Blog Entry + Question

Posted April 21st, 2009 by -RAJ-

Hey guys,

Just bloging out my training experience today.
I recently put together a routine that i felt was quite interesting. Basically, i'm training with both bodyweight and weights, but for weights, i use light weights so that i can really isolate and "feel" the muscle working.

The reason why i chose bodyweight training is because:
1. Personally, i feel it is much more intense compared to weight training.
2. Most bodyweight excersises are compound movements, and i read that compound movement help build overall size to your physic.

So, this is how my training goes.
For bodyweight training, i work mainly on my upper body focusing on the big muscle groups like chest and back. This is because, since it's a compound movement, my smaller muscle groups such as my biceps and triceps are also trained indirectly.

For my weight training, i focus on both my upper and lower body muscles.
For upper body, i use light weights and high reps. This is mainly to focus more on the smaller muscle groups like my arms.
For lower body, i do standard workouts like squats, glute bridge etc.

My circuit for body weight goes as follows and i repeat it 3 times. I take short breaks between workouts (20 secs) and 90 - 120 secs break between sets:

Incline push ups - max reps (i start off with diamond for first set, and widen my grip gradually for the other 2 sets)

Reverse grip pull ups (chin ups) - max rep

Chest Dips -max reps

Wide over-hand grip incline pull ups - max reps

Abs (I just do different ab workout each time, making sure i hit the upper, lower abs and obliques)

Pike push ups (for shoulders, cause i cannot do handstand push ups yet) - max rep

So my question is here.

This is how my schedule is:

Monday - Bodyweight Circuit
Tuesday - Rest
Wednesday - Weight Training (upper body)
Thursday - Rest
Friday - Weight Training (Lower body)
Sat-Sun - Rest

Do I have enough rest period or am I at risk of overtraining?

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Thanks :)

On April 23rd, 2009 -RAJ- says:

Thank you my brothers for your comments :)

I think i might do my bodyweight routine twice instead of once...

as long as your nutrition

On April 22nd, 2009 dazzaemm2k7 says:

as long as your nutrition meets your training standards i believe you shouldnt be over training , as long as you are getting plenty of carbs and plenty of protein and plenty of calories , you should be fine ;)

Hmmm

On April 21st, 2009 Stevers says:

I actually agree with you about body weight training feeling more intense than 'weight training'.

But i think a few things need to be clarified. By weight training you probably mean low reps with relatively heavier weights.

Here is why:
A) When you train with low weight and high repetitions [either through body weight or light free weights/machines] you need to go to much higher rep ranges to get that burn. THere is nothing quite like feeling that lactic acid burn and then squeezing out a few extra reps. And because you're using such light weight your recovery between sets needs to be short because it doesnt take long to recover. So the short breaks also keep your heart rate up.

But in this case you would basically be measuring intensity by your heart rate. I've had equally intense workouts with heavy weight where i fall into the 8-12 rep ranges too; but you have to be smart with how long you rest between sets. You need to rest long enough to recover, but not so long that you lose the 'pump' in your muscles. This usually turns into about 2-3 minutes tops [unless its legs for me, which leaves me literally breathless for at least 3 minutes on squats when i do my heavy sets ><]

I agree that 3 rest days is a lot. But i honestly recommend at least 2. If you're doing bodyweight training you can recover a lot faster than heavier weight / lower rep training so you could actually hit your body parts more often [im assuming your 'weight training' here is still low weight like you said in the beginning of your post?]

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