It is generally accepted that for effective muscle growth it is important not only to load, but also to properly restore the body, because muscle growth occurs precisely during rest. Yes, indeed, most often the training scheme looks like this: after the training day, a recovery phase begins, and its duration can reach several days. However, despite this theory, which most athletes adhere to, there are other training regimens that will allow you to train frequently. Let's take a closer look at whether it is possible and what will happen if you train every day.
Is it possible to train every day?
Most teams in American football, soccer, hockey and other team sports adhere to five or even six-day training regimens. Here's a great example of a five-day training week for an American football team:
- Monday – training on the field (game).
- Tuesday – strength training in the gym.
- Wednesday – training on the field (impact practice, full contact).
- Thursday - rest.
- Friday – training on the field (game).
- Saturday – training on the field (punching practice, full contact).
- Sunday is rest.
Of course, such a pace cannot be constant and such a training scheme is chosen exclusively for players who have reached a high level and exclusively during the period of preparation for competitions. In the off-season, such loads lead to nothing.
By the way, in bodybuilding, you can also train often – 5-6 times a week. This kind of training is used by professional athletes or those who have stopped growing and need to increase the load on each muscle group, but at the same time not overload the body with long, grueling and debilitating workouts. In bodybuilding, this scheme is called training for one muscle group.
As you can see, even professional athletes do not perform strength training every day; in order to achieve good results, they need to rest for 1-2 days. Only high-quality recovery ensures the athlete’s growth above himself.
However, this method is not suitable for everyone. First of all, this scheme allows you to heavily load a specific muscle group. For example, the pectoral muscles, which is absolutely of no use to beginners, since at the beginning of the training journey, intense training will lead to severe soreness, overtraining and exhaustion.
If, with a normal training regimen, say, three to four workouts per week, two muscle groups can be combined in one day. For example, the antagonist muscles are the pectoral and back muscles; after such a workout you need to take a break of several days, and there will be no more than four exercises for each muscle group. But a workout designed for one muscle group can consist of six or even eight exercises. As an example, let's take back muscle training , which will consist of exercises such as:
- Wide grip pull-ups on the bar.
- Pull-ups on the bar with a reverse grip.
- Pull the block behind the head with a wide grip.
- T-bar row (or on a machine) with a horizontal grip.
- Horizontal rows to the waist in a block machine.
- Hyperextension.
Read more about all types of pull-ups →
How often is it better to train?
Research shows that in beginners, muscle protein synthesis lasts up to 2 to 3 days. For experienced athletes it lasts 12–24 hours. During this time, the body creates new muscle fibers and muscles begin to grow. This works for the muscle groups that were involved in the workout.
The description of the research process does not talk about nutrition and rest, and does not take into account the intensity of physical activity. For example, basic exercises in the gym (squats, deadlifts or Romanian deadlifts) involve several muscle groups. If an athlete has done well in an exercise, he will become very tired and will not be able to train effectively every day.
When building a training plan, you need to focus on experience, well-being, nutrition and recovery. This approach is effectively applicable to experienced athletes who understand their mindset and listen to their own body.
Advanced athletes can train every day, using different muscle groups and adjusting the training plan to their well-being and psychological state. If an athlete feels tired, he performs an easier workout from the plan, and moves the hard one to the time when it should be easy.
Beginners follow a program that uses the entire body in a workout. This helps the muscles get used to physical activity, but since almost all muscle groups work, you need time to rest. For beginners, it is enough to train 3 times a week.
Working out every day: pros and cons
Training every day is a good option for those who have stopped making progress. Typically, athletes who have reached a certain level follow this regimen. Many professional bodybuilders adhere to this scheme, but not all the time, but only in the pre-competition season. In other periods, enough time is devoted to recovery and, at a certain point, even light training. Professional athletes of team sports also divide the training process throughout the week, since it is not possible to fully train three to four times a week.
What happens if you pump every day? Debunking the Myth
Let’s not delay the introduction, but let’s say it straight away: no, you can’t pump every day. And this is not a subjective opinion, this is the opinion of all professional trainers and experienced fitness specialists. If a person lifts every day (provided that each workout is difficult), this can quickly lead to a state of overtraining, the main symptoms of which include a drop in strength indicators, psychological fatigue, lack of motivation, injuries, etc.
The claim that frequent and intense training leads to active muscle growth is a common fitness myth. This information may surprise you, but muscles do not grow during training, but during rest. During the training process, our muscle tissues are injured, and on the rest day they are restored and increase in volume. That is why it is better to work out with iron no more than 3-4 times a week.
What happens if you train every day?
Daily training makes it impossible for those athletes who do not use hormonal anabolic drugs and whose level of training is not high enough to fully recover. You need to approach such training gradually, trying other schemes of the training process. If you train one muscle group per day, then each muscle will have time to recover before the next week. But if you perform circular training every day, then practically none of the muscles will have time to rest, which means that you should not expect any benefit, progress, or results. Such activities will only lead to overtraining, fatigue and even irritability.
