How long do your muscles take to recover from lifting heavy? (reps for knowledge)

[mercurysolace]

I personally find this workout regimen most fitting for my body; not taxing it too much while at the same time, letting DOMS recover (muscle recovery, or whatever you want to call it) sufficiently enough to begin my next workout session ..

Monday: Chest, Shoulders, Abs
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Back, Lats, Legs
Thursday: Off
Friday: Chest, Arms, Shoulders, Abs
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off

I substitute more legs & calves for less body workout, every other week ..
Or I might do 2 Back, Lats, Legs sessions and 1 Chest, Arms, Shoulders during that week

Hope this helps

[SuffolkPunch]

Complete tissue remodeling within the muscle cells from a workout takes weeks, that certainly doesnt mean a muscle cant be trained, isnt ready to be trained, or shouldnt be trained more frequently. What it does do is prove the fallacy of those who say you shouldnt train more than once a week, or twice a week, or whenever, because you want your muscles to be fully recovered. None of us is ever "fully recovered" unless we take several weeks off, and by then detraining has started to set in.

How often you train is dependent on many things, the primary two are the content of the workout, and how good of shape you are in.

Most people, IMO, are best served by training a muscle 2-3 times weekly.

glenn

If we are going to bump 5 year old threads, bump this ^^

[palisicky]

48 hours and they should be recovered, but i only work a muscle group once a week and give that group a full week

once a week is not enough bros its enough for a beginner but not after 3 months

[wisdommaster1]

there is no set time frame for recovery, there are tons of factors at play.

Think of working out as adding water to a sink, your recovery is the drain. The more you eat/sleep/rest the faster the water drains. Just because there is water in the sink doesn't mean you can't have a solid workout. To completely empty your sink (fully recover) could take 1-2 weeks of less intense lifting, like a taper for a competition. But when we are training to get stronger we push hard workouts for 3-6 weeks before deloading, yes you feel tired/beat up but that doesn't mean you rest for a week to feel better.

in short, it depends

[robchap]

Recovery time is going to vary. A muscle doesn't have to be %100 recovered before you work it again either. I like to work each muscle group at least 2x per week, sometimes 3x. You have to listen to your body and lighten up when it's telling you are overdoing it.

[makingitreal]

Sceintifically this could be answered that on a cellular level this happens and protein synthesis accelerates the speed of blah blah blah... Since the avergae Joe, which is most of us who are not Doctors nor hold a doctorate degree on this subject matter (those who do God bless you), we must rely on what knowledge we have attained and what common sense we hopefully have. It is true that we are all different and recover at different rates depending on our fitness level, our metabolism, our diet, our supplementation, and other factors as well. There is a way that we all can tell no matter how different our bodies react. After a workout you will get sore (if you have worked your body beyond what it is used to) this soreness is due to Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). We used to think this was due to lactic acid build up in the muscle. This philosophy has been debunked. Lactic acid is what causes the burning sensation when working the muscle and the "my legs feel like jello" feeling for a few hours to a day after the workout. It also is what disrupts the firing of the synapses in the muscle and causes that muscle failure where you just can't get that last rep of bench press up. A day or more after the workout soreness starts to set in the muscle. That soreness is the (DOMS) or the micro fiber tairs that happened due to your work out. It is during this sore period that your muscles are experiencing inflamation which is the body healing itslef. Your muscles are not recovered until that soreness is gone. When that soreness is gone, then it is time to hit that muscle with another rigorous workout. This question also brings up the question of overtraining. In my opinion, the only way that you can "overtrain" is if you are training a muscle that is still sore and rebuilding itself from a previous workout. I disagree with people that think they can look and someones workout routine and say, "that is overtraining." It may or may not be depending on a person's experience level, i.e. a newbie or a seasoned lifter. As long as you allow your muscles to recover from your workout then hit them as hard as you want! It's important to remember we do not build muscle in the gym, we tair them down. The growth happens when we rest and recover. There are supplements and a healthy diet that can help you to recover faster. Protein, BCAA's, EAA's, L-Glutamine (most abundant amino acid), and Creatine supplements cand speed your recovery time. So in conclusion, work out and work out harder than you did the work out before, rest your muscles until the soreness is gone and then repeat this process and you will grow!!!

This answered my question perfectly. Thank you for the great explanation.

[SuffolkPunch]

This answered my question perfectly. Thank you for the great explanation.

Read Glenn Pendlay's explanation. He really knows what he is talking about.

Anyone who recommends resting until DOMS has gone and BCAAs and Glutamine supplementation clearly hasn't done any objective research or have any real experience in optimal muscle building.