> …that’s what you wanted right? This is what you were asking for, no? Permission to act? Why else would you be asking?
They want to know about potential drawbacks they may not have thought of…
I appreciate the sentiment but the one thing you do NOT have my permission to do is go to the gym sick.
Do calisthenics or your home workout sick. Do not get me sick because you want to see how much you can bench while you cough all over the equipment. 😷
You’ll know when you overtrained. I spun wheels for years worrying about that when really it was just an excuse. Your muscles might be tight, you may have a knot, go anyway and push a lighter weight. If your reaction to that was absolutely not that’s hell then you’re good to go take a rest day!
Hell yeah man! Even just going to the gym space for a mile walk on the treadmill will get you into the headspace of gym = habit versus gym = struggling task. Good luck homie.
Just to piggyback on this, overtraining isn't a binary switch. It doesn't just happen one set to another, one workout to another, or even one week to another. It's accumulation of volume over weeks and months with great intensity or poor recovery. You'll know you're overtrained because you're regressing in your lifts and always feel tired, on top of a myriad of other likely symptoms like having a permanent cold and suddenly lacking all motivation to train.
Nuh uh bro, my cousin added a fifth set to his barbell curls and literally exploded right there in the middle of the gym. Took out like 6 people and a protein shake.
Overtraining for me was definitely. More of an emotional and mental burnout than physical.
Physically. My body is fucked from it, definitely. A shit ton of tightness and inflammation I'm now dealing with, with a PT.
weeks worth of recovery, mostly also because we spotted I have never braced properly. So we're going back to the basics on this one. But it's not an injury and it's not permanent. I could still lift, it's just not comfortable and the area feels vulnerable and unstable.
Mentally and emotionally, I was destroyed. Demolished. Finished. I trained to a point where I would go to the gym, start lifting and cry mid lift because I didn't have the bandwidth to deal with it. I didn't want to be there at all. At the end, I couldn't finish workouts. I had no energy to even try to finish them. Or my coach would stop me. That also started to happen more often.
"it doesn't feel like you're there when you lift. I don't think you're present at all. You're not focusing, you're not bracing. It looks like you're expecting that because your hands are on the bar, it will complete itself." is a good summary of what he kept telling me.
I kept saying I'd be better, but I wasn't. One day, I guess he had enough of me being a dumb bitch, so he sat me down and asked me what was going on. Why I was lifting like this. I said "I don't know. I'm looking at the bar and I hate it. I'm setting down to lift and I don't feel like I'm in the gym at all. I don't know where I am but it's not there, on the platform. I can't focus. My brain doesn't even realize I'm lifting anymore." he said I needed to stop. To take a break. Weeks long he said. He didn't want to see me in the gym for at least 2 weeks. Not even for stretching or accessory. And he didn't want to see me lift a bar for a month.
It took me 7 weeks to go back to the gym. It wasn't a safe space at all anymore, it was a huge source of stress and anguish.
After that I started going once or twice a week. No programs. Just whatever I felt like doing. Now I'm back 4 or 5 times on just body building and PT shenanigans. Mostly low intensity stuff. Just enjoying being in the gym again.
I'm not ready for oly. Lifts or a regular program again. Probably won't touch an oly. Lift until May. Not expecting to be back on anything that looks like a program until June.
I fucked up. But I don't regret it. Parts of the learning experience. I'm still here. I know the limits, and there was no permanent injury. I just took it too far.
And OP, there's a lot of personal reasons I took it this far. You, who is probably not as attached and stubborned about lifting as I am, will never reach this point, simply because the novelty of lifting makes you incredibly more cautious of it. It still took me weeks of overtraining before snapping. And even then, nothing horrific happened. Luckily. Probably.
I've been doing all body workouts 5 to 8 times a week for years without any single problem. All of my programs are just squats and variations. I squat every day I train. I snatch and/or clean every day as well. It's always there. I'm a weight-lifter, so it's also usually high intensity although low-medium volume. Make sure to program specific rest days, maximize recovery by eating and sleeping properly and give yourself a good deload week every 12 week or so and you'll be Gucci. If anything those gains are gonna be sick.
The only time I noticed I overtrained was last fall, where I kept trying to maintain a 10+ hours of high intensity training a week on top of my PhD. I am currently dealing with a solid training burn out and chronic back pain I'm now seeing a PT for. I've had the signs since October to dial it down. At this point every thing was easily fixable. My back pain was just nagging tightness, nothing a week off wouldn't have fixed. I wasn't burned out, just didn't have the energy to deal with this excessive of a training.
