do you work out?

[patternoverlap]

the every day part is your problem. rest/recovery is just as important as the exercise.

[SR4]

yeah, try to alternate a leg workout (running, jogging, whatever) with lifting weights instead the next day.

 

and always have one day of the week off for both exercises, and maybe just do some light walking instead.

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If you're trying to gain a significant amount of strength and size you don't have, you need to lift heavy to failure and wait at least 2-3 days. If you're not trying to build a dramatic amount of more muscle mass: it's great conditioning, calorie burning, health improving to work out as much as you feel comfortable with everyday. I can barely get sore anymore and I have more bulk muscle than I want so I'm not gonna start lifting even heavier weight. I'm pretty much doing something intense everyday now, sometimes that includes all body weight pushing 2 days in a row.

 

It's odd that I don't really ever see weight lifting everyday suggested as one of the best methods for burning fat. If you just want to lean up and keep a modest amount of your muscle I can't imagine why it's not a really good idea, just gotta know the line, be careful to not get so weak you could hurt yourself while consistently trying to get a progressively intense workout. Anyone disagree?

 

I almost forgot good a workout swimming as hard as you can is after lifting. So glad to have a gym membership knowing I don't have a contract, I'm paying much less than before and I'm going to keep using it everyday for a good while.

[chenGOD]

 

 

It's odd that I don't really ever see weight lifting everyday suggested as one of the best methods for burning fat. If you just want to lean up and keep a modest amount of your muscle I can't imagine why it's not a really good idea, just gotta know the line, be careful to not get so weak you could hurt yourself while consistently trying to get a progressively intense workout. Anyone disagree?

 

 

 

rest and recovery.

[SR4]

yeah. when you lift, you are literally tearing your muscles. Maybe you burn fat doing it everyday, sure, but you don't reap the most important benefits of lifting, which is the rebuilding and strengthening of the muscle fibers. That can only be done to its full potential if you have a day off of recovery. Plus I'd figure that you would risk injury constantly forcing your muscles to work at that rate, non?

 

 

I think I need to start switching up to endurance/more reps for chest and upper body exercises...My chest is already starting to "poke out" in my formerly loose shirts. I guess that's a good thing, but I can't help but feel that I look like a big-tittied fatty.

 

Arms however still need a lot of work.

[colunga]

I had a schedule when I was unemployed during May-July of last year.

5-6 days a week. I ran 2 miles a day and spent 10-15 minutes with a specific muscle region for that day.

I would usually only be there for an hour. I really can't stand working out for an 1+ hrs.

I'm a slim dude and never had a belly until about a year ago so I got that off. Also working out improved my stamina in all areas.

I never do 5-10 mile runs or anything. a few years ago, I got my daily runs up to 3 miles but that only lasted about a month.

 

My roommate and I were trying to do 7 days a week but could never make it. Something would always come up that made one day impossible.

 

I just started up again recently and forgot about the soreness associated with reintroducing yourself to your old routine. That was a week ago :(

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.....I thought I explained my point of view well enough but I guess not. My statement was for a very specific scenario like my own where you have enough experience not to hurt yourself and your not trying to build more strength or size in your muscles. I know all about rest and recovery, but after constantly working out like I've been preparing to fight Anderson Silva for almost a full year, again, I don't really get that sore, I don't need more than 12 hours to recover. Speaking of when athletes are conditioning, for instance MMA fighters they work out almost everyday, sometimes do 3 sessions not including weight lifting. Again, I'm not going to add more weight, I don't want my muscles to be any bigger and I don't need them stronger. I'm just trying to lean out and I want my muscles to have even more endurance and speed. I know my body way to well at this point to know how far I can take it at any given time, I wont injure myself.

[SR4]

.....I thought I explained my point of view well enough but I guess not. My statement was for a very specific scenario like my own where you have enough experience not to hurt yourself and your not trying to build more strength or size in your muscles. I know all about rest and recovery, but after constantly working out like I've been preparing to fight Anderson Silva for almost a full year, again, I don't really get that sore, I don't need more than 12 hours to recover. Speaking of when athletes are conditioning, for instance MMA fighters they work out almost everyday, sometimes do 3 sessions not including weight lifting. Again, I'm not going to add more weight, I don't want my muscles to be any bigger and I don't need them stronger. I'm just trying to lean out and I want my muscles to have even more endurance and speed. I know my body way to well at this point to know how far I can take it at any given time, I wont injure myself.

