Question on Over Training

[Focused Individual]

I've been wondering about this for a long time and can't figure it out. I know that if you work out a muscle more then once or twice a week it is not good, because you are over training it. How about if you work out the same muscle to much on one day. For example, say I do chest today. If I stayed in there and did my chest for two hours, doing 20 or 30 sets, would that be over training it? Or would it only be over training it if I did it three or four times a week? If it would be, what is a good number of sets to do per body part per day. Right now I do like 18 sets on my chest day. I do 3 flat bench, 3 incline d-bell, 3 decline bench press, 3 HS (hammer strength) bench press, 3 hs decline, 3 cables. Please let me know if I am doin to much, sometimes I may do a couple of more things, sometimes a couple less.

 

[casualbb]

Overtraining is related to both frequency and volume. The higher both are, the more likely one is to overtrain.

18 sets might not be too much if you do it once a week, but doing a lot of sets produces diminishing returns. I've seen a study where people doing 3 sets instead of 1 only increased their strength by like 5% more over the course of 2 months. So does it really make sense to do 18? I'd say you'd get the same results doing 5 sets.

-casual

 

[revexrevex]

I dont see how it is possible to sustain progressive overload and intensity by doing 18 sets for chest in one day.

 

[eXplicit]

no

I would say that you really can't overtrain a muscle in one day, just as long as you give it enough time to recoup before working it out again. But 18 sets seems really high to me. I do 3x12,10,8 on flat DB bench, and 3x12,10,8 on DB incline bench. That seems to work for me, and if I can go any further than the 12,10, or 8 I go until failure. I'm even thinking about adopting the one set to failure + 3 reps as a workout.. would definetly cut down time in the gym.

 

[ANABOLICK1]

I've been wondering about this for a long time and can't figure it out. I know that if you work out a muscle more then once or twice a week it is not good, because you are over training it. How about if you work out the same muscle to much on one day. For example, say I do chest today. If I stayed in there and did my chest for two hours, doing 20 or 30 sets, would that be over training it? Or would it only be over training it if I did it three or four times a week? If it would be, what is a good number of sets to do per body part per day. Right now I do like 18 sets on my chest day. I do 3 flat bench, 3 incline d-bell, 3 decline bench press, 3 HS (hammer strength) bench press, 3 hs decline, 3 cables. Please let me know if I am doin to much, sometimes I may do a couple of more things, sometimes a couple less.

You're doing too much...volume that is. Cut back on that and up your intensity