-Grip Bench Presses
3 x 8 Weighted Tricep Dips

3 x 8 Barbell Reverse Curls
3 x 8 Wrist Curls

Saturday - Off
Sunday - Off

don't you train shoulders?

[Overload]

as for over training thats a mith, you feel over trained eat and sleep more!

If it was only that easy. A little more sleep and a little more food and we can all workout every single day

[psinide]

I think it depends on how much time you have to sleep to recover, and how fast you recover naturally.

When I was papered down at school, 4 days a week was almost too much, now that I don't have school I lift 5-6 times a week while doing heavy manual labor, but I can get a solid 8+ a night now(usually 10) so I'm fine.

[Vancha]

don't you train shoulders?

Are you blind???!!! Take a look at my routine again!

[A & B]

Yeah it's fine and as for over training thats a mith, you feel over trained eat and sleep more!

Overtraining is most certainly not a myth. Perhaps you just haven't read enough on the subject. Bompa talks about it extensively in his book, 'Seriously Strength Training'.

But 5 days a week is fine man. Whatever works for you.

[A & B]

My God!

Why do so many people here know so little about the very real dangers of overtraining. Just because you can train 7 days a week at 100%, doesn't mean you should be doing it.

Ever wonder where the phrase 'train smarter not harder' comes from?

The general IQ of this thread is way way down.

[curb0303]

Your muscles are ready to be trained within 48 hours of your workout.

No matter what you do, you can beat your muscles to hell and go to complete failure every day u lift. Your muscles will still be ready to go in 48 hours.

BUT its not your muscle fibers that you really are worried about its CNS stress.

Your central nervous system is what controls your fiber recruitment, rate coding and muscle synchronization, and how hard your motor units will fire.

[sonick]

My God!

Why do so many people here know so little about the very real dangers of overtraining. Just because you can train 7 days a week at 100%, doesn't mean you should be doing it.

Ever wonder where the phrase 'train smarter not harder' comes from?

The general IQ of this thread is way way down.

I try to do 7 days a week (for the summer at least) but I split stuff up and sometimes do short easy days of mostly cardio to avoid overtraining.

[porcupinetree]

[QUOTE=A & B]Overtraining is most certainly not a myth. Perhaps you just haven't read enough on the subject. Bompa talks about it extensively in his book, 'Seriously Strength Training'.

QUOTE]

Never heard of it.

[porcupinetree]

My God!

Why do so many people here know so little about the very real dangers of overtraining. Just because you can train 7 days a week at 100%, doesn't mean you should be doing it.

Ever wonder where the phrase 'train smarter not harder' comes from?

.

It comes from people who are too chicken to train on the edge and really push themselves. Training hard takes a lot of guts and determination. Not everyone has it. Not everyone has the balls to go all out. Not everyone can walk into a gym not feeling great and still train as hard as possible.

I train six days a week because I want to. If I train five days a week, I feel like I didnt' do enough.

A month ago, I did a routine where for 3 weeks, I trained back, chest, and legs each and every day for 3 weeks solid, doing at least 8-15 reps and resting no longer than 60-90 seconds.
IT WAS TOUGH. Almost wiped me out, but I did it, and I was very proud of myself for doing it, and my physique was better because of it.

[Dominik]

My God!

Why do so many people here know so little about the very real dangers of overtraining. Just because you can train 7 days a week at 100%, doesn't mean you should be doing it.

Ever wonder where the phrase 'train smarter not harder' comes from?

The general IQ of this thread is way way down.

Agreed. It does exist and I found my limits early on by training 2hrs+ a workout, 6 days in a row every week, month after month. Stupidity. It's a great way to put your body into catabolic overdrive and screw up your health in general. I've since learned much more effective ways to train.

Btw, even though he doesn't go into much detail on periodization in that book, he explains the role of intensity fluctuations well in that book, like blending lower intensity workouts with high intensity workouts in a training week, and varying your loading patterns over 4-6 week periods.

[Dominik]

It comes from people who are too chicken to train on the edge and really push themselves. Training hard takes a lot of guts and determination. Not everyone has it. Not everyone has the balls to go all out. Not everyone can walk into a gym not feeling great and still train as hard as possible.

I train six days a week because I want to. If I train five days a week, I feel like I didnt' do enough.

Sure, and that's your choice, you can train however you like. But to say overtraining is BS shows you haven't experienced yet, and that's fine. When you do, you'll understand.

So yeah, training hard takes guts, balls, etc. etc., but for a lot of people it also seems to bring out massive amounts of stubbornness where you get tunnel vision and can't see when it's affecting your health or is becoming unproductive. Training flat out every workout almost every day of the week might be okay in short bursts, but beyond that it's a flawed approach. The body responds better to changes in intensity and volume over certain periods of time. Even hardcore juicers can't sustain it long-term and have to take a break.

[E46]

Im working out 6 times a week, feels really good.

[David77]

How many of you workout 5 times a week?

I find that if I break it up into 5 days I can get more done.
Forearms and Calfs are a must for me

If I would only workout three times a week, I would feel that I wouldn't get time to really work the whole body properly.

Here is what I do......

Biceps - 5-6 sets
Triceps - 6 sets
Forearms - 4 sets
Chest - 5-6 sets
Back - 6 sets
Abs - 5-6 sets
Hammies - 4 sets
Quads - 4-5 sets
Calves - 4 sets
Shoulders - 5-6 sets
Traps - 4 sets

I take 2 minutes rest inbetween sets as i feel this works best for me.
My rep range is currently 8-10.
I workout for roughly 50-55 minutes.

I often read about people doing a 3 day split, but often find myself wondering how they have time to do the whole body while doing 45-60 mins per workout!

Any suggestions on how I could cut this down to 3 or maybe 4 days would be great!!

Your volume is low enough to squeeze into a 4 day split. I do more sets than you and I am on a 4 day split with pretty short workouts, never over an hour.

You do the same number of sets for back as biceps?!?! There's something wrong there. What exercises do you do for back?

Here's my split. I wouldn't really recommend following it exactly, you can split it however you want to.

Legs
Chest, Triceps
Off
Back
Traps, Shoulders, Biceps
Off
Repeat

[$AJ]

you can, i've learned from experience that it's not optimal though. but if you are, keep the volume down and the time ~35ish minutes. an hour 5x/week is just gona burn you ouot quickly.