Am I Overtraining?

[St Croix]

big greets to the hardcore community!

I have just begun my quest for a warrior body and am about 3 weeks in. I started getting serious around last week and went to a nutritionist to get my diet in check. I am currently 14% bf and want to get that down to 8% in 12 weeks while putting on as much lean mass as possible in this timeframe. The diet I'm on is good but the nutritionist suggested that I might be overtraining at this point. I Just wanted to see what the bro's here think.

As far as training goes, I am currently doing a 2 day split, hitting the weights 4 times a week. I'm training chest, shoulders & triceps 1 day, then back, legs, biceps & abs the next, doing 2 basic exercises per muscle group, 3 sets at 8-12 reps. I don't train the same body parts for at least 48 hours. Then I swim at least 1 kilometer on my days off.

The nutritionist suggested that I should only be training one body part a week to give maximum recovery time, but doing 4 sets per exercise instead. What do you guys think I should do?

Thanks tons!

 

[mad_monkey59]

Awesome decision bro... welcome to the boards.

Okay... your split is fine, your reps are fine, your sets are fine, for the moment at least.

Your muscles aren't used to being treated in such a way, and therefore it doesn't take much to overtrain at this point in your quest.

The one thing concerning me is your lack of rest, your swim 1000 meters on your days off? - my friend, easy tiger, actually rest on your days off, do your cardio as an extra day in the split.
so -

1 - chest, delts...
2 - Back bi...
3 - cardio
4 - rest

and repeat

eventually add yet another day on your routine for legs...

1-same
2-same
3-legs
4-cardio
5-rest

and repeat

your nutritionalist says train one body part a week - i hope he means train a bodypart only once a week? as opposed to having a entire week for legs lol.

 

[eat big]

good luck but it is somewhat hard to cut up while adding muscle, ppl usually bulk up then cut down

 

[SlavikHavik]

Yeah its a little tough to build and lose at the same time.
but if your new to training, you should be able to do it to a degree.

Anyway, your nutritionists advice isnt wrong. But certainly not optimal.
Your not doing too much.
If your a new lifter you dont have the muscular adaption that most trainees have. So youll be recruiting less fibers/set and consequently need less recovery time. Initially. Once the weights stop flying up. (like when you get down to maybe 5lb increases/week for upper body and 10lb/week for lower) youve adapted sufficiantly. Then you should go from two exercises to one.
At that point you will slowly start to increase the volume again. Adding one set every few weeks. When your workouts start to get longer than an 1 hour:15, devide them up, and do more workouts/week. usually you start by adding more core work. Shoulders can take more volume, so slowly start to add more shoulder work as well.

Anyway, your not at the point yet where youd be able to easily stimulate your fibers into the sort of damage that requires an entire week of recovery. Well, not with 6 sets anyway. But that will come quickly. so be aware.

 

[yomama]

If you do overtrain you'll know it. Your muscles will be sore and hurt for a couple of months, you wont be able to train them. The easiest to overtrain is lower back, and biceps. I've never overtrained anything else. I've overtrained my lower back once, and biceps twice.

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

you will know when you overtrain. right before it happens you might have the best week of lifting too. at your fitness level, it might take only a week or two of solid rest to recover.

be careful about swimming on an off day. rest days are only rest if you do NOTHING, or at least something that is so easy that it doesnt count. i made the mistake of counting gymnastics and dancing as 'off' days, and it caught up in 2 weeks. i got pretty physically ill for a bit.

everybody's body trains differently. my bi's dont overtrain, but my forearms seem to really lilke more rest than the rest. just listen to your body.

 

[yomama]

you will know when you overtrain. right before it happens you might have the best week of lifting too. at your fitness level, it might take only a week or two of solid rest to recover.

be careful about swimming on an off day. rest days are only rest if you do NOTHING, or at least something that is so easy that it doesnt count. i made the mistake of counting gymnastics and dancing as 'off' days, and it caught up in 2 weeks. i got pretty physically ill for a bit.

everybody's body trains differently. my bi's dont overtrain, but my forearms seem to really lilke more rest than the rest. just listen to your body.

Bullshit, I was on juice and it took me over a month. I doubt he or anyone else would be able to recover from overtraining in 2 weeks. Looks like you havent done it, try it and see what I'm talking about.

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

what i am saying is that if he is just starting, his capacity for work is low. thus, he wont be able to overtrain very much, and it wont take too much pushing to get him there and feeling it.

since you were on juice you were probably pushing yourself like a juiced up freak, and you severely overtrained. i also have a feeling that you have a much greater work potential than st croix, thus you can overtrain to a higher degree.

i have done what i consider overtraining. bodily sickness, extreme fatigue, no energy, intense soreness that lasts for more than a week- even while resting, depression, and generally feeling like shit. im sure i didnt overtrain as much as you yomama, im just into lifting for general health and 4 or 5 times a week in the gym is the most i will ever do.

 

[yomama]

i have done what i consider overtraining. bodily sickness, extreme fatigue, no energy, intense soreness that lasts for more than a week- even while resting, depression, and generally feeling like shit. im sure i didnt overtrain as much as you yomama, im just into lifting for general health and 4 or 5 times a week in the gym is the most i will ever do.

I dont think those are symptoms of overtraining. The muscle itself will be very sore every day until it recovers. Biceps it was different, I could feel the soreness mostely when I tried to do my biceps. Oh yeah, I've also overtrained my rear delts, dont know how that happend but it sucked, especially when trying to do back exersizes.

Bodily sickness, no energy, I dont think that has anything to do with overtraining. But extreme fatigue and intense soreness fit the description.

 

[St Croix]

Thanks a lot for the kind advice guys,

I think I'm just like every new bodybuilder - wanting to get optimal gains and do everything properly from the onset. The thing I was most worried about was that training every body part twice a week might be overdoing it, but at this point I don't feel overtrained (I'm only 1 month in though) I feel comfortably sore after each workout and going to bed has become a great feeling. I love the soreness! (Though I tried squats for the first time yesterday and by today, getting out of the car or walking up stairs has become a real mission!) I'm still able to put my reps/weight up each workout so I think I'm ok at this point.

Only thing I'm worried about is the 1000 meter swim twice a week. It feels great and from all the training books I've read they all say to do cardio. But I'm confused and need some advice on whether or not this is detrimental to my gains. Will I be burning off my muscle along with my fat when I swim? Currently I only have 1 day a week where I do absolutely nothing, this is also the day I eat 1 cheat meal too.
As I said earlier, my goal is to lower my bodyfat during summer, but to put on as much muscle as I can at the same time and not lose it (I'm counting on the beginner gains phenomena here with a plan to do a building cylce when winter comes). Any thoughts on this dilemma will be much appreciated.

I admire what all of you do and appreciate the dedication and hard work that goes into your successes, keep it up as I intend to do so!

Cheers Bro's