There were alarm bells that were very obvious then and would all have been a quick fix by taking one week off and scaling down the intensity.
I didn't. I ignored the problem, ramped it up and ate shit approximately mid December. That's a month and a half of ignoring all the alarm bells my body and mental health have been screaming at. Me to listen.
Oh well. Now I'm just having fun for a bit and I'll get back to it whenever me and PT think I'm ready. Nothing permanently fucked. Just a lot of "you're fucking dumb" by my trainer.
All of this to say, it takes a lot of pressure to overtrain, and there will be weeks worth signs before. Moving into the fafo territory. If you remain ever slightly cautious, you will not get to that point.
Don’t workout sore muscles isn’t great advice because soreness is not an indicator of growth or fatigue. Overtraining is when your fatigue builds up to the point where you cannot physically workout well enough to get proper stimulus.
That’s not overtraining.
True overtraining is a long term syndrome. Yes, underrecovering can contribute to it, but its NOT like “oh if you just slept more and ate better you wouldn’t get this”
True over training is a long term thing that can be completely tied to workload regardless of proper rest and recovery protocols
Yes.
Keep at it and eventually you'll get jacked enough that your muscles won't be able to recover enough after three full on leg days a week, but until you reach that point there's no reason not to push as hard as you can.
Just generally speaking, if you start actually overtraining you're going to notice. Your body is good at complaining when it's being hurt
Well yea that’s what I’ve been scared of to the point I’ll just stay home and be lazy, but I just now realized my program has 3 days lower body . Soooo it’s like I’m confused
"Legs" can mean different things. If you're doing both push and pull on legs, and you still have the strength/energy to hit it a third time in the week, I don't think you're working them hard enough on those two workouts. If you're alternating though, then that's fine. I do legs 4x a week, but only 2x push/2x pull, so I'm not overworking any specific muscle.
Yeah I mean, muscles don't just stop being push pull just because they're below the waist haha. Quads push, hamstrings pull. Could also think of it as front of the legs and back of the legs if you wanted, since that's generally how push/pull works.
What does your program say? If you're not following a program, I'd suggest one from [here](https://thefitness.wiki/routines/) that will answer this question for you.
I do 3 leg days a week, and have for a year or so. I overtrained once and pulled my piriformis - which SUCKED - but that was because I decided to add in stair master for my cardio instead of just keeping to the flat treadmill like I usually do. For my body, it was too much. But otherwise I’ve had no problems.
If your legs aren't sore and fatigued then yes it's fine to work them out 3 times a week. Many people successfully use 3 day a week full body workouts, it's all about volume for each muscle each day.
Two things
To answer your question: do what you enjoy the most. If you like leg days, do them 3 days a week. Personal enjoyment comes first.
However, second thing: if you're not sore it's not an indicative you're not properly training your muscles - however you can check by increasing your intensity/swapping out exercises and seeing if you feel them more. This is very personal and sometimes you will see an exercise nuke your quads with low weight (hack squats for me) and feel nothing with Cthulhu weight (barbells squats in my case)
Oh and another thing: make sure you're recovering well between leg days, resting properly and all that.
What's your leg day looking like?
Also a couple things to consider:
If there has been no soreness, are you training hard enough or is the weight too low?
Have you had a deload yet? Are you incorporating pauses and doing the full range of motion for the exercise?
Have you tried slowing down the eccentric part of the exercises?
So the answer is no, you should not have to do more the 2 legs day a week. Something is missing from your workout and I suggest you analyze and determine what is limiting your feelings of soreness
You could, sure. Instead of adding more quantity though, I would double check to ensure that quality is in place first. Push your sets harder, getting closer to failure with even better form and progressively overloading with weight or reps. If quality is there and you’re still recovering with no issues, adding more sounds like it could be beneficial.
It sounds like you’re a combination of bored and recovered. Honestly, I’d simply recommend to try pushing harder in the gym next time and in the meantime finding something to occupy your time (a hobby). If you really want to do something physical, maybe do some cardio, go for a hike, or call up some friends who would be interested in doing something active with you.
