Stupid question I know. But if I’m looking at bulking, is it good to do light cardio on the rest days? Also is it worth even having a rest day between weight days? Or just 5-6 on days and one off?
Daaaaaves
:
If youre new to lifting you can get away with 3-4 times a week, but if youre well into your journey then stick to 5-6 days per week if you want progress. Light cardio is good as long as youre letting your body recover between workouts. ie putting a few hours between cardio and weights, or separate days.
johncowart
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I let my body and stats tell me at my age. which I wish I had done a long time ago. if I do a crazy leg day I may take the next day off. if I see my lifts are going down after pull day (deadlifts) I rest a day after. if my sleep is garbage before a big lift day I switch to light cardio or work minor body parts (forearms, calves). there is only so much energy in YOUR body to go around.
BodybyBrodie
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It's best to think of rest in terms of muscle groups worked. This app estimates recovery progress for each muscle group, you can use as a guide. All depends on your workout. For example, I'm currently doing 4 days a week: Mon - chest and triceps / Tue - shoulders and biceps / Wed - rest / Thur - back and forearms / Fri - legs and misc.
If I feel like something was lacking on one of those days, like my chest workout wasn't as heavy as I'd like, I'll fit in some chest targeted lifts on my leg day, or fit them in wherever convenient (like some arnold presses on shoulder day since it hits both upper chest and delts).
If I did significant work on one of those muscle groups for its day, then I'll either avoid lifts that target those muscles until the next week. For example, I went pretty heavy on my back workout yesterday, and despite making it a habit of hitting some deadlifts on my leg day, I avoided them today. My lifts would suffer without appropriate recovery time, as the muscles need to recover and adjust to the workload (which only happens during sleep) and the body needs to deposit the fuel needed for the next workout that targets those muscles (which only happens thru processing nutrition).
I'm very neurotic about losing gains, so I stress about not exhausting the three major muscle groups (chest - back - legs) to their fullest on a consistent basis, but trust me, let them rest and you'll find your lifts will steadily progress each time you return to training focused on those muscle groups.
Again, depends on your program tho. If you're doing full body workouts once a day, then you can only do so much to each group everyday. The further you progress in your gains, you'll need to spend significantly more time and effort on a muscle group to see any progress, which means rest is necessary. You could be doing an upper-lower split, where you only need prob 2 days rest, or a targeted workout like mine where several days are needed for each group.
8 comments
If I feel like something was lacking on one of those days, like my chest workout wasn't as heavy as I'd like, I'll fit in some chest targeted lifts on my leg day, or fit them in wherever convenient (like some arnold presses on shoulder day since it hits both upper chest and delts).
If I did significant work on one of those muscle groups for its day, then I'll either avoid lifts that target those muscles until the next week. For example, I went pretty heavy on my back workout yesterday, and despite making it a habit of hitting some deadlifts on my leg day, I avoided them today. My lifts would suffer without appropriate recovery time, as the muscles need to recover and adjust to the workload (which only happens during sleep) and the body needs to deposit the fuel needed for the next workout that targets those muscles (which only happens thru processing nutrition).
I'm very neurotic about losing gains, so I stress about not exhausting the three major muscle groups (chest - back - legs) to their fullest on a consistent basis, but trust me, let them rest and you'll find your lifts will steadily progress each time you return to training focused on those muscle groups.
Again, depends on your program tho. If you're doing full body workouts once a day, then you can only do so much to each group everyday. The further you progress in your gains, you'll need to spend significantly more time and effort on a muscle group to see any progress, which means rest is necessary. You could be doing an upper-lower split, where you only need prob 2 days rest, or a targeted workout like mine where several days are needed for each group.