<p>Okay so I was thinking working out Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday. Is that a bad layout? The reason I ask is because I read that you should allow a day of rest in between each workout, but the thing is that my potential schedules won't allow me to work out with a day of rest in between. TWF are the days where I have the most free time.</p>
<p>However, I was thinking of T/F being arm days and Wednesday being leg day. Would that work out? Technically I am giving my arms rest and my legs rest.</p>
<p>Any and all input would be helpful and appreciated.</p>
<p>If you’re going to workout 3 days a week, you need to not have those days be consecutive. You don’t want to go more than two days without working out. </p>
<p>There’s 24 hours in a day. It is definitely possible with any schedule to find at least 30-45 minutes to work on yourself.</p>
<p>^^^But I’m not going more than two days without working out if I do TWF.</p>
<p>Also, when I say arms I mean the upper body area (I should’ve specified). I normally did chest/tris/bis/arms/shoulders/etc on two days and did legs on one day. </p>
<p>When I took a health class, it recommended for people to work out at least five days a week, which means that some of those workouts are going to have to be on consecutive days. Usually whenever I’m on break, such as winter break or summer vacation, I work out every day and I haven’t had any ill consequences from it. You just shouldn’t over-strain yourself. For example, if you’re feeling sore the next day after a workout, you should wait for it to heal and then lighten up on your workout next time.</p>
<p>Here’s how I split up my workouts:
Monday - Chest and triceps
Tuesday - Off
Wednesday - Legs
Thursday - Off
Friday - Shoulders and Traps
Sat/Sun (choice) - Back and biceps</p>
<p>Each workout do pushups, pullups, and squats. Replace pushups with bench press if you want. Seriously. Old school ****. You’ll hit all the major parts of your body. These are compound exercises so you save time too, instead of doing bicep tricep etc seperately.</p>
<p>You want to work out any given muscle every couple of days. Someones suggested schedule had chest one day a week. If you wanted to see chest improvement, your going to have to hit it more then once a week. Only experienced body builders can hit a muscle group in such a way that they NEED A FULL WEEK to recover that muscle. Im assuming you’re not experienced, hence the reason for this thread. This is a beginners guide to building muscle. Note I am not an expert, I’ve been working out for years now though and I believe I’ve learned a few things, so take my advice at your own discretion.</p>
<p>Also note that I did not mention abs. I’m assuming you want a six pack (like most people) and not just strong abs. Ab exercises give your strong abs. If you want them to show however, you need to run to burn off the fat covering them. So consider running in your routine as well. You can run everyday as long as its not intense. If you are sprinting, you need 48 hours rest in between sprint sessions for maximal gains.</p>
<p>And one more thing, the most important thing to remember (other then eating a healthy diet to provide more energy and maximum recovery) is to use proper form. If you cheat on your exercises, you use muscles other then the ones you are trying to build up. You only hurt yourself by doing this. When you’re in the gym, make a conscious effort to use proper form, until it becomes an unconscious effort.</p>
<p>You take a rest day a week and that is more than enough. The only time you need to take a break is for instance, not doing biceps 2 days in a row, etc. If you are planning on doing cardio, you can run, swim, elliptical, etc almost every day be fine. Just don’t lift weights on the same part of your body 2 days in a row.</p>
<p>I workout 6 days a week. Sometimes it’s just cardio, sometimes it’s just weight lifting. Other days it’s intense intervals and metabolic conditioning. About 2-3 weeks ago, I did squats for 5 straight days. Most of my workouts would go completely against anything anyone here would suggest. </p>
<p>Much of the “logic” flowing with regards to exercise are quite humerous in fact. I always get a kick out of the “this body part” day workout individuals. How is that really useful to life?</p>
<p>How is it not useful? It’s a way of keeping your workout structured, organized, and consistent. Tell me how those 3 things are not useful in life.</p>
<p>Oh and anyone will tell you that squatting 5 days in a row is a bad idea. You’re either over training or not putting enough effort into your squats to break down the muscles (which you need to do so they rebuild stronger then before).</p>
<p>You doing squats for 5 straight days doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. There are different things you can do with your workouts but mostly they are pretty similar. Like you said doing squats for 5 days in a row is not similar or even close with the things people would suggest. That’s because it is WRONG. You were either over training your muscles or you weren’t lifting as heavy as you should be. In both cases it’s wrong and you shouldn’t be doing it.</p>
<p>For being useful to real life… What is the main goal? Getting in shape and building muscle. First thing you have to realize is everyone is different. Something that is not useful to you might be very useful to someone else. There is a reason why there are many different split methods like 3 day, 4 day, 5 day, 6 day, double split, triple split. 5+1 split, etc. For me I see the maximum gains when I do one body part a day. I tried 4 day splits, 3 day splits, and many others but with them I don’t see as much gain. There are tons of people like this. That’s why everyone has a different workout program that they follow.</p>
<p>T/W/F routine will work just fine. Don’t short change yourself by only doing T/F</p>
<p>Tuesday: Legs - Squats are my favorite, I’d suggest those, but you don’t have to. You can do the hack squat machine and/or leg press. </p>
<p>Wednesday: Chest/Shoulder/Tri (though if you’re new, triceps exercises are going to do nothing for you that dumbell benching or barbell benching won’t. Initially.) As mentioned, dumbell or barbell bench, overhead press (for shoulders) - either dumbell or barbell, then any triceps exercise if you like.</p>
<p>Friday: Back and Bi - Pullups or chinups, dumbell rows (or barbell rows if you prefer) pulldowns, perhaps some upper back rows (elbows out) and curls (any kind you want) - if you want to.</p>
<p>You could switch Wednesday to back and Friday to chest if you are not squatting on Tuesday. That exercise uses enough back muscles (back extensors - tighten the lats, etc) that it’s best to avoid doing squats and back on consecutive days.</p>
<p>Day One: Bulgarian Split Squats
Day Two: Bodyweight Squats (part of CrossFit workout)
Day Three: Front Squats
Day Four: Goblet Squats
Day Five: Back Squat</p>
<p>I normally superset Bulgarian Split Squats and Front Squats. Most recently I did Back Squats and 400 meter runs in intervals. Saw my new PR for squat on that day after having not done back squat in 2 weeks. </p>
<p>And what I mean by how is “this body part” workout useful in life… what activity outside of lifting weights do you only “use your chest?” Or only “use your shoulders?” I do a lot of functional activities that use a lot of my body. I also do things in a way that I am able to train multiple days per week and “work the same thing” over and over again. Part of it is knowing how to modulate intensity.</p>