 

fair enough. but even still your recommendation for lifting everyday might not be for people that aren't at whatever level you are (it sounds like professional athlete level)

[patternoverlap]

Even professional athletes eventually succumb to the rigorous training they do (stress fractures, ligament and joint damage, etc). The average career length of a professional athlete is around 5-10 years.

 

 

 

edits for varying numbers from sources

[SR4]

out of curiousity BFC, are you an amateur MMA fighter?

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But athletes are fucking themselves up with high impact stuff not the weight lifting. I'm very careful not to run or sprint or do anything really tuff on my joints if I'm not feeling top notch. That's kinda my point, weight lifting is one of the best low impact excersizes and it can be used purely for calorie/fat burning not really to build muscle.

 

RE: Smettingham: Well, yeah. I think that's the only reason I can figure why it's not suggested, the worry that idiots are going to go too hard too often too quickly and hurt themselves. But, lifting weights is one of the most effective metabolism boosters and calorie burners, it's less impactful on your joints than most every exercise and if people use guided machines it's incredibly difficult to hurt yourself. Once your ready for it, it seems completely stupid to keep the same cycle of more and more weight and waiting two days to lift that muscle group again when your lifting to burn calories not build more muscle. The only time I've really seen any suggestions of lifting everyday I think have been specifically targeted at women to be lifting barely that much weight at all, which most of the time ends up not taking any effort at all and is not burning much calories. You never see the middle ground mentioned much. I really think it makes sense for a lot of people that just want to burn fat to lift slightly above medium difficulty weight almost everyday. As long as people pay attention to what there body tells them and know how much is too much weight they will be fine. If a friend is having a hard time bulking up and can't figure out how to build dramatically more size in muscle mass, you're going to say progressively lift as much weight as you can and don't touch that muscle group for at least 2-3 days and eat a lot, I'm not going to tell him to run 15 miles a day, do a bunch of plyometrics etc. That would more likely the opposite results. That would be a good suggestion to lean out though, I would love to be able to do that, weight lifting is safer than running way too much and doin stuff like plyometrics for me.

 

On good days I will do a good amount of lifting, targeting pretty much every muscle group, (now I'm adding swimming after), run, sprints if I have the energy, and then go crazy on the heavy bag if I really got the goods. Kinda like how I only eat when my body tells me it wants food, I only do as much as my body tells me it can do. I'm sure that seems insane to people who are just trying to build muscle but wouldn't that be the best way to achieve real practical maximum total fitness? I mean hell I would be totally fine if I lost 3-5 pounds muscle while losing another 15 pounds of fat and then adding more sweet potatoes in my diet and maintaining.

 

Ha, not I'm not an MMA fighter, I do study martial arts and feel like I'm training to go start fighting but I won't, I have to be careful of my bad knee. Which is why I'm gonna completely stop running and sprinting in a few years.

[SR4]

i was thinking about taking a kickboxing class, but i dunno if i want to spare the money :(

[chenGOD]

.....I thought I explained my point of view well enough but I guess not. My statement was for a very specific scenario like my own where you have enough experience not to hurt yourself and your not trying to build more strength or size in your muscles. I know all about rest and recovery, but after constantly working out like I've been preparing to fight Anderson Silva for almost a full year, again, I don't really get that sore, I don't need more than 12 hours to recover. Speaking of when athletes are conditioning, for instance MMA fighters they work out almost everyday, sometimes do 3 sessions not including weight lifting. Again, I'm not going to add more weight, I don't want my muscles to be any bigger and I don't need them stronger. I'm just trying to lean out and I want my muscles to have even more endurance and speed. I know my body way to well at this point to know how far I can take it at any given time, I wont injure myself.

 

MMA fighters might train everyday, they are not lifting weights everyday. By lifting every day you aren't doing anything for your muscles, certainly not building endurance - even endurance training needs recovery.

The reason you burn fat when you lift is mostly chemical - and it's mostly a process of how your body maintains muscle.

Lifting on machines is not an entire waste of time, but it's way less effective than using free weights. You are also robbing the stabilizer muscles a chance to develop.

If you want more endurance, on days when you are weight lifting include a "superman" set.

Reps go like this: 42, 21, 12, 10, 9, 7, 5

Increase the weight with each set. Don't rest more than 30 seconds in between each set.

Lifting weights is not going to increase twitch reflex.

