Is a rest day bad?

jaggiebunnet

What I am really looking for here is some opinions from the folk who have been exercising consistently for a long time. Basically as I have posted before changed the diet and the fitness levels in Jan so remove the belly - did so and changed from 90%cardio to mostly weight based and am happy at the results. Now I am looking to take it up a notch and go for a proper programme as per starting strength, mainly to up my strength and keep me fit (and at some point in the future lose that last bit of fat covering my abs!)

My question is this I don't want to put any weight back on (unless it is in the muscle area) and I am concerned about going to only 3 days at the gym as per starting strength (i will also have a game of football with work on a monday night) - currently I go 4 and have a run on a friday :

monday football
tue gym
wed gym
thur gym
fri run
sat gym

Might seem a lot but i am only in there 35/40 minutes doing core excercises as recommonded on this forum. But I have noticed that I struggle to complete the sets near the end of the week even when i haven't upped the weight and this is why I want to introduce the rest days. So should I go and do the 3 days + my football (aint giving that up!)? I have taken a rest day today for the first time so that I am at the gym tue/thur/sat to see if I get a big difference in performance tomorrow.

chrism2007

do you do the same weights routine in the gym everytime?

Baldie

If I were you I'd go with the starting strength and see how you get on. The change in routine will be good for your body and you'll notice more changes.

A rest day is definitely good for you. It's gives your body a break and a chance to recover.

There's one rule I read before which always makes sense. "To get big (muscle wise), you lift big, eat big and rest big"

jaggiebunnet

chrism2007 wrote: »

do you do the same weights routine in the gym everytime?

I would do the same routine tues,thurs,sat and do something different on a wed (deadlifts instead of squats for example). But that would be changing with the starting strength programme I am going to do - haven't got the details at hand at the moment but it is just a standard beginners programme.

Baldie

jaggiebunnet wrote: »

I would do the same routine tues,thurs,sat and do something different on a wed (deadlifts instead of squats for example). But that would be changing with the starting strength programme I am going to do - haven't got the details at hand at the moment but it is just a standard beginners programme.

Download this spreadsheet. It's very handy. Just enter in your maximum lifts and it's throws back a 6 week programme for you. I found it very useful indeed.

mack32

id say a rest day is pretty essential for muscle growth. the whole idea is that by lifting weights you stress your muscles and they repair themselves and overcompensate in the process so that they can handle the same weight with less effort next time. if you dont allow time for your muscles to recover you're not getting the most out of your training.

having said that when you first start off you'll see gains no matter what you do but after a while you'll need to incorporate rest into your programme. A VERY general guide (and one that works for me) is to only work one muscle group per week. but people have different recovery times so find what works for you

jaggiebunnet

Baldie wrote: »

Download this spreadsheet. It's very handy. Just enter in your maximum lifts and it's throws back a 6 week programme for you. I found it very useful indeed.

Thanks Baldie - thats exactly what I was going to use.