Simple gym question

[Johnson#26]

Apologies if this is covered 1000 times elsewhere. I've only recently started going to the gym, on a program outlined by one of the staff there so all is good. But was wondering: is it best to leave at least one day between each gym session, particularly when starting up (allowing the muscles to rest and all that jazz)? Apologies if this is just too basic. Keen to stay into it now that I am into it. Cheers.

 

[Syphoncom]

Pretty much the only response you'll get with broad questions is: See what works best for you.

Definitely have a read around and have a look at some of the basic gym introductory programs. SS is a good program to start with if you're just getting into it for the first time.

There are so many ways you could tackle going to the gym, including:

1) Monday-Friday on, Saturday/Sunday off.

Work the weekdays, have the double day off at the end and enjoy your weekend.

2) Alternate one day on, one day off.

Gives you time to recover and you train 3.5 times a week.

3) Have 1 day on, 2 days off.

If you're beginning at the gym and are focusing on basic strength, you're going to be doing a lot of compound lifts, heavy lifts and generally taxing your body. You'll hear the "you grow outside the gym, not in it" things, etc etc and all are true. You don't need to be doing too much - and hurting yourself is only going to slow things down.




Anyway, see how you feel, how your timetable/schedule allows you to attend and how comfortable you are with things like DOMS.

Again, if you're starting and doing the upper limits of your 1RM in lifts, doing this too often and working in the low rep range is probably going to tax your CNS and you'll burn out if you're working out 6+ days a week.

You can always run/cardio or do some ab work on every second day in between your lifts if you feel as well.

Right now I have enough spare time where I'm deloading and doing a lighter load, because 3/7 days is too boring, but I'll see whether that's a good or a bad thing soon enough I think.

Ramble ramble, hope some of that makes sense and helps

 

[cptkirk]

if your brand new then its fine to double up if you can go through the soreness

 

[Slattery_20]

I think it's pretty standard practice/advice to rest each muscle group for a day after a heavy workout.

For eg. you might do a certain group or groups on mondays, wednesdays, fridays & another group on tues,thurs, sun

 

[stewfoss]

you should feel pretty sore the day after a session. the staff would have/should have given you a program that, for example, focuses on upper body work monday, lower body tuesday, etc. that way you can rest each group while working on another