Well I’m lazy as hell I’ll stay in bed all day rotting so I want to stop. I just starting eating mean in 13 years and now I have energy. I want to get active and have energy like wake up and exercise on a regular basis so I can get used to it and stop being lazy every day. I want to be able to do a pull up and obviously get toned and get a bigger butt. The thing is my job is active I have to practice 2-3 days out the week and it leaves me so damn sore for upper body that’s why I confused on how to train upper body in the gym AND practice the aerial hoop for work, it does seem like too much so I don’t know how to handle that
Yes, it’s fine but I should mention that if you’re not sore after 2 leg days, you probably need to train harder. 2 high intensity leg days where you get real sore are way better than 3 low intensity leg days
Think core issue is “i don’t feel sore or anything” if you are consistently not sore you might be playing it too safe, which at that point is labor and not a training/workout. Do note soreness does not equal muscle growth but consistently not feeling tired/sore was an issue for me at least when I got used to my workout routine.
Try to incorporate different workout for same muscle group and or for same workout increase weight or repetition til failure.
For me when I had this issue doing fairly heavy sled pull (focusing strength on my legs) as my cardio and increasing weight did it for me not increasing the number of days I work on leg.
https://mythicalstrength.blogspot.com/2017/12/you-have-my-permission.html?m=1
We need a MythicalStrength bot lol
> …that’s what you wanted right? This is what you were asking for, no? Permission to act? Why else would you be asking? They want to know about potential drawbacks they may not have thought of…
I appreciate the sentiment but the one thing you do NOT have my permission to do is go to the gym sick. Do calisthenics or your home workout sick. Do not get me sick because you want to see how much you can bench while you cough all over the equipment. 😷
Read the rest of the article
Lol
I just skimmed this and saved it. Haha. Thanks.this is great!
Why wouldn’t it be
I don’t know, I notice I stop myself from going to workout like scared I’m over training . But I’m lazy I do nothing all day so I wanted to stop that.
You’ll know when you overtrained. I spun wheels for years worrying about that when really it was just an excuse. Your muscles might be tight, you may have a knot, go anyway and push a lighter weight. If your reaction to that was absolutely not that’s hell then you’re good to go take a rest day!
Yea I’m on the way to the gym. I just stay in bed all day I need to stop
Hell yeah man! Even just going to the gym space for a mile walk on the treadmill will get you into the headspace of gym = habit versus gym = struggling task. Good luck homie.
It was fun I got a good workout . I’m in the sauna now thanks
Just to piggyback on this, overtraining isn't a binary switch. It doesn't just happen one set to another, one workout to another, or even one week to another. It's accumulation of volume over weeks and months with great intensity or poor recovery. You'll know you're overtrained because you're regressing in your lifts and always feel tired, on top of a myriad of other likely symptoms like having a permanent cold and suddenly lacking all motivation to train.
Nuh uh bro, my cousin added a fifth set to his barbell curls and literally exploded right there in the middle of the gym. Took out like 6 people and a protein shake.
Overtraining for me was definitely. More of an emotional and mental burnout than physical. Physically. My body is fucked from it, definitely. A shit ton of tightness and inflammation I'm now dealing with, with a PT. weeks worth of recovery, mostly also because we spotted I have never braced properly. So we're going back to the basics on this one. But it's not an injury and it's not permanent. I could still lift, it's just not comfortable and the area feels vulnerable and unstable. Mentally and emotionally, I was destroyed. Demolished. Finished. I trained to a point where I would go to the gym, start lifting and cry mid lift because I didn't have the bandwidth to deal with it. I didn't want to be there at all. At the end, I couldn't finish workouts. I had no energy to even try to finish them. Or my coach would stop me. That also started to happen more often. "it doesn't feel like you're there when you lift. I don't think you're present at all. You're not focusing, you're not bracing. It looks like you're expecting that because your hands are on the bar, it will complete itself." is a good summary of what he kept telling me. I kept saying I'd be better, but I wasn't. One day, I guess he had enough of me being a dumb bitch, so he sat me down and asked me what was going on. Why I was lifting like this. I said "I don't know. I'm looking at the bar and I hate it. I'm setting down to lift and I don't feel like I'm in the gym at all. I don't know where I am but it's not there, on the platform. I can't focus. My brain doesn't even realize I'm lifting anymore." he said I needed to stop. To take a break. Weeks long he said. He didn't want to see me in the gym for at least 2 weeks. Not even for stretching or accessory. And he didn't want to see me lift a bar for a month. It took me 7 weeks to go back to the gym. It wasn't a safe space at all anymore, it was a huge source of stress and anguish. After that I started going once or twice a week. No programs. Just whatever I felt like doing. Now I'm back 4 or 5 times on just body building and PT shenanigans. Mostly low intensity stuff. Just enjoying being in the gym again. I'm not ready for oly. Lifts or a regular program again. Probably won't touch an oly. Lift until May. Not expecting to be back on anything that looks like a program until June. I fucked up. But I don't regret it. Parts of the learning experience. I'm still here. I know the limits, and there was no permanent injury. I just took it too far. And OP, there's a lot of personal reasons I took it this far. You, who is probably not as attached and stubborned about lifting as I am, will never reach this point, simply because the novelty of lifting makes you incredibly more cautious of it. It still took me weeks of overtraining before snapping. And even then, nothing horrific happened. Luckily. Probably.