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From what I've seen it's not abnormal for fighter to sometimes do 3 intense training sessions a day, no days off and also lift weights 4 times a week on average. Urijah Faber supposedly doesn't even lift weights barely at all and just trains everyday, he is incredibly muscular for his weight. How could lifting weights everyday have no potential to be doing anything for your muscles when there are incredibly muscular active people that don't lift weights let alone heavy weights at all and just do some sort of consistent medium difficultly labor nearly everyday. You can find for instance marines that do pushups and pullups etc. everyday, don't lift weights that have more endurance, power, strength and speed than your best meat head bodybuilding.com forum veteran. Why do fighters and all sorts of athletes train so hard and so often if using your muscles everyday will not build endurance or speed?

 

My point was that one of the safest and effective work outs for even a healthy 85 year old is lifting weights with quality machines. Nearly any work out with a competitive level of effeciency is going to be at least slightly high impact. I mostly only use machines for certain things like my legs. There are plenty of really built smart people than just lift a ridiculous amount of weight to failure (with Nautilus machines for instance). Safest way to push and pull weight to complete muscle failure.

 

Yeah pyramid or as you called it "superman" sets are good.

 

Like I said I will lift AND then swim/run/sprint/bike sometimes/go fucking ballistic on the heavy bag w/ legs and fists. I'm trying to combine most every type of workout for real total practical fitness in the long run. Lifting weights mostly just burns calories and makes my more intense climax workouts much more difficult.

[chenGOD]

Your specific question was "why isn't weight-lifting everyday recommended for burning fat?"

To which the answer is - your muscles need time to recover. While your muscles are building, you are burning fat. If you don't give your muscles time to recover, you will not build muscle and will not burn fat.

 

Please note - I did not say that using your muscles every day will not build endurance and speed, I said lifting everyday will not do those things. Why you want to compare your workouts to professional athletes (who do this for a living, thus have considerably different requirements for fitness than those who don't) is beyond me. But I will say this - I have been paid to play sports before, and every pro athlete takes at least one day off a week, maybe two. If you are not a professional athlete or do not aspire to be one, 3 times a week weight lifting, mix in some cardio, and maintain a healthy diet.

 

I guarantee that if you go from doing exercises with the nautilus to free weights you will drop a considerable amount of weight. But if you keep at it with the free weights, you will build back up and be stronger than before, and you will have developed muscles that you weren't working before. And PS the Smith machine is terrible for doing squats, because it fucks with your spinal position.

 

Those superman sets should come at the end of your work out - so for example, let's say your big muscle group for the day is your chest - do a variety of chest exercises (4-6 different types of exercise), then make those your last exercise as a bench press.

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Why do you seperate someone using their muscles, building endurance, power and speed, training 3 times a day as completely different than having weight lifting as apart of a routine every day? They both equate to using your tools, exerting force, equate to a lot of exercise, multiplying the amount of total weight pushed and pulled, tiring and pushing your muscle fibers to the wall. You can punch the shit out of bags everyday to the point that your arms are shaking but if you add on lifting weights it's not a highly challenging and effective workout combination?

 

I dunno man, you're a smart guy and have some great advice but it seems what you were taught restricts you to have no imagination to think outside the box or passed what you know on this. I'm working out and dieting like this because I love the challenge to and experiment to try progressively different tactics sometimes in this case outside the box ideas to see if I can break through the wall and get to the maximum pinnacle of fitness I could ever achieve relatively efficiently(which is really quite difficult to do quickly as I'm finding that my metabolism and testosterone is dramatically slower and lower than it was when I running every day 5 years ago). If I am lifting difficult weight every day, and even when I do the same muscle groups I am attempting to do different lifting exercises than I did the day before, at a determined balanced level where I'm not just lifting less and less everyday, but able to progress slightly every intense day, constantly tearing muscle fiber with completely different all body, weight, dynamic, endurance, speed, power workouts, perpetually recovering... How would could I not be triggering growth hormones, burning fat while continually tearing rebuilding muscle, burning fat easily while in a ketogenic state and most of all burning a shit load of calories?

