Off Day

[JKurz1]

Explain to me your interreptation of why off days are important.........If one was to train 7 days a week, legs 2x a week, the upper muscle would recover and repair with the needed 24-48hour rest right? So if you hit a bodypart ever 6-7 days, why would one ever need to take a day off?

Just a theorhetical post, as I DO take 2 days off currently.........

Also, would cardio be considered an off day?

 

[The Shadow]

why would one ever need to take a day off?

...because EVERY day is kidney day.


There are two types of overtraining:

1 - Local

2 - Systematic




Local would be doing 15 sets of curls EVERYDAY

Systematic would be doing 15 sets of squats EVERYDAY




....most fatigue comes from #2...not #1

 

[JKurz1]

can someone please translate that?

 

[TRUEsoldier]

well I would think that it would not allow your CNS to recover and your body wouldnt be able to handle it

Peace

 

[The Shadow]

well I would think that it would not allow your CNS to recover and your body wouldnt be able to handle it

Peace

bingo

 

[*MissFit*]

on my days off i still do cardio.. is this wrong

 

[The Shadow]

on my days off i still do cardio.. is this wrong

if fat loss is a priority its probably ok as long as its moderate intensity

 

[eat big]

on my off days i dont run or lift, i get a lot done those days

 

[mrplunkey]

Off days let muscles rest, but my biggest limitation in training isn't a localized muscle effect. For example, my bicep will recover in 72 hours under almost any reasonable training regimen.

The limitation is more of a whole-body effect. Basically, when you resistance train, you create microtears in muscle. Your body has to clean all of that up and to do that, it creates catabolic agents (along with anabolic ones, fear not!). I can tell when I'm not letting that stuff flush out -- I get whole-body tendonitis, lethargy sets-in and I begin having difficulty staying asleep.

Also... at least for me, mild cardio seems to help flush that stuff out. I find a non-impact machine (i.e. an elliptical) and set the resistance very low (to make sure I'm not actually stressing muscle). Then, I maintain a relatively high RPM and shoot for breaking a moderate sweat over a 24-36 minute workout.

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

Talk about an elementary question lol jkurz1.

It's all about the system as a whole. The biggest reason why so-called hardgainer and HIT routines were created in the first place was for people who couldn't gain off more traditional routines do to systemic fatigue caused too much volume and/or frequency.

It also depends on the intensity with which you train. If you take every set to failure (which I don't recommend) you probably won't be able to train effectively 4 or more days a week and if you do then your progress is probably moving along at a snail's pace or you have a very fast recuperating CNS.

But if you moderate your efforts and don't train to failure and use or abuse things like forced reps, drop sets etc...you may be able to lift 4-5 days a week very well and make better progress.

I don't care what anyone says, you can workout too long, too often, AND TOO HARD.

Everyone is different. Prescribing teh same style of training to each person is assinine. One guy might make great progress off a 5 day a week rouitne training high volume and taking every set to failure and another guy may make no progress on teh same routine.

It's all individual, but in the end, whenever designing a routine the cns has to be taken into consideration.

 

[JKurz1]

Elementary my dear????? Hardly....that's why you will see a few hundred different responses.......some of the mnore basic questions are the ones we fail t analyze....

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

Um no bro, I don't see a few hundred different responses. This is a pretty well known topic and kinda obvious to anyone with training experience and if you check this thread you will see that everyone pretty much says the same thing.

This particular topic Elementary? YES.

 

[JKurz1]

I guess you are just much more knowledgeable than I..........my apologies for boring you.........

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

Maybe I am, maybe I'm not.

I wasn't exactly bored with it. I did give an answer.

 

[TRUEsoldier]

elementry, I would deffinatly say NO

to put the importance on the real reason for off days is pretty complicated IMO

there is the physical importance to look at, psychological importance and so many others

IMO the most important is the CNS
but some might say that some time in the gym every day is important to them psychologically! while some say a day NOT going to the gym is just as important psychologically to them!

Growth happens during days off, so maybe that is the most important reason for them, while strength gains can continue to come even without days off per say!

so I dont think it is so elementry, you can make it elementry if you dont look deep into the question I guess...

Just my .02 though
Peace

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

It's real simple.

Too much training is bad. Too little training isn't optimal. Training to hard isn't good.

The body is a system. Just because your training a different bodypart doesn't mean your CNS isn't effected. We all know muscles pretty much heal in 48-72 hours, but the CNS doesn't necessarily recoup in the same time frame.

Well it's simple and not simple, but I just think it's obvious that the body does need rest days.

 

[TRUEsoldier]

it is simple in alot of ways yes, and it is really simple to say, but I dont think he is looking for just the simple awnser, but for the in depth reasons why....

its easy to say that car can go 100 mph because of its horsepower

but it is alot harder to explain why that car has the amount of horsepower to make it go 100mph!

like you said its easy to say
"Too much training is bad. Too little training isn't optimal. Training to hard isn't good."
but it is a little harder to really understand why, what makes your cns recover slower, why does your cns need time where you dont do anything, what is considered a break for your CNS, cuz if you think about it, walking around at work every day could be considered a toll on your CNS to some people. and in that case what is considered "rest" for your cns?

Peace

 

[anthrax]

1] You need time for your CNS to recover

2] You need time for your muscle to super compensate the micro tearing of muscle fibers

 

[JKurz1]

1] You need time for your CNS to recover

2] You need time for your muscle to super compensate the micro tearing of muscle fibers

think I just diagnosed myself.........


http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/overtraining.html