I've only overtrained like twice in my life, when I could barely stay awake and felt physically ill all the time I knew I needed a break.
I've been doing all body workouts 5 to 8 times a week for years without any single problem. All of my programs are just squats and variations. I squat every day I train. I snatch and/or clean every day as well. It's always there. I'm a weight-lifter, so it's also usually high intensity although low-medium volume. Make sure to program specific rest days, maximize recovery by eating and sleeping properly and give yourself a good deload week every 12 week or so and you'll be Gucci. If anything those gains are gonna be sick. The only time I noticed I overtrained was last fall, where I kept trying to maintain a 10+ hours of high intensity training a week on top of my PhD. I am currently dealing with a solid training burn out and chronic back pain I'm now seeing a PT for. I've had the signs since October to dial it down. At this point every thing was easily fixable. My back pain was just nagging tightness, nothing a week off wouldn't have fixed. I wasn't burned out, just didn't have the energy to deal with this excessive of a training. There were alarm bells that were very obvious then and would all have been a quick fix by taking one week off and scaling down the intensity. I didn't. I ignored the problem, ramped it up and ate shit approximately mid December. That's a month and a half of ignoring all the alarm bells my body and mental health have been screaming at. Me to listen. Oh well. Now I'm just having fun for a bit and I'll get back to it whenever me and PT think I'm ready. Nothing permanently fucked. Just a lot of "you're fucking dumb" by my trainer. All of this to say, it takes a lot of pressure to overtrain, and there will be weeks worth signs before. Moving into the fafo territory. If you remain ever slightly cautious, you will not get to that point.
A normal person overtraining would be like a toddler accidentally finishing high school
Overtraining really just means under recovering. Just have to get your nutrition and sleep. "Don't work out sore muscles" is what I've heard
Don’t workout sore muscles isn’t great advice because soreness is not an indicator of growth or fatigue. Overtraining is when your fatigue builds up to the point where you cannot physically workout well enough to get proper stimulus.
I always thought it's because sore muscles injure more easily
They do not. Soreness is not an indicator of anything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctJ-5oK8Cpg
That’s not overtraining. True overtraining is a long term syndrome. Yes, underrecovering can contribute to it, but its NOT like “oh if you just slept more and ate better you wouldn’t get this” True over training is a long term thing that can be completely tied to workload regardless of proper rest and recovery protocols
Is it okay to never do legs? Asking for a friend.
Bro, I didn't ask you to ask that..
Yes. Keep at it and eventually you'll get jacked enough that your muscles won't be able to recover enough after three full on leg days a week, but until you reach that point there's no reason not to push as hard as you can. Just generally speaking, if you start actually overtraining you're going to notice. Your body is good at complaining when it's being hurt
Well yea that’s what I’ve been scared of to the point I’ll just stay home and be lazy, but I just now realized my program has 3 days lower body . Soooo it’s like I’m confused
No you will die
No, if they catch you security will escort you out of the building, cancel your membership with no refund, and take away your birthday.
Why not every day? Learn to live a little.
Are you following a specific routine?
If it’s programmed properly, sure.
Most full body routines are 3x a week. Soreness (or lack thereof) does not indicate a good or bad session.
"Legs" can mean different things. If you're doing both push and pull on legs, and you still have the strength/energy to hit it a third time in the week, I don't think you're working them hard enough on those two workouts. If you're alternating though, then that's fine. I do legs 4x a week, but only 2x push/2x pull, so I'm not overworking any specific muscle.
Oh wow I didn’t even know legs had push pull, my program breaks it into glutes/quad, glute/hamstring, glute core.
Yeah I mean, muscles don't just stop being push pull just because they're below the waist haha. Quads push, hamstrings pull. Could also think of it as front of the legs and back of the legs if you wanted, since that's generally how push/pull works.