 

Again trust that I have thought about this a lot and have some imagination here to think that possibly even though you haven't seen much of anyone teaching average amateur humans to workout like this that it might not be the most effective way for me to burn a lot of calories while keeping my high impact activities to a minimum. Trust me I'm not just going soft on weights to make sure I can do them the next day, I'm using weight lifting every day as the focal point so that I'm not running or sprinting every day, high impact bad for your joints etc., save for lifting a stupid amount of weight when I'm not trying to build bulk muscle, I push enough weight that I'm trying to make sure that I'm so sore that I simply wont have the ambition to lift the next day, which is a state I sometimes achieve but much less lately. I think my body is just becoming really resilient and is recovering very quickly.

 

I've been doing pyramid sets every once and a while but I will start doing them nearly every time I'm finishing up lifting now. Thanks for reminding of how effective they are.

[chenGOD]

I was taught about limiting because of the desire of trainers to keep me healthy, so that I'm not fucking myself up in the gym, in order to compete.

But obviously no words or anecdotes will change your mind, so keep keeping on, be safe and be healthy.

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I mean there is so much science in the nutrition and exercise that seems to be really outdated and a lot of different ways to get things done that people that aren't standard. For instance all body muscle workouts, not very common, most people never do weights for their upper torso and leg muscle training in the same day but all body workouts produce an an immense hormonal reaction, activates insulin/anabolic growth factors. People are taught to run hitting their heel down first, yet I know for a fact that I've proven for me that I produce a huge, dramatically less stressful impact on my joints when I run strictly on my ball of my toes. 99% of people are taught to strike down heel first and if I run on my heels I start hurting quickly. Can't really find much of anything of anyone suggesting to run on your toes. I had to think outside the box and understand why barefoot running has just recently been coming out to be good for all your joints as it forces you to run on your toes naturally.

 

Anyway, I do realize that the biggest thing that's been slowing me down is drinking on average of three times a week, we will see how fast I approach my goals, turning it up a notch with my diet and work outs and having nothing at all in my day to day that's not beneficial to my ambitions. I'm willing to bet I will be producing results dramatically faster with my current hardcore no messing around plan. Hah, I'm heading to the gym now, not only because I want to, I'm ridiculosuly addicted to working out now but because when I leave I will have more energy and the sauna will make

 

I was taught about limiting because of the desire of trainers to keep me healthy, so that I'm not fucking myself up in the gym, in order to compete.

But obviously no words or anecdotes will change your mind, so keep keeping on, be safe and be healthy.

 

Ha, I understand your concerns, thanks, don't worry, I know I'm really pushing my limits but trust me that I'm listening to my body better than ever before and I'm being safe about it.

[SR4]

i think all we are saying is: lifting weights every single day is not good advice for beginners, or perhaps even intermediate lifters, hence not being recommended.

 

surely there is an agreement to be found here, yes?

[marf]

if you drink and smoke then im sorry, but you fail.

 

i lost a lot of weight couple years ago. i was lean, but i didn't like the emaciated look i got in my face.

[marf]

just do compound lifts. its body building 101. bench, squats, dead lifts. There's other stuff you can add, but those lifts work your whole body

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LoL, thanks for your suggestions. Yeah I think I might have heard of those lifts in one of the hundreds of hours of research I've done or maybe it was when I was doing them 3 days a week in high school.

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Just ate a huge salad, got time, feel like a long run and then some sprints for as the brutal cherry on top.

 

I need to get some new running shoes really soon, anyone have any suggestions? Not looking for a lot of support, just something that lasts mostly I guess, might get the 5 finger vibrams.

[spratters]

Speaking of running shoes, I got a blister after the last two days right to the side of the ball of my big toe. I too would appreciate suggestions.

[SR4]

i honestly just get a new 20 dollar pair at walmart/target every two-three months...but then again they aren't exactly the most comfortable.

 

poor man's exercise YEAAHHH

 

 

 

I have a question for you more experienced lifters:

 

So I have been increasing very very nicely on arm strength; since Ive started I have moved up the weight for all arm related exercises roughly 10-15 lbs. Is this a "normal" increase? I'm pretty damn sure my form is right, nothing feels like its been pulled, and I do my reps very very slowly. I suppose when you begin putting on muscle it just piles on no problem, but starts tapering off the further in you go? (Hence professional weightlifters being lucky if they put on a pound of muscle within a year?)

 

Also in addition to that, I was curious as to whether you guys know of an intense workout on the upper body/arms that not only increases mass but helps define it? Like, strength and endurance simultaneously? Are those superman reps something akin to this?

 

I ask because I am starting to get pretty big; I want to add on a bit more muscle, but not so much that I start looking like a meathead. Want my muscle development to be practical, in other words.