Question: What happens if you train a muscle everyday?????

[casualbb]

olympic lifters train not only daily, but multiple times per day

THey're not huge but they can clean and jerk ronnie coleman

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

It is a proven fact that continually pushing it hard on the same exercises will lead to cns burnout.

If constantly using the exact same exercises then you really do need to consistently vary intensity and volume

Thats what im saying, and it seems to get people better at the specific excercises that they do.

I haven't tried Westside, so I honestly can't deny that it could lead to better gains (especially if a 5x5 has been followed for a long time). I would still want a few years of solid base training (squat, dl, bench) before departing use of them frequently.

 

[d-dub]

this was an interesting read...

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do;jsessionid=0B76B702BA5EFCF5D657374708837BB0.hydra?id=755131

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

You're missing my point holmes. I never said anything about not using them frequently. I'm just saying that rather than constantly doing bench, squat, and deadlift, try also doing DB bench or incline bench, front squat or overhead squat, DB stiff-legged deadlift or power cleans. These exercises train the same muscles, but do it a little differently. If you alternate between bench and DB bench each workout both will improve. You don't have to do bench every time to get good at bench. Now maybe if you train a muscle once a week then it wouldn't work so well do to the long time difference, but if you train a muscle every 3-4 days or more frequnetly then that then your body will respond even better to the small variations in exercises than dogmatically sticking to the same exact exercises over and over.

 

[casualbb]

Listen -- some research was done to answer the question, "what happens if you load a muscle continuously -- 18 hours a day -- and never let it rest?"

bodybuilding theory would predict that the muscle would shrink, or at least not grow. So what they did was took an animal and cut its gastroc (larger calf muscle) so the walking weight was all borne by the soleus (smaller calf muscle)

These animals were walking around all day (more like limping) and the poor soleus had to pick up all the slack.

What happened? The soleus doubled in size and weight within a matter of days.

As it turns out, growth is not related to fatigue. However growth does require progressive load (increasing weights), which you cannot do if you're constantly increasing your fatigue.

So yes, you can work out a muscle group every day. But you would need to carefully manage fatigue so as not to lose strength and drop the loads. A linear increase in weight would work.

Start at 60% of your max and increase it by some amount every other day, you'll grow like nuts if you can maintain it and eat boatloads of food. Of course you can only maintain it for maybe 1-2 months, at which point you should rest

 

[musketeer]

This is a good thread, keep it up lads!

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

I see what your saying Ghetto, and I do agree with your point. Maybe I mix up similar exercises more than I realize. Even though I squat all the time, sometimes it's front squat, and lately I have been doing squats outta my cleans. I don't mix up bench with dumbells, but I still havent hit a wall with my bench so there is no reason for me to stop benching consistantly. I find that when I start throwing in DB presses my bench doesnt climb as fast as when I just bench all the time- I'm still trying to get my bench form down. But, I am still a novice for lifting. Get what I'm saying? I don't want to start varying my routine until the basics get stone solid burned into my neural pathways, but I agree that variation is necessary for continued gains.

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

Well if the form hasn't come second nature yet than ya, you probably are better off sticking to barbell benching primarily, but I would still throw in a couple sets DB bench or incline bench after each workout.

As far as neural pathways, it's a constant fight. You will constantly have to monitor form regardless how many times you've done an exercise.

 

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Moderate muscle training everyday may not yield poor results. Human body can get used to routine exercises at moderate level easily and as a result people can enjoy having an active life. Eventually it may become something like taking your normal food everyday. It keeps your body in good shape, and also improves blood circulation.

 

[Buildingup24]

Google chad waterburys PLP challenge. Its a good read. It works.

Also, stripped down hypertrophy has given people great results. It's full body 5x a week. At first glance it looks like overtraining however if you dont go to failure and eat a lot, it's fricking amazing. I'm on week 2 of the program and strength is up, weight is up. (albeit I may be eating more than necessary)
I think you can work muscle/lifts everyday if you manage your CNS, know when to back off the weight, and eat/sleep adequately.