Weight training everyday a good idea?

With there being so many different opinions on how long you should allow your body to recover, I'm unsure about whether or not I should be doing what I do now. Basically at every single school dinner time me and a small group of other people go to the school gym. By the time we get there there's usually around 30 mins left to work out. I have been going everyday for the last 4 school days and I have been feeling fine. I am just guessing that when people say you should leave x days between workouts, what they class as a workout is 1 to 2 hours, maybe more for some? So in a sense a 30 minute workout isn't going to require as much recovery time as say someone who has done a 1/2 hour workout. I am eating around 4K+ cals a day and might begin the GOMAD challenge which Wig told me about in another thread. I'm also paying special attention to high protein foods. So to sum it all up, 30 mins of weight training everyday excluding weekends - good idea or not for increasing strength/size? Cheers and +rep. :)

just do as much exercise in the 30 minute space. really push yourself. do it 3/5 days :)

Not really, your body needs more rest days than lifting days. Anything over that is overkill. Dont be bought into the whole 5 day a week gym rat trend. You'll only damage yourself that way. People who do that either have extremely good genetics or take 'roids. I'd say no more than 3 lifting days max.

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Originally Posted by PaulMacC

Not really, your body needs more rest days than lifting days. Anything over that is overkill. Dont be bought into the whole 5 day a week gym rat trend. You'll only damage yourself that way. People who do that either have extremely good genetics or take 'roids. I'd say no more than 3 lifting days max.

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So Monday - Wednesday - Friday would actually be better?

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Originally Posted by PaulMacC

Not really, your body needs more rest days than lifting days. Anything over that is overkill. Dont be bought into the whole 5 day a week gym rat trend. You'll only damage yourself that way. People who do that either have extremely good genetics or take 'roids. I'd say no more than 3 lifting days max.

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Something we definitely agree on :)

3 days per week, are you looking at stronglifts? Everything has already been tried and tested.

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Originally Posted by Wig44.

Something we definitely agree on :)

3 days per week, are you looking at stronglifts? Everything has already been tried and tested.

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I am only talking about 20 - 30 mins of training a day, though. Surely that has some kind of effect on how long my body needs to recover? And yes, Stronglifts is an extremely useful guide. I have been reading through it tonight and have learnt a lot of things. My favourite lift is the Press (overhead) and now I know how to do it properly which is great. I'm also considering adding 2L of whole milk to my daily diet, I know the whole idea is to have a gallon but it just isn't realistic for me.

I'm pretty much addicted to using the gym at dinner time, I really enjoy it which is why I want to make it possible for me to go everyday but still see gains in strength and size.

I am in no way the subject matter expert on this issue, but hopefully I can shed light and help out.

A lot of the people I work with life weights three times a week, with four days to recover. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays are the days of choice, for the simple reason that we do cardio Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

If you want to add muscle, eat foods high in protein, such as chicken breast and tuna. Eggs are another good source of protein, especially hard-boiled eggs. Just take out the yolk - that's pure cholesterol. And make sure to drink plenty of water. No sports drinks, no electrolyte-enhanced drinks. The quickest way for your body to recover (and build muscle) is to drink water. Drink plenty of water before, during and after your workout to ensure maximum muscle gain and recovery/

Hope this helps in some way. :)

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Originally Posted by KyoraStryker

I am in no way the subject matter expert on this issue, but hopefully I can shed light and help out.

A lot of the people I work with life weights three times a week, with four days to recover. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays are the days of choice, for the simple reason that we do cardio Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

If you want to add muscle, eat foods high in protein, such as chicken breast and tuna. Eggs are another good source of protein, especially hard-boiled eggs. Just take out the yolk - that's pure cholesterol. And make sure to drink plenty of water. No sports drinks, no electrolyte-enhanced drinks. The quickest way for your body to recover (and build muscle) is to drink water. Drink plenty of water before, during and after your workout to ensure maximum muscle gain and recovery/

Hope this helps in some way. :)

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Pretty much spot on.
That 20-30 minutes a day will eventually build up and your body will get injured.

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Originally Posted by PaulMacC

Pretty much spot on.
That 20-30 minutes a day will eventually build up and your body will get injured.

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So you are saying that I might as well spend 2 hours in the gym every other day as opposed to 20 mins in the gym every other day?