How to properly train different muscle groups every day
As already mentioned, this scheme is only suitable for experienced athletes . In order to reduce the negative effects after the training process, the training week should be structured in such a way that the interval between training the same muscle group, for example legs, is as long as possible and the muscles have time to recover. Even with a four-day regimen, there is a very clear lack of recovery time if you do not correctly distribute muscle groups throughout the week.
For example, if today an athlete trained his back, then in the coming days, training that involves the biceps, a synergist of the back, will not be effective. That is, for several days after training your back muscles, you should not train your shoulders or biceps. Let's take a six-day workout as an example:
- Monday – chest muscle training.
- Tuesday – deltoid muscle training.
- Wednesday – leg workout.
- Thursday – back muscle training.
- Friday is a day of rest.
- Saturday – arm workout (biceps, triceps and forearm).
- Sunday – leg workout.
What happens if you train your muscles every day?
The body will not have time to recover during daily work. This period averages from 24 to 48 hours. If the goal is to build muscle mass, the recovery period cannot be neglected.
Muscle growth occurs during rest. When performing exercises, muscles are subjected to stress and receive microtrauma. Over the next 24 hours (or longer), they recover and gradually increase in size to adapt to the stress.
For beginners, when performing a new training program, the body will definitely hurt. Loads for the same muscle group the next day will not be effective
, because it is difficult to perform exercises while overcoming pain. It will not be possible to use the same working weights and maintain the correct technique.
Is light exercise every day beneficial?
If you consider daily training as exercise, a light jog or several exercises with your own weight, then such an activity will not harm anyone. Unfortunately, a person will not receive results from such training. But, as you know, movement is life, so such morning exercises will give a person vigor, good mood and well-being. The main thing is not to overwork and feel the line between a light load for your health and an intensive one.
Lightweight training is a set of pull-ups, push-ups, crunches and squats that can be done at home, and it is best to alternate them with short morning jogs. All these exercises should not be performed daily; it is better to distribute them every other day and alternate with jogging.
Workouts every other day
How much water should you drink per day to lose weight?
How to lose weight through sports and is it possible to achieve results if you exercise every other day? From a medical point of view, losing weight through sports is the best way to get rid of unnecessary kilos. Physical activity must be combined with a competent menu. You don't need to go on some kind of strict diet. It will be enough to give up overeating. You should not eat for 1.5 hours before exercise and for 1-2 hours after exercise. The rest of the time you need to eat fractionally. The diet should consist of balanced, small meals.
Allowed to consume products:
- meat;
- grain bread;
- fruits;
- vegetables;
- porridge;
- soup;
- fish;
- eggs;
- dairy and fermented milk products.
Proper nutrition for weight loss
For a person who has decided to put his body in order, it is important to remove soda, baked goods, and alcohol from his diet.
As for training every other day, for an unprepared person such a rhythm is considered quite difficult. We are talking about hours-long exhausting techniques that are promoted in gyms. If the loads are not too high, the body will recover within 24 hours, and the central nervous system will accept training every other day without any complaints.
Note! One of the conditions for successful weight loss through sports activities is enjoying the process. A person must choose the technique that matches his inner world. In this case, visiting the gym or doing home exercise experiments will bring joy and get rid of annoying wrinkles.
Experienced instructors recommend it to girls who are puzzled by the question “how can you lose weight through sports?” Organize your workouts in such a way that strength training is replaced by cardio, aerobics and vice versa. For example, a schedule of classes every other day can be made in such a way that on Monday you can go to the gym, on Wednesday you can go to the gym, on Friday you can go dancing, and you can devote Sunday evening to running.
Workout program for weight loss
Is it possible for a girl to train to lose weight every day?
Even for the purpose of losing weight, daily training is not the best option.
- Firstly, for a fat-burning effect, you need to keep your heart rate in the range of 50-70% of the maximum. Learn more about heart rate zones →
- Secondly, the average duration of one workout should be 40 minutes.
Therefore, the load on the cardiovascular system will be noticeable, which naturally implies at least a day of rest between workouts.
How often to exercise
The number of workouts per week should be determined in accordance with your initial fitness level and goals. For most people, 3-4 workouts per week is an acceptable option. During breaks, it is important to give proper rest to the muscles and nervous system, try to “listen” to your body so as not to overtrain.
If you have set certain goals and want to train 5 times a week or daily, try it. But you can give all your best during intense loads only 1-2 times.
Sports experts advise beginners to work out 2-3 times a week and focus on comprehensively working out all the muscles of the body in each workout. Experienced gym visitors should swing more often - 3-5 times a week, and work out all muscle groups during training. And alternate days when the loads are more intense with days of rest for recovery.