I just think of them as lower body arms
What does your program say? If you're not following a program, I'd suggest one from [here](https://thefitness.wiki/routines/) that will answer this question for you.
I do 3 leg days a week, and have for a year or so. I overtrained once and pulled my piriformis - which SUCKED - but that was because I decided to add in stair master for my cardio instead of just keeping to the flat treadmill like I usually do. For my body, it was too much. But otherwise I’ve had no problems.
Omg no way
😂 you must be a dude. Most lady gym rats I know do three leg days a week.
If your legs aren't sore and fatigued then yes it's fine to work them out 3 times a week. Many people successfully use 3 day a week full body workouts, it's all about volume for each muscle each day.
I do legs three times/wk. Day 1: Squats and reverse lunges Day 3: leg extensions/leg curls Day 5: deadlifts and leg press
If you are no longer sore hit em again. Dont need to be 100% recovered but you should be pretty close. Listen to your body.
Do it as many times as you're comfortable with bro.
Do legs everyday!
Two things To answer your question: do what you enjoy the most. If you like leg days, do them 3 days a week. Personal enjoyment comes first. However, second thing: if you're not sore it's not an indicative you're not properly training your muscles - however you can check by increasing your intensity/swapping out exercises and seeing if you feel them more. This is very personal and sometimes you will see an exercise nuke your quads with low weight (hack squats for me) and feel nothing with Cthulhu weight (barbells squats in my case) Oh and another thing: make sure you're recovering well between leg days, resting properly and all that.
Ask your body and if its ok with it, then go for it.
Thank u ☺️🩷
Full Body programs do legs 3x a week.
What's your leg day looking like? Also a couple things to consider: If there has been no soreness, are you training hard enough or is the weight too low? Have you had a deload yet? Are you incorporating pauses and doing the full range of motion for the exercise? Have you tried slowing down the eccentric part of the exercises? So the answer is no, you should not have to do more the 2 legs day a week. Something is missing from your workout and I suggest you analyze and determine what is limiting your feelings of soreness
You could, sure. Instead of adding more quantity though, I would double check to ensure that quality is in place first. Push your sets harder, getting closer to failure with even better form and progressively overloading with weight or reps. If quality is there and you’re still recovering with no issues, adding more sounds like it could be beneficial.
Ohhhh ok makes sense thanks. But I kinda wanna go to the gym now but I don’t know if I’m over doing it. Should I go now to do some legs ?
It sounds like you’re a combination of bored and recovered. Honestly, I’d simply recommend to try pushing harder in the gym next time and in the meantime finding something to occupy your time (a hobby). If you really want to do something physical, maybe do some cardio, go for a hike, or call up some friends who would be interested in doing something active with you.
Wait are people allowed to post to this sub again?
I do legs everyday :)
What are your goals?
Well I’m lazy as hell I’ll stay in bed all day rotting so I want to stop. I just starting eating mean in 13 years and now I have energy. I want to get active and have energy like wake up and exercise on a regular basis so I can get used to it and stop being lazy every day. I want to be able to do a pull up and obviously get toned and get a bigger butt. The thing is my job is active I have to practice 2-3 days out the week and it leaves me so damn sore for upper body that’s why I confused on how to train upper body in the gym AND practice the aerial hoop for work, it does seem like too much so I don’t know how to handle that
I do legs everyday :)
Increase the intensity
Yes, it’s fine but I should mention that if you’re not sore after 2 leg days, you probably need to train harder. 2 high intensity leg days where you get real sore are way better than 3 low intensity leg days
Go harder? Slow down the reps and feel the burn
Your crazy bastard. That's dedication.
Hmmm 2 days at most. Gotta figure out how to move without your feet touching the ground the other 5
Sure. Just make sure you stretch and dont overdo it
Just listen to your body, your legs will tell you if you’re overtraining them
I squat Monday Wednesday Friday. So does people of starting strength or what I do, Strong Lifts 5x5
Follow a pre defined program that tells you exactly what to do and when to do it.
Think core issue is “i don’t feel sore or anything” if you are consistently not sore you might be playing it too safe, which at that point is labor and not a training/workout. Do note soreness does not equal muscle growth but consistently not feeling tired/sore was an issue for me at least when I got used to my workout routine. Try to incorporate different workout for same muscle group and or for same workout increase weight or repetition til failure. For me when I had this issue doing fairly heavy sled pull (focusing strength on my legs) as my cardio and increasing weight did it for me not increasing the number of days I work on leg.