Comments on: The Truth About Muscle Recovery Time – Short Version

By: Yahya

Yahya — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:34:30 +0000

thanks Darrin, I’ll try that and see what works and fits best, thanks again!

By: Darrin

Darrin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:12:40 +0000

@yahya – my advice, is twofold:
a) don’t “train arms”; see this: http://worldfitnessnetwork.com.....ple-steps/
b) if you ignore me anyway, then do biceps on your back days and triceps on your chest days; do arms AFTER all your real lifts are done

By: Yahya

Yahya — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:31:26 +0000

Darrin- a quick question please; if I train chest and biceps like I did last night is it ok to to do back and triceps tonight or is it not possible to work the triceps out without also working my biceps to the point that recovery is prevented?

Thanks in advance, yahya.

By: stan schurman

stan schurman — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:06:00 +0000

I work out just 2 times per week. Mondays I do upper body using dumbbell bench press, dumbbell rows, dips and pulldowns. That’s it. 3-5 sets each. On Fridays I do dumbbell squats, leg presses and curls. I should perhaps do curls on Mondays, but I find my arms are fried after the rows and pulldowns. My workouts are never longer than 45 minutes, but I go to near failure very set. I’m 65 by the way. What I notice most in the gym is a) people spend way too much time on the weights. People that are hard at it when I arrive are still hard at it when I leave and b)people spend far too much time on curls. What is it with curls that people feel they have to do a dozen or more sets. I see people doing standing dumbbell curls, followed by seated concentration curls, followed by standing barbell curls followed by preacher curls. I`ve seen people doing nothing but curls in the time I`ve completed my entire workout. I`ll do maybe 3 sets of either dumbbell or barbell curls followed by a couple of sets of either hammer or reverse curls. Five sets max.

By: How Many Days To Lift Per Week | Lifting Days Per Week

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[...] Actually, after years of lifting and running, I’m starting to come to the conclusion that in many cases, our bodies don’t care about “real weeks”. Our bodies care about the balance between stimulation and recovery. [...]

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Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:55:37 +0000

[...] Training Frequency- At some point, you’ll be ready for this. If you are training your legs 3 times every 2 weeks, you might move to twice a week. But you have to be careful about muscle recovery time. [...]

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:30:14 +0000

I have been doing body building for 2 months now and am noticing huge differences in muscle tone and strength. Apparently rest and nutrition make up for 80% of muscle growth after hitting the gym recommended by my personal trainer.. so diet is as important as rest

we work a different muscle group 5 days a week doing 4 sets @ 12,10,8,8 …like this….. 12 reps (light Heavy), 10 reps (heavy) 8 (heaviest you can manage) 8 (heavier then you have done before). we never do more then 5 different exercises on the same muscle group in one session as this can be counter productive…. we work our abs everyday as this muscle recovers quickly… i do 200 reps each day on abs. (25,25 -25,25 Break, 25,25,- 25,25)…. we have 2 days complete rest with excessive eating… we look to increase the amount of weight we lift each week even if only by a few pounds… but as i say 2 days off complete rest… this seems to be working well for us.. i recommend to anyone anyone else.. any questions just ask i let you know on our program… in 2 months we have put on 1 stone of muscle mass. im a little bit of body fat too although we will cut that in the later stages maybe towards march.

By: Darrin

Darrin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:38:06 +0000

@ Ron – thanks for adding that!

@ Peter – it all depends on your goals and intensity. Two days a week, full-body, high intensity is definitely enough for muscle growth even at your age. And the 2 or 3 days of recovery is great. The problem is few people really lift at high intensely. We all think we are working hard, but the ultimate intensity is going beyond what you think you can do, yet staying safe. It’s hard to know where that line is but invariably the line is farther out than you think. But if your goal is to just maintain, then 2x/wk full-body is probably enough even with just good intensity (not even max). However, age again rears its head because the older you get the more intensity you need even to maintain your muscle mass. Young kids can essentially just look at pictures of a barbell and start adding muscle (that’s a joke, people). But older guys need to work really hard. The older you are, the more intensity you need AND the more recovery you need.