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Originally Posted by Apple

So you are saying that I might as well spend 2 hours in the gym every other day as opposed to 20 mins in the gym every other day?

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No, more really isn't more. Time spent in the gym doesn't really matter, focus on your compund lifts with 3 or 5 sets of 5 reps and increasing the weight, 3 times per week is best imo.

And KyoraStryker, what you wrote about egg yolks is a load of rubbish. Eggs are not pure cholesterol, they are extremely nutrient rich. They containt lots of vitamins, minerals, arachidonic acid, choline, conjugated linoleic acid and yes - cholesterol. Did you know that the amount of cholesterol you eat does not affect cholesterol levels? Throwing away the yolk is throwing away half the protein (with perfect amino acid ratios) and lots of nutrients - lots of which are very hard to get in today's diet (CLA, arachidonic acid, choline) and the nutrients are in very bioavailable forms, unlike vegetables which frankly suck when it comes to nutrient absorption rates.

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Originally Posted by Wig44.

No, more really isn't more. Time spent in the gym doesn't really matter, focus on your compund lifts with 3 or 5 sets of 5 reps and increasing the weight, 3 times per week is best imo.

And KyoraStryker, what you wrote about egg yolks is a load of rubbish. Eggs are not pure cholesterol, they are extremely nutrient rich. They containt lots of vitamins, minerals, arachidonic acid, choline, conjugated linoleic acid and yes - cholesterol. Did you know that the amount of cholesterol you eat does not affect cholesterol levels? Throwing away the yolk is throwing away half the protein (with perfect amino acid ratios) and lots of nutrients - lots of which are very hard to get in today's diet (CLA, arachidonic acid, choline) and the nutrients are in very bioavailable forms, unlike vegetables which frankly suck when it comes to nutrient absorption rates.

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Since yesterday I have been getting 3 boiled eggs into my daily diet. I bought a protein shake today to see if I liked the flavour, drank it before my workout and it was disgusting. It was a nestle chocolate flavoured protein shake that they sell in most shops, it comes in a weird can so maybe you know what I am talking about? If I buy some whey protein there must be better tasting ways to consume it.

Is there no way that I can go daily but vary my muscle groups? So after working on a certain set one day, the next day I will be doing exercises that train a different group of muscles? I'd just like to be able to go everyday, even if it means restricting what techniques I do each day.

Nope, rest days are more important to working out then actually working out. During these days is when your muscles actually grow, so by not taking days off, you will end up hurting your muscles and they wont grow like you want them to.

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Originally Posted by Apple

Since yesterday I have been getting 3 boiled eggs into my daily diet. I bought a protein shake today to see if I liked the flavour, drank it before my workout and it was disgusting. It was a nestle chocolate flavoured protein shake that they sell in most shops, it comes in a weird can so maybe you know what I am talking about? If I buy some whey protein there must be better tasting ways to consume it.

Is there no way that I can go daily but vary my muscle groups? So after working on a certain set one day, the next day I will be doing exercises that train a different group of muscles? I'd just like to be able to go everyday, even if it means restricting what techniques I do each day.

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That's called isolation, working a different muscle group each day so you work out each one 1x per week. That method of training only works for people on steroids, people like you and me would gain on it (plus noobs gain on almost anything) but not well at all. Buy whey protein off of myprotein.co.uk. Get unflavouired whey concentrate, isolate isn't necessary imo. Use choc nesquik or w/e to flavour it - cheaper than the pre flavoured stuff and nicer too!

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Originally Posted by Wig44.

That's called isolation, working a different muscle group each day so you work out each one 1x per week. That method of training only works for people on steroids, people like you and me would gain on it (plus noobs gain on almost anything) but not well at all. Buy whey protein off of myprotein.co.uk. Get unflavouired whey concentrate, isolate isn't necessary imo. Use choc nesquik or w/e to flavour it - cheaper than the pre flavoured stuff and nicer too!

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Choc nesquik would be a good idea, there is a health shop on my main road so on the way home from school tomorrow I might just nip in and get some whey protein. As hard as it is going to be to resist temptation, I guess I will just have to avoid training every other day since everywhere I look seems to be saying rest days are more important, including here of course. I can always just go to the gym but have a game of badminton instead? |-)

I seem to be gaining weight even faster now I am weight training, swiftly approaching 10 stone which will be a great achievement for me. :P